Lara White, Senior Labour Migration Specialist at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), UNSURE.
Global supply chains involve a wide range of actors, working at multiple sites, with goods and workers crossing numerous borders and jurisdictions. Many supply chain workers are not hired locally, but are rather migrant workers who are vulnerable to a variety of labour abuses and exploitation – including human trafficking for forced labour – owing to inadequate protections, which frequently leave them in a weaker bargaining position than their local counterparts. The elimination of forced labour and modern slavery within these supply chains requires a range of approaches, with responsibilities resting on the shoulders of both governments and businesses. The question is not whether regulation should be left either to governments or corporations, but rather how we can encourage better regulation from both sides, more rigorously enforced, and based upon a common set of principles and guidelines covering operational realities at both the global and local level.
The role of governments in combating forced labour in global supply chains is clear and well-established in international law concerning human rights and labour standards. The United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights further underscore that states are obligated to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of individuals within their jurisdictions, including the duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties such as corporations. States also have an obligation to ensure that workers have access to effective remedies through judicial, administrative, legislative or other appropriate means.
However, problems frequently arise when states fail to meet these obligations or when their capacity to enforce regulation is constrained by a lack of resources, a lack of political will, or extraterritoriality, as a result of which the possibilities for action are limited by forms of labour recruitment which span multiple jurisdictions. Nonetheless, there has recently been a global call for increased regulation of labour conditions in countries of work that will protect all workers – including migrant workers and other at-risk groups – from exploitative and dangerous working conditions that violate international human rights and labour standards. Increased reporting requirements, such as those under the United Kingdom’s Modern Slavery Act and the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act, have increased pressure on businesses to disclose and ultimately improve their efforts to eliminate labour exploitation in supply chains.