What commodities present the highest risk for human trafficking and forced labor? Verité’s newly released report outlines risks of forced labor faced by workers in 43 of the world’s most important primary commodities. We conducted this research as part of our program to prevent human trafficking in federal and corporate supply chains, sponsored by the US Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
The California Attorney General’s office recently released a Resource Guide to assist the retailers and manufacturers who are required—by the 2010 California Transparency in Supply Chains Act—to make certain public disclosures about their efforts to eradicate slavery and human trafficking in their supply chains. You can access a copy of the Resource Guide here.
Verité was pleased to play a role in “Out of the Shadows: Innovative Approaches to Combating Forced Labor and Other Forms of Worker Exploitation,” a multi-stakeholder conference convened by the ILO Washington office, Humanity United, and the US Department of Labor on April 22nd in Washington, DC.
In previous Vision articles, we have pointed out that inadequate screening and oversight of brokers, recruitment agents, and labor outsourcing providers almost invariably leads to both legal and code of conduct non-compliances. It is closely correlated with the presence of indicators of forced and bonded labor in facilities that employ foreign migrant workers.
The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, Ms. Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, convened an experts’ consultation in Ankara, Turkey, on human trafficking and global supply chains this past November. Verité participated in the consultation, which resulted in a key new resource called Benchmarks and Indicators for Ensuring Trafficking-Free Supply Chains. We also produced the background paper for the consultation, available here.
