U.S. Bans Imports from Malaysian Palm Oil Company FGV | 187 UN Member States Ratify Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor | Seafood Working Group Relaunches with New Advisory Body | Union Busting and Unfair Dismissals: Garment Workers During COVID-19 | Brazil Court Rules in Favor of Anti-Slavery “Dirty List”
Solving supply chain Code of Conduct violations will take multi-faceted interventions. I was privileged to facilitate a panel on “Slavery in the Supply Chain” at the annual Trust Women Conference organized by the Thomson Reuters Foundation that presented some solutions, and challenges, to an audience of smart and committed people from business, government, media, advocacy and law. Conferences like this demonstrate that there are in many cases existing, effective solutions to pressing problems like forced labor in supply chains. In private conversations, I’ve been emphasizing lately the opportunity and urgency for companies to adopt these existing solutions now rather than await the invention of something new. Much benefit—to vulnerable workers, their employers, brands and other supply chain ‘owners’—can be achieved almost immediately if companies were to take steps like HP has (outlined in this newsletter elsewhere), and as we’ve described Apple doing in the past.