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Key Points
- Many companies perceive completing risk assessments as sufficient for supply chain due diligence, but to truly avoid the risks of human and labor rights abuses, companies must ensure that due diligence and/or risk assessment processes achieve positive outcomes for workers.
- With the passage of an increasing number of mandatory human rights due diligence laws, such as those prompted by the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, companies have new legal obligations to assess and address risk and abuses in their supply chains.
- As one aspect of an effective supply chain risk assessment, companies should understand their full supply chain and be aware of practices of first, second, third, and other tier suppliers, as well as practices of agents, vendors, or contractors.
- Any company-led risk and impact assessment process should begin with a thorough examination of a company’s internal processes and practices and the ways in which it may be causing—or is at risk of causing—child labor and forced labor abuses.
- Company activities—including mineral and resource extraction—can exacerbate risks of child labor and forced labor, and may also contribute to social conflicts, resulting from, for example, wealth imbalances, unequal distribution of royalties, land-access issues, increased presence of security forces and involvement of illicit actors.
- Supply-chain mapping must identify where child labor and forced labor risks lie.
- Workers and survivors are key resources in establishing systems to address risk. Workers’ unique insights and lived experiences must be considered as primary sources of information.
- The following Key Topics further explain how a company can conduct a worker-driven risk assessment:
Key Topics
Examples in Action
Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA)* is a regional network of NGOs, associations, and trade unions committed to protecting and promoting the rights and welfare of migrant workers. Their research found thousands of cases of wage theft across Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic.
By shining a light on opaque tiers in supply chains, media coverage can impact whether businesses observe due diligence efforts to prevent and eliminate human rights violations in their supply chains.
Since 2001, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE), a large U.S. multinational information technology company, has sought to retain a stable, high-quality supply chain with trusted partners through its Supply Chain Responsibility Program.
Child labor and forced labor are used to catch and process fish and seafood in a range of aquatic environments around the world. Connections with illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and the isolated nature of work in distant-water fishing, present challenges to child labor and forced labor law enforcement.
There are a growing number of migrant worker recruitment agencies that adhere to international labor standards. These companies do not charge recruitment fees and commit to a code of conduct that prohibits forced labor.
Companies and civil society groups are increasingly turning to worker communication platforms as an important tool in addressing the vulnerabilities of migrant workers and improving employee engagement. These applications provide companies with direct lines of communication with migrant workers in their supply chain.
ILAB’s Global Trace Protocol Project is building a blockchain-powered platform that brings all members of the cotton supply chain in Pakistan to a single platform, including farmers, spinners, and fabric mills. The goal is to expand the number of tracing tools in high-risk supply chains and get those tools into the hands of a broad range of stakeholders to help eliminate child labor and forced labor.
Further Resources
- Better Buying. Research and Tools. [Online, accessed August 18, 2023]; available from https://betterbuying.org/research-tools/.
- https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/fair-recruitment/WCMS_536755/lang--en/index.htm.
- Jungk, Margaret, Chichester, Ouida, and Chris Fletcher. “In Search of Justice: Pathways to Remedy at the Porgera Gold Mine.” BSR (2018), San Francisco; available from https://www.bsr.org/reports/BSR_In_Search_of_Justice_Porgera_Gold_Mine.pdf.
- Verité, Help Wanted: Fair, Safe, and Legal Working Conditions Begin with Hiring; available from https://verite.org/help-wanted/.
- Verité, Knowledge Portal; available from http://knowledge.verite.org/#/map.
- Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, Guidance on Business, Human Rights Defenders & Civic Freedoms; available from http://www.business-humanrights.org/en/big-issues/human-rights-defenders-civic-freedoms/how-governments-can-support-hrds/.
- Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Global Report on Internal Displacement 2023; available from https://www.internal-displacement.org/global-report/grid2023/.
- "Perspectives on Information Management in Sustainable Supply Chains." https://www.bsr.org/en/our-insights/report-view/perspectives-on-information-management-in-sustainable-supply-chains in MLA format BSR. Business for Social Responsibility, n.d. Web. 8 Jan. 2023.
