The entrapment of people in forced labour is estimated to affect 25
million people worldwide. As part of a new effort to tackle these
crimes the UK has developed, alongside the US, Canada, New Zealand
and Australia, a set of principles for nations to adopt in order to
tackle modern slavery in global supply chains. By working together,
the UK and its partners can use their $600 billion of purchasing
power as a lever to prevent forced...Request free trial
The entrapment of people in forced labour is estimated to
affect 25 million people worldwide. As part of a new effort
to tackle these crimes the UK has developed, alongside the
US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, a set of principles
for nations to adopt in order to tackle modern slavery in
global supply chains. By working together, the UK and its
partners can use their $600 billion of purchasing power as
a lever to prevent forced labour in both the public and
private sector.
Minister for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability
, added:
Denying people their freedom and fundamental human
rights through modern slavery is a global tragedy. We
as governments, businesses and citizens must do all
we can to stop it.
The UK and our partners are going further, showing
leadership and setting out these new principles
designed to drive out slavery from the supply chains
of the goods and services we all use.
The principles follow the success of the Prime
Minister’s global call to action launched at the UN
General Assembly last year, which now has over 80
endorsements.
In the UK alone it is estimated that modern slavery
costs up to £4.3 billion a year. The UK introduced the
Modern Slavery Act in 2015, the first of its kind in
the world, which helped transform the UK’s response to
modern slavery on a national and international scale by
providing police and law enforcement agencies with the
powers they need to bring perpetrators to justice. It
was announced in July 2018 that the government has
commissioned an independent review of the act to ensure
this legislation remains world leading as this crime
evolves.
Announced at the UN General Assembly, the UK is
encouraging other countries to adopt the 4 key
principles.
Governments should take steps to prevent and address
human trafficking in government procurement practices
- analyse, develop and implement measures to
identify, prevent and reduce the risk of human
trafficking in government procurement supply chains
- provide tools and incentives and adopt risk
assessment policies and procedures that require their
procurement officers and contractors to assess the
nature and extent of potential exposure to human
trafficking in their supply chains
- take targeted action, including adopting
appropriate due diligence processes, to identify,
prevent, mitigate, remedy, and account on how they
address human trafficking
Governments should encourage the private sector to
prevent and address human trafficking in its supply
chains
- work in partnership with business, workers and
survivors to set clear expectations for private sector
entities on their responsibility to conduct appropriate
due diligence in their supply chains to identify,
prevent and mitigate human trafficking
- provide tools and incentives to the private sector
to encourage meaningful action and public reporting of
their efforts, including through programmes policies or
legislation
Governments should advance responsible recruitment
policies and practices
- advance responsible recruitment practices,
including by implementing polices that incentivise and
support responsible practice, and by support
initiatives such as the ‘Employer Pays Principle’
- contribute to the growing knowledge base of
promising practices for protecting workers from fraud
and exploitation in the recruitment process
Governments should strive for harmonisation
- make reasonable efforts to share information and
work with other committed governments to align existing
and proposed laws, regulations and polices to combat
human trafficking in global supply chains
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