tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/forced-labour-6043/articles
Forced labour – The Conversation
2024-01-24T16:47:17Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/220924
2024-01-24T16:47:17Z
2024-01-24T16:47:17Z
Debt, wage theft and coercion drive the global garment industry – the only answer is collective action
<p>Major fashion brands including Barbour and PVH (the owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger) have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/jan/09/fashion-brands-workers-rights-transparentem-calvin-klein-hilfiger-barbour-compensate-garment-workers-mauritius">agreed</a> to pay over £400,000 in compensation to migrant workers in Mauritius. These workers from Bangladesh, India, China and Madagascar had been forced to pay illegal recruitment fees and, alongside other indicators of forced labour, were allegedly subject to deception and intimidation. </p>
<p>These are the findings from an investigation carried out between 2022 and 2023 by <a href="https://transparentem.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/I-Came-Here-with-So-Many-Dreams_Transparentem.pdf">Transparentem</a>, a US-based organisation that investigates workers’ rights. </p>
<p>Migrant workers across several Mauritian factories reported agreeing to pay fees ranging from a few hundred to several thousand US dollars to secure a good job. But, upon arrival, they discovered the job was poorly paid and expenses were higher than promised.</p>
<p>Exploitative practices like this are actually quite common. The Mauritius case is the latest example of the <a href="https://respect.international/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/The-Global-Business-of-Forced-Labour-Report-of-Findings-University-of-Sheffield-2018.pdf">use of forced labour</a> (the most commonly identified form of modern slavery) within company supply chains. But all garment workers – free and unfree – can experience unacceptable forms of exploitation that can only be countered through sustained labour organisation. </p>
<h2>The coloniality of our wardrobe</h2>
<p>In 2013, an eight-storey commercial building called <a href="https://cleanclothes.org/campaigns/past/rana-plaza">Rana Plaza</a> collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Over 1,100 people – mostly garment workers – lost their lives, leading to widespread protests and international scrutiny on working conditions in garment factories. </p>
<p>Since then, multiple reports have uncovered labour abuse in the garment sector, including several instances of forced labour. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rana-plaza-ten-years-after-the-bangladesh-factory-collapse-we-are-no-closer-to-fixing-modern-slavery-203774">Rana Plaza: ten years after the Bangladesh factory collapse, we are no closer to fixing modern slavery</a>
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<p>A New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/19/world/asia/china-mask-forced-labor.html">investigation</a> found that Chinese companies were using Uyghurs to make personal protective equipment during the COVID pandemic through a contentious government-sponsored programme. The Uyghurs are a largely Muslim, persecuted ethnic minority primarily from the Xinjiang region of north-west China. </p>
<p>The global emergency that was caused by the pandemic is over – at least for now. But <a href="https://globallabourcolumn.org/2024/01/10/challenging-corporate-complicity-with-state-imposed-uyghur-forced-labour/">new evidence</a> suggests forced Uyghur labour remains present in 17 industries within China, including the garment industry.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570695/original/file-20240122-20-iekiz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A line of women dressed in blue working at sewing machines." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570695/original/file-20240122-20-iekiz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570695/original/file-20240122-20-iekiz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570695/original/file-20240122-20-iekiz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570695/original/file-20240122-20-iekiz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570695/original/file-20240122-20-iekiz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570695/original/file-20240122-20-iekiz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570695/original/file-20240122-20-iekiz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">April 2019: Uyghur women work in a cloth factory in Xinjiang, China.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hotan-china-april-27-2019-uigur-1453598399">Azamat Imanaliev/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Third-party labour contractors are also prevalent in many global supply chains. Contractors recruit and supply local or international migrant labour, and garment factories rely on them to manage and control their workforce. </p>
<p>But contract labourers are <a href="https://glc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/labor_chain-_analysing_the_role_of_labor_contractors.pdf">vulnerable to abuse</a>. In the lower rungs of the supply chain (in informal workshops and homes), workers often work based on a system of <a href="https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/34268/1/The%20Oppressive%20Labour%20Conditions%20of%20the%20Working%20Poor%20in%20the%20Peripheral%20Segments%20of%20India%E2%80%99s%20.pdf">advanced payments</a>. </p>
<p>The labour contractor pays the worker an “advance”, which locks the worker into their employment. It prevents them from negotiating better salaries or working for others until the debt is repaid.</p>
<p>In India, there is evidence that this debt-based system is spreading to garment factories. In Bengaluru, for instance, women in garment factories work under <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308709392_In_debt_to_the_time-bank_the_manipulation_of_working_time_in_Indian_garment_factories_and_working_dead_horse">constant debt</a> to their employer. Missed daily targets, lost productivity or time off are turned into debt that workers must compensate through future labour.</p>
<p>Many forced labour practices have a long history, dating back to colonial relations. Both labour contracting and indebtedness characterised the <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2019/10/18/jlf-2019-interview-sven-beckert-empire-of-cotton/">indenture labour system</a> that dominated the production of textiles for centuries. In <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20488049">19th-century India</a>, for example, indenture workers were managed by labour contractors who paid them advances.</p>
<p>Under this point of view, the contemporary garment supply chain is a modern avatar of the colonial labour plantation. </p>
<h2>Illegal terminations and wage theft</h2>
<p>Not every worker that stitches our clothing is forced to do so. In fact, the majority are not. But even workers that we would consider to be “free” – those who are not tied to an employer or labour contractor – can experience harsh forms of exploitation. </p>
<p>I recently wrote a <a href="https://www.ilo.org/newdelhi/whatwedo/publications/WCMS_884310/lang--en/index.htm">report</a> for the International Labour Organization (ILO) with labour activist and colleague Rakhi Sehgal that documents some of the industrial grievances garment workers filed individually or via unions in India. The report is based on a project that contributes to the ILO’s <a href="https://www.ilo.org/beirut/projects/WCMS_502329/lang--en/index.htm">Work in Freedom programme</a>. This programme aims to reduce vulnerability to forced labour in south Asia and the Middle East, particularly for women in the garment sector.</p>
<p>We analysed a total of 75 grievances across three of India’s export hubs – Gurugram, Bengaluru and Tiruppur – and found shocking patterns of labour abuse. </p>
<p>We discovered the widespread use of illegal terminations by employers, either through factory closures or relocation. We also found evidence of wage-theft. This usually involves not paying the worker’s final wages – a practice that <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/Tejani-and-Fukuda-Parr-2021-GVC-ILR.pdf">escalated</a> during the COVID pandemic. But it can also be the result of managerial tactics like imposing impossible targets or paying overtime rates that are lower than the legal threshold. </p>
<p>Our report also highlighted gender differences in labour abuse. Sexual harassment was consistently deployed as a tool to discipline women working on the assembly line. We found widespread evidence of sexual harassment in Bengaluru, but it was also present in garment factories <a href="https://feministlawarchives.pldindia.org/wp-content/uploads/recognising-women-workers-issues-at-work-in-india-poulomi-pal.pdf?">surrounding Delhi</a>.</p>
<h2>Social justice on the shopfloor</h2>
<p>Cases like the labour abuse in Mauritius are conspicuous and show new connections between modern slavery and migration. But these cases are enabled by centuries of colonial and neo-colonial organisation of production that has involved unacceptable forms of worker exploitation. </p>
<p>The analysis of the disputes in <a href="https://www.ilo.org/newdelhi/whatwedo/publications/WCMS_884310/lang--en/index.htm">our study</a> clearly suggests that social justice is only achievable through collective action. Most of the industrial grievances that were won by workers and their representatives were, unsurprisingly, collective grievances filed by unions. </p>
<p>In light of yet another sweatshop scandal, let us remember that upholding the freedom of association (the right to form and join trade unions) stands as the most effective means of fighting all forms of labour unfreedom – from Mauritius to India or Bangladesh.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220924/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alessandra Mezzadri has received research funding from ESRC-DfID, British Academy, UNU-WIDER, and the ILO. In the past, she has offered occasional consultancy services to organizations including DfID, ActionAid UK, and ILO-READ. All views expressed here are her own. </span></em></p>
Garment workers around the world experience unacceptable forms of exploitation.
Alessandra Mezzadri, Reader in Global Development and Political Economy, SOAS, University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/217970
2023-11-22T14:37:55Z
2023-11-22T14:37:55Z
Good Jew, Bad Jew: new book explores why the west views brutality against Ukrainians and Palestinians differently
<p><em>In a recently published book Steven Friedman, who has written extensively on the political and social aspects of apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, explores the racist underpinnings of the west’s responses to Israel’s war in Gaza. This is an extract from the book, <a href="https://www.witspress.co.za/page/detail/Good-Jew-Bad-Jew/?K=9781776148486">Good Jew, Bad Jew</a>.</em></p>
<p>Ugandan academic <a href="https://anthropology.columbia.edu/content/mahmood-mamdani">Mahmood Mamdani</a> sees a link between the violence of the coloniser and the slaughter of Jews and Slavs by the Nazis. The racial theories of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Houston-Stewart-Chamberlain">Houston Stewart Chamberlain</a> and others who claimed the Aryan race was superior meant that Jews and Slavs, who were both regarded as not Aryan, could be placed beyond the pale of civilisation and were thus candidates for the “laws of nature”, not of war. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Good-Muslim-Bad-America-Terror/dp/0385515375">Mamdani</a>, in World War II, the Nazis “observed the laws of war against the Western powers but not against Russia”, and not against Jewish civilians and resistance fighters. British, American and French prisoners of war were treated according to the rules of the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.32_GC-III-EN.pdf">Third Geneva Convention</a>, but Russians were not.</p>
<p>A bizarre feature of this distinction between the “civilised” and those ripe for the slaughter was that the Nazis’ Jewish prisoners of war serving in the Western armies were not slaughtered. But Russian soldiers were. This does not mean that Jewish and non-Jewish prisoners were treated entirely equally. Jewish prisoners were usually separated from others and there is some evidence that <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3685079">they were treated more harshly</a>. </p>
<p>But the vast majority survived the war and there is no evidence that any were killed because they were Jewish. Scholars have made various attempts to explain this. But perhaps the most plausible explanation is one that none of them offers – that serving in a Western European or American army meant that Jews, in the eyes of their Nazi captors, had attained at least a sufficient degree of “Europeanness” to save them from death. Serving in the Russian military conferred no such “honorary Aryan” status because Soviet Russia was considered a mortal enemy of the Aryan race – a “non-Western” presence in Europe.</p>
<p><a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/gassing-operations">Nazi extermination camps</a>, where gas chambers were used as instruments of slaughter, were all situated in occupied Poland, not in Germany. There were concentration camps in Germany, but these were forced labour camps, not death camps. An obvious explanation for this seemingly odd fact is that the Nazis worried that Germans might learn what was happening in death camps, and might not share their government’s view that wholesale slaughter was acceptable. </p>
<p>This was similar to the tactics of the architects of apartheid in South Africa. They ensured that brutality directed at black people was usually imposed in areas away from the gaze of white people. But it seems unlikely that this explanation would hold. Apartheid showed that human rights abuses do not need to be moved to another country to hide them from the sight of the dominant group. </p>
<p>Rather, it seems likely that the reason was that which Mamdani’s analysis suggests: by siting the camps to the east of Germany, the Nazis were, in effect, removing them from Western Europe where such barbarism was not considered acceptable. The east of Europe became, in a sense, a colony inhabited by people who were not considered Aryan and therefore not fully European. They were thus subject only to the “laws of nature”.</p>
<h2>Anti-semitism, racism and genocide</h2>
<p>Nazi anti-Jewish bigotry was originally labelled racism while bigotry against people who were not white Europeans was not. The context of the situation of the camps helps to explain that. Bigotry was acceptable only if it was directed at people who were not European. Mamdani cites <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/335802">A History of Bombing</a>, by the Swedish author Sven Lindqvist. He <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Good-Muslim-Bad-America-Terror/dp/0385515375">observes</a> that the Nazi genocide was</p>
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<p>born at the meeting point of two traditions that marked modern Western civilization: ‘the anti-Semitic tradition and the tradition of genocide of colonised peoples’.</p>
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<p>The first was (mainly) the prejudice of the right. The second produced the less obvious but still real prejudices which justified colonisation and continue to underpin mainstream European attitudes. Mamdani <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Good-Muslim-Bad-America-Terror/dp/0385515375">notes</a>,</p>
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<p>The fate of the Jewish people was that they were to be exterminated as a whole. In that, they were unique – but only in Europe.</p>
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<p>This point, he adds, was not lost on intellectuals from colonised countries, such as the Martinican thinker Aimé Césaire, who <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qfkrm">wrote that</a> the European bourgeoisie could not forgive Hitler for</p>
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<p>the fact that he applied to Europe colonialist procedures which until then had been reserved exclusively for the Arabs of Algeria, the ‘coolies’ of India, and the ‘niggers’ of Africa.</p>
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<p>This, of course, explains why a Europe that was justifiably appalled at the Nazi genocide had no great qualms about the wholesale slaughter of <a href="https://www.accord.org.za/ajcr-issues/the-colonial-legacy-and-transitional-justice-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo/">Congolese</a> or about the <a href="https://theconversation.com/namibian-traditional-leaders-haul-germany-before-us-court-in-genocide-test-case-71222">Herero genocide</a>. </p>
<p>It might be argued that the reason was not bigotry but distance. Events in Africa were simply not noticed in Europe because they happened far away, and few people were aware of them. But Mamdani’s view that race prejudice was at work is supported by the fact that these attitudes persist today, when communications technologies ensure that the Western mainstream knows what is wrought on people in far-off places. A clear example is the attitudes prompted by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/calling-the-war-in-ukraine-a-tragedy-shelters-its-perpetrators-from-blame-and-responsibility-212080">Russian invasion of Ukraine</a>.</p>
<p>As numerous critiques have shown, European politicians and journalists <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/3/1/covering-ukraine-a-mean-streak-of-racist-exceptionalism">drew repeated attention</a> to the fact that the Ukrainians were white Europeans or “people like us” – and therefore “civilised” – in contrast to Iraqis, Yemenis, Syrians, Afghanis, Africans and, until not that long ago, Jews. </p>
<p>While this could be dismissed as the view of a bigoted few, the fact that Europe and the United States acted with a level of anger never directed at the Israeli state’s bombing of Palestinians, Saudi bombing of Yemen or Russian bombing of Muslim Chechnya and Syria suggests that Mamdani’s hypothesis explains this reaction too. That the United States led the charge, despite its own incursions into Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries, could be explained as plain hypocrisy but could also fit in with Mamdani’s thesis. The Russians had broken the rules of “civilised war” by treating white European Ukrainians in a manner that should be reserved for colonised subjects. Had they restricted themselves, like the West, to visiting misery only on people who were not European, such as the Syrians whom they had earlier bombed, they would have acted well within “civilised” bounds.</p>
<h2>Racial experiments</h2>
<p>But it seems not always possible to restrict barbarism to the colonies. Mamdani <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/106769/good-muslim-bad-muslim-by-mahmood-mamdani/">shows</a> how European behaviour in Namibia set the stage for the Nazi genocide in Europe. It was in Namibia in the first years of the 20th century that Eugen Fischer, a German geneticist, conducted “racial experiments” on Herero people who were, as Jews would later be, interned in concentration camps. Fischer claimed to have shown that people born of mixed Herero and German parentage were</p>
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<p>physically and mentally inferior to their German parents.</p>
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<p>Adolf Hitler <a href="https://dnalc.cshl.edu/view/15745-Eugen-Fischer-about-1938.html">read</a> Fischer’s book that made this claim, and later appointed him rector of the university of Berlin. One of Fischer’s students was <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Josef-Mengele">Josef Mengele</a>, who conducted experiments in Auschwitz on Jewish human beings and who also selected victims for the gas chambers.</p>
<p>Nazism was, seen through this lens, what Franz Fanon <a href="https://grattoncourses.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/frantz-fanon-richard-philcox-jean-paul-sartre-homi-k.-bhabha-the-wretched-of-the-earth-grove-press-2011.pdf">suggested it was</a>: a form of colonial rule extended into Europe. It took the “anti-Semitic tradition” to its logical conclusion by relegating Jews to the status of Africans whose slaughter Chamberlain celebrated in his letters to the German Kaiser hailing the murder of Hereros. </p>
<p>We can see current attempts to align Jews with white supremacy and ethnic nationalism as attempts to escape this history and to position “good”, Zionist, Jews as the white Europeans that Nazism insisted they were not. This gives added significance to the fact that the first American writings claiming a “new anti-Semitism” devoted much effort to blaming black people for anti-Semitism, thus signalling that Jews shared the prejudices of the white European mainstream and so should never have been treated as the Congolese and Hereros had been.</p>
<h2>Zionism and violence against Palestinians</h2>
<p>The current alliance between the Israeli state and other ethnic nationalists is a further example of the attempt to become European. Viewed in this way, today’s right-wing Zionism is not, as it is sometimes portrayed, a departure from the movement’s supposed humanist past. There is a direct line from Herzl, whose Zionism was inspired by the music of a virulent anti-Semite, to the Israeli state and its supporters who find sustenance in the prejudices of <a href="https://theconversation.com/donald-trump-and-the-rise-of-white-identity-in-politics-67037">Donald Trump</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/viktor-orbans-use-and-misuse-of-religion-serves-as-a-warning-to-western-democracies-146277">Viktor Orban</a>.</p>
<p>Much the same impulse surely drives British Jews who today unite with those who had once excluded them from their clubs and, more recently, stereotyped them in novels. These stereotypes are used to denounce left-wingers whom the right has <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Specter-Haunting-Europe-Myth-Judeo-Bolshevism/dp/0674047680">always associated with Jewishness</a>.</p>
<p>Mamdani uses the term “conscripts of Western power” to describe those who were once oppressed by the West but are <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Good-Muslim-Bad-America-Terror/dp/0385515375">now allied to it</a>. But today’s “good Jews” are not conscripts; they are volunteers.</p>
<p>His argument also sheds new light on the visits of right-wing anti-Semites to the Yad Vashem memorial to Nazi victims, a practice aptly described by the Israeli journalist Noa Landau as <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2022-02-28/ty-article-opinion/.premium/the-writing-has-been-on-the-wall-for-yad-vashems-schnorrer-culture/0000017f-dc3a-d3ff-a7ff-fdbab8fd0000">“Shoah-washing”</a>. The Israeli anti-Zionist activist Orly Noy <a href="https://www.972mag.com/holocaust-antisemitism-israel-tool/">notes</a>:</p>
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<p>If Zionism previously justified its crimes against the Palestinian people in the name of the Holocaust, today it uses the Holocaust as a tool to justify antisemitism itself in exchange for political profit. More than that: it allows an antisemite to define what antisemitism is. This is the bitter truth we face today – for the official State of Israel, the concept of the Holocaust and antisemitism are purely political means, and as such can be manipulated, distorted, and deceived, just like any other political tool.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nazi crimes are used by the Israeli state to justify violence against Palestinians. But viewed through Mamdani’s distinction, and the core role that Nazi mass murder plays in Zionism’s justifications, the Israeli state’s use of the Nazi genocide may also be seen as a continuing attempt to remind ethnic nationalists that by forming an ethnic nationalist state, Jews should be treated as the Nazis would not treat them – as fellow Europeans, rather than as “darker people” who are deserving targets of racism.</p>
<p>Noy’s reference to allowing anti-Semites to define anti-Semitism may also shed light on why today’s anti-Semites are happy to accept the invitation to mourn a Nazi slaughter that they usually excuse. An obvious explanation is that their admiration for the Israeli state makes a little hypocrisy necessary. </p>
<p>If their favourite ethnic nationalist state wants heads of government who feel that the Nazi genocide has received an unfair bad press to shed a ritualised tear for its victims, that is a small price to pay. But they may also be signalling that the establishment of an ethnic nationalist state, which itself colonises the “darker races”, entitles “good Jews” to the European status that the Nazis had denied them. This, of course, does not mean that “bad Jews” – those who are not fervent ethnic nationalists – deserve the same consideration.</p>
<p>The distinction between European and colonial wars may also shed more light on why “good Jews”, those who support the Israeli state, are so firmly supported by Western centrists and liberals. If Jews are, as the opponents of Nazi racism insisted, European, then the Israeli state can be seen as another colonial enterprise, which, in the view of some of its opponents, <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1652565">is exactly what it is</a>. And so its response to Palestinians is, in the eyes of its European allies, governed by the “laws of nature”, not by the “laws of war”. To brutalise Ukrainians is to violate the “laws of war” and is unacceptable to Europe and its heirs. To brutalise Palestinians is to follow the “laws of nature”. The Israeli state may do as it pleases to Palestinians without violating the code of those to whom “Europeanness” or “whiteness” is a valued identity – many of whom are liberals or centrists.</p>
<p>The distinction between European and colonial wars, then, throws important light on the new way in which Jews are viewed both by white supremacists and by mainstream Europe.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.witspress.co.za/page/detail/Good-Jew-Bad-Jew/?K=9781776148486">Good Jew, Bad Jew: Racism, anti-Semitism and the assault on meaning</a> is published by Wits University Press</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217970/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Friedman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The European bourgeoisie could not forgive Hitler because he applied in Europe colonialist procedures previously reserved for the supposedly inferior Arabs, Indians, and Africans.
Steven Friedman, Professor of Political Studies, University of Johannesburg
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/216138
2023-11-07T18:02:45Z
2023-11-07T18:02:45Z
Seeing histories of forced First Nations labour: the ‘Nii Ndahlohke / I Work’ art exhibition
<p>How do we learn and teach about First Nations labour in ways that connect to local economies and Canadian history education? </p>
<p>In a new exhibition, <a href="https://artwindsoressex.ca/exhibitions/nii-ndahlohke-i-work/"><em>Nii Ndahlohke / I Work</em></a>, at Art Windsor Essex, labour is the central theme for understanding the history and legacies of <a href="https://collections.irshdc.ubc.ca/index.php/Detail/entities/65">Mount Elgin Industrial School</a>, an Indian Residential School in southwestern Ontario. </p>
<p>The exhibition brings together artists from the communities whose children attended this institution, and it runs until June 24, 2024. It emerged from the Munsee Delaware Language and History Group, a community-based language and history learning project.</p>
<p>The group has worked together for many years to study and teach Munsee language and history, and supports research and teaching about Munsee people, communities, languages and territories.</p>
<h2>Manual labour demands</h2>
<p>Mount Elgin was located at Chippewas of the Thames First Nation in southwestern Ontario. Like <a href="https://uofmpress.ca/books/detail/a-national-crime">other Industrial Schools of its era</a>, Mount Elgin was an underfunded religious federal boarding school and a model farm that was expected to generate income to pay for itself. </p>
<p>Students at the school were expected to work at the institute as much as they were expected to attend class. </p>
<p>Their labour was invisible within the school budget. However, the Indian department was aware that Mount Elgin students were not given progressive training in skilled trades and that manual labour demands on students kept them out of the classroom and therefore compromised their education.</p>
<h2>Farm labour, domestic service</h2>
<p>Manual labour prepared students for limited work opportunities: farm labour for boys and men, and domestic service for girls and women. </p>
<p>These jobs supported the <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315772288-14/would-like-girls-home-mary-jane-logan-mccallum">surrounding rural and urban settler economies</a> at a time when First Nations were pressured to lease and even surrender reserve land to area farmers to round out meagre incomes. </p>
<p>Significantly, forced labour was a key issue in student resistance at Mount Elgin including running away, setting fires and attempting to ruin farm equipment. It was also a key issue in parents’ letters of complaints to the department and band attempts to intervene in federal schooling. </p>
<p>Hard labour also impacted the children’s health, and poor diet and stress compounded to accelerate the spread and deadliness of diseases like tuberculosis. </p>
<h2>Labour as central theme</h2>
<p><a href="https://artwindsoressex.ca/exhibitions/nii-ndahlohke-i-work/"><em>Nii Ndahloke / I Work</em></a>, addresses histories of student labour at Mount Elgin but also its larger impact on reserve and settler economies of southwestern Ontario in the era. </p>
<p>The show also addresses histories of gendered experiences of Indian education, racism, student illness, intergenerational collaboration and the preservation of different forms of labour and the stories and metaphors that accompany them. </p>
<p>The majority of artists are from First Nations communities in southern Ontario.
Artists featured in the exhibit are: Kaia’tanoron Dumoulin Bush, Jessica Rachel Cook, Nancy Deleary, Gig Fisher, Vanessa Dion Fletcher, Judy McCallum, Donna Noah, Mo Thunder and Meg Tucker. </p>
<p>Each of the artists were given three sources in common to inspire their work: a silent film about Mount Elgin entitled <em>The Church in Action in an Indian Residential School</em> (1943) produced by the United Church of Canada to promote its Home Missions work; a basic timeline of the school; and a physical and audio copy of the 2022 book <a href="https://www.niindahlohke.ca/"><em>Nii Ndahlohke: Boys’ and Girls’ Work at Mount Elgin Industrial School, 1890-1915</em></a>. This book is the result of a project developed by the Munsee Delaware Language and History Group. </p>
<h2>Artists’ own histories</h2>
<p>The artists’ resulting works range widely and meaningfully address the artist’s own histories. </p>
<p>The exhibit presents the film in a separate room, with hand-sketched images of student uniforms and replica student graffiti from the walls of the last remaining Mount Elgin building, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qpZj2UsDNE">the barn</a>.</p>
<p>As part of the exhibition design, a red line along the wall follows visitors around the exhibit. This line represents a story told to Julie, one of the authors of this story, by our relative Norma Richter, about sewing the red piping featured on the yoke of girls’ uniforms at the school she attended in the 1930s and 40s – one of the only half-interesting things she remembered doing in her years at the school.</p>
<p>It also commemorates Norma’s refusal of work, and the two times she ran away from the school. The representation of the red line grounds the exhibit in family and community history. </p>
<h2>Community-based approach</h2>
<p>The exhibition reflects a different approach to both history and curation. </p>
<p>As well as being a source for this exhibit, <em>Nii Ndahlohke / I Work</em> was created for an audience of local students and for use in the Ontario history curriculum, <a href="https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/social-studies-history-geography-2018.pdf">which, in Grade 8, covers the period 1890 to 1914</a>. </p>
<p>The book is split into two sections, one on boys’ work and one on girls’ work. It also features Munsee language and Munsee artwork highlighting certain sections or themes. </p>
<p>The exhibit amplifies and starkly interprets the history of student labour at Mount Elgin. </p>
<p>We hope people will leave with is a better understanding of the residential school system in Canada as a shared history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216138/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Jane Logan McCallum receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and The Social Science Research Council of Canada, Heritage Canada, Ontario Arts Council. She is affiliated with the Munsee Delaware Language and History Group. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Rae Tucker receives funding from the Social Science Research Council of Canada and the Ontario Arts Council. She is affiliated with Art Windsor Essex and the Munsee Delaware History and Language group</span></em></p>
Labour is the central theme for understanding history and legacies of Mount Elgin Industrial School, a former Indian Residential School, in a new exhibition at Art Windsor Essex.
Mary Jane Logan McCallum, Professor of History, University of Winnipeg
Julie Rae Tucker, Head of Programs and Projects at Art Windsor Essex and Munsee Delaware History and Language group member
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/216322
2023-11-02T22:15:48Z
2023-11-02T22:15:48Z
How Canadian companies can use tech to identify forced labour in their supply chains
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557005/original/file-20231101-19-pz1lh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C37%2C4962%2C3293&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canadian companies will soon be legally obligated to annually report on efforts to prevent and remediate forced and child labour in their supply chains. Technology could help them do this.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/how-canadian-companies-can-use-tech-to-identify-forced-labour-in-their-supply-chains" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Levi Strauss Canada is yet another company facing <a href="https://core-ombuds.canada.ca/core_ombuds-ocre_ombuds/press-release-levi-strauss-communique.aspx?lang=eng">allegations of forced labour in its supply chain</a>. The allegations, <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/corporate-ethics-czar-investigating-levi-strauss-over-alleged-links-to-forced-labour-1.6570081">which Levi Strauss denies</a>, centre on whether the company is working with suppliers using Uyghur forced labour. With over <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/publications/WCMS_854733/lang--en/index.htm">27 million people worldwide</a> in forced labour, we can expect to witness similar allegations elsewhere in the coming years. </p>
<p>While Canada enjoys strong protections against labour exploitation, the issue of involuntary work may hit closer to home than expected. The reality is that forced labour <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/companies-brands-china-supply-chains-illegal-forced-labor-2022-12">could have been used to produce many of our everyday items</a>, including clothing, electronics and vehicles. </p>
<p>Canada has taken a significant step in addressing this problem through the <a href="https://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/F-10.6">Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act</a>. As of Jan. 1, 2024, companies with significant operations in Canada will be legally obligated to pay closer attention to the working conditions in their supply chains. </p>
<p>This act brings Canada’s efforts to address forced labour in alignment with other regions such as the <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/trade/forced-labor/UFLPA">United States</a>, the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/30/contents/enacted">United Kingdom</a> and <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018A00153">Australia</a>.</p>
<p>Under this act, any entity with significant operations in Canada will be obligated to annually report on its efforts to prevent and remediate forced and child labour in its supply chains. </p>
<p>This includes disclosing information about relevant policies, due diligence processes, supply chain hotspots, employee training and remediation measures. The act also includes provisions for corrective measures and punishment. </p>
<h2>Identifying forced labour with technology</h2>
<p>The complex nature of supply chains makes identifying when and where forced or child labour occurs a significant challenge. Supply chains can contain thousands of suppliers that span continents. Even major international companies like Levi Strauss, which has a strong <a href="https://www.levistrauss.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/LSCo_Code-of-Conduct.pdf">supplier code of conduct</a>, can end up facing allegations of violations in their supply chains.</p>
<p>To explore how forced and child labour can be identified in supply chains, we <a href="https://cmr.berkeley.edu/2022/03/modern-slavery-in-global-supply-chains-the-impact-of-covid-19/">conducted over 30 interviews with experts from around the world</a>. These experts included representatives from non-governmental organizations, companies and auditing bodies, providing insight into how emerging technologies can be used to support identifying such practices.</p>
<p>The difficulty of identifying far-flung suppliers, for instance, could be simplified by using DNA to identify a product’s origin, as is done with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/business/economy/ai-tech-dna-supply-chain.html">cotton</a>, <a href="https://www.msc.org/media-centre/news-opinion/news/2020/02/21/how-dna-testing-works">seafood</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/chocolate-a-new-way-to-make-sure-your-favourite-bar-is-an-ethical-treat-163687">chocolate</a>.</p>
<p>Drones and satellite imaging can be used to identify potential forced labour hotspots, such as remote <a href="https://www.insider.com/pakistan-brick-kilns-debt-bondage-modern-day-slavery-2023-4">brick kilns</a>, <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250284297/cobaltred">mines</a> or <a href="https://hai.stanford.edu/news/detecting-modern-day-slavery-sky">areas of illegal deforestation</a>. AI can also <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/how-ai-and-satellite-imaging-tech-can-put-an-end-to-modern-slavery/">predict areas at high risk of forced and child labor</a> and direct attention to these regions.</p>
<p>Additionally, emerging technologies can help identify some forms of deception. Blockchain technology, for example, can provide an <a href="https://widgets.weforum.org/blockchain-toolkit/data-integrity/index.html">unalterable ledger of transactions in real time</a>, preventing later manipulation. Artificial intelligence can quickly process immense quantities of data, which aids in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/business/economy/ai-tech-dna-supply-chain.html">detecting unusual patterns indicating potential fraud</a>.</p>
<h2>Addressing the risk of deceptive practices</h2>
<p>In some cases, there are incentives for businesses to conceal illegal and immoral practices. Transparentem, a non-profit group focused on eradicating labour abuse, found <a href="https://transparentem.org/project/hidden-harm/">evidence of deception during supply chain audits in garment factories in India, Malaysia and Myanmar</a>. These deceptive practices include falsifying documents, coaching workers to lie and hiding workers who appeared to be unlawfully employed.</p>
<p>Based on in-depth interviews with auditors, suppliers, brand representatives and workers in the apparel industry, Human Rights Watch has found these risks are <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2022/11/15/obsessed-audit-tools-missing-goal/why-social-audits-cant-fix-labor-rights-abuses">elevated when companies have advance notice of an upcoming audit</a>. </p>
<p>Integrating sensors, cameras and other cloud technology can enable real-time monitoring of working conditions, mitigating the risks of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120773">advance notice of audits</a>. Sensors and cameras, for example, have been used on <a href="https://teem.fish/vessels/">fishing vessels</a> to remotely transmit data in near real-time. </p>
<p>Worker voice platforms, such as those used in the <a href="https://www.responsiblebusiness.org/tools/voices/">electronics industry</a>, allow workers to provide feedback directly through smartphone apps. This can serve as a real-time whistleblower mechanism for workers trapped in forced labour.</p>
<h2>Technology is only part of the solution</h2>
<p>Despite its potential benefits, technology still has weaknesses, like high costs, susceptibility to manipulation and weak data security, that need to be addressed. Blockchain technology, for instance, <a href="https://widgets.weforum.org/blockchain-toolkit/data-integrity/index.html">can codify manipulated or incorrect data</a> unless the necessary precautions are taken.</p>
<p>Meeting the requirements of the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act will require grounding technology in a broader risk-based approach consisting of supplier screening, monitoring and auditing. </p>
<p>In addition, even when technology does indicate the presence of forced or child labour, on-the-ground verification and follow-up is often required. Identification is just the first step. The act requires reporting on remediation, which is typically based on long-term collaborative relationships with local parties.</p>
<p>Addressing the issue of forced and child labour in supply chains is difficult and complex. While technology can help companies fulfil their reporting obligations under the act, identifying and remediating these crucial issues will require <a href="https://cmr.berkeley.edu/2022/11/65-1-transformational-transparency-in-supply-chains-leveraging-technology-to-drive-radical-change/">ongoing and concerted efforts</a>. </p>
<p>The first report is due on May 31, 2024, so companies have no time to spare in working to comply with the act.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216322/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cory Searcy receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grant Michelson and Pavel Castka do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Supply chains can contain thousands of suppliers spanning continents. DNA testing, drones, satellite imaging and other technologies can help identify forced and child labour.
Cory Searcy, Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, & Vice-Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University
Grant Michelson, Professor of Management, Macquarie Business School, Macquarie University
Pavel Castka, Professor in Operations Management and Sustainability; Associate Dean Research at UC Business School, University of Canterbury
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/206923
2023-08-01T21:00:35Z
2023-08-01T21:00:35Z
Learning from Lululemon: If Canada wants to get serious about forced labour, disclosure laws won’t do
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531197/original/file-20230609-15-z5uk83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C0%2C5711%2C3274&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A recent investigation into Lululemon casts doubt on the ability of Canada's new Modern Slavery Act to tackle labour abuse.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/learning-from-lululemon-if-canada-wants-to-get-serious-about-forced-labour-disclosure-laws-wont-do" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The Canadian government recently passed <a href="https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/bill/S-211/third-reading">the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act</a>. The new law is designed to address forced labour and child labour in supply chains by requiring companies to disclose their efforts in eliminating labour abuse from their supply chains. </p>
<p>The legislation, known colloquially as Canada’s Modern Slavery Act, does not require large Canadian companies to actually take actions to prevent or reduce the risk of forced labour and child labour in their supply chains.</p>
<p>The act also doesn’t hold companies accountable when forced labour is found. Similar weak disclosure laws in <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/SB657">California</a>, <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/30/contents/enacted">the United Kingdom</a> and <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018A00153">Australia</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12512">have already been found to be ineffective</a> by academic researchers.</p>
<p>Our recent investigation at the <a href="https://gflc.ca/">Governing Forced Labour in Supply Chains Project</a> into the Canadian apparel company Lululemon Athletica casts doubt on the ability of this new law to tackle labour abuse.</p>
<p>The new law falls short of what is required to make large corporations exercise due diligence to prevent labour abuse from occurring within their supply chains. </p>
<h2>Remembering Rana Plaza</h2>
<p>This new Canadian law comes a decade after the tragic collapse of the nine-storey Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh that killed nearly 1,130 garment workers and injured over 2,500. The disaster <a href="https://theconversation.com/years-after-the-rana-plaza-tragedy-bangladeshs-garment-workers-are-still-bottom-of-the-pile-159224">raised concerns about the ability of voluntary corporate initiatives</a> to address labour rights violations and protect workers.</p>
<p>In response to the tragedy, an agreement between brands, retailers and trade unions called <a href="https://wsr-network.org/success-stories/accord-on-fire-and-building-safety-in-bangladesh">the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh</a> was established. The accord was designed to improve workplace safety and prevent future accidents in the garment sector. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of people march down a street with protest signs and a large banner written in Bengali." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531194/original/file-20230609-22144-k2hwj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531194/original/file-20230609-22144-k2hwj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531194/original/file-20230609-22144-k2hwj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531194/original/file-20230609-22144-k2hwj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531194/original/file-20230609-22144-k2hwj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531194/original/file-20230609-22144-k2hwj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531194/original/file-20230609-22144-k2hwj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bangladeshi garment workers, activists and relatives of workers participate in a protest marking the four-month anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh in August 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Building on this initiative, <a href="https://internationalaccord.org/about-us">the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry</a> — with 198 brand and retailer signatories — was introduced in 2021.</p>
<p>Remarkably, only one Canadian garment company — <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2023/04/29/10-years-after-the-rana-plaza-disaster-canada-needs-to-do-more-to-protect-worker-rights.html">Loblaw Companies Ltd., the parent company of the Joe Fresh brand</a> — has signed the accord. Other Canadian companies prefer their own voluntary initiatives. </p>
<p>Legislation aimed at addressing forced labour in supply chains has the potential to address these weak corporate initiatives — but only if the law is strong enough.</p>
<h2>Lululemon report</h2>
<p>Our report, <a href="https://gflc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Lululemons-Conundrum_GFLC_final.pdf"><em>Lululemon’s Conundrum: Good Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives and the Persistence of Forced Labour</em></a>, examines Lululemon’s efforts to address potential labour abuse in its supply chain.</p>
<p>In 2021, <a href="https://knowthechain.org/about-us/">KnowTheChain</a> — which evaluates companies’ efforts to address forced labour risks in their supply chains based on international labour standards — <a href="https://knowthechain.org/wp-content/uploads/2021-KTC-AF-Benchmark-Report.pdf">ranked Lululemon first among 129 apparel and footwear companies</a> for its measures to address forced labour risks. </p>
<p>Despite being recognized as an industry leader in this area, an investigation by researchers at Sheffield Hallam University in England found that <a href="https://www.shu.ac.uk/helena-kennedy-centre-international-justice/research-and-projects/all-projects/laundered-cotton">Lululemon was at a high risk of sourcing from the Xinjiang region</a> in China — <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/un-expert-concludes-forced-labour-has-taken-place-xinjiang-2022-08-18/">which has been associated with forced labour and human rights abuses</a> — that same year.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/responses-to-uflpa-outreach/">response to this accusation</a>, Lululemon stated it had zero tolerance for forced labour, was committed to all the workers in its global supply chain and regularly monitored vendors globally through a due diligence process.</p>
<h2>Lululemon supplier concerns</h2>
<p>Lululemon does not own or operate any of the manufacturing or raw materials facilities used to make its apparel. <a href="https://corporate.lululemon.com/%7E/media/Files/L/Lululemon/lululemonSupplierListFinal050923.pdf">Its April 2023 supplier list</a> revealed the company sourced from suppliers located in four out of the 10 <a href="https://files.mutualcdn.com/ituc/files/ITUC_GlobalRightsIndex_2021_EN_Final.pdf">worst countries for workers’ rights violations</a> according to the 2021 Global Rights Index created by International Trade Union Confederation: Bangladesh, Colombia, the Philippines and Turkey.</p>
<p>According to the supplier list, one of Lululemon’s largest manufacturing facilities is in Bangladesh, with over 13,000 workers — 70 per cent of whom are women. Despite this, Lululemon has not signed the 2021 International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person wearing a face mask and work uniform picks a large spook of yarn up from a pile" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540249/original/file-20230731-271165-grpb0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540249/original/file-20230731-271165-grpb0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540249/original/file-20230731-271165-grpb0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540249/original/file-20230731-271165-grpb0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540249/original/file-20230731-271165-grpb0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540249/original/file-20230731-271165-grpb0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540249/original/file-20230731-271165-grpb0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A worker packages spools of cotton yarn at a Huafu Fashion plant, as seen during a government organized trip for foreign journalists, in Aksu in western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in April 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.fairlabor.org/reports/charter-link-clark-inc">Two reports found that from 2018 to 2019</a>, workers at a Lululemon supplier factory had to work two to three nights without being allowed to go home or take necessary breaks. </p>
<p>While a <a href="https://www.fairlabor.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Charter-Link-Verification-Report-MO-Final-4-27-22.pdf">2022 follow-up investigation</a> determined this situation had been rectified by Lululemon and the supplier, some workers reported they still felt unable to refuse overtime requests.</p>
<p>According to the follow-up report, the supplier at the same factory also engaged in serious union-busting tactics, including firing the union’s elected leaders and reports from workers that some managers had threatened to close the factory if the workers unionized.</p>
<p>The follow-up report found that while many of the anti-union issues had been addressed, some supervisors reportedly made comments that could be construed as still discouraging workers from joining the union.</p>
<h2>Corporate transparency issues</h2>
<p><a href="https://corporate.lululemon.com/our-impact/reporting-and-governance/reporting-and-disclosure/policies-and-guidelines">Lululemon has several codes and policies in place to address forced labour</a>. One is the Lululemon Global Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, which states that employees and vendors are to adhere to labour and employment standards in the countries they operate in, unless the code sets a higher standard.</p>
<p>Employees are encouraged to report any violations to this code internally through Lululemon or externally using third-party tools such as the international Integrity Line. This phone line allows employees to anonymously report complaints at any time. </p>
<p>However, third-party complaint avenues pose challenges, including requiring tech access, trusting unfamiliar third parties and filing a complaint that protects one’s anonymity while still providing enough detail about worker issues.</p>
<p>Another code Lululemon has in place is the <a href="https://corporate.lululemon.com/%7E/media/Files/L/Lululemon/our-impact/vendor-code-of-ethics/vcoe-supporting-benchmarks.pdf">Vendor Code of Ethics</a> and its accompanying Benchmarks policy.
Vendors are responsible for enforcing key aspects of the code of ethics, including creating grievance and disciplinary systems for violations and training workers on the policy’s content. When vendors use subcontractors, they are the ones responsible for ensuring subcontractors adhere to the policy.</p>
<p>While Lululemon can conduct unannounced visits to monitor their compliance with the Vendor Code of Ethics, this is rarely done. Only <a href="https://pnimages.lululemon.com/content/dam/lululemon/www-images/Footer/Sustainability/lululemonKnowTheChainDisclosure_20210302.pdf">one per cent of assessments in 2019 were unannounced</a>. Lululemon also works with third-party auditors sometimes, which can be problematic since these auditors rely on their clients to stay in business, <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501754524/private-regulation-of-labor-standards-in-global-supply-chains/">raising questions about the authenticity of auditing reports</a>.</p>
<h2>Reliance on local labour laws</h2>
<p>Lululemon’s measures to address forced labour largely rely on the labour laws in the countries in which the suppliers are located. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/20414005.2021.2008763">Relying on local labour laws is a major shortcoming of many corporate initiatives</a>, since they often fall short of international legal norms and are not well enforced.</p>
<p>In California, the United Kingdom and Australia, Lululemon is required by law to report on its efforts to detect, remedy and eradicate forced labour in its supply chains. However, the information necessary for evaluating the effectiveness of these initiatives is not available to researchers, the public or workers.</p>
<p>Crucial information about all the participants and purchasing practices in a supply chain, such as the amount of lead time suppliers are given for orders and whether suppliers get paid on time, are not provided. Additionally, information on how workers navigate Lululemon’s policies and grievance mechanisms is not publicly available.</p>
<h2>Due diligence legislation needed</h2>
<p>Our study raises concerns about the effectiveness of current transparency and disclosure laws as an effective tool for combating forced labour in supply chains. </p>
<p>Disclosure laws, like those in Canada’s new act, will not require Lululemon to reveal the type of information needed to ensure its suppliers are not abusing workers. Nor does the new law require large multinational corporations to take any steps to eradicate labour abuses in the supply chains.</p>
<p>Our study suggests disclosure laws are a form of window dressing that can be used by companies to project an image of social responsibility to consumers, rather than genuinely improving the working conditions for supply chain workers.</p>
<p>It’s time to require companies to take real steps to rid their supply chains of labour abuse. If Canada is to truly eradicate force labour in global supply chains, it needs mandatory due diligence legislation that involves supply chain workers at every stage of the process — before another disaster like Rana Plaza occurs.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: Prior to publishing this story, The Conversation sought comment from Lululemon about how the company is complying with the new Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act, as well as some other issues raised in this article. Lululemon did not respond.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206923/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Judy Fudge receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gayathri Krishna and Kaitlyn Matulewicz do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A new study suggests disclosure laws to prevent forced labour in the clothing industry are a form of window dressing designed to ease the conscience of consumers rather than protecting workers.
Gayathri Krishna, PhD Candidate, School of Labour Studies, McMaster University
Judy Fudge, LIUNA Enrico Henry Mancinelli Chair of Global Labour Issues, School of Labour Studies, McMaster University
Kaitlyn Matulewicz, Researcher, Governing Forced Labour in Supply Chains Project
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/199242
2023-05-16T18:43:45Z
2023-05-16T18:43:45Z
Canada’s Modern Slavery Act is the start — not the end — of efforts to address the issue in supply chains
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526627/original/file-20230516-37075-dmbv3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C0%2C4905%2C3253&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canada has joined a growing list of nations that have introduced legislation to combat modern slavery in supply chains.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Paul Teysen/Unsplash)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/canada-s-modern-slavery-act-is-the-start-—-not-the-end-—-of-efforts-to-address-the-issue-in-supply-chains" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>On May 3, Canada <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/mps-pass-law-meant-to-curb-forced-labour-as-critics-decry-its-lack-of-teeth-1.6382930">passed legislation</a> aimed at addressing <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/lang--en/index.htm">modern slavery</a> — a term that typically encompasses forced labour, bonded labour and child labour — in supply chains. </p>
<p>By doing so, Canada has <a href="https://time.com/5741714/end-modern-slavery-initiatives/">joined a growing list of nations</a> that have introduced this type of legislation. <a href="https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/44-1/s-211">Bill S-211</a>, the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act, received royal assent on May 11 and is slated to become law on Jan. 1, 2024. </p>
<p>As business and policy researchers interested in human rights and exploitation, we have studied modern slavery around the world, including the development of supply chain legislation, corporate efforts and other initiatives intended to address modern slavery. </p>
<p>We have been closely following this issue in Canada.</p>
<p>The enactment of what many are calling Canada’s Modern Slavery Act is without a doubt an important milestone. Yet we need to remain diligent and view it as the start — not the end — of efforts to address modern slavery in supply chains. Otherwise, we risk exacerbating the issue.</p>
<h2>Landmark legislation in Canada</h2>
<p>Forced labour and “<a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---ipec/documents/publication/wcms_854733.pdf">situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or cannot leave because of threats, violence, deception, abuse of power or other forms of coercion</a>” are not relics of the past. They are ever-present issues linked to our lives through <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jscm.12258">supply chains</a>.</p>
<p>Once Bill S-211 comes into effect, government institutions and Canadian-linked companies that <a href="https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/bill/S-211/royal-assent">meet the act’s thresholds</a> will be required to submit an annual report that details their efforts to address forced labour and child labour in their supply chains.</p>
<p>Bill S-211 also amends the Canadian Customs Tariff to “<a href="https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/44-1/s-211">exclude goods that are mined, manufactured or produced wholly or in part by forced labour or child labour</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A clock tower peeking through autumn foliage." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525977/original/file-20230512-8466-ekh0cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525977/original/file-20230512-8466-ekh0cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525977/original/file-20230512-8466-ekh0cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525977/original/file-20230512-8466-ekh0cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525977/original/file-20230512-8466-ekh0cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525977/original/file-20230512-8466-ekh0cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525977/original/file-20230512-8466-ekh0cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bill S-211 — Canada’s version of a Modern Slavery Act — is expected to come into effect as law on Jan. 1, 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Kishore Uthamaraj/Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For years, Canada has been viewed as a laggard when it comes to supply chain legislation, <a href="https://theconversation.com/modern-slavery-bill-a-step-in-the-right-direction-now-businesses-must-comply-99135">trailing behind other jurisdictions</a> (e.g., Australia, Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States). This legislation is a step toward bringing Canada into sync with global regulatory trends.</p>
<p>Experts have advocated for more stringent legislation if Canada wants to “<a href="https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/08/23/Canada-Needs-Get-Serious-Modern-Slavery/">get serious about modern slavery</a>.” </p>
<p>Reporting on modern slavery in supply chains will not be new for many companies, as <a href="https://modern-slavery-statement-registry.service.gov.uk/">many are already required to do so under legislation elsewhere</a>. But for some, this will be new territory. </p>
<p>Businesses that did not pay attention to modern slavery before this point now have no choice but to confront it.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://schulich.yorku.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Canadian-Business-Insights-on-Modern-Slavery-in-Supply-Chains-Full-Report.pdf">study of businesses in Canada</a> found some professionals have struggled to get buy-in from key stakeholders. These stakeholders are often dismissive of modern slavery because they either believe it’s irrelevant or that directing attention to it risks damaging their reputation.</p>
<p>Codifying forced labour and child labour in supply chains into legislation will help legitimize the issue in the eyes of otherwise reluctant decision-makers.</p>
<h2>Superficial reporting</h2>
<p>Years after the early pieces of transparency in supply chain legislation such as the <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10551-016-3364-7.pdf">California Transparency in Supply Chains Act</a>, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1758-5899.12398">U.K. Modern Slavery Act</a> and <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/580025f66b8f5b2dabbe4291/t/6200d3d9db51c63088d0e8e1/1644221419125/Paper+Promises_Australia+Modern+_Slavery+Act_7_FEB.pdf">Australian Modern Slavery Act</a> have come into effect, there is little cause for optimism around their effectiveness.</p>
<p>Scholars have argued that transparency laws tend to lead to “<a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6055c0601c885456ba8c962a/t/61d71e46967f033bb694f6e5/1641487943126/ReStructureLab_DueDiligence_April2021_AW.pdf">superficial reporting, focused on processes rather than outcomes</a>” and that this type of legislation “has failed to root out forced labour and exploitation from prevailing business models.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/modern-slavery-act-is-having-unintended-consequences-for-womens-freedom-in-sri-lanka-112258">Modern Slavery Act is having unintended consequences for women's freedom in Sri Lanka</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A lack of government enforcement, vague reporting requirements that don’t encompass key metrics most relevant to forced labour, and rampant non-compliance among businesses have fuelled ineffectiveness.</p>
<h2>Broken tools</h2>
<p>Transparency legislation has expanded companies’ reliance on tools to prevent and address forced labour in supply chains. The problem with this, however, is that many of these tools are broken.</p>
<p>In their rush to demonstrate they are taking action on forced labour by reporting on their efforts to address it, companies have been leaning heavily on social auditing and ethical certification programs.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/D09353629C19265CF1F136F90DEF5214/S0260210515000388a.pdf/benchmarking-global-supply-chains-the-power-of-the-ethical-audit-regime.pdf">Evidence suggests</a> these programs mask forced labour, rather than finding and fixing it. These programs give the impression there are effective monitoring systems in place, when there are not.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-businesses-fail-to-detect-modern-slavery-at-work-82344">Why businesses fail to detect modern slavery at work</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6055c0601c885456ba8c962a/t/62d746146f5dc5205a17621c/1658275349325/ReStructureLab_SocialAuditingandEthicalCertification_July2022.pdf">review of studies</a> on auditing and certification highlights the failures and flaws hardwired into these systems when it comes to detecting, preventing and remediating forced labour. These programs simply don’t work to improve labour conditions over time.</p>
<h2>Enabling business conditions</h2>
<p>Transparency legislation does nothing to tackle the organizational and <a href="https://theconversation.com/some-people-trapped-in-modern-slavery-are-underworked-and-they-pay-a-heavy-price-for-it-99863">commercial dynamics</a> that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492621994904">lead to businesses’ demand for forced labour</a> in supply chains, as our research has shown.</p>
<p>Supply chain complexity and informality have been repeatedly identified as key drivers of forced labour in supply chains. However, businesses continue to be structured to reap the benefits of such conditions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A crane unloading cargo shipping containers from a ship at a dock." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526626/original/file-20230516-29-7895y7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526626/original/file-20230516-29-7895y7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526626/original/file-20230516-29-7895y7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526626/original/file-20230516-29-7895y7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526626/original/file-20230516-29-7895y7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526626/original/file-20230516-29-7895y7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526626/original/file-20230516-29-7895y7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shipping containers are unloaded from a cargo vessel at the PSA Halifax Fairview Cove Terminal in Halifax in October 2022. Businesses continue to embrace complex supply chains that enable modern slavery to thrive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A decade into government efforts, there is <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6055c0601c885456ba8c962a/t/61f9d3eaf800aa5cc72766cd/1643762668092/ReStructureLab_CommercialContracts_July2021.pdf">alarmingly little evidence</a> demonstrating that companies have made any meaningful changes to their commercial designs or practices.</p>
<h2>What it takes</h2>
<p>If we have learned anything from the fight against modern slavery, it is that addressing the issue — even in a select few suppliers — takes extensive time, resources and long-term commitments.</p>
<p>Counter-intuitively, combating the issue doesn’t simply mean cutting ties with entities guilty of modern slavery. In fact, working with perpetrators long-term has been demonstrated to be an effective remedy.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-businesses-and-consumers-can-do-to-tackle-modern-slavery-in-supply-chains-200694">Here's what businesses and consumers can do to tackle modern slavery in supply chains</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For example, after <a href="https://www.patagonia.ca/stories/the-unacceptably-high-cost-of-labor-a-new-migrant-worker-standard-from-patagonia/story-17743.html">Patagonia detected labour violations</a> among a few of its suppliers in Taiwan, it documented and publicly reported on its multi-year effort to update its supplier code of conduct and work with the violators to ensure the issue was addressed. </p>
<p>Their extensive work resulted in the creation of their <a href="https://www.patagonia.com/static/on/demandware.static/-/Library-Sites-PatagoniaShared/default/dwd52f9d06/PDF-US/Patagonia-Migrant-Worker-Employment-Standards-V2-0-English.pdf">Migrant Worker Employment Standards</a> handbook, which has been applied to suppliers beyond Taiwan and shared with other companies in the industry.</p>
<p>While some legislation is better than none, we need to be aware of the pitfalls associated with current legislation and remain diligent moving forward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199242/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kam Phung has received research funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and Mitacs.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Genevieve LeBaron has received research funding from SSHRC, ESRC, Humanity United, Ford Foundation, among others.</span></em></p>
If we have learned anything from the fight against modern slavery, it is that addressing the issue takes extensive time, resources and long-term commitments.
Kam Phung, Assistant Professor of Business & Society, Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University
Genevieve LeBaron, Professor, School of Public Policy, Simon Fraser University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/203774
2023-04-21T09:06:03Z
2023-04-21T09:06:03Z
Rana Plaza: ten years after the Bangladesh factory collapse, we are no closer to fixing modern slavery
<p>It’s ten years since the tragic collapse of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/rana-plaza-work-injury-compensation-still-missing-in-bangladeshs-labour-standards-107123">Rana Plaza building</a> near Dhaka, Bangladesh, which killed at least 1,132 garment workers and injured several thousand more. The collapse of the eight-storey building on April 24 2013, which housed five factories making clothes for western high street brands like <a href="https://help.accessorize.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360027314892-Rana-Plaza">Accessorize</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/16/primark-payout-victims-rana-plaza-bangladesh">Primark</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/may/15/walmart-opts-out-bangladesh-rana-plaza">Walmart</a>, was the worst of its kind in the world. </p>
<p>The owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/bangladesh-factory-collapse-engineer-arrested-as-death-toll-passes-500-8602036.html">had allegedly been</a> told by an engineer the day before that the building was not safe and should be evacuated. Ten years on, the <a href="https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/crime-justice/news/hc-grants-rana-plaza-owner-bail-murder-case-3290596">murder trial</a> against him and another 35 defendants has still not been concluded. </p>
<p>The tragedy shed a light on the appalling conditions that sometimes exist in the global retail supply chain. Wealthy countries have unveiled lots of initiatives in the ensuing years to make things better. Unfortunately, the situation has not improved. So where are we going wrong?</p>
<h2>The response to Rana</h2>
<p>Immediately after the tragedy, various global initiatives <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/oct/20/inspections-garment-factories-bangladesh-fashion-business-accord-alliance">were launched</a> to ensure the safety of garment workers in the country, such as the Accord on Fire and Building Safety and Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. These focused on things like increasing building fire and safety audits and inspections, with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/business/bangladesh-worker-safety-accord.html">some success</a> in factory safety for workers. </p>
<p>There have also been moves to curb exploitation and forced labour. <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_855019/lang--en/index.htm#:%7E:text=Modern%20slavery%2C%20as%20defined%20for,deception%2C%20or%20abuse%20of%20power">Forced labour</a>, which is often referred to as <a href="https://theconversation.com/fashion-production-is-modern-slavery-5-things-you-can-do-to-help-now-115889">modern slavery</a>, includes situations where workers are not in a position to give informed consent to their conditions, and where they will be penalised if they refuse. Without getting into the fine detail of exactly where this applies, it arguably includes Rana Plaza. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522047/original/file-20230420-14-w1lav6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Rack of jeans in a shop window" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522047/original/file-20230420-14-w1lav6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522047/original/file-20230420-14-w1lav6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522047/original/file-20230420-14-w1lav6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522047/original/file-20230420-14-w1lav6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522047/original/file-20230420-14-w1lav6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522047/original/file-20230420-14-w1lav6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522047/original/file-20230420-14-w1lav6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Retailers now have to disclose how they are tackling modern slavery in their supply chains.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/display-window-vintage-shop-brick-lane-1609399642">I Wei Wang</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many wealthier jurisdictions including <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/30/contents/enacted">the UK</a>, <a href="https://respect.international/french-corporate-duty-of-vigilance-law-english-translation/#:%7E:text=In%202017%20the%20French%20Parliament,publish%20annual%2C%20public%20vigilance%20plans.">France</a>, <a href="https://www.csr-in-deutschland.de/EN/Business-Human-Rights/Supply-Chain-Act/supply-chain-act.html">Germany</a>, <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52022PC0071">the EU</a> and <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018A00153">Australia</a> have enacted legislation to tackle forced labour. This requires companies within those countries to produce things like annual modern slavery statements or due diligence reports to show they are managing their supply chains properly and ensuring workers are treated fairly. </p>
<p>Much of this legislation is disappointing. The UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10551-021-04878-1.pdf">only applies</a> to companies with upwards of £36 million annual turnover. Companies have to disclose what steps they are taking to deal with slavery risks in their supply chains, but don’t have to specify which abuses have taken place. There is also no penalty for failing to make the necessary disclosures. </p>
<p>On the other hand, <a href="https://www.csr-in-deutschland.de/EN/Business-Human-Rights/Supply-Chain-Act/supply-chain-act.html">Germany has made it mandatory</a> for companies to enforce standards within their supply chains to make sure their suppliers are ethical employers and providing safe working conditions, as opposed to the UK approach of simply requiring a disclosure. Germany also imposes fines of up to €8 million (£7 million) or 2% of annual turnover, whichever is higher. It only applies to companies with turnover in excess of €400 million, however. There <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52022PC0071">are also proposals</a> for a mandatory due diligence directive across the EU, though it’s not yet clear whether this will go ahead. </p>
<h2>Our findings</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1045235420300162?via%3Dihub">Numerous</a> studies <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00014788.2017.1362330?journalCode=rabr20">have shown</a> that – despite all the social audits, ethical codes, corporate social responsibility disclosures and moral narratives global fashion retailers use – workers’ human rights have not improved. Indeed, the situation was aggravated by COVID 19. </p>
<p>When <a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmodernslaverypec.org%2Flatest%2Fcovid-women-garment-bangladesh&data=05%7C01%7Cazizul.islam%40abdn.ac.uk%7C63d2249f77114b58b29508db1bcaf710%7C8c2b19ad5f9c49d490773ec3cfc52b3f%7C0%7C0%7C638134332717286053%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=UNJ9DqLyehWXzfKwc6%2BbFE22bMwVa0NUlw2qI%2BYMWqc%3D&reserved=0">some colleagues and I</a> interviewed Bangladeshi garment workers and people in trade unions and NGOs, we found that the pandemic had led to job losses and increased people’s financial burdens. This made it harder for women workers to support themselves and their families. </p>
<p><a href="https://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/2164/19814/Impact_of_Global_Clothing_Retailers_Unfair_Practices_on_Bangladeshi_Suppliers_During_COVID_19_VOR.pdf;jsessionid=5CB5116D1658EEDD382FE1670279703D?sequence=1">In December 2021</a> we then surveyed 1,000 garment factories and found that more than half during the pandemic had endured retailers suddenly cancelling orders, delaying payments, reducing what they were willing to pay or refusing to pay for completed goods. Retailers on the list included (but were not limited to) Aldi, Asda, Asos, Bestseller, Costco, H&M, Kik, Lidl, New Look, Nike, Next, Pep&Co, Primark and Zara. </p>
<p>Yet no suppliers took customers to court for cancellations or refusing to pay for goods. Three-quarters of factories were still selling to brands at the same prices as in March 2020. Nearly one in five factories also struggled to pay the Bangladeshi minimum wage.</p>
<h2>The situation today</h2>
<p>Since the pandemic, suppliers <a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmodernslaverypec.org%2Flatest%2Fcost-of-living-vulnerable-modern-slavery&data=05%7C01%7Cazizul.islam%40abdn.ac.uk%7C63d2249f77114b58b29508db1bcaf710%7C8c2b19ad5f9c49d490773ec3cfc52b3f%7C0%7C0%7C638134332717286053%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=cDrMPp5cgtWV48O66R1AnfJSmRwxFzc5FYX1s%2Fq11ps%3D&reserved=0">continue to struggle</a> amid high inflation. <a href="https://www.just-style.com/news/bangladesh-unions-demand-wage-board-and-increase-for-garment-workers/">In Bangladesh</a>, unions are demanding that the legal minimum wage for garment workers be almost tripled, but so far with no success. Garment exports <a href="https://pciaw.org/ready-made-garment-bangladesh-increase/">have increased</a> more than 35% since the start of the pandemic yet wages and employee numbers have stayed the same. </p>
<p>The collapse of British online retailer Misguided in 2022 gave more insight into the unfairness of the supply chain when it was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jun/12/missguided-collapse-pakistani-garment-workers-left-destitute-and-starving">revealed that</a> clothing producers in Pakistan were shipping consignments and not getting paid until later. When Misguided went under, this meant not getting paid at all, leading to hundreds of workers being made redundant. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/09/global-modern-slavery-trafficking/">International Labour Organization-led</a> estimates suggest that the number of people in forced labour around the world rose from 24.9 million to 27.6 million between 2016 and 2021. Many workers in poor conditions in the retail supply chain would not be categorised as forced labour, but this rise is certainly not encouraging. Overall, these are various signs during and since the pandemic that suggest the modern slavery legislation is not having the desired effect. </p>
<p>So what can be done? Instead of more transparency regulations, we need <a href="https://www.transform-trade.org/fashion-watchdog">a watchdog</a> to investigate unfair practices around the world and punish companies that are found guilty. As well as investigating forced labour allegations, it would penalise companies for doing cut-price deals that prevent workers from receiving a living wage. It would also prevent companies from delaying payments for long periods or refusing to pay for completed goods. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2022-07-13/debates/86436DD6-DABD-401C-B150-7F8B8533A05B/FashionSupplyChain(CodeAndAdjudicator)">bill was tabled</a> in the UK parliament to establish such an adjudicator last July. It has been <a href="https://www.transform-trade.org/fashion-watchdog">publicly supported</a> by more than 50 MPs and is expected to be put back before the House of Commons in the near future. For the longer term, to harmonise practices between different countries, it would also make sense to establish an international fashion watchdog. </p>
<p>It is unavoidable that COVID and high inflation have adversely affected supply chain workers, and no one is denying that exploitation by suppliers is part of the problem. But an international watchdog that puts more pressure on retailers to treat their supply chains fairly is an essential part of the puzzle. Until a regime is in place with genuine teeth to ensure retailers toe the line, the modern slavery behind high-street fashions will only continue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203774/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Muhammad Azizul Islam receives funding from UKRI/AHRC, GCRF- Scottish Funding Council, University of Aberdeen, The UK Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre. He is affiliated with the University of Aberdeen Business School. He is a visiting professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia. Professor Islam is a Civil Society Representative, Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG), The UK Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI UK). He is also an advisory member of GRI’s (Global Reporting Initiative) standard-setting committee on human rights and labour disclosure standards. The article is partly based on work done in collaboration with Transform Trade, UK. </span></em></p>
At least 1,132 workers died when the Rana building collapsed in Bangladesh, while several thousand more were injured.
Muhammad Azizul Islam, Chair in Accountancy and Professor in Sustainability Accounting and Transparency, University of Aberdeen
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/200694
2023-03-20T19:20:42Z
2023-03-20T19:20:42Z
Here’s what businesses and consumers can do to tackle modern slavery in supply chains
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515300/original/file-20230314-20-lhl9m8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C359%2C3979%2C2484&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Forced labour, bonded labour and forced child labour affect millions of people worldwide.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/here-s-what-businesses-and-consumers-can-do-to-tackle-modern-slavery-in-supply-chains" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Even though the practice of slavery has been formally abolished, an estimated <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/lang--en/index.htm">49.6 million people are in forced labour globally</a>, a quarter of which are children. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.un.org/en/observances/slavery-abolition-day">Modern slavery is an umbrella term</a> that refers to situations where exploited individuals cannot leave because of threats, violence, coercion or the abuse of power. It includes a variety of practices such as forced labour, bonded labour and human trafficking.</p>
<p>Modern slavery affects the supply chains of many goods and services used everyday. ChatGPT, which has an estimated 13 million daily users, was <a href="https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/">developed using contractors from Kenya earning between $1.32 and $2 per hour</a>. </p>
<p>Such practices are similar to the labour violations <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/la-garment-factories-investigation/">found in fast-fashion supply chains</a>, where employees are unable to find fair-paying work and are trapped working for exploitative employers.</p>
<p>A third of the world’s cobalt supply, a key material in the manufacture of electric vehicles, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/microsoft-calls-coalition-improve-congos-informal-cobalt-mines-2023-02-08/">comes from small-scale mines</a> associated with dangerous working conditions and labour abuses. </p>
<p>In 2019, it was reported that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/aug/08/schoolchildren-in-china-work-overnight-to-produce-amazon-alexa-devices">school children were made to work overnight at Foxconn</a>, an Amazon supplier, in China to meet production targets for Alexa devices.</p>
<p>The question remains: what can both businesses and consumers do to remove slavery from supply chains? </p>
<h2>Types of modern-day slavery</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.state.gov/what-is-modern-slavery">Forced labour, bonded labour and forced child labour</a> are the labour abuses most prevalent in today’s global supply chains. While modern slavery is most commonly associated with forced labour, there are several other forms that it takes.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/publications/WCMS_854733/lang--en/index.htm">Affecting an estimated 27.6 million people worldwide</a>, bonded labour — where a person is forced to work to pay off debt — is the most common form of slavery.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Pakistani women marching in the street holding signs that say 'Stop Bonded Labour BLLF'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515297/original/file-20230314-3226-9wnvag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515297/original/file-20230314-3226-9wnvag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515297/original/file-20230314-3226-9wnvag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515297/original/file-20230314-3226-9wnvag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515297/original/file-20230314-3226-9wnvag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515297/original/file-20230314-3226-9wnvag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515297/original/file-20230314-3226-9wnvag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pakistani activists protesting against bonded labour on International Women’s Day in Lahore, Pakistan in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/K.M. Chaudhry)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Forced child labour, including the unlawful recruitment of child soldiers, affects at least 12.5 million children. </p>
<p>Child labour is a complicated topic for many, given that <a href="https://www.ilo.org/ipec/areas/Agriculture/lang--en/index.htm">children may work on family farms</a>. However, child labour specifically is identified as labour that is exploitative and may be physically dangerous or detrimental to the development of children. </p>
<p>The primary driver of child labour appears to be extreme poverty that requires families to use children as a much-needed income source. Arguably, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2012.751501">weak state interventions into child labour</a> allow the practice to continue.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/campaigns/human-trafficking/sex-trafficking.html">Sex trafficking</a>, defined as a form of trafficking that “involves recruiting, moving, or holding victims for sexual exploitation purposes,” <a href="https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/modern-slavery/">affects a further 6.3 million people</a>.</p>
<p>Forced labour and domestic servitude account for the remaining 3.2 million people in modern slavery. <a href="http://www.endslaverynow.org/learn/slavery-today/domestic-servitude">Domestic servitude occurs primarily</a> in residences where individuals are hired to perform domestic work as live-in workers and unable to leave because their documents have been confiscated.</p>
<h2>Causes of modern-day slavery</h2>
<p>Modern supply chains are incredibly complex. Even a seemingly simple product such as the Barbie doll has a <a href="https://www.iberdrola.com/shapes-en/justin-wolfers-supply-chains-resilience-covid">global supply chain that spans over one hundred countries</a>. </p>
<p>Typically, organizations will outsource and engage in sub-contracting to manage the demands of complex supply chains. Because the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12398">parent organization is often distant from supplier organizations</a>, there are often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04878-1">transparency issues about the working conditions at suppliers</a>. </p>
<p>Complex supply chains can increase the risk of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-0223-tackling-modern-slavery-in-government-supply-chains/ppn-0223-tackling-modern-slavery-in-government-supply-chains-guidance-html#section-3---identifying-and-managing-risks-in-new-procurements">modern slavery</a>. The use of labour recruiters or sub-contracted workers allows slavery to emerge and thrive. </p>
<p>In addition, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/SCM-06-2015-0201">forced and bonded labour is very difficult to detect</a> because of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/MBR-04-2018-0032">complexities of modern value chains</a>. For example, there are over 6.3 million sellers on Amazon, <a href="https://www.helium10.com/blog/how-many-sellers-on-amazon">each with their own supply chains</a>.</p>
<p>A significant amount of financial and human resources is needed to detect modern slavery practices. The current global labour market conditions mean there is a lack of skilled purchasing professionals available to undertake these tasks.</p>
<h2>Anti-slavery legislation</h2>
<p>Some countries have legislation that attempts to dissuade some of the forms of slavery. However, <a href="https://antislaverylaw.ac.uk/resources/summary-of-findings/">only 24 of the 193 UN member states have provisions</a> that address each form of exploitation, and only five have criminal provisions addressing each of the five international instruments for addressing human exploitation. Only two states in the world have criminal provisions in place for all practices of slavery. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/slavery-is-not-a-crime-in-almost-half-the-countries-of-the-world-new-research-115596">Slavery is not a crime in almost half the countries of the world – new research</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In Canada, the third reading of <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/house/sitting-164/hansard">Bill S-211 — a supply chain transparency bill</a> — recently took place in the Canadian House of Commons. While all speakers agreed that modern slavery needs to be fought, there is disagreement about what exactly should be included in the legislation and how far such legislation can go. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A harbour filled with shipping containers in a variety of colours" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515299/original/file-20230314-20-3gwnjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515299/original/file-20230314-20-3gwnjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515299/original/file-20230314-20-3gwnjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515299/original/file-20230314-20-3gwnjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515299/original/file-20230314-20-3gwnjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515299/original/file-20230314-20-3gwnjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515299/original/file-20230314-20-3gwnjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shipping containers piled up in the harbour in Hamburg, Germany in October 2022. Modern supply chains are incredibly complex and can span over one hundred countries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Michael Probst)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a transparency bill, Bill S-211 has no criminal provisions and places the responsibility for ensuring there is no slavery present in supply chains on the companies themselves. The bill will do this by requiring companies to report on their policies and due diligence activities.</p>
<p>However, only government departments and publicly traded companies listed on the Canadian stock exchange that do business, have a place of business or have assets in Canada are required to report.</p>
<p>If slavery is discovered, companies must report on how they intend to eliminate it. Only companies that meet at least two of the following conditions will be required to do this reporting: having at least $20 million in assets, generating at least $40 million in revenue or employing an average of at least 250 employees.</p>
<h2>What can companies do?</h2>
<p>While it may be challenging for organizations to manage all the activities within their global supply chains, there are best practices responsible firms can adopt. </p>
<p>First, <a href="https://www.bsr.org/en/blog/three-ways-business-is-combating-modern-slavery">organizations can create and manage supplier contracts</a> in a way that ensures suppliers recognize and adhere to international labour laws and modern slavery legislation.</p>
<p>Second, large private and public sector organizations can work with small-to-medium enterprises to <a href="https://www.gov.wales/preventing-modern-slavery-guidance-businesses">raise awareness of the risk factors</a> associated with modern slavery. </p>
<p>Some of these <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-0223-tackling-modern-slavery-in-government-supply-chains/ppn-0223-tackling-modern-slavery-in-government-supply-chains-guidance-html#section-3---identifying-and-managing-risks-in-new-procurements">high risk factors</a> include industries which are labour intensive, such as agriculture, mining, or construction, dangerous or physically demanding work, high numbers of temporary, seasonal, or agency workers, and operating in countries with inadequate labour laws and enforcement.</p>
<p>Additionally, organizations can ask their suppliers to report on the actions they are taking to remove modern slavery from their supply chains.</p>
<h2>What can consumers do?</h2>
<p>Arguably, organizations have the responsibility and the opportunity to remove modern slavery from their supply chains. However, recent research suggests <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-05-2019-0092">consumer behaviour is the most powerful way</a> to reduce instances of modern slavery.</p>
<p>Indeed, the strongest motivation for an organization to take meaningful action to address modern slavery in their supply chains is consumer pressure. As has been witnessed <a href="https://www.thefashionlaw.com/visibility-is-central-to-a-successful-supply-chain-heres-what-brands-need-to-know/">in numerous recent examples</a>, negative media coverage is a strong motivator for organizations to take action. </p>
<p>Conversely, an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04318-1">ambivalent attitude from consumers is an enabler of modern slavery</a>. Eradicating modern slavery requires consumer action. When it comes to modern slavery, then, the power really is with the people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200694/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
While it may be challenging for organizations to manage all the activities within their global supply chains, there are best practices they can adopt to prevent modern slavery.
Stuart Milligan, Associate Teaching Professor of Supply Chain Management, Thompson Rivers University
Nancy Southin, Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management, Thompson Rivers University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/166647
2021-08-25T05:03:07Z
2021-08-25T05:03:07Z
Senate’s vote to ban slave-made imports shows the weakness of Australia’s Modern Slavery Act
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417528/original/file-20210824-13-17e6q5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C659%2C3968%2C1978&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kyodo/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the Australian government introduced its Modern Slavery Bill to parliament in 2018, it heralded it as the start of a “race to the top”.</p>
<p>But it has turned out to be less a race than a meander.</p>
<p>The bill required companies with annual revenues greater than $100 million to report on action they take to ensure their supply chains are free of slave labour. The premise was that transparency and accountability were enough to drive reform.</p>
<p>“Business feedback indicates the primary driver for compliance will be investor pressure and reputational costs and benefits,” a government spokeswoman <a href="https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2018/07/modern-slavery-bill-will-race-top-beat-big-stick/">said at the time</a>. “This will drive compliance more effectively than legislated penalties and encourage a business-led race to the top”. </p>
<p>That bill was passed <a href="https://theconversation.com/at-last-australia-has-a-modern-slavery-act-heres-what-youll-need-to-know-107885">in December 2018</a>.
But so far, according to research <a href="https://acsi.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/ACSI_ModernSlavery_July2021.pdf">published last month</a> by the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, most companies are engaged in a “race to the middle”, disclosing only the minimum and not wishing to reveal more than their key peers.</p>
<p>Could more be done? </p>
<p>Yes — but the possibilities and pitfalls are shown by a private member’s bill that passed the Senate this week.</p>
<p>Proposed by South Australian independent senator Rex Patrick, the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=s1307">Customs Amendment (Banning Goods Produced By Forced Labour) Bill 2021</a> would amend federal customs regulations to prohibit the import of any goods made using forced labour.</p>
<p>It passed the Senate on Monday with support from the Labor Party, the Greens and One Nation senators. But Coalition senators voted against the bill. This was despite it reflecting the recommendations of a inquiry chaired by Liberal senator Eric Abetz, who <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber%2Fhansards%2F9e45ee11-ef07-46fb-ab52-6a60f6014a73%2F0015;query=BillId_Phrase%3A%22s1307%22%20Dataset%3Ahansardr,hansards%20Title%3A%22second%20reading%22;rec=0">said Patrick’s bill</a> was “worthy of consideration and support, in principle”. </p>
<p>Without government support the bill won’t pass the House of Representatives to become law. Nonetheless, it is worth considering why senators as disparate as the Greens and One Nation have backed it. Despite the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018A00153">Modern Slavery Act</a>, there’s much more to be done before Australians can be confident the goods they buy are free of slave labour.</p>
<h2>The call for a stronger approach</h2>
<p>Patrick began with less expansive ambitions, introducing <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_LEGislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=s1284">a bill</a> in December 2020 to ban the import of goods from China produced by Uyghur forced labour.</p>
<p>This was in response to mounting evidence of the Chinese government’s detention of more than a million Uyghurs (and other ethnic minorities) in the western province of Xinjiang, forcing them to work making goods sold by Western companies. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417728/original/file-20210825-23-1jren5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A 2018 satellite image shows detention camps built near the Kunshan Industrial Park in China's Xinjiang region." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417728/original/file-20210825-23-1jren5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417728/original/file-20210825-23-1jren5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417728/original/file-20210825-23-1jren5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417728/original/file-20210825-23-1jren5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417728/original/file-20210825-23-1jren5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417728/original/file-20210825-23-1jren5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417728/original/file-20210825-23-1jren5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 2018 satellite image shows detention camps built near the Kunshan Industrial Park in China’s Xinjiang region.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Planet Labs/AP,</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Patrick’s bill was referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, chaired Abetz. After considering about 60 submissions, in June the committee recommended (among other things) amending the Customs Act and other legislation “to prohibit the import of any goods made wholly or in part with forced labour, regardless of geographic origin”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/four-corners-forced-labour-expose-shows-why-you-might-be-wearing-slave-made-clothes-115462">Four Corners’ forced labour exposé shows why you might be wearing slave-made clothes</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Its <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Foreign_Affairs_Defence_and_Trade/UyghurForcedLabourBill/Report/section?id=committees%2freportsen%2f024618%2f76809">inquiry report stated</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The committee endorses without reservation the objectives of the bill. The state-sponsored forced labour to which the Uyghur people are being subjected by the Chinese dictatorship is a grave human rights violation. It is incumbent on the government to take steps to ensure that Australian businesses and consumers are not in any way complicit in these egregious abuses.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Slavery is all around us</h2>
<p>Patrick’s revised bill reflects this sentiment.</p>
<p>While the Chinese government may be detaining up to a million Uyghurs, the anti-slavery organisation <a href="https://www.walkfree.org/resources/">Walk Free Foundation</a> estimates globally about 4 million people are forced to work by state authorities, with further 21 million people exploited in private supply chains.</p>
<p>The foundation estimates each year goods worth <a href="https://downloads.globalslaveryindex.org/ephemeral/GSI-2018_FNL_190828_CO_DIGITAL_P-1629794133.pdf">more than US$350 billion (about $A480 billion)</a> imported into G20 countries are at at-risk of having been produced, at least in part, by forced labour. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anti-Slavery Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>No country or industry is untouched. The estimate for imports into Australia is US$12 billion (about A$16.5 billion) a year. It’s highly likely at some stage you’ve bought something that has been made with exploited labour. </p>
<p>It might have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/four-corners-forced-labour-expose-shows-why-you-might-be-wearing-slave-made-clothes-115462">clothing made in China</a>. Or it might have <a href="https://theconversation.com/almost-every-brand-of-tuna-on-supermarket-shelves-shows-why-modern-slavery-laws-are-needed-108421">tinned tuna from Thailand</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/fast-moves-in-india-australia-relations-risk-pushing-millions-more-into-modern-slavery-139867">cotton milled in India</a>. Or chocolate made from <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-that-a-good-egg-how-chocolate-makers-rate-on-social-and-environmental-measures-158125">cacao farmed West Africa</a>.</p>
<p>Australia’s Modern Slavery Act has been part of international moves to make companies accountable for the conditions of workers in the global supply chains from which they profit. This law requires reporting entities to submit an annual “Modern Slavery Statement” to a <a href="https://modernslaveryregister.gov.au/">public register</a>.</p>
<p>The law, however, has been criticised for lacking any real bite. There’s no real penalty for noncompliance. Instead it relies on the fear of being “named and shamed” — and as the research from the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors suggests, this doesn’t seem enough. </p>
<h2>How did the government respond?</h2>
<p>So why didn’t the government support Patrick’s bill?</p>
<p>In the words of Abetz, speaking in the Senate on Monday, “my heart says yes to this bill but my head says not yet”.</p>
<p>The government’s hesitancy is understandable. If passed, the law will require every Australian company — not just the big ones — to prove that any goods it imports are slave-free. That’s a huge leap from what is currently required.</p>
<p>Some large corporations are already struggling with how to adhere to the spirit and less strenuous requirements of the Modern Slavery Act. Many small- and medium-sized enterprises and not-for-profits may also not have the expertise or resources to comply.</p>
<p>But even if this particular bill isn’t right, the issues with Australia’s current response to modern slavery cannot be ignored. The enslavement of human beings shouldn’t be an issue where a progressive, but painfully slow, approach is accepted.</p>
<p>Senator Patrick’s bill may not become law. But it has helped shine a light on the deficiencies with the current law and shown there is broad community support for stronger action.</p>
<p>As the famous abolitionist William Wilberforce said: “You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166647/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kyla Raby is affiliated with the Australian Red Cross</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Christ has previously received funding from CPA Australia. </span></em></p>
Australia’s Senate has voted to prohibit the import of goods made using forced labour. But without government support it won’t become law.
Kyla Raby, PhD Candidate researching the role of consumers in eradicating modern slavery in supply chains, University of South Australia
Katherine Christ, Senior Lecturer in Accounting, University of South Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/153288
2021-05-10T05:19:48Z
2021-05-10T05:19:48Z
Want to save the children? How child sexual abuse and human trafficking really work
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399649/original/file-20210510-19-1gvu7qn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C961%2C6000%2C3026&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Sandor Szmutko/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Millions of kidnapped children are imprisoned in underground tunnels, being sexually abused and tortured by a shadowy global cabal of paedophiles. </p>
<p>That, at least, is some of the misinformation about child sex trafficking being spread on social media. You’ll also see such ideas being promoted at protests from Los Angeles to London, with hashtags such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/technology/save-the-children-qanon.html">#saveourchildren</a> and #endchildtrafficking emblazoned on shirts and placards.</p>
<p>The thought of a child being abused, exploited or trafficked for sex elicits a powerful emotional response. These lurid tales have proven to be a potent gateway for <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-20/how-growing-conspiracy-movement-critical-to-us-election/12661592">mothers</a> (and others) to “go down the rabbithole”.</p>
<p>The tragedy is that misinformation is turning well-intentioned people into “digital soldiers” unwittingly working against genuine efforts to eliminate child sexual abuse and human trafficking. </p>
<p>Let’s try to untangle the misconceptions.</p>
<h2>The truth about child sexual abuse</h2>
<p>Statistics on child sexual abuse are never exact. Less than <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232602908_Disclosure_of_Child_Sexual_Abuse_What_Does_the_Research_Tell_Us_About_the_Ways_That_Children_Tell">40% of victims</a> report being abused when children. The average time before disclosure, according to Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, is about 20 years for women and 25 years for men. Some never disclose. </p>
<p>There are enough robust studies, however, to suggest about <a href="https://www.d2l.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PREVALENCE-RATE-WHITE-PAPER-D2L.pdf">one in ten children</a> are sexually abused before age 18 – one in seven girls (14%) and one in 25 boys (4%).</p>
<p>Most typically the abuser is an adult known and trusted by the child and their parents. Then by a non-biological relative or in-law. In fewer than 15% of cases is the perpetrator a stranger.</p>
<p>A 2000 study for the <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/saycrle.pdf">US Bureau of Justice Statistics</a> found 7.5% of all known female victims under the age of 17, and 5% of male victims, were abused by a stranger. More recent data published in 2016 by the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/personal-safety-australia/latest-release#experience-of-abuse-before-the-age-of-15">Australian Bureau of Statistics</a> found strangers accounted for 11.5% of sexual abuse of girls under the age of 16, and 15% of boys. </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="Z0cRu" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Z0cRu/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>The differences between these findings are most likely due to greater awareness reducing opportunities for abuse by “acquaintances” such as clergy, teachers and coaches. In the 2000 data, to illustrate, 69% of molested boys were abused by an acquaintance; in the 2016 data it was about 47%.</p>
<h2>Exaggerating stranger dangers</h2>
<p>Media coverage tends to distort understanding of child sexual abuse. It focuses on “<a href="https://www.nationalcac.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/child-sexual-abuse-myths-Attitudes-beliefs-and-individual-differences.pdf">stranger danger</a>” and amplifies the threat of children being molested at the park or shopping centre.</p>
<p>Even more intense coverage goes to the rarer cases where children are abducted or murdered. Think of the fascination with cases such as the 2007 disappearance of three-year-old <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-52910472">Madeleine McCann</a>. But such cases are memorable because they are so rare. </p>
<p>The so-called “Pastel-Q” conspiracy theory, however, asserts millions of children a year are being kidnapped and trafficked for sex. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-qanon-uses-satanic-rhetoric-to-set-up-a-narrative-of-good-vs-evil-146281">How QAnon uses satanic rhetoric to set up a narrative of 'good vs. evil'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A QAnon meme about missing children based on misrepresenting missing persons statistics." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399227/original/file-20210506-16-f4z8cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399227/original/file-20210506-16-f4z8cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399227/original/file-20210506-16-f4z8cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399227/original/file-20210506-16-f4z8cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399227/original/file-20210506-16-f4z8cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399227/original/file-20210506-16-f4z8cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399227/original/file-20210506-16-f4z8cx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A QAnon meme about missing children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Facebook</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This claim rests on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/03/17/58000-children-abducted-a-year-yet-another-fishy-statistic/">misrepresented</a> numbers from missing persons reports. In the case of the US, for example, the claim is that 800,000 children disappear each year. (A similar rate applied globally would mean about 19 million children disappear every year.)</p>
<p>In fact, the FBI’s data shows the number of people under the age of 17 reported missing in the US <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/2020-ncic-missing-person-and-unidentified-person-statistics.pdf/viewmore">in 2020</a> was about 365,000. In most cases (based on several decades’ of data) these missing reports involve a child <a href="https://www.missingkids.org/footer/media/keyfacts">running away from home</a> or being taken by a custodial parent. Almost half are found <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-missing-children-idUSBRE83P14020120426">within three hours</a>, and more than 99% are found alive. Since 2010, in the US <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-more-global-covid-deaths-th-idUSKCN24I268">fewer than 350 people</a> a year under the age of 21 have been abducted by strangers. </p>
<h2>Sex trafficking in reality</h2>
<p>So no, there’s no evidence millions of children in wealthy nations are being kidnapped by paedophiles. </p>
<p>This is not to say child sex trafficking isn’t a serious concern. But it is a different problem to the Pastel-Q portrayal.</p>
<p>The United Nations’ <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/protocoltraffickinginpersons.aspx">Trafficking in Persons Protocol</a> defines human trafficking as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This means human trafficking doesn’t necessarily require moving a person from one place to another, in the way we think of weapons and drugs being trafficked. It’s not the same as people smuggling. Nor is it exactly the same as modern slavery, although there is broad crossover in definitions. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-trafficked-children-are-being-hidden-behind-a-focus-on-modern-slavery-87116">How trafficked children are being hidden behind a focus on modern slavery</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The crucial point of trafficking is the abuse of power to exploit another human being. It thrives in conditions of poverty, economic and gender inequality, corruption and instability. It requires systemic solutions, which the cartoonish constructions of Pastel-Q distract attention from.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A 'Save Our Children' protest outside the BBC's London headquarters. September 5 2020." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399435/original/file-20210507-17-1bqhr1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399435/original/file-20210507-17-1bqhr1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399435/original/file-20210507-17-1bqhr1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399435/original/file-20210507-17-1bqhr1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399435/original/file-20210507-17-1bqhr1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399435/original/file-20210507-17-1bqhr1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399435/original/file-20210507-17-1bqhr1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A ‘Save Our Children’ protest outside the BBC’s London headquarters. September 5 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graham Hodson/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Trafficking and modern slavery</h2>
<p>Accurately estimating the true scale of child sex trafficking is, like child sexual abuse, complicated. There is the <a href="https://polarisproject.org/recognizing-human-trafficking/">hidden nature</a> of these crimes, differences in policing and reporting between nations, and little uniformity in how statistics are compiled.</p>
<p>The United Nations’ <a href="https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/global-report-on-trafficking-in-persons.html">Global Report on Trafficking in Persons</a> only reports on “detected” cases. There are no more than 25,000 cases each year. </p>
<p>But researchers have good reasons to believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. The most <a href="https://www.alliance87.org/global_estimates_of_modern_slavery-forced_labour_and_forced_marriage.pdf">commonly accepted estimates</a> of the true number of trafficking victims in the world is about 21 million. About 16 million have been trafficked for labour; about 3 million of these are aged under 18.</p>
<p>About 5 million are trafficked for sex – most typically by being coerced into sex work. More than 99% of sex-trafficking victims are women. More than 70% are in Asia, followed by Europe and Central Asia (14%), Africa (8%), the Americas (4%), and the Arab States (1%). About a million are aged under 18. </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="fMMhL" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/fMMhL/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>We must be cautious about these total estimates. Nonetheless there is sufficient research to be confident only a very small percentage of cases involve scenarios like that in the movie <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPJVJBm9TPA">Taken</a>, where Liam Neeson’s character uses his “very particular set of skills” to rescue his kidnapped 17-year-old American daughter from sex slavery. </p>
<p>More often, traffickers approach families living in poverty or <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3651545/#B3">socially and economically vulnerable</a> girls – such as runaways – offering false promises of affection, work and a better life. Instead the girls find themselves being pressured or coerced into sex work.</p>
<p>This was the case with the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, whose intermediaries lured girls aged 14 to 18 with cash to perform massages, then nude massages, then sex.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jeffrey-epsteins-arrest-is-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-human-trafficking-is-the-worlds-fastest-growing-crime-120225">Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest is the tip of the iceberg: human trafficking is the world’s fastest growing crime</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How do we address this?</h2>
<p>Child sexual abuse and child sex trafficking are both serious global problems. We should all be concerned about them. </p>
<p>But they can’t be divorced from the broader conditions that allow many more millions of children and adults to be trafficked and exploited as modern slaves. </p>
<p>They require sophisticated, holistic and broad-based legal and policy responses.
They will not be tackled by misunderstanding their reality and complexity, and indulging in false narratives that divert attention from the real issues. </p>
<p>Which is why more than <a href="https://freedomneedstruth.medium.com/freedom-needs-truth-5224c632557b">130 anti-trafficking organisations</a> have said anybody who lends credibility to these false claims “actively harms the fight against human trafficking”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153288/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandra Baxter is a member of ACRATH; however, does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article.</span></em></p>
Child sexual abuse and child sex trafficking are serious problems. Misinformation is harming efforts to combat them.
Alexandra Baxter, PhD Candidate in Criminology/Law, researching human trafficking and modern slavery in Australia, Flinders University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/151029
2020-11-30T04:59:01Z
2020-11-30T04:59:01Z
Australia’s world-first repository of ‘modern slavery statements’ a step in the right direction
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371878/original/file-20201130-13-jzeaqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5000%2C3330&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A sweatshop in Dakar, Bangladesh, where underaged workers make steel consumer goods in hazardous and dangerous circumstances, October 20 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">StevenK/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From “fast fashion” to tinned tuna to the components in your mobile phone, what guarantee do you have the goods you buy are slave-free? </p>
<p>The Australian government has taken a step forward by just publishing <a href="https://modernslaveryregister.gov.au/">the first batch</a> of statements from Australian companies outlining their efforts to ensure their supply chains do not involve modern slavery. </p>
<p>The reports are the first substantial fruits of Australia’s Modern Slavery Act, passed in December 2018, requiring all businesses with an annual turnover of A$100 million to publish “modern slavery statements” each year.</p>
<p>Businesses must report on the risks of modern slavery in their operations and supply chains, and on the actions they have taken to address these. </p>
<p>There are 121 statements in the repository so far. This includes 19 that are voluntary statements from businesses not required do so, but which have done so anyway to demonstrate their commitment to tackling modern slavery. </p>
<p>With the deadline for submitting reports extended due to COVID-19, the remainder will come by December 31 or March 31 next year (depending on the company’s financial year). </p>
<p>The repository is a world first. Although there are repositories of statements made under similar laws such as the UK <a href="https://www.modernslaveryregistry.org/">Modern Slavery Act</a> and the French Duty of Vigilance Act, these were established by non-government organisations (NGOs) in the absence of a government repository. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anti-Slavery Australia</span></span>
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<h2>What’s in the repository so far?</h2>
<p>Among those to have their statements published in this first tranche are major companies such as <a href="https://modernslaveryregister.gov.au/statements/file/2c7620aa-61be-4d80-bb95-4d0be119f96d/">Coles Group</a> and <a href="https://modernslaveryregister.gov.au/statements/file/cba2a76f-4097-458d-8195-11f4c56aedb7/">Wesfarmers</a> (which owns Bunnings, Kmart and Officeworks). </p>
<p>Coles’ statement reports on “risks or indicators” of modern slavery, based on each country in its supply chain. For example, for China it identifies risks of forced or bonded labour, deceptive recruitment, exploitation of migrant workers, child labour, underpayment of wages and excessive working hours. </p>
<p>Wesfarmers’ statement is relatively detailed and transparent and reports “critical breaches” including allegations of excessive overtime, transparency (record keeping and documentation), safety (building and fire safety) and unauthorised subcontracting and bribery.</p>
<p>Don’t expect to see widespread disclosures of modern slavery in any statements. The Modern Slavery Act requires reporting on risks and the actions to address these. So the content of the statements tends to cover risk assessment, policies, training and, to a lesser extent, remedies. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/four-corners-forced-labour-expose-shows-why-you-might-be-wearing-slave-made-clothes-115462">Four Corners’ forced labour exposé shows why you might be wearing slave-made clothes</a>
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</p>
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<p>Most of the reports so far come from companies headquartered in Australia. Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom are home to six reporting entities each. Four are based in New Zealand.</p>
<p>The statements submitted vary widely in the length and level of detail provided. The 16 statements in the industry category “mining, metals, chemicals and resources” range from three pages to 22 pages. Unsurprisingly, the longer – and glossier – statements come from the larger companies who often find their social and environmental practices under scrutiny, such as Santos, South 32 and BHP. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371891/original/file-20201130-19-q73sap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371891/original/file-20201130-19-q73sap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371891/original/file-20201130-19-q73sap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371891/original/file-20201130-19-q73sap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371891/original/file-20201130-19-q73sap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371891/original/file-20201130-19-q73sap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371891/original/file-20201130-19-q73sap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Uyghur women work in a clothing factory in Hotan prefecture, Xinjiang province, China in April 2019. The Chinese regime has allegedly to put up to a million detained Uyghurs to work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Azamat Imanaliev/Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Why the repository is important</h2>
<p>Internationally, a key criticism of business reporting laws such as Australia’s Modern Slavery Act is the lack of penalties for non-compliance. Critics argue that non-compliance with a range of other corporate laws, from Occupational Health and Safety to tax laws, result in penalties. The <a href="https://www.lawcouncil.asn.au/media/media-releases/penalties-necessary-for-effective-modern-slavery-laws">Law Council</a> and others have called for penalties.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1819a/19bd012#_Toc522195201">Others disagree</a> and suggest the Modern Slavery Act has been introduced with significant goodwill on the part of businesses and that reputational risks from poor (or no) reporting are sufficient to keep businesses on track. </p>
<p>Of course, both a carrot and a stick approach could work. Issuing a fine also carries reputational risk, for example. Another way of driving compliance is to limit government tenders to those businesses complying with the Modern Slavery Act, such as is included in the WA Government’s <a href="https://www.wa.gov.au/government/publications/proposed-western-australian-debarment-regime">proposed</a> “procurement debarment regime”.</p>
<p>A three-year review of the Modern Slavery Act should take place in 2021. It is likely the question of enforcement and penalties will be raised again.</p>
<h2>What this mean for consumers</h2>
<p>In the lead-up to Christmas, a key question for consumers is how the repository can help inform ethical purchasing. </p>
<p>The repository is not designed for this purpose and doesn’t offer “<a href="https://www.ukrn.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/UKRN-Progress-Note-on-Performance-Scorecards-July-2019-080719.pdf">performance scorecards</a>”, for example. </p>
<p>Scrutiny of the statements is an important informal regulatory measure. But it is likely to be carried out by academics and non-government organisations, rather than individual consumers. This is the government’s <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=31e7dd65-18ef-4219-af99-86cf181b0a13&subId=657890">expectation</a>. But a shortcoming of this approach is that the non-government sector is chronically underfunded in Australia, particularly for advocacy work. </p>
<p>Consumers can already access ethical purchasing information, such as <a href="http://whatshemakes.oxfam.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020-AC-006-WSM-Research-Report_Digital_FA_Pages.pdf">Oxfam’s report</a> published last week on the manufacturing practices behind leading clothing brands in Australia. </p>
<p>Highlighting concerns from garment factories in Bangladesh, the report examined well-known stores including Best & Less, Big W, Cotton On, H&M, Zara, Kmart, Myer, Target, Rockmans, Rivers, Noni B, Just Jeans and Portmans. The repository could be further developed to inform reports and scorecards that would be more accessible to consumers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/at-last-australia-has-a-modern-slavery-act-heres-what-youll-need-to-know-107885">At last, Australia has a Modern Slavery Act. Here's what you'll need to know</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>A societal shift in corporate accountability?</h2>
<p>The Modern Slavery Act is just one of a number of recent developments that signal a move towards strengthening corporate accountability. These include the <a href="https://financialservices.royalcommission.gov.au/Pages/default.html">Banking Royal Commission</a> and the <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/ALRC-CCR-Final-Report-websml.pdf">Australian Law Reform Commission report on Corporate Criminal Responsibility</a>. </p>
<p>These developments, together with the modern slavery reporting regime can be used to drive better human rights standards among Australian businesses.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151029/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona McGaughey is a member of the Law Council of Australia's Business and Human Rights Committee. She ahs previously received funding from Graduate Women (WA).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Holly Cullen and Rebecca Faugno do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
121 companies in Australia have delivered their first reports required by the Modern Slavery Act.
Fiona McGaughey, Senior Lecturer in International Human Rights Law, The University of Western Australia
Holly Cullen, Adjunct professor, The University of Western Australia
Rebecca Faugno, Lecturer, UWA Law School, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/140838
2020-06-17T20:05:05Z
2020-06-17T20:05:05Z
Forced labour, sexual exploitation and forced marriage: modern slavery in Australia hides in plain sight
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342014/original/file-20200616-65921-67z12l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C36%2C4896%2C3217&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Yes, there <a href="https://theconversation.com/was-there-slavery-in-australia-yes-it-shouldnt-even-be-up-for-debate-140544">was slavery in Australia</a>. Yes, there is slavery in Australia now. It occurs as forced labour, sexual exploitation and forced marriage.</p>
<p>These situations rarely involve the actual chains and bars we commonly associate with historical slavery. They are nonetheless conditions of enslavement: a person is forced to work under threat; is controlled by another; is dehumanised or treated as a commodity; and is not free to leave.</p>
<p>Relatively speaking, modern slavery is rare in Australia. Perhaps a few thousand people fit the strict definition, compared with about 40 million globally. </p>
<p>But every number is the story of a human being. Their stories are, however, rarely heard as modern slavery in Australia remains largely invisible. </p>
<h2>Australian statistics</h2>
<p>The best official data on modern slavery in Australia come from the Australian Federal Police, the agency to which all alleged human trafficking and slavery offences must be referred. Between 2013 and 2017, as reported to the federal parliament’s <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Foreign_Affairs_Defence_and_Trade/ModernSlavery">Inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act</a>, there were 496 referrals. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/at-last-australia-has-a-modern-slavery-act-heres-what-youll-need-to-know-107885">At last, Australia has a Modern Slavery Act. Here's what you'll need to know</a>
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<p>The cases represent just a fifth of the iceberg, according to <a href="https://antislavery.org.au/modern-slavery/">Anti-Slavery Australia</a>, a research and policy centre that provides free legal services to victims of modern slavery. It estimates more than 80% of victims go undetected. This means about 2,000 more people in modern slavery than the AFP numbers indicate.</p>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342016/original/file-20200616-65961-3aiupc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342016/original/file-20200616-65961-3aiupc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342016/original/file-20200616-65961-3aiupc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342016/original/file-20200616-65961-3aiupc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342016/original/file-20200616-65961-3aiupc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342016/original/file-20200616-65961-3aiupc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342016/original/file-20200616-65961-3aiupc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342016/original/file-20200616-65961-3aiupc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<h2>Forced labour</h2>
<p>The most common form of slavery globally is (non-sexual) forced labour. An estimated 25 million people are forced to work through the use or threat of violence, or physical, emotional or financial restraints. Particularly prevalent is bonded labour or debt bondage – having to work to pay off a debt. </p>
<p>These practices thrive in the regulatory gaps of global supply chains. They are common, for example, in <a href="https://theconversation.com/fast-moves-in-india-australia-relations-risk-pushing-millions-more-into-modern-slavery-139867">Indian textile making</a>, in <a href="https://theconversation.com/almost-every-brand-of-tuna-on-supermarket-shelves-shows-why-modern-slavery-laws-are-needed-108421">Thai fishing</a> and in <a href="https://theconversation.com/four-corners-forced-labour-expose-shows-why-you-might-be-wearing-slave-made-clothes-115462">Chinese manufacturing</a>.</p>
<p>In Australia such cases are relatively uncommon. </p>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342024/original/file-20200616-23227-dsm2g6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342024/original/file-20200616-23227-dsm2g6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342024/original/file-20200616-23227-dsm2g6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342024/original/file-20200616-23227-dsm2g6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342024/original/file-20200616-23227-dsm2g6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342024/original/file-20200616-23227-dsm2g6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342024/original/file-20200616-23227-dsm2g6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342024/original/file-20200616-23227-dsm2g6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>The first conviction under <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2013A00006/Html/Text">forced labour laws</a> enacted by the federal parliament in 2013 was in April 2019. The case involved a Brisbane couple, Isikeli and Malavine Pulini, who <a href="https://www.queenslandjudgments.com.au/case/id/342697">were sentenced</a> to five and six years’ jail respectively for forcing a Fijian woman to work as their domestic servant for eight years. </p>
<p>The woman had previously worked for the Pulinis in Tonga from 2001 to 2006. In 2008 they enticed her to Brisbane on a tourist visa, then took her passport from her. They manipulated her desire to stay in Australia and made her work long hours as nanny, cook, maid and cleaner. They paid her $150 to $250 a fortnight. She fled in 2016.</p>
<p>As the crown prosecutor Ben Power observed, this was “a secret hiding in plain sight” for eight years.</p>
<p>The majority of victims remain hidden for a long time. Commonly contributing to their invisibility are language barriers, a fear of immigration authorities, and an ignorance of Australian laws. Thus, while we can make estimates of the numbers of people caught in these situations, there might be more cases than we think.</p>
<h2>Sexual exploitation</h2>
<p>More common in Australia than labour exploitation, according to the AFP numbers, is sexual exploitation, which represents about 30% of slavery cases. </p>
<p>Sexual exploitation involves a person having to perform sex work due to coercion, threats or deception. To the extent this is done for the exploiter’s commercial gain, the International Labour Office considers sexual exploitation a form of forced labour.</p>
<p>One such case to end in a successful sexual slavery conviction is the <a href="https://www.cdpp.gov.au/case-reports/prosecuting-%E2%80%98insidious-trade%E2%80%99-woman-who-helped-force-thai-women-sex-slavery-jailed">November 2019</a> sentencing of Rungnapha Kanbut to eight years in jail for keeping two Thai women as slaves.</p>
<p>The two women came to Australia to do sex work. The man who made their travel arrangements took naked photos of them. The threat of these being posted on the internet was later used to deter the women from fleeing. </p>
<p>When they arrived in Australia, Kanbut took their passports and told them they needed to pay off a $45,000 debt. They worked up to 12 hours a day at multiple Sydney brothels. Most of their earnings went to Kanbut.</p>
<p>They were, as the judge put it, effectively kept “in a prison without bars”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/human-trafficking-and-slavery-still-happen-in-australia-this-comic-explains-how-112294">Human trafficking and slavery still happen in Australia. This comic explains how</a>
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<h2>Forced marriage</h2>
<p>Forced marriage appears the most prevalent form of modern slavery in Australia. It involves being tricked, forced or coerced into a marriage without full consent. Of the estimated 15.4 million people in such arrangements globally, 13 million are female. </p>
<p>Research suggests victims of forced marriage in Australia are mostly the children of first-generation migrants <a href="https://www.redcross.org.au/getmedia/ad745e1b-c62f-4831-b8c3-a389b3037c34/Forced-Marriage-Community-Voices-Stories-and-Strategies-Australian-Red-Cross.pdf.aspx">from places such as</a> Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Somalia and Fiji (though it should be noted the practice is in no way limited to specific nations or cultures). </p>
<p>An <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/FamCA/2011/22.html">example</a> is the case of an Australian-born teenager whose strict Indian-born parents tricked her into travelling to India on the premise of marrying the man she loved but then extorted her into marrying someone else.</p>
<p>The teenager had angered her parents by conducting a long-distance relationship then moving from Sydney to Melbourne to live with her chosen boyfriend. </p>
<p>They finally cajoled her into agreeing to a wedding in India as part of a reconciliation. But once the wedding party was in India, they took her passport and threatened to have her boyfriend’s mother and sister kidnapped and raped if she didn’t do what they said. So she did.</p>
<p>This case has a comparatively happy ending. The Family Court of Australia <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/FamCA/2011/22.html">declared the marriage void</a>. </p>
<p>But for many women there are many barriers to getting to court. These are <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/MelbULawRw/2013/5.html">complex situations</a> compounded by social stigma, family pressure, fear of violence and cultural and gender expectations. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dowry-abuse-does-exist-but-lets-focus-on-the-wider-issues-of-economic-abuse-and-coercive-control-112288">Dowry abuse does exist, but let's focus on the wider issues of economic abuse and coercive control</a>
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<h2>Complex problems, complex responses</h2>
<p>Each form of modern slavery is complex. Each requires a different policy response.</p>
<p>Forced marriage needs more of a “<a href="https://dspace.flinders.edu.au/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2328/39334/Flinders_Slavery_Report_2019_ibsn.pdf?sequence=5&isAllowed=y">soft approach</a>”, including <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/MelbULawRw/2012/24.html">consultation and education strategies</a>, and <a href="https://www.redcross.org.au/getmedia/ad745e1b-c62f-4831-b8c3-a389b3037c34/Forced-Marriage-Community-Voices-Stories-and-Strategies-Australian-Red-Cross.pdf.aspx">prevention and empowerment opportunities</a> that engage whole communities. </p>
<p>Sexual exploitation requires addressing the reasons that lead women into sex work and then to become part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/sex-traffickings-tragic-paradox-when-victims-become-perpetrators-115706">cycle of exploitation</a>.</p>
<p>With forced labour, Australia’s Modern Slavery Act provides a focal point to promote <a href="https://www.australianethical.com.au/blog/parliament-passes-modern-slavery-act/">accountability</a> in business supply chains.</p>
<p>That wouldn’t have helped the victim of the Pulinis, though. In her case, as is uncounted others, the ability to hide in plain sight is slavery’s first defence.</p>
<p>So, along with policy measures, there’s also a need to heighten community awareness. We all have to be able to better spot the signs of slavery even without chains and bars.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140838/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandra Baxter is affiliated with ACRATH. </span></em></p>
Slavery and slavery-like practices exist in Australia, in the form of forced marriages, sexual exploitation and forced labour.
Alexandra Baxter, Human trafficking and modern slavery researcher, Flinders University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/115596
2020-02-13T12:02:01Z
2020-02-13T12:02:01Z
Slavery is not a crime in almost half the countries of the world – new research
<p>“Slavery is illegal everywhere.” So said the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/09/opinion/modern-day-slavery.html">New York Times</a>, repeated at the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/10/what-can-governments-do-to-prevent-slavery/">World Economic Forum</a>, and used as a mantra of <a href="https://www.ijm.org/our-work/forced-labor-slavery">advocacy</a> for over 40 years. The truth of this statement has been taken for granted for decades. Yet our <a href="https://antislaverylaw.ac.uk/">new research</a> reveals that almost half of all countries in the world have yet to actually make it a crime to enslave another human being.</p>
<p>Legal ownership of people was indeed abolished in all countries over the course of the last two centuries. But in many countries it has not been criminalised. In almost half of the world’s countries, there is no criminal law penalising either slavery or the slave trade. In 94 countries, you cannot be prosecuted and punished in a criminal court for enslaving another human being.</p>
<p>Our findings displace one of the most basic assumptions made in the modern antislavery movement — that slavery is already illegal everywhere in the world. And they provide an opportunity to refocus global efforts to eradicate modern slavery by 2030, starting with <a href="https://antislaverylaw.ac.uk/">fundamentals</a>: getting states to completely outlaw slavery and other exploitative practices.</p>
<p>The findings emerge from our development of an <a href="https://antislaverylaw.ac.uk/">anti-slavery database</a> mapping domestic legislation against international treaty obligations of all 193 United Nations member states (virtually all countries in the world). The database considers the domestic legislation of each country, as well as the binding commitments they have made through international agreements to prohibit forms of human exploitation that fall under the umbrella term “modern slavery”. This includes forced labour, human trafficking, institutions and practices similar to slavery, servitude, the slave trade, and slavery itself.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314759/original/file-20200211-146686-lwzbpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314759/original/file-20200211-146686-lwzbpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314759/original/file-20200211-146686-lwzbpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314759/original/file-20200211-146686-lwzbpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314759/original/file-20200211-146686-lwzbpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314759/original/file-20200211-146686-lwzbpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314759/original/file-20200211-146686-lwzbpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314759/original/file-20200211-146686-lwzbpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">States in which slavery is currently criminalised.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Katarina Schwarz and Jean Allain</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although 96% of all these countries have some form of domestic anti-trafficking legislation in place, many of them appear to have failed to prohibit other types of human exploitation in their domestic law. Most notably, our research reveals that:</p>
<ul>
<li>94 states (49%) appear not to have criminal legislation prohibiting slavery</li>
<li>112 states (58%) appear not to have put in place penal provisions punishing forced labour</li>
<li>180 states (93%) appear not to have enacted legislative provisions criminalising servitude</li>
<li>170 states (88%) appear to have failed to criminalise the four institutions and practices similar to slavery.</li>
</ul>
<p>In all these countries, there is no criminal law in place to punish people for subjecting people to these extreme forms of human exploitation. Abuses in these cases can only be prosecuted indirectly through other offences – such as human trafficking – if they are prosecuted at all. In short, slavery is far from being illegal everywhere.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>This article is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.</em> </p>
<hr>
<h2>A short history</h2>
<p>So how did this happen? </p>
<p>The answer lies at the heart of the great British abolition movement, which ended the transoceanic slave trades. This was a movement to abolish laws allowing the slave trade as legitimate commerce. During the 19th century, states were not asked to pass legislation to criminalise the slave trade, rather they were asked to repeal – that is, to abolish – any laws allowing for the slave trade.</p>
<p>This movement was followed up by the League of Nations in 1926 adopting the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/SlaveryConvention.aspx">Slavery Convention</a>, which required states do the same: abolish any legislation allowing for slavery. But the introduction of the international human rights regime changed this. From <a href="https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/">1948 onwards</a>, states were called upon to prohibit, rather than simply abolish, slavery. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312290/original/file-20200128-81362-q7pskj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312290/original/file-20200128-81362-q7pskj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312290/original/file-20200128-81362-q7pskj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312290/original/file-20200128-81362-q7pskj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312290/original/file-20200128-81362-q7pskj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312290/original/file-20200128-81362-q7pskj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312290/original/file-20200128-81362-q7pskj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Slaves cutting the sugar cane on the Island of Antigua, 1823.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/atIgjLlFryg">British Library/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a result, states were required to do more than simply ensure they did not have any laws on the books allowing for slavery; they had to actively <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/SupplementaryConventionAbolitionOfSlavery.aspx">put in place</a> laws seeking to <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/ccpr.aspx">stop a person</a> from enslaving another. But many appear not to have criminalised slavery, as they had undertaken to do.</p>
<p>This is because for nearly 90 years (from 1926 to 2016), it was generally agreed that slavery, which was considered to require the ownership of another person, could no longer occur because states had repealed all laws allowing for property rights in persons. The effective consensus was that slavery had been legislated out of existence. So the thinking went: if slavery could no longer exist, there was no reason to pass laws to prohibit it. </p>
<p>This thinking was galvanised by the definition of slavery first set out in 1926. That <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/SlaveryConvention.aspx">definition</a> states that slavery is the “status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised”. But <a href="http://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_318_esp.pdf">courts</a> the world over have recently <a href="http://www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/publications/judgment-summaries/2008/hca39-2008-08-28.pdf">come to recognise</a> that this definition <a href="https://www.icty.org/x/cases/kunarac/tjug/en/kun-tj010222e.pdf">applies</a> beyond situations where one person legally owns another person.</p>
<p>So let’s dig into the language of that definition. Traditionally, slavery was created through systems of legal ownership in people – chattel slavery, with law reinforcing and protecting the rights of some to hold others as property. The newly recognised “condition” of slavery, on the other hand, covers situations of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286456172_The_Definition_of_Slavery_in_International_Law">de facto slavery</a> (slavery in fact), where legal ownership is absent but a person exercises power over another akin to ownership – that is, they hold the person in a condition of slavery.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314488/original/file-20200210-109896-lyj0ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314488/original/file-20200210-109896-lyj0ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314488/original/file-20200210-109896-lyj0ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314488/original/file-20200210-109896-lyj0ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314488/original/file-20200210-109896-lyj0ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314488/original/file-20200210-109896-lyj0ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314488/original/file-20200210-109896-lyj0ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">François-Auguste Biard, Proclamation of the Abolition of Slavery in the French Colonies, 27 April 1848 (1849).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Biard_Abolition_de_l%27esclavage_1849.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This creates the possibility of recognising slavery in a world where it has been abolished in law, but persists in fact. Torture, by analogy, was abolished in law during the 18th century, but persists despite being outlawed.</p>
<h2>Stories of slavery</h2>
<p>Slavery may have been abolished, but there are still many who are born into slavery or brought into it at a young age and therefore do not know or recall anything different. Efforts by non-governmental organisations to free entire villages from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jun/08/the-unspeakable-truth-about-slavery-in-mauritania">hereditary slavery</a> in Mauritania demonstrate this acutely, with survivors initially having no notion of a different existence and having to be slowly introduced to processes towards liberation. </p>
<p>This is a country in which the practice of buying and selling slaves has continued since the 13th century, with those enslaved serving families as livestock herders, agricultural workers, and domestic servants for generations, with little to no freedom of movement. This continues despite the fact that slavery was abolished. </p>
<p>Selek’ha Mint Ahmed Lebeid and her mother were born into slavery in Mauritania. She <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/To_Plead_Our_Own_Cause.html?id=VfutDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">wrote</a> about her experiences in 2006:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was taken from my mother when I was two years old by my master … he inherited us from his father … I was a slave with these people, like my mother, like my cousins. We suffered a lot. When I was very small I looked after the goats, and from the age of about seven I looked after the master’s children and did the household chores – cooking, collecting water, and washing clothes … when I was ten years old I was given to a Marabout [a holy man], who in turn gave me to his daughter as a marriage gift, to be her slave. I was never paid, but I had to do everything, and if I did not do things right I was beaten and insulted. My life was like this until I was about twenty years old. They kept watch over me and never let me go far from home. But I felt my situation was wrong. I saw how others lived.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As this story shows, slavery turns on control. Control of a person of such an intensity as to negate a person’s agency, their personal liberty, or their freedom. Where slavery is concerned, this overarching control is typically established through violence: it effectively requires the will of a person to be broken. This control need not be exercised through courts of law, but may be exercised by enslavers operating outside legal frameworks. In the case of Mauritania, legal slavery has been abolished since 1981.</p>
<p>Once this control is established, other powers understood in the context of ownership come into play: to buy or sell a person, to use or manage them, or even to dispose of them. So slavery can exist without legal ownership if a person acts as if they owned the person enslaved. This – de facto slavery – continues to persist today on a large scale.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://antislavery.ac.uk/solr-search?q=&facet=collection%3A%22VOICES%3A+Narratives+by+Survivors+of+Modern+Slavery%22">stories of people</a> around the world who have experienced extreme forms of exploitation testify to the continued existence of slavery. Listening to the voices of people who have been robbed of their agency and personal liberty, and controlled so as to be treated as if they are a thing that somebody owns, makes it clear that slavery persists. </p>
<p>In 1994, <a href="http://antislavery.ac.uk/items/show/104">Mende Nazer</a> was captured as a child following a militia raid on her village in Sudan. She was beaten and sexually abused, eventually sold into domestic slavery to a family in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. As a young adult she was transferred to the family of a diplomat in the UK, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Slave.html?id=SzzKGwAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">eventually escaping</a> in 2002. </p>
<p>“Some people say I was treated like an animal,” <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/my-life-as-a-london-slave-7298724.html">reflected Nazer</a>, “But I tell them: no, I wasn’t. Because an animal - like a cat or a dog - gets stroked, and love and affection. I had none of that.”</p>
<h2>Human trafficking</h2>
<p>Because of this remarkably late consensus on what slavery means in a post-abolition world, only very specific practices related to severe human exploitation are currently covered under national laws around the world – primarily, human trafficking. And while most countries have anti-trafficking legislation in place (our database shows that 93% of states have criminal laws against trafficking in some form), human trafficking legislation does not prohibit multiple other forms of human exploitation, including slavery itself. </p>
<p>Human trafficking is <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/protocoltraffickinginpersons.aspx">defined in international law</a>, while other catch-all terms, such as “modern slavery”, are not. In international law, human trafficking consists of three elements: the act (recruiting, transporting, transferring, harbouring, or receiving the person); the use of coercion to facilitate this act; and an intention to exploit that person. The crime of trafficking requires all three of its elements to be present. Prosecuting the exploitation itself — be it, for instance, forced labour or slavery — would require specific domestic legislation beyond provisions addressing trafficking.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314482/original/file-20200210-109901-18ez7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314482/original/file-20200210-109901-18ez7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314482/original/file-20200210-109901-18ez7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314482/original/file-20200210-109901-18ez7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314482/original/file-20200210-109901-18ez7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314482/original/file-20200210-109901-18ez7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314482/original/file-20200210-109901-18ez7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A protest rally in London raises awareness for the fight against human trafficking and slavery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Gomez/Shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So having domestic human trafficking legislation in place does not enable prosecution of forced labour, servitude or slavery as offences in domestic law. And while the vast majority of states have domestic criminal provisions prohibiting trafficking, most have not yet looked beyond this to legislate against the full range of exploitation practices they have committed to prohibit.</p>
<p>Shockingly, our research reveals that less than 5% of the 175 states that have undertaken legally-binding obligations to criminalise human trafficking have fully aligned their national law with the international definition of trafficking. This is because they have narrowly interpreted what constitutes human trafficking, creating only partial criminalisation of slavery. The scale of this failing is clear:</p>
<ul>
<li>a handful of states criminalise trafficking in children, but not in adults</li>
<li>some states criminalise trafficking in women or children, specifically excluding victims who are men from protection</li>
<li>121 states have not recognised that trafficking in children should not require coercive means (as required by the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/networks/european_migration_network/glossary_search/palermo-protocol_en">Palermo Protocol</a>)</li>
<li>31 states do not criminalise all relevant acts associated with trafficking, and 86 do not capture the full range of coercive means </li>
<li>several states have focused exclusively on suppressing trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, and thereby failed to outlaw trafficking for the purposes of slavery, servitude, forced labour, institutions and practices similar to slavery, or organ harvesting.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Our database</h2>
<p>While there is no shortage of recognition of de facto slavery in the decisions of international courts around the world, the degree to which this understanding is reflected in national laws has not – until now – been clear. The last systematic attempt to gather domestic laws on slavery was published over 50 years ago, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xWIyAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA149&dq=awad+report+slavery+1966&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwif98zJzs3kAhVHa8AKHXWsDjMQ6AEINjAC#v=onepage&q=awad%20report%20slavery%201966&f=false">in 1966</a>.</p>
<p>Not only is this report now outdated; the definition of slavery it tested against – slavery under legal ownership – has been thoroughly displaced with the recognition in international law that a person can, in fact, be held in the condition of slavery. This means that there has never been a global review of antislavery laws in the sense of the fuller definition, nor has there ever been such a review of laws governing all of modern slavery in its various forms. It is this significant gap in modern slavery research and evidence that we set out <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/beacons-of-excellence/rights-lab/programmes/law/legislation-database.aspx">to fill</a>.</p>
<p>We compiled the national laws relating to slavery, trafficking, and related forms of exploitation of all 193 UN member states. From over 700 domestic statutes, more than 4,000 individual provisions were extracted and analysed to establish the extent to which each and every state has carried out its international commitments to prohibit these practices through domestic legislation.</p>
<p>This collection of legislation is not perfect. The difficulties of accessing legislation across all of the world’s countries make it inevitably incomplete. Language barriers, difficulties of translating legal provisions, and differences in the structures of national legal systems also presented obstacles. But these challenges <a href="https://antislaverylaw.ac.uk/methodology/">were offset</a> by conducting searches in multiple languages, triangulating sources, and the use of translation software where necessary.</p>
<h2>The findings</h2>
<p>The results, as we’ve shown, are shocking. In 94 countries, a person cannot be prosecuted for enslaving another human being. This implicates almost half of all the world’s countries in potential breaches of the international obligation to prohibit slavery.</p>
<p>What’s more, only 12 states appear to explicitly set out a national definition of slavery that reflects the international one. In most cases, this leaves it up to the courts to interpret the meaning of slavery (and to do so in line with international law). Some states use phrases such as “buying and selling human beings”, which leaves out many of the powers of ownership that might be exercised over a person in a case of contemporary slavery. This means that even in the countries where slavery has been prohibited in criminal law, only some situations of slavery have been made illegal. </p>
<p>Also surprising is the fact that states who have undertaken international obligations are not significantly more (or less) likely to have implemented domestic legislation addressing any of the kinds of exploitation considered in our study. States who have signed up to the relevant treaties, and those who have not, are almost equally likely to have domestic provisions criminalising the various forms of modern slavery. Signing onto treaties seems to have no impact on the likelihood that a state will take domestic action, at least in statistical terms. However, this does not mean that international commitments are not a significant factor in shaping particular states’ national antislavery efforts.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314761/original/file-20200211-146696-yee2u7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314761/original/file-20200211-146696-yee2u7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314761/original/file-20200211-146696-yee2u7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314761/original/file-20200211-146696-yee2u7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314761/original/file-20200211-146696-yee2u7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314761/original/file-20200211-146696-yee2u7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314761/original/file-20200211-146696-yee2u7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314761/original/file-20200211-146696-yee2u7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">States in which forced labour is currently criminalised.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Katarina Schwarz and Jean Allain</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The picture is similarly bleak when it comes to other forms of exploitation. For example, 112 states appear to be without penal sanctions to address forced labour, a widespread practice ensnaring <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_575479.pdf">25 million people</a>.</p>
<p>In an effort to support their families, many of those forced into labour in developed countries are unaware they are not taking up legitimate work. Travelling to another country for what they believe to be decent work, often through informal contacts or employment agencies, they find themselves in a foreign country with no support mechanism and little or no knowledge of the language. Typically, their identity documents are taken by their traffickers, which limits their ability to escape and enables control through the threat of exposure to the authorities as “illegal” immigrants. </p>
<p>They are often <a href="https://theconversation.com/thousands-locked-into-forced-labour-in-slave-camp-britain-15531">forced to work</a> for little or no pay and for long hours, in agriculture, factories, construction, restaurants, and through forced criminality, such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jul/26/vietnamese-cannabis-farms-children-enslaved">cannabis farming</a>. Beaten and degraded, some are sold or gifted to others, and many are purposefully supplied with drugs and alcohol to create a dependency on their trafficker and reduce the risk of escape. Edward (not his real name) <a href="http://antislavery.ac.uk/items/show/142">explains</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I felt very sick, hungry and tired all the time. I was sold, from person to person, bartered for right in front of my face. I heard one man say I wasn’t even worth £300. I felt worthless. Like rubbish on the floor. I wished I could die, that it could all be behind. I just wanted a painless death. I finally decided I would rather be killed trying to escape.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our database also reveals widespread gaps in the prohibition of other practices related to slavery. In short, despite the fact that most countries have undertaken legally-binding obligations through international treaties, few have actually criminalised slavery, the slave trade, servitude, forced labour, or institutions and practices similar to slavery. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314870/original/file-20200211-146686-lc4rc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314870/original/file-20200211-146686-lc4rc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314870/original/file-20200211-146686-lc4rc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314870/original/file-20200211-146686-lc4rc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314870/original/file-20200211-146686-lc4rc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314870/original/file-20200211-146686-lc4rc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314870/original/file-20200211-146686-lc4rc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Overview of domestic legislation prohibiting human exploitation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Katarina Schwarz and Jean Allain</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A better future</h2>
<p>Clearly, this situation needs to change. States must work towards a future in which the claim that “slavery is illegal everywhere” becomes a reality. </p>
<p>Our database should make the design of future legislation easier. We can respond to the demands of different contexts by analysing how similar states have responded to shared challenges, and adapt these approaches as needed. We can assess the strengths and weaknesses of different choices in context, and respond to problems with the type of evidence-based analysis provided here. </p>
<p>To this end, we are currently developing model legislation and guidelines meant to assist states in adapting their domestic legal frameworks to meet their obligations to prohibit human exploitation in an effective manner. Now that we have identified widespread gaps in domestic laws, we must move to fill these with evidence-based, effective, and appropriate provisions.</p>
<p>While legislation is only a first step towards effectively eradicating slavery, it is fundamental to harnessing the power of the state against slavery. It is necessary to prevent impunity for violations of this most fundamental human right, and vital for victims obtaining support and redress. It also sends an important signal about human exploitation. </p>
<p>The time has come to move beyond the assumption that slavery is already illegal everywhere. Laws do not currently adequately and effectively address the phenomenon, and they must.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/they-put-a-few-coins-in-your-hands-to-drop-a-baby-in-you-265-stories-of-haitian-children-abandoned-by-un-fathers-114854?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">‘They put a few coins in your hands to drop a baby in you’ – 265 stories of Haitian children abandoned by UN fathers</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-the-world-a-history-of-how-a-silent-cosmos-led-humans-to-fear-the-worst-120193?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">The end of the world: a history of how a silent cosmos led humans to fear the worst</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/charles-dickens-newly-discovered-documents-reveal-truth-about-his-death-and-burial-130079?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Charles Dickens: newly discovered documents reveal truth about his death and burial</a></em></p></li>
</ul>
<p><em>To hear about new Insights articles, join the hundreds of thousands of people who value The Conversation’s evidence-based news. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-2?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK"><strong>Subscribe to our newsletter</strong></a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115596/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean Allain has previously received funding from The Leverhulme Foundation.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Nicholson and Katarina Schwarz do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
There are no criminal provisions around slavery in 49% of world nations, groundbreaking new legal research finds.
Katarina Schwarz, Rights Lab Associate Director and Assistant Professor, University of Nottingham
Jean Allain, Professor of International Law, University of Hull
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/124933
2019-10-30T14:49:06Z
2019-10-30T14:49:06Z
Airbnb must face the facts: human trafficking and modern slavery happen in rented accommodation
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299434/original/file-20191030-17930-1kkzwqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C6000%2C3979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Without a trace. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-sitting-on-bed-room-light-735366892?src=vBvNkwMo405w22ux4_ubLQ-1-5">Yupa Watchanakit/Shutterstock. </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Researchers estimate that there are <a href="https://www.brookes.ac.uk/about-brookes/news/combat-project-aims-to-tackle-hotel-industry-s-role-in-human-trafficking/">1.1m victims</a> of human trafficking across Europe. <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/01/1029912">According to the UN</a> almost one-third of human trafficking victims globally are children. Cases of forced criminality, prostitution and labour are <a href="https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/what-we-do/crime-threats/modern-slavery-and-human-trafficking">a major issue</a> for the hospitality industry, as it’s thought that more than <a href="https://www.brookes.ac.uk/about-brookes/news/combat-project-aims-to-tackle-hotel-industry-s-role-in-human-trafficking/">93,000 sex slaves and 4,500 labour slaves</a> are exploited in European hotels each year. </p>
<p>Hotels, motels, hostels and bed and breakfasts have long coordinated with organisations including the <a href="http://ethics.unwto.org/en/content/protect-children-campaign">UNWTO World Tourism Network on Child Protection</a>, <a href="https://www.ecpat.org.uk/">Every Child Protected Against Trafficking (ECPAT)</a> and the <a href="https://www.tourismpartnership.org/blog/itp-launches-principles-on-forced-labour/">International Tourism Partnership (ITP)</a> to address modern slavery and human trafficking. Organisations in the hospitality industry are <a href="https://www.antislavery.org/what-we-do/past-projects/staff-wanted-initiative/">running awareness campaigns</a>, <a href="https://www.brookes.ac.uk/microsites/combat-human-trafficking/the-toolkit/toolkit-material/?langtype=2057">building toolkits</a>, <a href="https://www.ecpatusa.org/blog/hotel-anti-trafficking-posters">displaying signs</a> and <a href="https://www.ahla.com/issues/human-trafficking">training staff</a> on what to look for and how to respond – as well as coordinating with <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/594970e91b631b3571be12e2/t/59c9b6bfb07869cc5d792b8c/1506391761747/NoVacany_Report.pdf">law enforcement</a> and anti-trafficking organisations. </p>
<p>Yet reports of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-kent-48343959/on-the-front-line-in-the-fight-against-the-county-lines-drug-trade">gang-related drug dealing</a> and “<a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/airbnb-trafficking/exclusive-airbnb-vows-to-tackle-sex-trafficking-in-rental-homes-idUKL8N1Q6597">pop-up brothels</a>” in accommodation rented online have added a new dimension to these issues. Sharing economy platform Airbnb now has <a href="https://press.airbnb.com/update-on-the-airbnb-community/">7m listings in more than 100,000 cities</a>, making it larger than the eight biggest hotel groups combined. As the company readies for its initial public offering (IPO) in <a href="https://press.airbnb.com/airbnb-announces-intention-to-become-a-publicly-traded-company-during-2020/">2020</a>, the legal grey areas in which its hosts operate are escalating concerns about transparency and accountability – especially in relation to human trafficking and modern slavery. </p>
<h2>Accountability on Airbnb</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/1379/responsible-hosting-in-the-united-kingdom">Airbnb’s position</a> is that it has “no control over the conduct of hosts and disclaims all liability”. Hosts <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.msu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1256&context=king">bear responsibility</a> for abiding by the laws in their own countries, and by the standards set out by the company itself. But <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13032917.2017.1283634">my own research</a> into Airbnb has found that, in practice, the question of responsibility goes far beyond who is legally liable. </p>
<p>According to Airbnb, hosts are responsible for meeting legal requirements in their countries – such as <a href="https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/1522/responsible-hosting-in-dubai">collecting tax</a> or installing <a href="https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/2478/what-should-i-know-about-fire-and-carbon-monoxide-safety-when-i-travel">fire or carbon monoxide monitors</a> and adhering to <a href="https://www.airbnb.co.uk/terms/nondiscrimination_policy">anti-discrimination</a> laws. In practice, this means <a href="http://www.benedelman.org/publications/airbnb-guest-discrimination-2016-09-16.pdf">discrimination</a> is permitted if regulations <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/airbnb-china-uyghur-muslim">allow</a>, are absent or do not <a href="https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/does-the-federal-fair-housing-act-apply-your-rental-property.html">apply</a> to smaller owner-occupied buildings. Indeed, Airbnb in the US is immune to discrimination lawsuits due to its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/02/technology/federal-judge-blocks-racial-discrimination-suit-against-airbnb.html">terms of use</a>. </p>
<p>What’s more, some self-identified hosts on host forums appear confused regarding their obligation to adhere to – or their rights to ignore –<a href="http://www.frmjournal.com/news/news_detail.airbnb-lets-may-be-unsafe-due-to-lack-of-regulation.html">compliance</a> issues such as <a href="https://airhostsforum.com/t/collecting-airbnb-occupancy-tax-strategies/28604">tax collection</a>, <a href="https://airhostsforum.com/t/accessible-category-in-listing-is-useless-or-is-it-me/24122">guest accessibility</a> and <a href="https://airhostsforum.com/t/is-it-discrimination-if-i-say-i-dont-accept-anyone-under-the-age-of-18/6039/2">age discrimination</a>, given that most are not licensed accommodation providers. </p>
<p>Local, regional and national authorities often lack the will or the resources to <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/inside-airbnbs-guerrilla-war-against-local-governments/">fight</a> or <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/why-the-new-airbnb-regulations-are-unlikely-to-work-1.3929969">enforce</a> existing regulations or innovate <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649357.2019.1599612">new laws</a> to catch up with the latest developments. </p>
<h2>Risky business</h2>
<p>On Airbnb, it only takes a few clicks to make a booking, and the use of key lockboxes, smart locks and keypads has reduced the need for face-to-face interactions between hosts and guests. Airbnb’s former global head of trust and risk management, Nick Shapiro, <a href="https://medium.com/@AirbnbCitizen/taking-a-modern-approach-to-combating-modern-slavery-227db96d732b">explained that</a> the company applies risk analysis by trawling through photos on the platform, to check for signs of exploitation. But it remains unclear how guests not on regulatory, terrorist or sanctions watch lists can be identified as risky, or at risk. </p>
<p>Background screening and risk analysis is only carried out in the US and, in general, Airbnb hosts receive no education on how to spot exploitation and trafficking. Indeed, on <a href="https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Use-of-Airbnb-for-Sexual-Trafficing/m-p/626236#M146479">independent forums</a> hosts display a variable degree of understanding regarding their responsibilities – and Airbnb’s – in relation to modern slavery and human trafficking. </p>
<p>In 2019, <a href="https://www.wttc.org/about/media-centre/press-releases/press-releases/2019/we-have-an-opportunity-to-halt-human-trafficking/">Airbnb joined</a> a World Travel & Tourism Council task force on trafficking. Yet by and large, Airbnb does not coordinate with bodies such as ECPAT, join global campaigns or raise awareness among hosts or guests. There are calls for Airbnb to ensure that hosts around the world undertake training to recognise signs of children at risk, and <a href="https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/what-we-do/crime-threats/modern-slavery-and-human-trafficking">report incidents to police</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1004757157345099777"}"></div></p>
<p>Hiring practices within the Airbnb ecosystem can also result in exploitation. For example, property management companies <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1294194">often hire women of colour and migrant women</a> to clean houses. Often, these women are vulnerable, earn a low income and lack labour rights – they tend not to be unionised, as trade unions are unwilling to support a model which can increase the overall cost of rents and eats into <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/business/economy/labor-unions-amazon.html">the number of full-time hospitality jobs</a>. </p>
<p>While many businesses across the hospitality industry have made reforms and <a href="https://www.antislavery.org/what-we-do/past-projects/staff-wanted-initiative/">been involved in campaigns</a> to identify practices that lead to exploitation, no official Airbnb global programme currently exists across all the countries it operates in.</p>
<h2>Making change</h2>
<p>The European Union <a href="https://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-19-3990_en.htm">has already demonstrated</a> that it can push Airbnb for change in relation to consumer protections. And the company has shown that it can exercise control over hosts to meet regulations, by making <a href="https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/2509/in-what-areas-is-occupancy-tax-collection-and-remittance-by-airbnb-available">bilateral agreements</a> with tourism authorities to collect various taxes. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, other companies in the sharing economy are raising the bar: ride-sharing platforms <a href="https://www.uber.com/newsroom/fighting-human-trafficking/">Uber</a> and <a href="https://blog.lyft.com/posts/2019/1/18/helping-raise-awareness-to-prevent-human-trafficking">Lyft</a> recently announced that they would teach drivers how to spot traffickers and their victims in some regions. So there is clearly scope for action on the issues of trafficking, exploitation, slavery and discrimination, by platforms such as these. </p>
<p>The lead up to Airbnb’s IPO provides an opportunity to pressure-test the company’s resolve to increase its transparency and accountability throughout the 191 countries it operates in. Measures could include releasing registers of hosts to authorities, increasing transparency through annual reporting, signing the <a href="http://www.thecode.org/about/">code of conduct</a> for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism and adding pictures of Airbnb properties to databases that help police track down traffickers. </p>
<p>It’s time for Airbnb to follow the <a href="http://www.respect.international/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Sex-Trafficking-in-the-Tourism-Industry-Carolin-L-et-al.-2015.pdf">hospitality sector</a>, and take a more proactive stance against modern slavery and human trafficking.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124933/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael O'Regan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Airbnb now has 7m listings in more than 100,000 cities, making it larger than the eight biggest hotel groups combined.
Michael O'Regan, Senior Lecturer in Events and Leisure, Bournemouth University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/119505
2019-07-31T15:29:05Z
2019-07-31T15:29:05Z
If Germany atoned for the Holocaust, the US can pay reparations for slavery
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286479/original/file-20190731-186809-75qwg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Slavery is not so far removed. Anderson and Minerva Edwards met in the 1860s as enslaved laborers in Texas, had 16 children and lived into their 90s in a cabin a few miles from the plantations they once worked. They are photographed here in 1937.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsc.01097/">U.S. Library of Congress</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The idea of paying reparations for slavery is gaining momentum in the United States, despite being long derided as an unrealistic plan, to compensate for state violence <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/09/politics/mitch-mcconnell-obama-reparations/index.html">committed by and against people long dead</a>.</p>
<p>The topic saw substantive debate in the July 30 Democratic primary debate, with candidate Marianne Williamson calling slavery “<a href="https://www.thecut.com/2019/07/marianne-williamson-democratic-debate-reparations.html">a debt that is owed</a>.” Some Democratic congressional representatives are also <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6892403/Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez-calls-agenda-reparations.html">pushing for financial recompense for the descendants of enslaved people</a>. </p>
<p>Calls for reparations in the U.S. are generally met with <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/07/09/mcconnells-opposition-to-reparations-under-new-scrutiny-after-report-reveals-ancestors-owned-slaves/">skepticism</a>: What would reparations achieve? Who should receive them, and under what conditions?</p>
<p>Other countries have tackled these questions. In 1995, South Africa established its <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/1995/12/truth-commission-south-africa">Truth and Reconciliation Commission</a> and paid reparations to the victims of apartheid. Eight years before, the United States apologized to 82,000 Japanese Americans unduly imprisoned during World War II and <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-102/pdf/STATUTE-102-Pg903.pdf">paid them US$20,000 each</a> to compensate for their suffering. </p>
<p>Even Germany, birthplace of the worst racism ever institutionalized and elevated to official policy, has some lessons for the United States as it considers reparations.</p>
<h2>Compensating victims of Nazi enslavement</h2>
<p>I am a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pGUCXiUAAAAJ&hl=en">professor of political science</a> who studies the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernd_Reiter;%20https://berndreiter.academia.edu">relationship between democracy, citizenship and justice</a>. My recent work on Germany examines how the country dealt with the horrors of the Holocaust.</p>
<p>Nazi Germany not only killed millions of Jews between 1933 and 1945. It also forced over 20 million people into slave labor, working them to their death in German industries. By 1944, <a href="https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/PlatoHitler">a quarter of the German workforce was enslaved laborers</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284376/original/file-20190716-173338-y9ymb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284376/original/file-20190716-173338-y9ymb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284376/original/file-20190716-173338-y9ymb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284376/original/file-20190716-173338-y9ymb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284376/original/file-20190716-173338-y9ymb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284376/original/file-20190716-173338-y9ymb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284376/original/file-20190716-173338-y9ymb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jewish slave laborers at an ammunition factory at Germany’s Dachau concentration camp.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/GERMANY-NAZI-LABOR/17b24ae990ab4ab09735cc417999c1a4/87/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After Hitler’s defeat in World War II, the newly democratic government of West Germany knew it had to <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/what-did-germans-know-secret-anti-nazi-diary-gives-voice-to-man-in-the-street/">face the evils</a> of the past. </p>
<p>Nazi industries that used slave labor, such as the steel and artillery producer Krupp, were dismantled. High-ranking Krupp CEOs were judged war criminals at the <a href="https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/9781616080211/the-nuremberg-trial/">Nuremberg Trials</a> and imprisoned. </p>
<p>Pressured by Israeli leaders David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann, German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer agreed to pay <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Germany-and-Israel-Moral-Debt-and-National-Interest-1st-Edition/Lavy/p/book/9781315036335">3 billion German marks in reparations</a> to Israel between 1953 and 1967. Germany also paid <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780805066609">450 million German marks to the World Jewish Congress</a>, an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations.</p>
<p>Assuming the midcentury rate of 4 German marks to $1, that’s the equivalent today of $7 billion for Israel and $1 billion for the Jewish Congress. </p>
<p>Some Germans protested against Adenauer’s support for Israel. Their country was just beginning its economic recovery after the war – a process aided, incidentally, by the U.S.-funded <a href="https://www.marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2014/05/Marshall_Plan_1947-1997_A_German_View.pdf">Marshall Plan</a> – and many Germans insisted they had <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14623521003633461?journalCode=cjgr20">nothing to do with the persecution of the Jews</a>.</p>
<p>In negotiating the <a href="https://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/collections/personalsites/Israel-Germany/Division-of-Germany/Pages/Reparations-Agreement.aspx">German reparations agreement of 1952</a>, Ben-Gurion invoked the biblical question, from Kings 21:29, “Have you murdered and also inherited?” </p>
<p>Germany’s post-war Chancellor Adenauer knew that, for the German people, the answer was yes.</p>
<p>“In the name of the German people, unspeakable crimes were committed which create a duty of moral and material restitution,” he <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23739770.2010.11446619">said</a>.</p>
<p>By 1956, the German state was supplying <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780805066609">87.5%</a> of Israel’s state revenue. The young new country <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/west-german-reparations-to-israel/9780813590912">used the money</a> to buy equipment and raw materials to build up its industry, railways and electrical grid. Mining equipment, irrigation and fuel were also high on the list of Israel’s reparations-fueled development priorities.</p>
<h2>Atonement is a process</h2>
<p>Germany’s efforts to atone for the Holocaust were not limited to money. </p>
<p>To avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, the <a href="https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/German_Federal_Republic_2012.pdf">1949 German Constitution</a> – as well as the penal and criminal codes of the country – outlaw the use of symbols that incite hatred against any segment of its population. The Constitution also guarantees asylum to political refugees and all people fleeing war.</p>
<p>In 1952 Germany officially apologized for the Nazis’ crimes, at Israel’s <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23739770.2010.11446619">demand</a>.</p>
<p>“The responsibility rests on the German nation as a whole,” <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137343727_6">replied Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett</a> of making amends for the Holocaust. </p>
<p>Reparations went to individuals, too. In 2000, the German government, together with partner organizations from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, the Czech Republic and the not-for-profit <a href="http://www.claimscon.org/">Jewish Claims Conference</a>, created the <a href="https://www.stiftung-evz.de/eng/the-foundation.html">Remembrance, Responsibility and Future Foundation</a>. </p>
<p>By 2007, the organization had paid a total of <a href="https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/PlatoHitler">$4.9 billion to 1.66 million people worldwide</a> who’d been forced into labor and servitude by the Nazis, or to their living descendants – their share of the wealth slavery produced for Germany.</p>
<p>Most recently, the German government in 2013 agreed with the Jewish Claims Conference to pay <a href="https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-to-pay-772-million-euros-in-reparations-to-holocaust-survivors-a-902528.html">about $1 billion</a> for the home care of all elderly Holocaust survivors.</p>
<p>As a result of the reparations paid, Germany’s open admission of guilt and the policies it put in place to prevent another Holocaust from occurring, German-Jewish relations have largely normalized since World War II. </p>
<p>Germany’s Jewish population has even begun to recover from genocide. With <a href="https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/about/communities/de">150,000 Jewish residents</a> in 2018, Germany is home to Europe’s fourth-largest Jewish community.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284378/original/file-20190716-173370-1b5tn9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284378/original/file-20190716-173370-1b5tn9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284378/original/file-20190716-173370-1b5tn9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284378/original/file-20190716-173370-1b5tn9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284378/original/file-20190716-173370-1b5tn9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284378/original/file-20190716-173370-1b5tn9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284378/original/file-20190716-173370-1b5tn9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284378/original/file-20190716-173370-1b5tn9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marly Shamir, 98, a Holocaust survivor from Berlin, photographed in 2017. The German government now pays for the care of elderly Holocaust survivors.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Israel-Holocaust-Remembrance-Day/11e52b971efe445e803efefcbfa5508e/19/0">AP Photo/Oded Balilty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lessons for the United States</h2>
<p>Instead of seeking to wipe the Holocaust from its history, the German government has worked hard to ensure remembrance, penance, recompense and justice. </p>
<p>The United States, in contrast, has no official policy of atoning for slavery. </p>
<p>While the <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93059465">House of Representatives</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105850676">Senate</a> made separate apologies for slavery in 2008 and 2009, these apologies were never reconciled or signed by President Barack Obama, due to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/opinion/an-apology-for-slavery.html">lack of political support</a>.</p>
<p>Racist symbols are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/local/charlottesville-videos/?utm_term=.aed0c467d932">openly displayed</a> in the United States, protected by the First Amendment. </p>
<p>Nor has there been any financial compensation for the descendants of formerly enslaved Americans, despite President Abraham Lincoln’s famous <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-40-acres-and-a-mule-to-lbj-to-the-2020-election-a-brief-history-of-slavery-reparation-promises-114547">promise of “40 acres and a mule” for all freed black men</a>. </p>
<p>The German experience with reparations is, of course, not directly comparable to that of the United States. </p>
<p>Germany had to lose a devastating war before it compensated the Jewish people. And, as in the case of the Japanese American prisoners of war who received reparations, the Jewish victims of the Nazi regime and their descendants were relatively easy to identify.</p>
<p>The U.S. government paying reparations today for state terror that ended 150 years ago poses numerous practical challenges. They include identifying the rightful recipients and sourcing the money appropriately – whether state-based or federal. </p>
<p>Those who say <a href="https://reason.com/2019/04/05/reparations-likely-to-divide-not-heal/">they did not benefit from slavery</a> must be persuaded that reparations are required to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/">right a moral wrong</a>. Polling shows a majority of Americans <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/261722/redress-slavery-americans-oppose-cash-reparations.aspx">oppose cash payments</a> as a redress for slavery.</p>
<p>But old injustices don’t simply disappear with time. Left unaddressed, they fuel the kind of division, shame and resentment that, as America knows well, can divide a nation.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated to correct a figure on the number of people who have received compensation from the Jewish Claims Conference.</em></p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119505/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bernd Reiter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Old injustices don’t simply disappear with time – they tear a nation apart.
Bernd Reiter, Professor of Political Science, University of South Florida
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/115462
2019-07-15T19:43:29Z
2019-07-15T19:43:29Z
Four Corners’ forced labour exposé shows why you might be wearing slave-made clothes
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284050/original/file-20190715-173347-1luw1k0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Target, Cotton On, Jeanswest, Dangerfield, IKEA and H&M are among the brands in Australia sourcing cotton from Xinjiang.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With China’s western-most province of Xinjiang being turned into a <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/09/china-up-to-one-million-detained/">mass internment camp</a>, the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/tell-the-world/11300420">ABC Four Corners</a> program has reported on the Chinese Communist Party’s alleged plans to put up to a million detained Uyghurs to work. </p>
<p>The exposé highlights how global supply chains make it possible for the clothes you’re wearing, and many other things you own, to have been made using slavery. </p>
<p>The program featured the cases of several women who say they have been forced to work in textile factories. According to China scholar Adrian Zenz, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-15/uyghur-forced-labour-xinjiang-china/11298750">government documents reveal plans</a> for “re-education” through labour. Satellite photos show what look like large warehouses close to detention camps.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-who-are-the-uyghurs-and-why-is-the-chinese-government-detaining-them-111843">Explainer: who are the Uyghurs and why is the Chinese government detaining them?</a>
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<p>Target, Cotton On, Jeanswest, Dangerfield, IKEA and H&M are among the brands in Australia sourcing cotton from Xinjiang, according to Four Corners. In response to questions from the ABC, Target and Cotton On declared they would investigate their relationships with suppliers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284044/original/file-20190715-173355-1tw9yyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284044/original/file-20190715-173355-1tw9yyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284044/original/file-20190715-173355-1tw9yyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284044/original/file-20190715-173355-1tw9yyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284044/original/file-20190715-173355-1tw9yyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284044/original/file-20190715-173355-1tw9yyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284044/original/file-20190715-173355-1tw9yyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Activists protest the treatment of Uyghur Muslims outside the headquarters of the European Union, in Brussels, in February 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexandros Michailidis/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Modern slavery: a snapshot</h2>
<p>For many of us it is hard to believe modern slavery is now more prevalent than at any time in history. </p>
<p>But the ubiquity and lack of accountability in global supply chains mean an <a href="https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/modern-slavery/">estimated 25 million people</a> around the world are in forced labour. A further 15 million are in forced marriage. </p>
<p>About <a href="https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/regional-analysis/asia-and-the-pacific/">two-thirds</a> of the total number of people in modern slavery are in the Asia-Pacific region, where most Australian companies source their materials and products.</p>
<p>The problem is so widespread it’s unlikely any companies’ operations or supply chains are completely free of modern slavery. </p>
<p>Yet many businesses are unaware of what modern slavery is and what it might look like in their operations and supply chains. And some companies – and their customers – may be complicit in creating a “race to bottom” by demanding cheaper goods and services without checks on social (and environmental) credentials. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280364/original/file-20190620-171245-e3plk0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anti-Slavery Australia</span></span>
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<h2>Australia’s legal reforms</h2>
<p>This problem was recognised with Australia passing modern slavery legislation last year. The <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018A00153">Modern Slavery Act 2018</a> requires businesses of a certain size to report their efforts to keep their supply chains slavery-free. The requirements came into effect this month.</p>
<p>Modelled on the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, Australia’s law requires businesses with a consolidated annual revenue of more than $100 million a year to publish an annual modern slavery statement. </p>
<p>The statement must address seven mandatory criteria (including risks in the business’ operations and supply chains and the actions taken to address those risks).</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/at-last-australia-has-a-modern-slavery-act-heres-what-youll-need-to-know-107885">At last, Australia has a Modern Slavery Act. Here's what you'll need to know</a>
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<p>The government has the power to publicly name those that fail to comply, but not to fine or penalise them in other ways. It is hoped fear of shaming will be enough incentive to avoid the reputational, financial and other risks that might arise from public scrutiny. </p>
<p>Without penalties, civil, shareholder and consumer activism will be crucial to motivate businesses. </p>
<p>If nothing else, as shoppers we can become better informed about the risks in business supply chains and challenge companies and governments to do better through social media and other avenues. Each purchase of a good or service can be an ethical choice. </p>
<h2>More to be done</h2>
<p>In the end, the Australian modern slavery legislation is about ensuring businesses do their part to ensure the food, clothes and electronics we buy have not been made using modern slavery.</p>
<p>Drawing on Anti-Slavery Australia’s legal casework experience with survivors of modern slavery, we also know victims aren’t just overseas. An estimated 1,500 people in Australia are victims of modern slavery. They are often migrants, who fear coming forward and are intimidated by the legal system. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/human-trafficking-and-slavery-still-happen-in-australia-this-comic-explains-how-112294">Human trafficking and slavery still happen in Australia. This comic explains how</a>
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<p>We continue to advocate for <a href="http://www.antislavery.org.au/images/pdf/Publications/2017%20-%20Submission%20to%20the%20JSCFAT%20on%20the%20Modern%20Slavery%20Act%20Inquiry.pdf">further improvements</a> of the Modern Slavery Act, including for penalties and independent oversight. </p>
<p>NSW has its own legislation that’s about to go under review and it includes an independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner and penalties for up to A$1.1 million for failing to comply or making false or misleading statements. These would be welcome additions to the federal regime, along with more support for survivors, and better monitoring and data collection.</p>
<p>We’ve taken a step in the right direction, but as the ABC Four Corners’ exposé indicates, there is much more to be done.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Anti-Slavery Australia, based at the University of Technology Sydney, is Australia’s only specialist legal research and policy centre focused on the abolition of modern slavery in all its forms. For more information or confidential legal advice, contact <a href="http://www.antislavery.org.au/">www.antislavery.org.au</a>. For information and advice on forced marriage, see <a href="http://www.mybluesky.org.au">www.mybluesky.org.au</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115462/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yvette Selim is the Interim Deputy Director at Anti-Slavery Australia. </span></em></p>
The prospect of China using forced labour to supply foreign companies highlights the importance of modern slavery laws.
Yvette Selim, Senior Research Associate, Institute for Public Policy and Governance, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/106570
2018-11-12T15:51:44Z
2018-11-12T15:51:44Z
We need to combat forced labour and in-work poverty – Brazil and India offer some lessons
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245045/original/file-20181112-83593-18at58e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamcohn/16898350106/in/photolist-7bNh4z-ce8bnf-bWLEQX-48qeS-rKfsKU-rRXVnD">Adam Cohn / flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The visit of the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23808&LangID=E">UN Special Rapporteur</a> on extreme poverty and human rights <a href="https://theconversation.com/reality-of-poverty-in-newcastle-england-un-examines-effect-of-austerity-106098">to the UK</a> is crystallising an unease about the state of working life. Work is fundamental to combating poverty. Yet, despite the employment rate <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/employment-rate-remains-at-record-high">remaining high</a>, the UK is experiencing a worrying increase in the number of people who are in work but still in poverty, due to the growth of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ilr.12002">types of work that are unacceptable</a> over the last decade. </p>
<p>The law plays an important role here. It can either <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/law/SubmissiontotheUNSpecialRapporteuronextremepovertyandhumanrights-SEPT2018.pdf">sustain or discourage low-wage and insecure jobs</a>. Ongoing litigation over the rights of Uber drivers – as to whether or not they are covered by employment laws – is a prominent example of the capacity of labour laws to protect or let down the modern workforce. Worse, the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/652366/2017_uk_annual_report_on_modern_slavery.pdf">presence of forced labour in the UK</a> shows the need for more effective laws to prevent the proliferation of modern slavery. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/reality-of-poverty-in-newcastle-england-un-examines-effect-of-austerity-106098">Reality of poverty in Newcastle, England: UN examines effect of austerity</a>
</strong>
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</p>
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<p>When it comes to tackling these and other unacceptable forms of work, there are lots of lessons that can be learned from around the world. This was evident from a project I recently led that brought together a network of researchers and policymakers from <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/policyengagement/ufw/researcher/projectpartners/">more than 20 countries</a> called <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/policyengagement/ufw/ufw/">Unacceptable Forms of Work: Global Dialogue/Local Innovation</a>. </p>
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<p>We found that countries across the world often face similar <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/policyengagement/ufw/ufw/challenges/">challenges</a> in regulating labour effectively. Outlined in our <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/policyengagement/ufw/news/ufwreport2018/">recent report</a>, these include <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/policyengagement/ufw/challenges/casualwork/">casual work</a> in its range of guises (“day labour”, “zero hours contracts”, “on-call work” to name a few); <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/policyengagement/ufw/challenges/forcedlabour/">forced labour</a>; <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/policyengagement/ufw/challenges/indices/">informal employment</a>; the prevalence of <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/policyengagement/ufw/challenges/careeconomy/">violence and harassment</a> in certain jobs and sectors, including in the care sector and in domestic work; and the <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/policyengagement/ufw/challenges/enforcing/">weak enforcement</a> of ostensibly robust labour standards.</p>
<p>Working conditions in different countries are exhibiting a degree of convergence due to the decline in job quality at the lower end of Western labour markets. Ongoing research in the <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/policyengagement/ufw/africa/">garment sector in southern Africa</a>, for example, highlights aspirations that are universal. Many of the most pressing concerns for workers here centre on work-life balance: accessible childcare, more flexible working arrangements, and cheap and swift transport to work.</p>
<p>Comparing problems in different regions is therefore useful, including with lower-income countries. It is valuable - and revealing - to ask whether lessons can be learned from the global south. And when it comes to having better regulation that might tackle these challenges, lessons from Brazil and India stand out. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245029/original/file-20181112-83586-qddjqf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245029/original/file-20181112-83586-qddjqf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245029/original/file-20181112-83586-qddjqf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245029/original/file-20181112-83586-qddjqf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245029/original/file-20181112-83586-qddjqf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245029/original/file-20181112-83586-qddjqf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245029/original/file-20181112-83586-qddjqf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Garment workers in Cape Town face the same issues as those in the West.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mlondolozi Mbolo</span></span>
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<h2>Combating forced labour in Brazil</h2>
<p>Brazil offers an <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/policyengagement/ufw/challenges/forcedlabour/">effective model</a> for combating forced labour in supply chains, which is where this problem often <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e427327e-5892-11e8-b8b2-d6ceb45fa9d0">gets hidden</a>. In particular, smaller firms that are lower down the supply chain may cope with pressure to cut costs through resorting to forced labour. </p>
<p>As part of our project, a team led by Ann Posthuma at the UN’s <a href="https://www.ilo.org/brasilia/lang--en/index.htm">International Labour Organisation</a> and <a href="https://direitosp.fgv.br/professor/flavia-scabin">Flavia Scabin</a> at Fundação Getulio Vargas university in São Paulo, argues that transparency can be achieved by combining innovative laws with novel labour inspection and civil society strategies. The team has seen this in action in Brazil.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-businesses-fail-to-detect-modern-slavery-at-work-82344">Why businesses fail to detect modern slavery at work</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Central is something called the <em>lista suja</em> or “dirty list”. This is a registry that publicly discloses the names of companies found to host forced labour in their supply chains. Firms on the dirty list are publicly shamed and risk being denied government funding and tax subsidies. A São Paulo state law goes further, banning companies that benefit from forced labour for up to ten years.</p>
<p>The transparency requirement in the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/30/contents/enacted">UK Modern Slavery Act</a>, in contrast, merely requires firms to publicise any actions they have taken to ensure that forced labour is not taking place in their supply chains. The UK – and other European countries – could learn from the more forceful approach adopted in Brazil, which also has a labour inspection framework that involves coordination with unions and employers’ organisations.</p>
<h2>Gig economy lessons from India</h2>
<p>Regulating <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/policyengagement/ufw/challenges/precariouseconomy/">casual work</a> – sometimes characterised as “the gig economy” – is essential if in-work poverty is to be eliminated, since these jobs have variable and unpredictable incomes. In our project, <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/contact/staff-contacts/academic-staff/m/marshall-dr-shelley">Shelley Marshall</a> from RMIT University, Melbourne, and <a href="http://www.aud.ac.in/faculty/permanent-faculty/detail/172">Babu Ramesh</a> from Ambedkar University Delhi illustrate how lessons can be learned from India and how <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/policyengagement/ufw/challenges/precariouseconomy/">Mathadi work</a> in the state of Maharashtra is regulated.</p>
<p>Mathadi workers are labourers hired by transport companies to shift goods in ports and docks, market yards, and in retail – they tend to carry the goods on their heads and shoulders. It is gruelling work. Like “zero hours” workers, Mathadi workers have traditionally been excluded from the protections of labour law because they do not have a consistent employer and work on a “gig” basis. </p>
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<p>Maharashtra enacted pioneering legislation – the Mathadi Act – back in 1969 to tackle both the oversupply of labour and worker exploitation. The law established Mathadi boards which combine representatives of workers, employers and the government. The boards themselves act as labour hire agencies: both workers and those hiring them must register with a board to operate in the industry. They also stipulate labour standards for Mathadi workers and provide them with social protection. </p>
<p>As Marshall <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ilj/article/43/3/286/693363">has argued</a>, the Mathadi Act offers a new way of thinking about regulating casual work – including by making space for dialogue between worker, employer and government representatives. This approach supports a more active and collaborative role for unions and employers or hirers.</p>
<p>Of course, different countries differ significantly in levels of socio-economic development, legal systems and labour market strategies. Yet there are clearly models from elsewhere that offer lessons in better regulating work, including from the global south.</p>
<p>If the UK government is serious about eliminating poverty and upholding the human rights of its citizens, it needs to update its laws to protect workers who are being exploited. As our report argues, this will require a degree of experimentation and the involvement of those who are affected by these laws. It is not enough to focus on high levels of employment if this work does not pay and poverty proliferates as a result.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deirdre McCann receives funding from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The Strategic Network on Legal Regulation of Unacceptable Forms of Work was supported by the ESRC through the Global Challenges Research Fund: Grant Reference ES/P00746/1; Principal Investigator - Deirdre McCann, Co-Investigators - Judy Fudge, Kent Law School, University of Kent, Sangheon Lee, International Labour Office, Geneva. Network members - see <a href="https://bit.ly/2PkaRau">https://bit.ly/2PkaRau</a>. Film and animation by Dreamscope TV (dreamscope.tv/). </span></em></p>
When it comes to tackling unacceptable forms of work, lessons can be learned from the global South.
Deirdre McCann, Professor of Law, Durham University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/96670
2018-05-29T13:01:45Z
2018-05-29T13:01:45Z
How Huddleston and Powell squared off about racism in a televised debate
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220734/original/file-20180529-80637-ssj91c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Anti-apartheid cleric Trevor Huddleston, centre, with South African liberation struggle icons Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela in 1991.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Stringer</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>British Conservative MP Enoch Powell’s 20 April 1968 <a href="http://www.publicbooks.org/rivers-of-blood-50/">“Rivers of Blood”</a> speech has been making headlines as the UK marks the 50th anniversary of its delivery.</p>
<p>Powell claimed that immigration was responsible for a demographic and social revolution that threatened British society. His toxic rhetoric and the responses to it, shaped policy and legislation.</p>
<p>Only fragments of Powell’s speech were captured on film, and the address in its entirety was preserved as a text. This April, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/bbc-rivers-of-blood-in-full-enoch-powell-speech-ian-mcdiarmid-radio-50-years-a8301476.html">Radio 4</a> asked actor Ian McDiarmid, who <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41174659">played Powell on stage</a>, to read out the notorious 3183 word speech. Uproar ensued. </p>
<p>Critics argued that the broadcast contributed to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/12/bbc-rivers-blood-broadcast-enoch-powell-racist-speech-far-right-nationalism">normalising racism</a>. <a href="https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/lifestyle/entertainment/lord-adonis-asks-ofcom-to-cancel-bbcs-enoch-powell-rivers-of-blood-broadcast-4/">Others</a> thought it should not be aired. The <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43745447">BBC</a> defended its decision to proceed with the broadcast. It explained that the speech was interspersed with historical context. It claimed that the discussion emphasised the harmful impact of Powell’s words on his contemporaries. </p>
<p>I came across an astonishing piece of television during my research on the anti-apartheid activist and Bishop of Stepney Trevor Huddleston, and the impact of his experience in apartheid South Africa on race relations in Britain. The programme, called <a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b69f8dafe">The Great Debate: My Christian Duty</a>, aired on October 12, 1969 on ITV. </p>
<p>It was the result of a lengthy and public confrontation between Powell and <a href="http://www.trevorhuddleston.org/page23.html">Huddleston</a>. </p>
<p>Huddleston protested the “rivers of blood” address and the two commented on each other’s positions throughout the year. When Huddleston called Powell’s rhetoric “evil”, the latter wrote to Huddleston to defend his position. In their correspondence, they agreed to present their arguments to the public. </p>
<p>The location for their public meeting turned out to be a television studio with a live audience. This may sound like a curious choice of venue. In fact, Powell turned to the media habitually to promote his agenda, as did Huddleston. </p>
<p>During the 40 minutes of the debate, both men used the emerging genre of the televised political debate to rally support for their views. The terms of the debate were set by Powell and the links he created between immigration, race and British decline. Huddleston could not sever these imagined ties. He did, however, invoke the evils of apartheid as a warning post to his fellow countrymen. He used his experience in Johannesburg to reflect on the dangers of racial discrimination.</p>
<h2>Faith in humanity</h2>
<p>Huddleston cultivated his public image as a moral authority in South Africa from the mid-1940s. Between 1943 and 1955, he worked as a priest in Sophiatown, a black suburb of Johannesburg. In those years, until his forced recall back to England in 1955, Huddleston was a prominent participant in the struggles against apartheid. By then, his biographer concluded </p>
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<p>[<a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-312-22709-8">Huddleston’s face was</a>] the most photographed of any Christian except the Pope.</p>
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<p>His bestselling memoir of the period, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/naught-your-comfort-trevor-huddleston">published in 1956</a>, made him a household name in Britain too. Huddleston reminded viewers of Britain’s material and moral debt to its former empire in Africa and Asia. He argued that the British, through colonial expansion, had “quite deliberately” moved into other people’s countries. They have</p>
<blockquote>
<p>created and sustained regimes of power over African and Asian people.</p>
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<p>This, and Britain’s long reliance on the slave trade, and later, on the inscription of labour from the Commonwealth to fight its wars and build its towns, created a commitment to these populations.</p>
<p>Huddleston’s aim, however, went beyond a history lesson. He harnessed the medium of television to issue a call for solidarity to fight the crisis ensuing from Powell’s address. He drew on his experience of collaborating with activists across the colour line in South Africa to signal a path for a dispersed group of anti-racist protesters.</p>
<p>He was successful in this, as the hundreds of letters from viewers that he received in response to the debate testify. His performance energised anti-racist and anti-apartheid activists, lay and clerical Christians, as well as individuals affected by so-called Powellism. Huddleston offered Britons his faith in humanity as flexible, tolerant and inclusive, and his arguments were rooted in the language of reconciliation. Accordingly, in his vision, immigration was a source of opportunity, and an indication that Britain was embracing its role as a positive engine of change. </p>
<h2>Tackling toxic rhetoric</h2>
<p>Today, as in 1969, Huddleston’s alternative vision to Powell’s remains relevant. The animated public reaction to Huddleston’s television performance, which included bags of hate mail in addition to support, demonstrates the price and profit of standing up to toxic rhetoric. </p>
<p>When we assess the legacy of Powell’s speech, it is important to consider the diverse experience that fuelled the opposition to it. Huddleston’s vision for Britain, shaped by his tenure in South Africa, and the solidarity and political activity it spurred, should also be remembered.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96670/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tal Zalmanovich receives funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement no. 615564.</span></em></p>
Bishop Huddleston’s criticism of Enoch Powell’s incendiary “Rivers of blood” speech was both a history lesson and a call to action against racism.
Tal Zalmanovich, Postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the ERC funded project APARTHEID-STOPS that studies the transnational circulation of anti-apartheid expressive culture., Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/82992
2017-10-02T08:32:07Z
2017-10-02T08:32:07Z
A terrible fate awaits North Korean women who escape to China
<p>As North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme and provocative missile tests <a href="https://theconversation.com/north-korea-panics-the-world-but-h-bomb-test-changes-little-83413">draw the world’s attention</a>, one crucial reality about the totalitarian regime has been left largely unnoticed: as bleak as life is for most who live in North Korea, it is often far worse for <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-happens-to-north-koreans-who-flee-their-country-and-what-can-they-tell-us-80577">those who flee</a> – most of whom are forced to suffer horrific human rights abuses away from the world’s scrutiny.</p>
<p>Since China shares a border with North Korea, it has become the first destination for desperate North Koreans who risk their lives to escape. An <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/asiatoday/50000-200000-n-korean-def_b_10857816.html">unofficial figure</a> estimates that there are between 50,000 and 200,000 North Koreans living in China. The Chinese government denies most of them refugee status, instead treating them as economic migrants who have illegally crossed the border to seek work. Most have no formal identification or legal status. In addition, Beijing works together with Pyongyang to capture defectors and send them back, making their lives as escapees completely untenable.</p>
<p>I have interviewed many North Koreans now settled in the UK. Many of them told me they had been caught by the Chinese police and repatriated to the north a number of times, but managed to escape again and again. The combination of desperation, the denial of legal status and the terror of the Chinese police operation exposes these people to gross exploitation – especially women. </p>
<p>Among those who successfully leave North Korea, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/app5.82/full">women make up the majority</a>. In their search for freedom, many of them paradoxically end up being trafficked, detained and treated inhumanely because of their precarious and insecure positions in China as “illegal migrants”. </p>
<h2>Vulnerability exploited</h2>
<p>Drawn to what they hope is a guarantee of work, some women who cross the border are instead sold to Chinese or Korean-Chinese men in rural areas who cannot find wives due to poverty, undesirable living conditions, disability and the lopsided gender demographics created by the now-replaced <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-china-ends-the-one-child-policy-what-is-its-legacy-49975">one-child policy</a>. Other women are abducted in public spaces, such as streets and trains, and forced into prostitution. As a survival strategy, a few women or family members volunteer themselves to be sold. Some are lucky enough to find decent and kind men, but they are a vanishingly small minority. </p>
<p>Most are locked up so they cannot escape. They are denied contact with their family members or friends, and often a whole village effectively becomes a community of guards to watch them so they cannot run. Many of the women forced into these relationships endure physical hardships, forced to work in the fields and do endless household chores. Some are trafficked to households with several men, where their keepers take turns to violate them on a regular basis. </p>
<p>During their captivity, many of them also become pregnant. If they manage to escape to other countries, such as South Korea, they are forced to leave their children behind – and since these children aren’t officially recognised in China, they are denied basic rights and entitlements, foregoing even basic healthcare and education.</p>
<p>And so even those fortunate enough to escape from their dire situations in North Korea and China are left with agonising worry and guilt about their left-behind children. Out of shame, many never talk about the intense pain they feel, instead suffering in lonely silence.</p>
<h2>What must be done</h2>
<p>A 2014 <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/CoIDPRK/Pages/ReportoftheCommissionofInquiryDPRK.aspx">UN Commission of Inquiry report</a> on the human rights situation in North Korea criticised the Chinese government for its violation of the human rights of North Korean refugees on a number of counts, including its repatriation of North Korean refugees, its failure to protect them from trafficking, and its refusal to recognise the children of North Korean women and Chinese men. However, the Chinese government <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-korea-north-idUSBREA1H0E220140218">rejected</a> the commission’s report and refused to change its stance.</p>
<p>It is therefore time for the rest of the world to change the way it interacts with China. International organisations, governments and the media must apply even greater pressure on Beijing to change its policy towards North Korean refugees and the children they have in China; it must recognise that they’re entitled to refugee status by virtue of the human rights abuses they endure at home. </p>
<p>If governments are to act, their citizens and media must pressurise them to make this issue a higher priority. If a global campaign can gather enough momentum and strength, the Chinese government will be forced to listen and reconsider. </p>
<p>It may be a significant obstacle, but it is a challenge we can all play our part in. By demanding action, we can all support the fight against the sustained human rights abuse of desperate North Korean defectors and their invisible children. We might not be able to see it, but we know it’s happening – and we have a human duty to act.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82992/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hyun-Joo Lim does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Tens of thousands of North Koreans live in China. Their lives are often no better than they were at home.
Hyun-Joo Lim, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Bournemouth University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/73941
2017-03-23T17:39:04Z
2017-03-23T17:39:04Z
How to help survivors of modern slavery rebuild their lives
<p>Since the 2015 <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/30/contents/enacted">Modern Slavery Act</a> came into force, all companies with a turnover exceeding £36m must report what they are doing to eradicate slavery in their supply chains. But there are concerns that the law is relatively weak and companies can get away with publishing a basic statement of <a href="http://www.ergonassociates.net/images/stories/articles/ergonmsastatement2.pdf">general principles</a>, or with pushing responsibility down to suppliers and asking them to sign a document to satisfy the requirement. </p>
<p>Now a <a href="https://www.co-operative.coop/media/news-releases/co-op-provides-brighter-future-for-uk-victims-of-modern-slavery">new initiative</a> by the Co-op is aiming to put business at the forefront of efforts to tackle modern slavery. </p>
<p>On March 1, the Co-op <a href="https://www.co-operative.coop/media/news-releases/co-op-provides-brighter-future-for-uk-victims-of-modern-slavery">pledged </a> to provide 30 survivors of modern slavery with paid work experience in its food business and give them a job if they pass a non-competitive interview. The initiative is a collaboration with the charity <a href="http://www.city-hearts.co.uk/blog/2017/02/21/co-op-partnership/">City Hearts</a> and builds on a pilot project that I <a href="https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/media/livacuk/csis/Fresh,Start,A5.pdf">recently assessed</a>. I found that the charity’s focus upon stable income and housing provided a solid platform for survivors to overcome trauma, and that one-to-one coaching helped them greatly in navigating the maze of hurdles and obstacles they face. </p>
<p>Providing long-term support for survivors of modern slavery is a growing challenge, because unfortunately there are now thousands of people who have been identified as suffering from this crime in the UK. The criminal exploitation of labour is about getting quick and easy profits by abusing people – and the profits are huge. According to the <a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_243201/lang--en/index.htm">International Labour Organisation</a> forced labour is a global business that makes $150 billion per year. </p>
<p>The number of people affected is also massive. There are a wide range of estimates, mainly because this is a hidden crime, but the British government estimated in 2015 that between 10,000 and 13,000 people are affected in the UK, using <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fiona-david/the-sdg-revolution-will-b_b_8329142.html?ir=Australia">analysis of different sources</a>.</p>
<p>Over the past decade, the UK has begun to put in place systems and processes to prevent modern slavery – the umbrella term preferred by the government that includes human trafficking, forced labour and other slavery-like practices. When she was home secretary in 2013, Theresa May made a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretary-speech-on-modern-slavery">political commitment</a> to fight modern slavery, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/defeating-modern-slavery-theresa-may-article">reiterated</a> when she became prime minister. In mid-March, the government announced a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-gives-6-million-boost-to-global-slavery-battle">further £6m</a> to fund projects to combat modern slavery around the world. </p>
<p>But the UK strategy has been widely criticised by <a href="http://www.ecpat.org.uk/sites/default/files/atmg_class_acts_report_web_final.pdf">non-governmental organisations</a>, not least because of variations across the UK due to different legislation in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.</p>
<h2>Support peters out</h2>
<p>The current state support system only really offers a short-term fix when the crime produces trauma and harm that is long term. Police and other first responders are now identifying an increasing number of victims – 3,500 in <a href="http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/publications/national-referral-mechanism-statistics">2015</a>, up 40% from the previous year. They are being supported through a government programme called the National Referral Mechanism, but this only provides 45 days of “recovery and reflection” time where there is support and the provision of safe housing.</p>
<p>The abrupt ending of this support – although there are some exceptions – means that thousands are leaving the system without any formal monitoring or ongoing support. <a href="http://www.humantraffickingfoundation.org/sites/default/files/Life%20Beyond%20the%20Safe%20House_0.pdf">Researchers</a> have warned that the situation is leaving many open to re-trafficking, homelessness and destitution. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161334/original/image-20170317-6100-cdizvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161334/original/image-20170317-6100-cdizvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161334/original/image-20170317-6100-cdizvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161334/original/image-20170317-6100-cdizvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161334/original/image-20170317-6100-cdizvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161334/original/image-20170317-6100-cdizvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161334/original/image-20170317-6100-cdizvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Co-op has taken a step forward in helping survivors of modern slavery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/theco-operative/7795238312/sizes/l">The Co-op Group</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hostile environment</h2>
<p>Another underlying issue is conflicting policy priorities within government. The objectives for one part of the Home Office around immigration run directly counter to the objectives of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/383764/Modern_Slavery_Strategy_FINAL_DEC2015.pdf">Modern Slavery Strategy</a> to “reduce the harm” by improving identification and enhancing victim support. </p>
<p>This conflict is easy to see, for example in strategies that have contrived to create a “hostile environment” for irregular migrants – some of the most vulnerable groups in society. This was designed to have an attritional effect and encourage self-deportation, but at the same time it has made them even more exploitable. Connected to this, immigration enforcement has been expanded to landlords, employers and even teachers and health workers who are increasingly required to check immigration status. </p>
<p>Immigration controls have been weaponised, using fear of punishment and criminalising individuals to enforce the rules. Those discovered working without the right to can now have past earnings confiscated and be put in prison. Unfortunately, these are just the kinds of weapons that play right into the hands of those who wish to exploit the vulnerable.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding the deeper, structural problems around employment, businesses can be key to meeting the challenge of long-term support and providing sustainable solutions for survivors of modern slavery. Those who supported the inclusion of the transparency in supply chains clause into the Modern Slavery Act hoped it would prompt a “race to the top” where companies would seek to go beyond compliance. The Co-op has risen to this challenge and now it is up to other businesses to follow their lead.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73941/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Balch is University co-director of the Centre for the Study of International Slavery (CSIS) - a collaborative research centre created by the University of Liverpool and the International Slavery Museum in 2006</span></em></p>
And what businesses can do to support them.
Alex Balch, Senior Lecturer, Department of Politics, University of Liverpool
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/57521
2016-04-13T09:29:26Z
2016-04-13T09:29:26Z
Syrian refugees in Lebanon are falling into slavery and exploitation
<p>Five years after the beginning of the Syrian conflict, Syrians now make up the largest refugee population in the world. Of the 5m women, men and children who fled Syria, <a href="http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php">more than 1m</a> sought protection in Syria’s neighbour and former “colony”, Lebanon. But safety eludes them: hundreds of thousands of refugees who’ve fled to Lebanon now face abject poverty, living in precarious and often unsafe accommodation, and <a href="http://reliefweb.int/report/lebanon/vulnerability-assessment-syrian-refugees-vasyr-lebanon">scraping by with the barest of means</a>. </p>
<p>A new <a href="http://freedomfund.org/wp-content/uploads/Lebanon-Report-FINAL-8April16.pdf?mc_cid=d4057dd5c6&mc_eid=b7cecbe159">report</a> from the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University, supported by the Freedom Fund, has also found that more and more refugees in Lebanon are falling prey to slavery and exploitation. </p>
<p>One of the biggest problems is <a href="http://www.ilo.org/ipec/Campaignandadvocacy/Youthinaction/C182-Youth-orientated/C182Youth_Convention/lang--en/index.htm">child labour</a>. We estimate that 60-70% of Syrian refugee children (those under 18) in Lebanon are working. Rates are even higher in the Beqaa Valley in the east of the country, where children aged as young as five pick beans, figs and potatoes. In towns and cities, Syrian children <a href="http://www.ilo.org/ipec/Informationresources/WCMS_IPEC_PUB_26255/lang--en/index.htm">work on the streets</a>, begging, selling flowers or tissues, shining shoes, and cleaning car windscreens. Children also work in markets, factories, auto repair shops, aluminium factories, grocery and coffee shops, in construction and running deliveries. </p>
<p>Syrian families in Lebanon are increasingly <a href="http://www.sciences-po.usj.edu.lb/pdf/News%20Brief%20Too%20Young%20To%20Wed.pdf">marrying their young teenage daughters</a> to older Syrian men, usually aged in their twenties and thirties. While we did not find evidence of child trafficking as has been <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jul/16/child-marriage-syria-refugees-jordan">reported</a> in the refugee camps of Jordan, girls <a href="http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage-and-the-syrian-conflict-7-things-you-need-to-know/">often do not consent to these marriages</a>, and they cannot realistically choose to leave their husbands. Once married, they very probably have no choice about whether or when to have sex, and are likely to face domestic violence.</p>
<p>Beyond child marriage, <a href="http://www.fmreview.org/detention/anani.html">sexual exploitation</a> is a growing issue for female refugees in Lebanon. Humanitarian organisations in Lebanon often talk about “<a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/refugee-children-resorting-survival-sex-pay-people-smugglers-says-un-1525534">survival sex</a>” among refugee populations – for example, sex as a form of payment to people smugglers. </p>
<p>In the course of our research, we heard that landlords and employers are commonly coercing refugee women into providing “sexual favours” in return for rent, food and/or employment for themselves and their families. But these women face sexual exploitation in many forms: Lebanese security forces <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-35957845">recently freed 75 women</a>, most of them Syrian, from sexual slavery in the Jounieh area, a notorious red light district north of Beirut.</p>
<p>Sexual exploitation aside, we found that many adult refugees (men and women) are being held in forced labour via violence or intimidation and physical restrictions on their movement. Even those refugees who manage to obtain a legal work permit through the sponsorship system are at risk of <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde18/3210/2016/en/">exploitation by their sponsors</a> on a quid-pro-quo basis.</p>
<p>These are not isolated examples. According to our interviewees, these problems are now so endemic among the refugee population in Lebanon that they can almost be considered the norm. So how did this come about?</p>
<h2>Desperate measures</h2>
<p>While it’s well-established that much of the humanitarian aid meant for Syrian refugees has <a href="http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/news/the-aid-crisis-for-syrian-refugees-dawn-chatty">failed to reach those who most need it</a>, slavery and exploitation are not and should not be the inevitable result. Instead, slavery and exploitation flow from structural factors perpetrated by the Lebanese government. </p>
<p>Denied refugee status by a government, which has imposed a series of <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/01/12/lebanon-residency-rules-put-syrians-risk">highly restrictive residency requirements</a> on Syrians including denying the right to legally work, families have few legal and safe ways to support themselves. </p>
<p>Since the Lebanese authorities deem refugees without valid paperwork to be in the country illegally, many are at constant risk of arrest and detention, and of potential mistreatment once detained. Raids on refugee settlements, municipal curfews on refugees and the establishment of checkpoints by Lebanese security forces have become commonplace. We also found that <a href="http://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/profiling-vulnerability-palestine-refugees-syria-living-lebanon">Palestinian refugees</a> from Syria, already highly discriminated against in Lebanon, are especially at risk. </p>
<p>As a result, women and men engage in any form of employment they can find, no matter how bad the conditions or how severe the risks of slavery and exploitation. </p>
<p>These same factors are also fuelling the uptick in child labour. While Syrian adults (especially men) are often stopped at checkpoints, children are able to move around much more freely. Some Lebanese employers are capitalising on this, since children are far cheaper to employ than adults and also more compliant – and the Lebanese authorities are taking next to no action to prosecute or to discourage them.</p>
<p>The proliferation of child marriage, meanwhile, stems from refugee families seeking to protect their teenage daughters from sexual harassment and abuse. They wish to provide for their daughters’ economic security and to reduce the economic burden on the family. This is compounded by the fact that child marriage in Lebanon can be brokered by some of the religious courts. </p>
<p>And yet, despite a concerted campaign, the Lebanese authorities have thus far stood steadfast against the introduction of a civil marriage law which might provide some protection. </p>
<h2>Stepping up</h2>
<p>Our report offers a set of targeted and integrated recommendations to counter slavery and exploitation of Syrian refugees in Lebanon. </p>
<p>The starting point is to ensure that Syrians fleeing conflict and persecution are properly recognised in Lebanon as refugees, that they can legally work, and that their children can go to school. It’s also vital that tackling slavery is made a shared priority among every organisation with a responsibility to assist Lebanon’s Syrian refugees. It is imperative that we improve data collection systems so that reliable information is available to guide the development of effective interventions. </p>
<p>By taking concerted steps to address the factors that contribute to slavery, Lebanon will be better placed to manage the prolonged humanitarian crisis. It will also develop institutions, laws and policies that are more closely aligned with international human rights standards. </p>
<p>This will benefit everyone within its borders and make it an example to other countries – especially those in the EU – who are still struggling to respond adequately to the refugee crisis. Urgent action must be taken now.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57521/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katharine Jones received funding from Freedom Fund for this research. She is a trustee of the Scottish Refugee Council and Scottish Detainee Visitors. </span></em></p>
Lebanon is host to well over 1m Syrian refugees, and their situation is getting ever more desperate.
Katharine Jones, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/43949
2015-07-16T04:28:48Z
2015-07-16T04:28:48Z
Human trafficking in South Africa: an elusive statistical nightmare
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88515/original/image-20150715-26284-3cfdwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Due to the lack of reliable statistics surrounding human trafficking, there is no real scope of how large the problem really is, making it more difficult to police.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Human trafficking is a global crime affecting <a href="http://www.unodc.org/toc/en/crimes/human-trafficking.html">countless</a> victims around the world. Yet its actual scope remains a mystery. The methodologies used to arrive at estimates about its nature and extent have been widely criticised as <a href="http://ann.sagepub.com/content/653/1/65.full.pdf+html">flawed</a> or lacking in scientific rigour.</p>
<p>In South Africa, <a href="http://africacheck.org/reports/are-30000-kids-trafficked-into-south-africas-sex-trade-every-year-the-claim-exaggerates-the-problem/">claims</a> by anti-trafficking campaigners and NGOs include that 30,000 children are trafficked into the country annually as part of the sex trade. The same figure has been used by the Department of Home Affairs to justify recently introduced <a href="http://www.travelstart.co.za/lp/travel-tips/unabridged-birth-certificate-for-minors">visa regulations</a> aimed at combating child trafficking.</p>
<p>But this number has been discredited as <a href="https://africacheck.org/reports/are-30000-kids-trafficked-into-south-africas-sex-trade-every-year-the-claim-exaggerates-the-problem/">“exaggerated and unsubstantiated”</a>. </p>
<p>Human trafficking has become a focus of attention in the country following the introduction of the onerous and controversial visa requirements. In addition, a new <a href="http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/36715_gon544.pdf">act</a> aimed at preventing trafficking is expected to be operational in the next few weeks. It defines trafficking to include the recruitment, transportation, sale or harbour of people by means of force, deceit, the abuse of vulnerability and the abuse of power for exploitation. </p>
<h2>A statistical dilemma</h2>
<p>But the absence of reliable statistics means that there is no clarity on just how big the problem is. </p>
<p>Inflated guesstimates continue to be used by those trying to stop the crime. But they create a credibility dilemma, detract from a constructive conversation and frustrate efforts to understand the multi-layered realities of the problem.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding the lack of reliable numbers, the problem is prevalent in South Africa. The number of cases being reported suggests it is on the <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/SA-human-trafficking-caseload-on-the-rise-campaign-20150706">increase</a>. The situation may in fact be far more chronic and severe than we know. </p>
<p>It is <a href="http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2014/226816.htm">well documented</a> that South Africa is a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking. This is backed up by a forthcoming book, Long Walk to Nowhere: Forced Migration, Exploitation and Human Trafficking in South Africa, by social scientist Philip Frankel. He dismisses sceptics and exposes some of the unexplored and undocumented crevices in the mining and labour sector suggestive of human trafficking.</p>
<p>My ongoing research draws on the experiences of role-players in counter-human trafficking. These include all the responding agencies including civil society, survivors and ex-perpetrators. </p>
<p>Preliminary themes highlight multiple accounts of undocumented cases, direct and indirect complicity by political elites and bureaucratic officials, the paucity of border controls, corruption and a culture of impunity.</p>
<p>This toxic concoction makes human trafficking an attractive business with high returns and low risk. For example, trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation is the most documented type of trafficking, locally and internationally. Yet none of the international syndicates dominating the sex trade have ever been successfully <a href="http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2014/226816.htm">prosecuted</a> in South Africa.</p>
<h2>A hidden and subversive crime</h2>
<p>Society’s justifiable preoccupation with numbers to understand the scope of the problem does little to promote understanding of the complex issues associated with human trafficking. </p>
<p>Measures to combat the trade cannot be divorced from numerous other structural issues. These include racism, poverty, unemployment, education and inequality – all of which interpenetrate at some point. </p>
<p>The problem is further compounded by the absence of an official database on human trafficking. There are also no crime codes in the police service which capture the complexities of each reported incident. Associated human trafficking offences are still subsumed into crimes such rape, sexual assault, kidnapping, abduction and domestic violence. Much of this is due to an inability by some police officials or investigators to positively identify trafficking cases. </p>
<p>Many labour and sex trafficking victims don’t even <a href="http://www.enca.com/south-africa/government-takes-action-after-report-exposes-human-trafficking">know</a> they are victims of a crime. Others, mostly children, are exploited in a distorted net of <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marcel_Van_Der_Watt/publication/264240472_Contextualizing_the_practice_of_Ukuthwala_within_South_Africa/links/53d5b88c0cf220632f3d5cd4.pdf">“culture”</a>. These include aberrant forms of <a href="http://www.customcontested.co.za/jezile-ukuthwala-judgment-signals-progress-and-continuing-challenges/">ukuthwala</a> – meaning “to carry” in isiXhosa and isiZulu – a customary practice used to bypass extensive and lengthy marriage rituals.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88500/original/image-20150715-17774-uvavrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88500/original/image-20150715-17774-uvavrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88500/original/image-20150715-17774-uvavrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88500/original/image-20150715-17774-uvavrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88500/original/image-20150715-17774-uvavrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88500/original/image-20150715-17774-uvavrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88500/original/image-20150715-17774-uvavrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88500/original/image-20150715-17774-uvavrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">shutterstock.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Awareness about human trafficking across all sectors of society remains low. In addition, <a href="http://gatewaynews.co.za/tshireletso-empowering-communities-in-the-fight-against-human-trafficking/">perceptions</a> are often fuelled by skewed media representations. Hollywood movies like Taken and dramatic elements such as the use of force, kidnapping, and the brutality of perpetrators dominate discourses. </p>
<p>Misinformation is further fuelled by the fact that significant elements such as deceit, fraud, grooming, manipulation and trauma bonding often go unreported.</p>
<p>The possible link between missing persons and human trafficking also begs to be interrogated. In February 2014, the South African Police Services’ Missing Persons <a href="http://www.saps.gov.za/services/report_missing_person.php">Bureau</a> reported that 2641 adults and 754 children remain missing from cases reported between 2011 and 2013, a significant number for a mere two years. </p>
<p>Angie Motaung of Bana Ba Kae (“where are the children”), an NGO that works to alleviate the plight of children in poor communities in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital city, says that “there could be as many as 1000 children <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/sa-s-missing-children-tragedy-1.1868275#.VaYuqPmqqko">missing</a> from homes across the city”. </p>
<h2>Quantitative and qualitative data</h2>
<p>Instead of trying to quantify the problem in terms of the number of human trafficking victims, the question we should be asking is: which communities are most vulnerable to human trafficking?</p>
<p>This would open the door to finding <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Web-Life-Scientific-Understanding/dp/0385476760">connections</a> between measurable quantities on the one hand and qualities which cannot be counted but should be mapped on the other. Such a connection is crucial to understand the configuration of relationships in which the problem of human trafficking is rooted.</p>
<p>The hidden nature of the crime requires unconventional thinking and flexible methodologies to scope the problem. Every member of society should be empowered to be a co-participant in both quantitative and qualitative data collection. Community based participatory research methods could be used to do so. This would help find significant themes in the seemingly insignificant events of everyday life which may suggest the presence of “hidden transcripts” related to human trafficking.</p>
<p>Human trafficking presents a confluence of complexities. This denies us the convenience of an unambiguous and quantified understanding. The key lies in harnessing the <a href="http://www.cancerincytes.org/#!towards-a-complex-systems-understanding-/c1k1p">complexity</a> of the problem and acknowledging its deep and dense sociological abyss. </p>
<p>We need to redefine success in a way that is sensitive to the structural limitations of any given context. By doing so we may move towards a more even-handed understanding of the scope, nature and extent of human trafficking. It may also be more suitable to <a href="http://ann.sagepub.com/content/653/1/6.short">framing</a> more appropriate policy and enforcement responses.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43949/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcel van der Watt is affiliated with the National Freedom Network (NFN) and the Global Resource Epicenter Against human Trafficking (GREAT)</span></em></p>
Human trafficking is a major source of misery around the world. The absence of reliable statistics to determine its enormity has led to inflated guesstimates that harm efforts to combat the scourge.
Marcel van der Watt, Lecturer in Police Practice, University of South Africa
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/33593
2014-10-30T05:09:29Z
2014-10-30T05:09:29Z
Global supply chains link us all to shame of child and forced labour
<p>The fragmentation of global production has dramatically increased the length and complexity of supply chains. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that <a href="http://www.oecd.org/dac/aft/MappingGlobalValueChains_web_usb.pdf">more than half</a> of the world’s manufactured imports are intermediate goods. These are used as inputs in the production of other goods, sourced from different parts of the globe.</p>
<p>A serious problem with such long and complex supply chains is that this can lead to a lack of oversight and worker exploitation such as the use of child and forced labour, for estimated profits of US$150 billion a year. At our end of the supply chain, demand for low-cost goods can push suppliers towards abusive practices. These malpractices can affect individuals, producers and consumers anywhere in global supply chains.</p>
<p>This makes Australia part of the problem and the potential solution. Increasingly, companies and investors work with trade unions and NGOs to deal with labour and human rights abuses in supply chains. Yet, in a report launched this week, <a href="http://www.catalyst.org.au/campaigns/child-labour">Catalyst Australia</a> shows that misunderstandings about child labour persist and room for improvement remains. </p>
<p>The report coincides with the Australian government’s announcement of a <a href="http://www.ministerjustice.gov.au/Mediareleases/Pages/2014/FourthQuarter/27October2014-GovernmentsResponseToHumanTraffickingAndSlaveryReport.aspx">Supply Chains Working Group</a> to tackle these problems. </p>
<h2>Child labour remains widespread</h2>
<p>Global initiatives and national laws have not made child labour history. Although it is estimated to have declined by 33% since 2000, <a href="http://example.com/http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---ipec/documents/publication/wcms_221513.pdf">168 million children</a> continue to be exploited worldwide. While global conventions are in place, their existence does not guarantee local take-up, nor does the existence of national child labour laws mean they are actively enforced.</p>
<p>A false perception persists that child labour affects only developing countries. However, in 2013, more than half of Australia’s <a href="http://www.catalyst.org.au/images/pdf/australia_trade_1402.pdf">imported goods</a> came from the Asia-Pacific region, which has the largest absolute number of child labourers: <a href="http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---ipec/documents/publication/wcms_221513.pdf">78 million</a>.</p>
<p>It is also incorrect that only isolated industries use child labour. While 59% of child labour happens in agricultural settings, the manufacturing and services sector are significant contributors. </p>
<p>Catalyst Australia finds that self-regulatory standards and voluntary initiatives alone do not drive change. They are often merely public relations tools. Neither do charitable donations absolve companies of their responsibilities. </p>
<p>As John Ruggie, author of the <a href="http://business-humanrights.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/ruggie/ruggie-guiding-principles-21-mar-2011.pdf">UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights</a>, states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is no equivalent to buying carbon offsets in human rights: philanthropic good deeds do not compensate for infringing on human rights.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Forced labour generates huge profits</h2>
<p>The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that 20.9 million people globally are subjected to <a href="http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---declaration/documents/publication/wcms_243391.pdf">forced labour</a>, 90% of whom are exploited in the private sector. Of these individuals, 68% are forced to work in agriculture, construction, domestic work, mining and manufacturing. </p>
<p>The Asia-Pacific region accounts for 11.7 million individuals in forced labour – 56% of the global total.</p>
<p>The ILO estimates that forced labour in the private economy generates US$150 billion in profits annually. Two-thirds is estimated to come from sexual exploitation. The rest comes from forced labour in construction, manufacturing, mining and utilities (US$34 billion), agriculture, forestry and fishing (US$9 billion) and households not paying or underpaying domestic workers held in forced labour (US$8 billion).</p>
<h2>Supply chains put under scrutiny</h2>
<p>Federal justice minister Michael Keenan spoke this week of the formation of a <a href="http://www.ministerjustice.gov.au/Mediareleases/Pages/2014/FourthQuarter/27October2014-GovernmentsResponseToHumanTraffickingAndSlaveryReport.aspx">Supply Chains Working Group</a>, which will examine ways to overcome exploitative practices in the production of goods and services. The government is developing a National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking and Slavery, to be launched in coming months.</p>
<p>The working group has the challenge of tackling labour and human rights abuses in the supply chain of goods imported into Australia. The composition of the group will be critical to its success. Ideally, it will include representatives of government, industry bodies, businesses and investment funds, as well as members with academic and civil society backgrounds. </p>
<p>The Catalyst Australia report identified that a common obstacle to improving labour and human rights in supply chains involves stakeholders going their own way. Distinctive partnerships are pivotal to an effective response. Flagging concerns, consulting (local) experts and expanding existing knowledge are essential elements of such a response.</p>
<h2>What can we do to end abuses?</h2>
<p>While active government involvement through legally enforceable standards is desirable, merely having laws against labour exploitation does not stop abuses. Many abuses occur outside legal frameworks, such as in the informal economy. </p>
<p>Increasing global co-ordination can cause discrepancies between proposed measures and their local effect, whether through legislation or self-regulation. This underlines the need for closer alignment of initiatives and partnerships at all levels.</p>
<p>Proposed measures should avoid a “one size fits all” approach. Solutions require pragmatic mapping of the local landscape and the issue, ongoing dialogue to see which stakeholders are on board, who can be influenced and which approaches best suit the country and industry context. Examples of sector and country-specific approaches can provide useful guidance, but only when these suit particular circumstances do they drive improvement and have maximum impact. </p>
<p>It is important to note that labour and human rights risks are significantly reduced where workers are allowed to organise freely and have representative trade unions. Consequently, any stakeholder who is serious about tackling these issues must be serious about supporting a free trade union movement and be willing to engage in continuing worker dialogue.</p>
<p>Finally, due diligence must include responsibility for human rights. Companies often narrowly define due diligence as economic and reputational risk. By scrutinising potential business partners in advance, the notion of business responsibility takes a precautionary turn. </p>
<p>We need to shift from merely auditing existing activities, towards promoting, protecting and advancing labour and human rights. In this way businesses can help minimise abuses and play a transformative role in all regions where they operate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33593/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martijn Boersma works for Catalyst Australia. </span></em></p>
The fragmentation of global production has dramatically increased the length and complexity of supply chains. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that more than…
Martijn Boersma, Researcher in Corporate Governance, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/32255
2014-10-01T05:32:07Z
2014-10-01T05:32:07Z
Speak up and eliminate forced labour – business can be ethical and profitable
<p>When Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January this year, <a href="http://www.weforum.org/news/business-leaders-davos-urge-policy-changes-encourage-long-term-value-creation-and-restore-trust">she called on business leaders and industry captains</a> to change the dialogue from “what we do with the money we make” to “how we make the money”. The idea was that companies can run in an ethical way and be profitable at the same time. Even better, we think, if companies tightly focus their energies to concentrate on areas where genuine change can be made.</p>
<p>This may sound like old wine packaged in a new bottle – after all, many organisations have been practising corporate social responsibility (CSR) for a long time, <a href="http://www.corporatewatch.org/content/whats-wrong-corporate-social-responsibility-arguments-against-csr">with very little real impact</a>. This is not that surprising. Such efforts are often a response to external pressure and are designed to enhance a company’s reputation, rather than re-orient a firm to make social benefits a part of business decisions. The CSR departments get a budget, but it is not being put to good enough use.</p>
<p>Businesses that truly care about wider society should be taking aim at particular examples of social injustice and using their corporate muscle to eradicate it. Sadly, there is a lot of social injustice to choose from. Here, we would like to pinpoint one of the biggest ones: human trafficking and forced labour. Most of us associate trafficking with human trafficking for sexual exploitation. Yet, according to the latest <a href="http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/global-report-on-trafficking-in-persons.html">UN report</a>, there is more forced labour than any other form of human exploitation in Africa, the Middle East, South and East Asia as well as the Pacific. </p>
<h2>Out of sight</h2>
<p>Human trafficking is an issue that we don’t see and therefore it is remote to many of us – so far removed from our daily lives that we are mostly unconcerned with it. Nevertheless, we are all implicated. We all have mobile phones that contain an ingredient called coltan. Coltan is only available from mines in Democratic Republic of the Congo <a href="http://www.laborrights.org/in-the-news/plight-african-child-slaves-forced-mines-our-mobile-phones">rife with slavery and child labour</a>. While we may be surprised to read this, there is a good chance that products that fill our shops in the developed world are the result of forced labour. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60404/original/ssgzs9rd-1412075138.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60404/original/ssgzs9rd-1412075138.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60404/original/ssgzs9rd-1412075138.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60404/original/ssgzs9rd-1412075138.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60404/original/ssgzs9rd-1412075138.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60404/original/ssgzs9rd-1412075138.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60404/original/ssgzs9rd-1412075138.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60404/original/ssgzs9rd-1412075138.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trouble beneath the skyscrapers of Singapore?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/109937875@N07/15083670366/in/photolist-p298Qn-oFujT5-oQCsKn-pjXm9b-p4iSNM-pjXbG5-oZD77g-opHBLb-ooyf3j-onPN9f-oVFiDY-o6SJwW-oVrq7V-onR4K5-oDhJnT-oEjjh3-oj4xgN-p3GQ4W-oLmyDp-oVMipF-oUthrw-oYTKGb-e7H5oP-dfVxiv-5sFaYQ-EgG3-e7Hv3R-3ZpDHn-7xhvzK-dZ3NXy-oze8Y-5PA7FN-4sPBZ6-fiqGp7-53L8JY-oVKvqL-oVK44s-oTKqYW-oRmr8W-oonGQs-oFgEqC-e7ryAa-g5L35J-e7P4Rs-K2jV-dZ6Ba4-dwCAPL-dZcjcW-8U7sFt-a9SQJH">wave.function</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Human trafficking happens everywhere, even in supposedly well-developed countries. Take, for example, Singapore. <a href="http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2014/index.htm">The US State Department</a> points out that many foreign workers in the country have assumed debt associated with their employment to the recruitment agencies, making them vulnerable to forced labour, including debt bondage. There were also reports of confiscation of passports, restrictions on their movement, illegal withholding of their pay, threats of forced repatriation without pay as well as physical abuse. </p>
<p>Certainly, <a href="http://www.ituc-csi.org/new-ruling-from-un-on-forced?lang=en">NGOs</a> have called for tougher penalties against errant companies and governments. However, legislation against human trafficking still varies widely from country to country. In addition, many politicians may prefer to look away from the issue, fearing that they would upset businesses. Indeed, even when the political will exists, NGOs and governments are often unable to turn it into action. Therefore, we would urge companies and consumers alike to take the initiative themselves.</p>
<h2>Taking responsibility</h2>
<p>The financial crisis has shown us that our brand of shareholder capitalism can be detrimental to our societies. Of course, the argument runs that businesses pay a lot of taxes, keep people employed and make new investments; companies are already making significant contributions to society. However, this view effectively assumes that anything that is outside the scope of the firm is not the firm’s responsibility. Companies cannot, and should not, be responsible for taking care of society as a whole, but they should do their utmost to eliminate and prevent social harms and problems linked to their activities. Sadly, while many firms have been addressing human trafficking, many more have not.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/tragedy-is-inevitable-when-bangladesh-competes-on-its-own-citizens-poverty-25955">Rana Plaza Tragedy in Savar, Bangladesh</a> in May 2013 provided a tragic illustration of the problem. The products for many world-famous brands were manufactured under the roof of the collapsed factory. One would imagine that that these companies would have sufficient processes in place to preclude labour exploitation. Yet, in addition to being paid only €38 a month, labourers had to work in dire conditions. Poverty drove them into situations where they couldn’t say “no” for fear of losing their jobs. Young people and children effectively work in <a href="http://orphantrust.co.uk/page/2/">forced labour conditions</a> – these young “helpers” earned 12 cents an hour, while “junior operators” took home 22 cents an hour or $10.56 a week <a href="http://www.globallabourrights.org/alerts/rana-plaza-bangladesh-anniversary-a-look-back-and-forward">and senior sewers received 24 cents</a> an hour or $12.48 a week. </p>
<p>Perhaps more incredibly, it was reported that at least <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/04/benetton-bangladesh-factory_n_3216045.html">one famous brand</a> was unsure whether or not its products were made there. Companies may pride themselves on their ability to manage complex supply chains and outsourcing. However, very often, they lack the necessary processes and routines to check whether their contractors are exploiting labour. </p>
<h2>Consumer power</h2>
<p>Responsible companies would be asking what steps they are taking to ensure that their entire supply chain is free from unfair and unethical labour practises, especially those outsourced abroad. But it is an open question of how far brands go to monitor suppliers and whether they take full responsibility for the conditions in which those employed by third-party contractors are working? This needs to be discussed publicly. Otherwise, companies that believe they are working for the good of society may have inadvertently supported some forms of exploitation in distant parts of their value chains.</p>
<p>And of course, we, as consumers, should start to question our ceaseless demand for dirt cheap products. We are feeding companies’ drive to source as cheaply as possible. The extra pound, dollar or euro in our pocket could easily come at the expense of someone’s suffering, or as the disaster in Savar shows, someone’s life. </p>
<p>Human trafficking of any sort, and not just forced labour, is modern-day slavery. We should not allow it to perpetuate any further. A good first step is to not shut up about it. Speak up. Because in the end, we, companies and consumers alike, are responsible for everything we do – and everything we don’t. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was co-authored with <a href="http://www.weforum.org/young-global-leaders/eunice-olsen">Eunice Olsen</a>, founder and chief executive officer of <a href="http://womentalktv.asia/">WomenTalkTV.asia</a>, a portal for video interviews about empowered women from all over Asia.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32255/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
When Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January this year, she called on business leaders and industry captains to change the dialogue from “what…
Terence Tse, Associate Professor of Finance / Head of Competitiveness Studies at i7 Institute for Innovation and Competitiveness, ESCP Business School
Mark Esposito, Senior Associate at University of Cambridge-CISL, & Associate Professor of Business and Economics , Grenoble École de Management (GEM)
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/21621
2013-12-20T00:05:00Z
2013-12-20T00:05:00Z
Slavery bill no use without shift in attitudes towards migrants and work
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38173/original/vv2s925h-1387365367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">And when you've finished those there's the toilet to clean.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mysid</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Launched amid a considerable level of political hype we finally have the chance to read the new Modern Slavery Bill – promised by the home secretary, Teresa May, in a column in <a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#143053cd8d4781bf_143052a9ffb3b7a5__ftn1">The Sunday Times</a> back in August. As someone who gave written and oral evidence to Frank Field’s inquiry, I see very few surprises in the content of the <a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#143053cd8d4781bf_143052a9ffb3b7a5__ftn2">draft bill</a>. While it is of course welcome to see some political attention given to this subject, the publication of the bill raises at least two questions: why now? And what difference will it make?</p>
<p>The answer to the first question seems to hinge on a cold political calculation. This can be summed up as providing a rebuttal to opposition arguments regarding exploitation (the Labour Party is <a href="http://press.labour.org.uk/post/64720910822/labour-to-table-amendments-to-the-immigration-bill-to%20%20over%20the%20working%20conditions%20faced%20by%20recent%20migrants">belatedly showing concern</a>); creating important career opportunities for ambitious parliamentary players and finally getting a “quick win” piece of legislation through parliament that is likely to gain cross-party support and might help to detract a little from the Conservatives’ “nasty party” tag.</p>
<p>On the second question, it is perhaps too soon to know what difference the new bill would make. However, considering one of its main aims is to simply consolidate existing legislation, it does not seem to be aiming very high. Among the other provisions, the new prevention orders make sense but will only have impact if there are more people convicted, and the impact of a new “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25389760">Anti-Slavery Commissioner</a>” will depend on the small print and the ability of the first incumbent to use powers wisely and imaginatively. Of course this is just the start and we will find out more as the bill moves through the parliamentary process and detailed discussions begin (we have also been promised secondary legislation).</p>
<p>Recent cases such as the horrific story of the three women in London who were trapped for 30 years have underlined the case for a new law - or have they? Read the draft bill and you will find constant references to global criminal networks. For those experiencing slavery-like conditions in domestic work, the “criminal network” might only amount to the family unit they are living with. Evidence suggests that there are a <a href="http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/forced-labour-business-models-supply">range of different ways</a> in which profits are made from exploitation and some, but by no means all, seem to emanate from organised crime.</p>
<h2>Labour market regulation</h2>
<p>The draft bill actually draws attention away from the causes of slavery-like conditions in the UK and focuses almost entirely on symptoms – and using the criminal justice system, to catch more individuals who benefit from criminally exploiting others. This is only part of the story – regulation and enforcement of the UK labour market is very weak and patchy, making this a <a href="http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/regulation-and-enforcement-forced-labour">low-risk crime</a> for unscrupulous operators. There is some attempt in the bill to improve the language around victim care but there is little extra resource. This is a complex and expensive area and ultimately requires multi-agency co-operation, which is difficult when many frontline staff have low awareness of the problem.</p>
<p>Ultimately it is those who suffer these crimes that we should be focusing on – not just as “victims”, but as people who have survived a crime and deserve a decent job and to be treated fairly. The state can only do so much. We need to improve the ability for individuals to fight back and seek redress – and this goes far beyond the prospect of stiffer sentencing for the perpetrators. Severe exploitation reflects a perverse imbalance of power. The government can try to address this by providing the conditions that empower more of those who are trapped in exploitative conditions to be able to escape and overcome their experience. This is the best way to ensure it does not repeat or continue. </p>
<p>Restricting the rights of migrants, prioritising the rights of business over their employees and closing off access to employment tribunals are all recent trends that travel in the wrong direction. We are told that this bill is just the start of a new strategic effort – it will be fascinating to see how the rest of the government’s plans develop.</p>
<p><em>On February 21 the Centre for the Study of International Slavery (CSIS) based in the School of Histories, Languages and Cultures at Liverpool University will host a keynote speech on modern slavery by Guy Ryder, director-general of the International Labour Organisation.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/21621/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Balch receives funding from the European Commission for a multi-country project (led by Tilburg University, Netherlands) that is exploring the application of the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights to tackle Human Trafficking for Forced Labour. He is affiliated with the Forced Labour Monitoring Group (FLMG) a network established because of to develop a permanent focal point for academic and policy discussion around forced labour in the UK.</span></em></p>
Launched amid a considerable level of political hype we finally have the chance to read the new Modern Slavery Bill – promised by the home secretary, Teresa May, in a column in The Sunday Times back in…
Alex Balch, Lecturer, Department of Politics, University of Liverpool
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.