6 December 2023
Former Prime Minister, Theresa May, has called modern slavery the greatest human rights issue of our time. At the UN General Assembly in 2017 she launched a Call to Action to end forced labour, adding political weight to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 8.7 to eradicate forced labour and to end modern slavery and human trafficking.
However today, over five years later, the number of people trapped in modern slavery globally is growing. Estimates suggest that 50 million people or one in 150 people around the world are trapped in a state of modern slavery1, and due to the impacts of Covid, war, climate breakdown, the roll back on women’s rights and the rise of authoritarian regimes there are more people trapped than ever before. From state imposed forced labour of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, to the exploitation of migrants in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, to closer at home where migrant workers have been exploited in agriculture, construction and the care sector, modern slavery can occur in many different countries and under different circumstances.
Furthermore, this is an issue that affects international business. It is estimated that the G20 imports products tainted with modern slavery worth $468 billion per year2. The UK alone is estimated to import $26.1bn of products at risk of being made with forced labour. There is huge potential for action by businesses to reduce modern slavery around the world. While some businesses are more exposed to modern slavery risks than others, and it is therefore a more material concern, all businesses have some exposure to modern slavery.
Governments around the world have recognised that businesses could be doing more to ensure their operations and supply chains are free from modern slavery and human rights abuses. We have seen a wave of legislation requiring companies to disclose what steps they are taking to address modern slavery; conduct human rights due diligence or giving border forces the powers to block imports suspected of being made with forced labour. We are also seeing lawsuits filed in businesses’ home countries against companies that have not done enough to tackle forced labour.
On Monday 20 November CCLA launched a Modern Slavery Benchmark. The first of its kind, it seeks to create an objective assessment of corporate modern slavery performance aligned with statutory requirements, government developed guidance, as well as international voluntary standards on business and human rights.
The largest UK listed companies, collectively employing over 4 million workers and will have many more in their global supply chains, were assessed. Companies have been assigned to one of five performance tiers with the top tier showing a high-level of maturity in their approach to addressing modern slavery. Those at the top demonstrated an: ‘evolved and mature approach to human rights due diligence, there was extensive discussion on the risks, case studies on systemic modern slavery risks in the sector, and discussion on meaningful activity to find, fix and prevent modern slavery’. Whereas those at the bottom showed evidence the company had relevant policies, but there was little evidence of sufficient human rights due diligence. For instance, risk assessment processes are primarily desk-based and compliance focused.
The benchmark showed a large variation in the maturity of company approaches between the leaders and the laggards on modern slavery. The leaders show mature governance, due diligence as well as disclose cases of modern slavery in their operations and supply chains. The laggards have published policy commitments, but little other evidence shows that they are working to meaningfully address modern slavery. Overall, companies were focused on policy compliance rather than active work to address the risks of modern slavery. Furthermore, efforts to fix the problem and provide remedy for victims was barely existent.
Consumer facing companies, energy and utility sector companies were the best performing sectors. This is partly due to their relatively high exposure to the risks but there was a clear difference between those companies that were actively managing human rights risks and those that were not. Energy and utility companies were also relatively highly scoring sectors probably reflecting the heightened concerns around solar supply chain links to Xinjiang and the persecution of the Uyghur people.
CCLA has committed to undertaking the benchmark on an annual basis and using our influence as investors to drive change.
Read more at: CCLA Modern Slavery UK Benchmark 2023
1 Global Slavery Index 2022 Global Slavery Index | Walk Free.
2 ibid.