Human rights-related risks have re-emerged to grab the spotlight as a top issue for procurement and supply chain professionals in 2016. For example Recently two new benchmarks focused on company performance on human rights have been released: The Corporate Human Rights Benchmark announced a few weeks ago a pilot of its rating system to benchmark the performance of large companies on human rights issues in their supply chains. The pilot is initially focused on agriculture, apparel and extractive sectors, and will expand to more industries later in the year. In a separate effort, KnowTheChain, a partnership led by Humanity United, has released their human rights industry benchmarking program. Their pilot reported a disappointing average score of 52 out of 100. Both are designed with ratings that create a “race to the top” approach: a positive competitive incentive to outperform their industry and peers.
Add to this recent laws and regulations coming into force and active enforcement such as California Transparency, UK Modern Slavery, U.S. Executive Order 13627, with more laws in the works such as ‘devoir de vigilance’ in France, and efforts to push them to the EU level.
All this activity comes at a time when our technology tools and capabilities are advancing faster than ever with trends such as: Digitization of the supply chain, Internet of Things, block chains, and a growing community of organizations and NGOs pushing for transparency, ways to make workers’ voices be heard, tracking and tracing through apps and services.
How can we apply these resources within your organization to solve this vital issue? Two opportunities are coming up in the next few weeks to learn and discuss how companies are approaching the UK Modern Slavery Act and similar legislation:
(1) Free online webinar:
“Anti-slavery strategies: an overview of leading corporate responses”
Tuesday 26th April, 15h00-16h00 GMT
This one-hour webinar will outline and discuss how international companies have responded to the recent anti-slavery momentum to tackling the issue on a practical level. The focus of the discussion is to be simple but insightful by outlining the practical decisions, strategies and innovations that are being implemented by leading companies in the fight against slavery in their sphere of influence.
Speakers include:
• Brent Wilton, global director, workplace rights, The Coca Cola Company
• Michael Smith, CSR analyst, Ecovadis
• Tanvi Kafi, labor & health and safety program manager, HP
• Siwan Kalatzi, supply chain risk manager, group procurement, Centrica Plc
Click here to sign up for this complimentary webinar
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(2) Forum:
“How business can tackle modern slavery and forced labour“
From legislation to real practice: How to report, manage risk and help eradicate slavery from operations and supply chains
Thursday 5th May 2016, London, UK Click here to register
(Contact us to receive a 30% discount code!)
This one-day conference will provide a focused discussion on how businesses can tackle modern slavery in situations where they are a critical stakeholder. The purpose of this conference is to provide business delegates with the guidance to proactively mitigate the risk of modern slavery taking place in their operations and supply chain, and how to effectively respond to discovered cases of slavery.
The key objectives of the conference are to:
- Explore how to operationalise the Modern Slavery Act in your supply chain – on a practical level
- Outline the practical solutions and emerging innovations coming through that companies can use to tackle slavery
- Discuss the wider developments in anti-slavery legislation around the world – and the implications for international businesses.
- Explain how to produce the best, first Modern Slavery report/statement – be ready to comply with new legislation, key stakeholder expectations, and ensure reporting and policy lead to meaningful action.
