Investors target 25 firms over human trafficking

A coalition of institutional investors has sent a statement to 25 companies asking them to give top priority to the eradication of human trafficking and ‘modern-day slavery’ in their supply chains.

The US-based Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is targeting high-profile companies in the apparel, agriculture, food and beverage, travel and tourism, technology and retail sectors – but has not named them.

It is outlining steps that every company can take, including specialized training programmes for employees, vendors and contractors, and clauses in contracts with all suppliers and host governments in the chain to ensure conduct consistent with human rights standards.

Beyond individual company action, the coalition urges companies to join other firms and NGOs in multi-stakeholder efforts and public-private partnerships ‘that are actively confronting this issue’.

David Schilling, ICCR’s programme director for human rights, said: ‘It’s next to impossible to eradicate the exposure to human rights violations from multi-linked supply chains, but the best companies understand it’s better to confront this issue head-on.

‘They actively look for and report on these violations every day and have strong remediation policies in place to address them … and that’s what sets them apart from their competitors.’

The United Nations estimates that every year more than 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders for enforced labour and millions more are enslaved within their own countries.

ICCR, which has 300 members and manages more than $100billion (£62bn, €71bn) in assets, says its stance has been reinforced by the passage of recent US legislation requiring increased supply chain disclosure – such as the California Transparency in Supply Chain Act and the conflict minerals special disclosure provision of the Dodd-Frank Act.

The UN defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transport, transfer, harbouring and/or receipt of a person for the exploitative purposes of prostitution, forced labour, slavery or servitude.