Select Page

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR IMPACT — Recommendations for regulating modern slavery in supply chains in Aotearoa New Zealand | May 2022

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR IMPACT — Recommendations for regulating modern slavery in supply chains in Aotearoa New Zealand | May 2022
Advertisement

Foreword from the UK’s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Dame Sara Thornton DPE QBM

Mod­ern slav­ery is a heinous crime that gen­er­ates an esti­mat­ed $150 bil­lion in annu­al prof­its glob­al­ly. There are thought to be 40 mil­lion peo­ple in mod­ern slav­ery at any time. Con­ser­v­a­tive esti­mates sug­gest that 25 mil­lion are in forced labour, of which 16 mil­lion are work­ing for the pri­vate sec­tor. Many will be caught up in the sup­ply chains of multi­na­tion­al companies.

The inter­sec­tion of mod­ern slav­ery with legit­i­mate busi­ness is com­plex. While mod­ern slav­ery is per­pe­trat­ed by crim­i­nals, human traf­fick­ers and ruth­less oppor­tunists, it is enabled by lax gov­er­nance, igno­rance and aggres­sive com­mer­cial prac­tices. It feeds off the exploita­tion of the most vul­ner­a­ble in soci­ety, from migrant work­ers to those peo­ple with inse­cure immi­gra­tion sta­tus or those in dire finan­cial pover­ty. Every sec­tor is at risk, from man­u­fac­tur­ing and agri­cul­ture to hos­pi­tal­i­ty and social care.

No respon­si­ble busi­ness would want to ben­e­fit from forced labour, but many are unaware – or pre­fer not to
see – the risks that they car­ry with­in their sup­ply chains. While leg­is­la­tion is no sil­ver bul­let, it is the most pow­er­ful method of forc­ing greater cor­po­rate respon­si­bil­i­ty at scale. As we have seen in the UK, it can also help to raise pub­lic aware­ness and pro­mote more debate in society.

When leg­is­la­tion is echoed across juris­dic­tions, the effect on busi­ness should be even more pow­er­ful, cap­tur­ing and enforc­ing stan­dards across an increas­ing num­ber of sup­pli­ers around the world. I am delight­ed that the New Zealand gov­ern­ment is com­mit­ted to explor­ing leg­isla­tive options for com­bat­ting mod­ern slav­ery,
and that the prin­ci­ples of human dig­ni­ty, fair­ness and equal­i­ty lie at the heart of this consultation.

Foreword

This rec­om­men­da­tion paper is pub­lished in the con­text of Aotearoa New Zealand recent­ly enter­ing pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion for reg­u­lat­ing mod­ern slav­ery in sup­ply chains. It pro­vides direc­tion for a leg­isla­tive design
that is com­pli­ant with inter­na­tion­al devel­op­ments and, at the same time, con­sid­ers Aotearoa New Zealand’s geopo­lit­i­cal and cul­tur­al con­text. It is not a response to the Government’s con­sul­ta­tion pro­pos­al, but rather an inde­pen­dent resource, set­ting out rec­om­men­da­tions based on research and the authors’ mod­ern slav­ery law and prac­tice expertise.

The rec­om­men­da­tions are a resource for com­pa­nies, gov­ern­ments, non-gov­ern­ment organ­i­sa­tions, aca­d­e­mics and civ­il soci­ety, includ­ing to assist with sub­mis­sions that these enti­ties may wish to make as part of the nation­al con­sul­ta­tion process. The fol­low­ing rec­om­men­da­tions are made with an under­stand­ing that the Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tir­i­ti o Wai­t­an­gi prin­ci­ples are ensured and a Te Ao Māori per­spec­tive is con­sid­ered in any future leg­isla­tive and pol­i­cy devel­op­ments in this area.

Loader Load­ing…
EAD Logo Tak­ing too long?

Reload Reload document 
| Open Open in new tab 

Authors

The authors of this paper com­bine between them decades of exper­tise in busi­ness and human rights, human traf­fick­ing and oth­er forms of mod­ern slav­ery, pub­lic issues advo­ca­cy, and pol­i­cy devel­op­ment. The pre­sent­ed views and opin­ions remain their own as inde­pen­dent experts and should not be asso­ci­at­ed with any of their cur­rent or past affil­i­ate organisations.

Dr Natalia Szablews­ka is a lawyer and social sci­en­tist with 20 years’ expe­ri­ence span­ning the pub­lic sec­tor, gov­ern­men­tal and non-gov­ern­men­tal organ­i­sa­tions, and acad­e­mia in five coun­tries. She is cur­rent­ly Pro­fes­sor in Law and Soci­ety at The Open Uni­ver­si­ty (Unit­ed Kingdom/UK) and holds fur­ther aca­d­e­m­ic affil­i­a­tions in New Zealand, Aus­tralia and Cam­bo­dia. Natalia spe­cialis­es in pub­lic inter­na­tion­al law and (inter­na­tion­al) human rights law, with a par­tic­u­lar focus on cor­po­rate-relat­ed human rights respon­si­bil­i­ties. She is a Chair of Aus­tralian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR)’s Busi­ness and Human Rights Com­mit­tee and a mem­ber of the Mod­ern Slav­ery Lead­er­ship Advi­so­ry Group to the New Zealand Government.

Rebec­ca Kin­gi is a senior pol­i­cy advi­sor with spe­cif­ic exper­tise in mod­ern slav­ery, forced migra­tion and labour rights. She has advised gov­ern­ments and civ­il soci­ety on many aspects of mod­ern slav­ery pol­i­cy, includ­ing in the UK as part of the Labour Exploita­tion Advi­so­ry Group, the UK’s Anti Traf­fick­ing Mon­i­tor­ing Group and the Government’s Mod­ern Slav­ery Strat­e­gy Imple­men­ta­tion Group. Rebec­ca has also worked as a prac­ti­tion­er pro­vid­ing legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion to sur­vivors of mod­ern slav­ery and trained var­i­ous stake­hold­ers on the legal rights and enti­tle­ments of traf­fick­ing sur­vivors. She has been an advi­sor to the New Zealand Gov­ern­ment as a mem­ber of the Mod­ern Slav­ery Lead­er­ship Advi­so­ry Group.

Rebekah Arm­strong is a human rights prac­ti­tion­er with 14 years’ expe­ri­ence spe­cial­is­ing in mod­ern slav­ery, human rights and human­i­tar­i­an law. She is the Direc­tor of Busi­ness and Human Rights Con­sul­tants and Head of Advo­ca­cy and Jus­tice at World Vision. Rebekah is Chair of the New Zealand Human Traf­fick­ing Research Coali­tion, respon­si­ble for pub­lish­ing the first research on work­er exploita­tion in New Zealand. She is an advi­so­ry mem­ber for the New Zealand Cen­tre for Research on Mod­ern Slav­ery and a mem­ber of the Mod­ern Slav­ery Lead­er­ship Advi­so­ry Group to the New Zealand Government.

Quintin Lake is co-founder of Fifty Eight, who bring togeth­er research, tech­nol­o­gy and part­ner­ships to address
the chal­lenges of mod­ern slav­ery and improve work­ing con­di­tions in glob­al sup­ply chains. He con­sults glob­al­ly with com­pa­nies and gov­ern­ments on mod­ern slav­ery and eth­i­cal sup­ply chains. He has 18 years’ expe­ri­ence and his research has helped to inform devel­op­ment of mod­ern slav­ery leg­is­la­tion in the UK, Aus­tralia and Canada.

Note: the orig­i­nal doc­u­ment can be down­loaded HERE.

FEBRUARY 8 — SAINT BAKHITA

ADLAUDATOSI INTEGRAL ECOLOGY FORUM WEBINARS

FABRICE HADJADJ — VIRTUAL AND REAL WORLDS: HOW TO INHABIT THE DEVASTATED EARTH?

OUR MISSION:

THE PURPOSE IS TO SHARE BEST PRACTICES AND PROMOTE ACTIONS AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING.

WE MAKE AVAILABLE TO YOU GUIDES AND RESEARCH ON TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS FROM THE MOST RECOGNISED LEGAL AND OPERATIONAL ACTORS.

AN EXAMPLE FOR CATHOLIC ENTITIES TO FOLLOW: ERADICATE MODERN SLAVERY IN ALL ITS FORMS FROM THE OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAINS OF CATHOLIC ENTITIES IN AUSTRALIA — PROPOSAL OF ACTION PLAN – MODERN SLAVERY RISK MANAGEMENT PROGRAM FROM 2021 TO 30 JUNE 2023

HELP OUR ORGANIZATION BY MAKING A DONATION TODAY!

Adlaudatosi Webinars Videos VIMEO

Videos of the speakers’ interventions adlaudatosi VIMEO

Adlaudatosi Webinars Videos YOUTUBE

Religious Helping Trafficking Victims along the Road of Recovery (ON-DEMAND VIDEO WEBINAR)

Religious Working In International Advocacy Against Human Trafficking (ON-DEMAND VIDEO WEBINAR)

Impact Of Human Trafficking On Health: Trauma (ON-DEMAND VIDEO WEBINAR)

Impact Of Human Trafficking On Health: Healing (ON-DEMAND VIDEO WEBINAR)

International Prosecution Of Human Trafficking — Where Are We Now? (ON-DEMAND VIDEO WEBINAR)

International Prosecution Of Human Trafficking — What can be done? (ON-DEMAND VIDEO WEBINAR)

International Prosecution Of Human Trafficking — Best Practices (ON-DEMAND VIDEO WEBINAR)

Demand As Root Cause For Human Trafficking – Sex Trafficking & Prostitution

Human Trafficking — Interview with Prof. Michel Veuthey, Order of Malta — 44th UN Human Right Council 2020

POPE’S PAYER INTENTION FOR FEBRUARY 2020: Hear the cries of migrants victims of human trafficking

FRANCE — BLOG DU COLLECTIF “CONTRE LA TRAITE DES ÊTRES HUMAINS”

Church on the frontlines in fight against human trafficking

Holy See — PUBLICATION OF PASTORAL ORIENTATIONS ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING 2019

RIGHT TO LIFE AND HUMAN DIGNITY GUIDEBOOK

Catholic social teaching

Doctrine sociale de l’Église catholique

Register to our series of webinars adlaudatosi on Human Trafficking

You have successfully registered !