Written by Hinrich Voss.
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed vulnerabilities and fragilities in global value chains. The worldwide economic lockdowns to contain COVID-19 have led in some industries to unilateral cancellations and suspensions of orders from overseas suppliers by transnational corporations (TNCs). These decisions are argued to be in conflict with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the Sustainable Development Goals, and related national laws because they have contributed to the risk that the human rights of workers will be violated and that they will become victims of modern slavery. In response, international business policies that target the conduct of TNCs and global value chains need to be reconsidered to achieve global value chain integration while strengthening local bargaining, affording sustainable growth, and protecting human rights.
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A growing number of global brands and retailers are adopting ethical recruitment policies stipulating, among other things, that all costs and fees related to labour recruitment are paid by the employer and not by the workers being recruited. Employe...Read More
This Issue Paper examines the concept of ‘harbouring’ in the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organiz...Read More
In the spring of 2015 and 2016, SACOM conducted undercover investigations inside four of Zara, H&M, and GAP’s supplier factories in China. Despite three brands’ CSR policies appear to be comprehensive and enable them to proclaim ethical, SA...Read More
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