Getting Started on Tackling Modern Slavery and Protecting Human Dignity and Integrity

In this blog, we share insights from Human Dignity and Integrity (Tackling Modern Slavery): A Getting Started Guide. This new guide is a part of a larger series of issue based Getting Started Guides on Rights and Wellbeing at Work.

About Our Getting Started Guides

Anchored in research, each guide tackles a specific sustainability sub-issue to help you (and others in your business) build a foundational understanding and clarify the work ahead. We explain each sub-issue along with relevant trends, system thresholds, key concepts, actors, and pair that with resources to help you along the journey. We also outline common corporate goals and internal interim targets to show how companies are working on addressing the impacts of their operational and value chain activities.

Getting Started on Rights and Wellbeing at Work

Our latest set of Getting Started Guides addresses the focus area of Rights and Wellbeing at Work. This set includes seven guides, covering:

• Human Dignity and Integrity (Tackling Modern Slavery)

• Safe and Healthy Working Conditions

• Fair Compensation

• Company-Worker Relations

• Respectful, Equitable, and Inclusive Workplace

• Workforce Planning and Employee Development

• Worker Wellbeing

Human rights and the responsibility of businesses

Human rights are inherent rights that we all have, simply because we exist as human beings. They are tied to human dignity, the belief that all human beings have intrinsic value and are worthy of respect. As the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”

In the context of work, human rights aim to prevent worker exploitation by the companies they work for or sell to, as well as prevent discrimination, unfair treatment, and unsafe work. The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) outline states’ obligations to respect, protect, and fulfil human rights and fundamental freedoms, the responsibility of all business enterprises to respect human rights, and the need for appropriate and effective remedies when rights are breached.

Infringements on the human rights of workers are on the rise

Companies are responsible for respecting human rights, including by providing decent work throughout their operations and value chains. However, the 2024 Social Benchmark by the World Benchmarking Alliance revealed that 90% of the world’s 2,000 most influential companies are “not even halfway to meeting fundamental societal expectations on human rights, decent work, and ethical conduct.”

Modern slavery is a particularly egregious abuse of human rights. On any given day, nearly 50 million people, adults and children, live and work in conditions of modern slavery around the world. Globally, vulnerable groups are disproportionately affected – one in four people in situations of modern slavery are children, 54% are women and girls, and migrant workers are three times more likely to be in situations of forced labour, with around 44% of forced labour victims being migrants.

Forced labour predominantly occurs in the private sector – 86% of forced labour cases are imposed by private individuals, groups, or companies as opposed to state actors. The five sectors accounting for the majority of total adult forced labour (87 per cent) are services (excluding domestic work), manufacturing, construction, agriculture (excluding fishing), and domestic work.

With a global decline in worker protections, increasing conflicts, and other compounding crises, violations of workers’ human and labour rights continues to rise. Company policies, practices, due diligence, culture, and decision-making must collectively ensure that all workers are free from torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; are free from violence or exploitation; are free from forced or compulsory labour, debt bondage, prison labour, or other forms of modern slavery.

Human Dignity and Integrity (Tackling Modern Slavery): A Getting Started Guide helps to explain key concepts in more depth and outlines the work ahead to develop a credible strategy. To give you a sense of what it covers, we share some insights from the guide below.

Getting Started on Human Dignity and Integrity

Human Dignity and Integrity (Tackling Modern Slavery): A Getting Started Guide explores the rise in violations of workers’ rights, the prevalence of modern slavery, and the responsibilities of companies to respect human rights. It provides insights on key practices to ensure respect for human rights such as deceptive recruitment, due diligence, human rights risk and impact assessments, and more.

Common long-term commitments include respecting human rights and the dignity of workers throughout your operations, supply chains, and business relationships. These are accompanied by more specific mid-term commitments to identify, manage, and seek to eliminate any risk of modern slavery; ensuring fair and transparent recruitment processes at all operations; ensuring key suppliers have mature human rights due diligence systems in place; and more.

Taking action on human dignity and integrity begins with understanding industry and jurisdictional human rights and modern slavery risks; mapping your value chain and gathering human and labour rights related data; and identifying and prioritising human rights risks in your operations and value chains. Leveraging these insights, your company should then focus on developing a human rights due diligence strategy; building internal capacity to undertake the work required; strengthening worker grievance mechanisms; and developing a responsible sourcing strategy. This is followed by conducting targeted human rights impacts assessments where needed; developing a process to ensure effective remedy; supporting your supply chain through relevant training and tools; monitoring your suppliers for compliance; and issuing a modern slavery statement to outline the actions you have completed and the work ahead. As your work matures, later stages will include a continued processes to improve due diligence and deepen value chain efforts.

This was just a summary of the more detailed guidance provided by the Human Dignity and Integrity (Tackling Modern Slavery): A Getting Started Guide. For more information on relevant trends, system thresholds, key concepts, and detailed process-based interim targets that can guide the work needed to get started on these issues, visit our website or join our mailing list to be notified about the release of our next set of Getting Started Guides.