Engaging Business to End Trafficking and Slavery

April 27, 2013 Overseas Ministries Study Center, New Haven, CT Rev. David M. Schilling

Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility

ICCR

Faith-based Investor Coalition

• Founded in 1971, ICCR is a coalition of 300 religious investors from the Catholic, Jewish and Protestant communities in the United States with a combined investment total of over $100 billion • ICCR has over 60 associate members--socially responsible investment firms, public pension funds, union pension funds, foundations and universities.

Faith Context

“Faith communities evaluate companies, not only by what they produce and their impact on the environment, but also by how companies contribute to sustainable community and protect or undermine the dignity of the human person. We believe these companies carry responsibility for the human and moral consequences of their economic decisions.”

Principles for Global Corporate Responsibility: Bench Marks for Measuring Business Performance

Faith Context

“The dignity of the human person, realized in community with others, is the criterion against which all aspects of economic life must be measured.” Pope John XXIII, Mater et Magistra

Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights

• ICCR members encourage companies to adopt comprehensive, transparent, verifiable human rights policies for their operations, business partners and suppliers • 15 years ago, only a handful of companies had human rights policies • Today, 300 companies have adopted human rights policies and more to come www.business humanrights.org

UN Framework on Business & Human Rights and the Guiding Principles establish a global norm for companies to respect human rights and implement a “human rights due diligence process:” •

Assess impact

•

Integrate findings

•

Track and

•

Report performance

Human Trafficking/Slavery

An Egregious Violation of Human Rights

Awareness of human trafficking for the purposes of forced labor/slavery and commercial sexual exploitation is growing among investors and companies.

Why?

Human Trafficking/Slavery

Key Drivers of Greater Awareness

•Moral repugnance •Compliance with national laws •Serious risk and reputational issue •Consumer awareness •Assessing risk further down supply chains to commodity/materials level •Media stories (CNN’s Freedom Project) • Reporting requirements (CA Law; Dodd/Frank Law- “Conflict Minerals” reporting)

   Women and girls are greater share of total (55%) Children 17 and younger account for 26% Majority subjected to forced labour in place of origin or residence (56%) Source: International Labour Office (ILO) Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour (SAP-FL) 2012

Victims of forced labor by region PREVALENCE

(per 1000 inhabitants) Central and South Eastern Europe …. 4.2

Africa Middle East Asia and the Pacific Latin America & the Caribbean Developed Economies & EU ….. 4.0

….. 3.4

….. 3.3

….. 3.1

….. 1.5

Source: International Labour Office (ILO) Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour (SAP-FL) 2012

Human Trafficking— Forced Labor/Slavery in Global Supply Chains

ICCR members have engaged dozens of companies in the apparel, footwear, toy, electronics, automotive and consumer products sectors on supply chain codes of conduct, including prohibitions on forced and child labor.

Growing Expectations: Supply Chain Responsibility

• • •

Beyond 1 st Tier

: “Monitor all suppliers, contractors, and sub-contractors, tracing to raw materials to ensure that measures are in place throughout the company’s entire supply chain(s) to prevent human trafficking” (Luxor Implementation Guidelines)

Beyond Factory Walls

—Role of Labor Brokers

California Transparency and Supply Chain Law:

“…to provide consumers with information regarding their efforts to eradicate slavery and human trafficking from their supply chains.”

Supply Chain Accountability: Labor Trafficking

1 . A policy stating the company’s

commitment to respect human rights, including language on trafficking/slavery

2. An assessment of actual and potential

human rights impacts

, including trafficking and slavery 3. Integration of the policy and corresponding assessment into

internal oversight systems

and independent monitoring programs 4

. Training

of employees, contractors and vendors

Supply Chain Accountability: Labor Trafficking

5 . A

clause in contracts

with suppliers, host government agreements and joint ventures stating a common repudiation of human trafficking/slavery 6.

Alliances with appropriate authorities

including police, anti-trafficking organizations, child welfare agencies and public-private partnerships with governmental institutions 7.

Awareness raising and educational campaigns

8 . Annual

public reports on performance

Human Trafficking— Forced Labor/Slavery in Global Supply Chains

Good practice: Gap’s response to trafficked children in a sub contracting factory in northern India through a multi-stakeholder, multi-layered industry-wide approach in 2007. Case Study in ICCR’s Social Sustainability Resource Guide: http://www.iccr.org/publications/2011SSRG.pdf

Government of India’s Ministry for Rural Development; Gap Inc.

• • Worked with Indian Government, a local NGO, and an apparel supplier in Mewat to create a handwork center for embroidery for women.

By helping build a skilled workforce and by addressing low employment, poverty and the other social ills that provide a breeding ground for human trafficking, it’s goal is to eradicate the practice.

350 women have been trained and are earning income that enables them to put their children in schools.

Human Trafficking and the Steel Industry

In 2006,

Bloomberg Markets Magazine

published a story on modern slavery, focusing on the production of pig-iron in Brazil. Every year, thousands of workers are forced to illegally harvest timber and produce charcoal under the most extreme and degrading conditions.

Human Trafficking and the Steel Industry

Charcoal produced at these camps is used to make pig-iron, which is ultimately sold to international buyers including

Nucor

, one of several companies named in the story.

Investor Engagement With Nucor

Domini Social Investments and ICCR co-filers submitted three shareholder proposals to Nucor in 2008-10, seeking a Board review of Nucor’s efforts to ensure fundamental human rights in its global operations and supply chain. Nucor agreed in 2010 to require all of its top Brazilian pig-iron suppliers to join the National Pact for the Eradication of Slave Labor or the Citizens Charcoal Institute (ICC).

BRAZIL

BRAZIL

Human Trafficking Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

• ICCR members got involved in 2005, engaging Marriott to adopt the ECPAT code of conduct to combat the commercial sexual exploitation of children. • A shareholder resolution was filed and later withdrawn because: • A high level company task force was set up • Marriott adopted and implemented a policy protecting children

Engaging the Hotel Industry

• Since 2005, ICCR members have engaged a number of hotel chains. Those that have adopted policies against trafficking include: Choice Hotels, Hilton, Host Hotels, Marriott International, Starwood, Wyndham Worldwide. Engagement of 8 hotel chains around

World Cup;

9 hotel chains in London before Olympics.

Engaging the Airline Industry

• • Airlines are being approached to do in-flight messaging on human trafficking and training of front-line personnel.

Continental, United, US Airways and Delta/Northwest, which signed the ECPAT code in March 2011.

The London Olympics and Human Trafficking

• Letters from investors with $58bn AUM to: – 13 hospitality companies – 21 Olympic sponsors • Train staff and suppliers to recognize and avoid trafficking • Monitor supply chains • Examine hiring and recruitment practices • Report publicly on progress – International Olympic Committee • Website with tools and actions • Report highlighting good practice • Press

Multi-stakeholder Initiatives

Finding and addressing labor trafficking in complex global supply chains requires working with a range of stakeholders to make progress down to the commodity level.

Multi-stakeholder Initiatives

Examples include multi-stakeholder campaigns coordinated by the Responsible Sourcing Network at As You Sow: •Conflict minerals from the Congo that are used in electronic products •Forced child labor in cotton fields of Uzbekistan

Uzbek Government-Sponsored Forced Child Labor

What We Can Do:

• • Awareness/education of congregations on trafficking and slavery issues • • Consumer choices. Go to: http://slaveryfootprint.org/#where_do_you_live “How many slaves work for you?” Get involved: Not For Sale http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/ Free2Work ratings of companies- http://www.free2work.org/

ICCR Resources On Trafficking/Slavery

•

ICCR’s Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery Investor Statement

http://www.iccr.org/news/press_releases/2011/pr_slaveryinve storstatement062711.php

•“

Effective Supply Chain Accountability: Investor Guidance on Implementation of the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act and Beyond”

http://www.iccr.org/news/press_releases/2011/pr_SB657_111 711.php

•

Business Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act http://www.iccr.org/news/press_releases/2012/pr_slaverya ct012612.php

•

“Celebration without Exploitation” http://www.iccr.org/publications/2012StrategiesToAddress Trafficking.pdf?id=1205

ICCR Resources on Trafficking/Slavery

•

Rabbis for Human Rights-North America

(ICCR member) http://rhrna.org/issuescampaigns/slavery-a human-trafficking.html

•

ICCR Members’ global networks --

Example, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) provides humanitarian relief and development assistance to the poor and marginalized in over 100 countries and territories around the world.

http://crs.org/where/ •

Faith Based trafficking networks --

Example, Talitha Kum, a International Network of Religious Life Against Trafficking In Persons, based in 20 countries. Contact: Sr. Estrella Castalone [email protected]

Other Resources

•

Global Business Coalition against Human Trafficking (gBCAT)

http://www.gbcat.org

•

Luxor Guidelines to the Athens Ethical Principles

http://www.endhumantraffickingnow.com/luxor_protocol.ph

p •

Dhaka Principles: Migration with Dignity

http://www.ihrb.org/pdf/Dhaka_Principles/Dhaka_Principle s_Long_version.pdf

•

Staff Wanted

, Program of IHRB focused on labor trafficking in hospitality industry—London Olympics http://www.ihrb.org/pdf/Staff_Wanted.pdf

Thank You!

Rev. David Schilling Senior Program Director Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility [email protected]

www.iccr.org

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