This week KnowTheChain.org marks one year since the site launched. In just twelve months, KnowTheChain has received more than sixty thousand page views. We’ve heard interest from investors, consumers, and journalists, in addition to direct engagement with companies leading to improved transparency statements. Meanwhile, policy...
For those of us looking for ways to end forced labor and human trafficking, the sheer magnitude of the problem can be daunting. We see debt bondage and other forms of coercion and intimidation present in all sorts of commodity, product, and services supply chains,...
This week, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) introduced the Business Supply Chain Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act of 2014 (H.R. 4842). This important bill calls on corporations to uphold their commitment to end human trafficking and modern-day slavery by requiring...
With today marking the deadline for conflict minerals disclosures to be submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), NGOs and sustainable and responsible investors are celebrating a significant milestone in the effort to bring transparency and due-diligence to the trade in conflict minerals from...
The C&A Foundation and HiiL are seeking innovative ideas that foster fair living wages and enable more fair and stable conditions within the garment industry. Private companies, NGOs, government agencies and individuals are encouraged to apply. Innovations can address topics such as: Collective bargaining and dialogue mechanisms Mechanisms...
Today marks one year since the Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh claimed 1,138 lives. This anniversary serves as a reminder of the human rights risks inherent in outsourcing apparel manufacturing to factories with inadequate safeguards to protect workers. Whether we are investors or consumers,...
When I was working in Congress on what became the Trafficking Victims Protection Act back in 1999, we congressional staff paid little attention to the role of companies and their global supply chains in forced labor and human trafficking. We tended to focus more on...
I live in Los Angeles, a city of self-proclaimed foodies who frequent farmers markets for locally grown organic produce. For the good of the environment and for their own health, my friends will happily spend a Saturday afternoon picking out pesticide-free kale grown within a...