This FREE-TO-ATTEND webinar will endeavour to provide attendees with a rounded and informed overview of the importance of human rights in the context of a company and the way in which it conducts its business.
The panel comprises
- A legal expert (from Baker McKenzie LLP) on this subject to cover what the different national regulations are in this area;
- Airbus, as a global company on how they handle the challenge of modern slavery;
- An academic to discuss research on this area; and
- An expert on the wider human rights scene.
This webinar is intended to provide an overview of the key “red flag” indicators of the risk of modern slavery and the steps that can be taken by companies to identify and mitigate these risks.
Background
The importance of human rights in the context of a company and the way in which it conducts its business has never been under tighter scrutiny than it is now especially given current world events. National and international regulations in this area have expanded greatly in recent years making the challenge of assessing human rights compliance across companies’ operations and supply chains more complex. Some of the legislation is well established and understood by industry such as:
- The UK’s Modern Slavery Act 2015
- The European Convention on Human Rights of 1950
- The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948
- The UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, adopted in 2011
- The OECD’s Guidelines for Multinationals on Responsible Business Conduct.
However, new European legislation concerning business and human rights, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the upcoming EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D), and the German Supply Chain Act add further pressure to the challenge on companies for regulatory compliance.
Companies have a responsibility to respect human rights and should have such a policy which specifies the legislation that has been adopted as an integral part of their Code of Ethics or similar noting the close links between human rights abuses and corruption. Human rights are also taken into consideration in the granting of export licences to certain countries by many nations. The UK’s Modern Slavery Act 2015 criminalises the employment by anyone or any organisation of enslaved workers in the UK. If your company has an annual turnover of £36 million or above, you must prepare a slavery and human trafficking statement for each financial year.
It’s important that relevant employees, such as those engaged in hiring and procurement, are aware of the legislation and red flags such as signs of slavery which can take many forms including child and forced labour as well as human trafficking which is the movement of people by means of force, fraud, coercion or deception, with the aim of exploiting them or their families through debt bondage. A company’s human rights policies, practices and compliance with legislation need to be cascaded down to include their supply chain and in their interaction with local authorities, especially security authorities, and to audit their effectiveness. Many companies now include Human Rights Impact Assessments as part of their core policy for operating in any country in order to prevent, mitigate and, where necessary, remedy any adverse human rights impact. This task has increased in complexity since some of the legislation requires assurances that the entire company supply chain has been assessed which is a commercial challenge.
Whilst the aerospace, defence, security and space industries operate in a highly regulated and mostly high-tech sector, high risks of forced and child labour still prevail in some areas such as the mining of key/conflict minerals (e.g. tin, tungsten, lithium, cobalt, tantalum, gold etc), especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), or in the manufacture of components and military clothing, especially in SE Asia and Asia Pacific. Closer to home, risks of forced labour or human trafficking can exist for workers in lower paid and “hidden” jobs such as drivers, in warehousing, construction, maintenance, catering and cleaning. It is, therefore, not beyond the bounds of possibility that a company may unknowingly encounter modern slavery within its own operations and face reputation risk and fines.
