'Modern Slavery in Global Supply Chains', 1 August 2022

"Almost 25 million people worldwide are victims of forced labour every year. The globalisation of supply chains, exacerbated by COVID-19, has magnified the risks to human and labour rights in a highly interconnected global economy.

While governments, private actors, academics and NGO practitioners have become aware of the risks of human rights abuses within global supply chains, we know relatively little about how to best tackle this issue.

This report reviews existing approaches to combatting modern slavery in supply chains in order to understand their characteristics, assess their effectiveness, and propose future steps.

The analysis underscores that there are no easy “solutions”. Instead, an approach that calls on governments, businesses, workers, consumers and investors to play their part is needed. While governments must take a leading role - creating a level playing field and setting clear and enforceable standards - cooperation with relevant stakeholders is critical to combatting modern slavery."