Episode 77: Supply Chain Human Rights with Aruna Kashyap (Human Rights Watch) and Alex Silberman (U.S. Department of Labor)

Episode Intro Notes

Outline

• How do we define human rights abuses in the context of supply chains?

• What are the most prevalent examples of human rights abuses within supply chains and how pervasive are such abuses? 

• What steps can companies and organizations take to ensure their supply chains promote human rights?

• How can Definers engage with this topic?

• Expert Guests

• Aruna Kashyap, associate director in the Economic Justice and Rights Division of Human Rights Watch

• Alex Silberman, International Relations Specialist, Department of Labor

How do we define human rights abuses in the context of supply chains?

• Let’s first talk about supply chains generally. Supply chains are often complex, global networks made up of the full value chain including manufacturers, raw materials suppliers, distributors, and retailers. Similar to the environmental costs of manufacturing and production, many of the products that we use have social costs as well. While we rely on these networks to provide the goods and services we use each day, within all of this complexity, impacts on people and communities, including human rights abuses, can occur at any point within the value chain.

1. As we will get into within this episode, some industries have been plagued with human rights issues more than others due to the nature of their supply chains.

• With supply chains covered, let’s talk about human rights. The United Nations defines human rights as “rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education.” and more. 

1. In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. The document set the first common definition for human rights and set a universal standard for their protection. This document has been used widely as the basis for 70+ human rights treaties, country-level constitutions, and has been used to form the International Bill of Rights.

• Notably, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been translated into over 500 languages. The UN says that this is the most translated document in the world! 

2. Article 23 of the Declaration of Human Rights explicitly mentions that employment human rights include:

• The right to work, free choice of employment, just conditions of work and protection against unemployment

• The right to work without discrimination

• Equal pay for equal work

• The right to just and favorable pay ensuring a life “worthy of human dignity”

• The right to create and join trade unions

3. Further, Article 24 of the Declaration of Human Rights mentions that everyone should have the right to rest and leisure. This includes a reasonable limitation of working hours and paid holidays. 

• Human rights violations or abuses occur when these fundamental human rights are violated.

1. We see that word “fundamental” in the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Right to Work.

• The ILO brings together governments, employers and workers of the 187 UN Member States to set labor standards, develop policies, and devise programs promoting decent work for all women and men.

2. In the context of supply chains, we often hear about examples of unsafe and unjust working conditions deep within the complex systems of the goods and services we buy. These include:

• Extremely low wages, especially for dangerous work or long hours

• Forced labor, like human trafficking and modern slavery

• Child labor 

• Discrimination, harassment, or retaliation from employers

• Before we get too far into the episode, we do want to note that we will be talking about some uncomfortable topics within this episode like child labor, harassment, and violence. These topics can be a lot to digest and may be triggering. As such, we have tried to keep a lot of the details out of this episode and keep it more high-level and informative, but do understand that this episode could be a tougher listen. 

What are the most prevalent examples of human rights abuses within supply chains and how pervasive are such abuses? 

• As mentioned, global supply chains are big and complex systems with a lot of moving parts and people all across the world. These human rights abuses can occur at any point within the supply chain, which often makes it difficult to trace back to specific end customers and brand companies. 

• It is estimated that more than 450 million people work in supply chain related jobs across the globe. The ILO reported within the 2023 World Employment and Social Outlook that many of these people often lack access to social protections and fundamental rights at work, and when workers are harmed, they often lack access to systems to report them or access to legal protections to remedy them. Minority groups like women, migrant workers, children, and those in low-income areas are the most susceptible to these abuses and likely to lack these basic social protections.

1. Even more unfortunate, this lack of protection has been made worse in some areas due to the COVID-19 pandemic and some industries have actually seen a rise in human rights abuses since the pandemic began. 

• While we won’t be able to cover detailed descriptions of all of the different human rights abuses that can be seen, in this section we’ll dive into some of the most common violations: unsafe working conditions, forced labor, low wages, and child labor. 

1. Let’s start with unsafe working conditions and extreme occupational hazards. These can include working without adequate protections and in adverse conditions, especially in dangerous jobs like those that work with chemicals and at major heights. This can also apply to the mental toll that roles can take on employees without proper health services. While some jobs are inherently dangerous or risky, human rights abuses occur when injury protections are lacking or when the health and safety of employees is not taken into consideration, jeopardizing the physical security, health, well-being, and sometimes the life of employees.

• It is estimated that 2.7 million workers die from occupational accidents due to unsafe working conditions and work-related diseases each year. On top of that, 374 million workers across the world experience a non-fatal work accident each year. 

2. A clear violation of the right to safe working conditions came to the forefront in 2013 with the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh. The Rana Plaza building contained multiple factories that manufactured clothing for major fashion brands like Benetton, The Children's Place, and Zara, as well as U.S. retailers Walmart and JCPenney. Shops, banks, and other stores were located in this building as well. 

• On April 23rd, 2013, large structural cracks were found in the Rana Plaza building. As a result, shops and banks on the lower floors of the building were promptly evacuated, but the garment factory owners who were in charge of the upper levels of the building ignored the multiple warnings of evacuation and closure. They never spread the message to their employees about the building’s safety hazards and did not close the building in fear of missing deadlines for their international customers. In fact, factory owners forced their thousands of workers to come back to work the following day, April 24, under false claims that the building was safe and under threat that wages would not be paid if people did not report to work. Some employees even stated that internal doors of the factory were closed so that employees could not leave without permission after they entered. Tragically, hours after the day started, the entire building collapsed with more than 3,000 people inside. This resulted in the deaths of over 1,100 garment factory employees and rescue workers and the injury of an additional 2,600. The majority of these victims were children and women who make up the majority of the garment factory workforce in Bangladesh. Many of these employees were injured permanently after being trapped under the building for hours or even days before they were rescued.

• This horrible incident brought worldwide attention to the true unsafe working conditions for many within the textile industry. 

• As a response, many apparel companies jumped into action to prevent another tragedy like this one from happening. Over 200 companies and 20 countries signed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a legally binding agreement between brands and trade unions to work towards a safe and healthy garment and textile industry within the country. Currently, the accord helps to protect over 1,600 factories within the country and the 2 million + workers within those factories through regular factory safety and electrical inspections and  remediation monitoring for any actions found during these inspections. Further, all factories that have adopted this agreement are required to train all of their workers on essential workplace safety training, and must have efforts in place for workers to refuse unsafe working conditions. Employees must also have ways to raise safety complaints confidentially. 

• Owners of the local factories were encouraged to adopt more socially responsible management practices for garment factory workers. In the aftermath of the building collapse, murder charges were brought against nearly 40 individuals that were connected to factory management and ownership of the Rana Plaza Building. However, even as of 2023, none of these owners have been convicted of a crime.

• This April marked 10 years since the Rana Plaza incident, and survivors of the collapse are still suffering. Of those workers who were involved in the building collapse, more than half remain unemployed due to the severity of their disabilities. Further, of those still working within factories in Bangladesh, many do not feel their working conditions are adequate. While the Accord on Fire and Building Safety has made great progress in updating and modernizing some factory regulations, many garment workers are still underpaid and can be harassed if they join labor unions. Further, factory owners continue to face pressure from the consumer brand companies to meet strict production deadlines. While many companies have signed on to the Accord and other similar protection schemes for their supply chains, many large multinationals sourcing from countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan have not gone the extra mile to look this far into their supply chain and formally endorse these mitigation frameworks.

3. As you’ll see, many of these human rights abuses don’t take place in a silo. Unsafe working conditions are often the baseline violation that occurs alongside other human rights abuses like the one we will turn to next, forced labor, which is a form of modern slavery. Forced labor can be defined as “work that is performed involuntarily and under the menace of any penalty.” Typically, those under forced labor are coerced to complete work through the use of intimidation and violence. The key word within this definition is “involuntary,” meaning that the workers have not consented to the work at hand and many do not have the freedom to leave their employment freely if that is their wish. We saw this with the Rana Plaza disaster we just mentioned, where employees were forced back into unsafe working conditions under threat that they would be fired or not paid. 

4. According to the latest Global Estimates of Modern Slavery (2022) from the International Labor Association, it is estimated that 27.6 million people worldwide are experiencing forced labor. It is important to note that forced labor occurs in nearly every country across the globe, regardless of income level. In fact, recent research from the ILO suggests that there is a large presence of forced labor in high-income areas as well. 

5. Forced labor within supply chains is also often found within the raw materials sourcing (like agriculture and manufacturing), domestic labor, and construction industries. 

• In fact, about 13% of all adult forced labor occurs within the agriculture sector, from workers being forced to harvest fruits and vegetables all day in the hot sun with no breaks and little to no pay, to the migrant fishers who may be trapped on boats for weeks at a time. 

6. The countries facing the highest rates of modern slavery include North Korea, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Kuwait. Many of these countries have little protection for human and workers’ rights and are often home to larger populations of migrant and refugee workers than other countries. Other countries reckon with less stable political environments or are in major conflicts that increase the likelihood for human rights violations. 

• For example in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait, migrant workers are the majority of the workforce. Due to the Kafala (KAH-FAH-LAH), or sponsorship, system that was put in place in the 1950s, migrant workers are allowed to enter into many of these countries for employment, however the worker’s immigration status is tied legally to their employer. This causes abuse within the workplace as these workers cannot leave or enter the country or change employers without written permission from their employment sponsor and are often treated as more of a commodity than as humans. These “sponsors” often take the passport documents of their employees to enact more control over the workers who live in constant threat of deportation or arrest if they try to leave their situation.

• You may have heard about this kafala system during the lead up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Even amidst the widely reported human rights abuses due to Qatar’s kafala system, Qatar was selected as the host of the prestigious soccer tournament way back in 2010. This put a spotlight on the country and their mostly migrant construction workforce, as many World Cup facilities and infrastructure like major transportation, hotels, and stadiums would need to be built all within 10 years to accommodate the tournament. In Qatar, about 90% of the workforce, and 77% of the population at large, is made up of migrant workers who often face abuse or exploitation, as their legal status to work in the country does not automatically come with rights and freedoms. They are also often severely underpaid, refused rest days, and have no ways to address their grievances. Moreover, these workers are often placed in unsafe working conditions, like working in extreme heat with heat indexes about 55 Degrees Celsius or 131 degrees Fahrenheit. It was estimated that nearly 500 migrant workers died working on World Cup related projects since 2010 and there has been a lack of compensation for the families of these individuals, as there are no systems in place to support this.

7. Alright, so we’ve covered unsafe working conditions and forced labor. Now, let’s focus on wages. Even at times when labor is not forced, wages can be extremely low, which is also a form of human rights abuse. Revenues from company operations are often unevenly distributed between those at the beginning of the supply chain and those closer to the end. 

8. Some sectors in particular are price sensitive - they want to provide at the lowest price and with the fastest availability and are forced to eliminate or squeeze out costs and delivery times where possible. However, reducing prices can have a serious impact on workers within global supply chains. The market power of larger companies allows them to set pricing and timelines, leaving their smaller suppliers to accept the conditions and rates that are offered, which in turn causes these suppliers to pay lower wages. This also increases the likelihood of forced or child labor in efforts to save money. Further, when wages are chronically low, excessive overtime is needed for workers to make enough money to support their livelihoods.   

• Within the fashion industry specifically, human rights exploitations often come through the sourcing of products that are made by employees that are paid nowhere close to a living wage. The Clean Clothes Campaign, a global NGO founded in the Netherlands in 1989 that has grown into a network of over 230 organizations that operate in 45 countries, works to help improve labor rights within the garment-producing industry. Research from this group has found that across the sector, the main human rights violation is the non-payment of a living wage due to the fact that the clothing is produced at razor thin margins with the majority of profits going to the end brand company and not those working within the supply chain. The Clean Clothes Campaign estimates that for most clothing, wages for the actual production of the item is rarely more than 3% of the price that you pay for it at a retail store. This percentage can be much less for luxury items, as prices for those items are significantly higher and wages often remain the same, no matter the item cost. 

• Following the Rana Plaza disaster, significant progress was made fairly quickly to improve the working conditions at the factories in Bangladesh. However, wages have remained stagnant and overtime with long hours continues to be common practice due to the demanding timelines that are needed to produce fast fashion clothing. In fact, in 2018 many of the factory workers in the country only had salaries of about $60-90 each month. These are far from estimated living wages in Bangladesh. 

• Notably, it is often not the end business or brand that sets the wages at supplier factories, as many of these are contract factories that the larger multinational brands just buy from. Some big brand companies are making efforts to improve wages within their supply chain, but often it is up to the individual factory owners and local governments to set minimum and living wage rates, so it can be difficult for the final brand companies to have any true direct influence on wages at their contract factories. 

• For more on sustainable apparel specifically, check out episode 18.

9. Let’s shift gears to the last human rights abuse we will dive into within this episode, child labor. Child labor is work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity. Often this work is harmful to children mentally and physically, and can stunt their development by interfering with a proper schooling. Child labor remains a key issue within global supply chains. Data from UNICEF found that in some less developed countries, more than 1 in 5 children participate in labor that is negatively impacting their health and development. While some of the most extreme forms of child labor involve children being torn away from their families or exposed to serious hazards or illnesses, incidents of child labor may be more prevalent than you may think. 

• Human Rights Watch notes that many companies contribute to and benefit from child labor within supply chains without even realizing it. This is particularly common within the agriculture, mining, and textile industries.

• It is estimated that over a million children work globally in so-called artisanal mines that are often informal mines without industrial equipment, with their labor ultimately ending up in the supply chains for gold sold across the world. Through these processes, children work long hours in dangerous mines that can collapse and work with sharp tools and highly toxic substances like mercury that damage their health. Many of these children forgo school to work for meager mining wages to help support their families. Additionally, many of these workers are working within informal mines without proper industrial equipment.

• Similar to forced labor for adults, the agriculture sector has the largest percentage of child labor worldwide compared to other sectors. 70% of all children in child labor, 112 million total, are within the agriculture sector.

• In some parts of the United States, children as young as 12 years old can be hired to work on farms for unlimited hours, as long as they do not miss school. While this may sound reasonable at first, some say this is not enough protection for these young workers who could be working shifts upwards of 10 hours. What’s more, once children reach the age of 16, they can operate heavy farm machinery and perform tasks at any height without fall protection. These rules and requirements within the agriculture sector don’t match the labor requirements for children in other sectors of the US, making agriculture and child labor a major supply chain concern. 

• Here in the United States, you may be surprised to learn that for children under the age of 12, it is legal to work in the difficult and often hazardous tobacco fields, as long as it is outside of school hours. In fact, there are reports of extremely hazardous child labor in the United States from children working in tobacco farming in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina. Ultimately, tobacco produced with child labor can enter the supply chain for companies like Altria Group, British American Tobacco, Philip Morris International, and others. These children are often exposed to nicotine, pesticides and other hazardous materials through their work, and are also working upwards of 50 hours each week in harsh conditions and with dangerous tools and machinery. Some students also report missing or not enrolling in school to work on tobacco farms as they need the wages to support their families. For those that do attend school regularly, many note that their working conditions interfered with their ability to keep up with school work or participate in other childhood activities.

• We’ll link to the 2014 Human Rights Watch report that highlights the stories from children working in these farms within the intro notes as it is a very in-depth investigation complete with interviews, photos, and policy recommendations that may be interesting to learn more about. 

• And there are more recent reports too such as a long-form New York Times Magazine article from this month, September 2023, that has a harrowing account of a 14 year old migrant from Guatemala working as an overnight janitor in a Perdue Farms plant in Virginia getting his arm maimed in equipment within the deboning area when someone turned on the equipment without seeing he was cleaning it. As it says in the article, “More than 300,000 migrant children have entered the United States on their own since 2021, by far the largest such influx in memory. Most have ended up working full time, fueling a resurgence in child labor not seen in a century, with children living far from their parents and working illegally in all 50 states.”

What steps can companies and organizations take to ensure their supply chains promote human rights?

• So how can companies and organizations that rely on these complex supply chains to produce their final products ensure their supply chains are free from human rights abuses? To start, businesses at all levels can uphold the established ‘Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights’ from the United Nations. This framework helps businesses implement the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework and establishes guiding principles as a global standard to prevent and address human rights abuses within business activities. 

• The US Department of Labor’s (DOL) Bureau of International Labor Affairs has developed a program called “Comply Chain.” This program has created a set of good practices that help companies create a social compliance system or improve upon their existing system. The goal is to help businesses navigate the “legal, moral, and public relations risks of labor exploitation in global supply chains.” The program details 8 key steps that businesses can take toward a social compliance system. They are:

1. Engage Stakeholders.

2. Assess Risks and Impacts

3. Develop a Code of Conduct.

4. Communicate and Train Across the Supply Chain..

5. Monitor Compliance. 

6. Remediate Violations.

7. Independent Review

8. Report Performance and Engagement

• We link to a DOL website in the show notes with more info on each step. Further, you can check out episode 74 for more on transparency.

How can Definers engage with this topic?

• So we’ve focused on a few sectors where human rights abuses in the supply chain are most prevalent - agriculture, raw materials production, and fashion. So what can we do as individuals to engage on this topic within these specific sectors?

• Let’s start with fashion. Specifically, we can choose to minimize our participation in fast fashion. On top of human rights abuses, fast fashion can be detrimental to the environment as many of these clothing items are not made to last and often end up in landfills. With the quick turnaround times on products, workers are often forced to work long hours without proper overtime pay or periods for rest to meet deadlines. Further, as we mentioned, little to no garment workers in developing nations earn a living wage. 

• If enough consumers around the globe reduce the amount of fast fashion we purchase or opt for more ethical and transparent brands, together we can help make a difference in reducing the number of potential human rights abuses fast fashion causes. If you’re interested in learning more about transparency within the fashion industry and the work that is being undertaken to demand that fashion is being made in a sustainable, ethical way, you can check out Fashion Revolution. This organization is the world’s largest fashion activism movement and is working to mobilize consumers, brands, and policy makers to create a global industry that conserves the environment and values people over profit.

• Next, let’s look at agriculture supply chains. Often these are very complex, but there are a few things we can do as consumers to increase our awareness and push for changes within this industry. First Definers, you can support local farmers and smaller scale producers in your own area. Smaller local producers use supply chains that are much less complicated, which makes it easier to track labor practices. Many times these local farmers are able to tell you more about the way the crops were raised and harvested, and you may even get to meet the exact people who grew your food. Some studies have found that eating local foods results in less human exploitation and human rights violations. 

• The agriculture supply chain affects more than just the foods we eat, so there are a few decisions we can make when buying other products that contain the by-products of agriculture. One way is by choosing products that are “fair trade.” Realizing that smaller farmers and agriculture workers are some of the most marginalized by the global system, the fair trade certification system ensures that the farmworkers are paid at or above the minimum wage and with extra funds to support longer term planning and community initiatives. Further, the certification works to ensure that those within the supply chain work under decent working conditions free of discrimination, forced labor, and child labor and with adequate standards for worker health and safety. In addition, products with Fair Trade certifications meet other economic, environmental, and social criteria and are certified through rigorous on-site auditing processes throughout the entire supply chain.

• In addition to Fair Trade, the Fair Food Program, is a partnership with farmers, farmworkers, and retail food companies that ensures adequate wages and working conditions. The program was launched by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a human rights organization focused on fighting human trafficking and gender-based violence at work. Through this program, retailers like Subway, Whole Foods, and Walmart, participate in legally binding Fair Food agreements. Within these agreements, buyers commit to only buying food from others who are in compliance with the Fair Food Program standards, including a robust code of conduct and rigorous auditing, guaranteeing a more ethical supply chain for certain fruits and vegetables grown here in the United States. 

• Lastly, as consumers, we can make an effort to purchase from companies that disclose the origin of their raw materials from EV battery minerals to cotton in t-shirts. Further, we can purchase from companies that participate in responsible sourcing initiatives where possible. Transparency in global supply chains is the first critical step to reducing instances of human rights violations. When brands are transparent, it adds credibility to their concern for the issues and shows their commitment to accountability. 

• It is important to recognize here that much of these abuses are beyond our ability to control as consumers. Corporate action is critical and needed. While we cannot always directly improve conditions for the workers, there are ways that consumers can advocate for business and regulatory practices. Consumers can use their voices to demand for human rights within corporate supply chains and call for robust practices from the companies they frequent. Consumer advocacy through petitions, boycotts, and social media are some steps that we can take to get companies to change their practices and for governments to take policy action towards improving human rights conditions within their supply chains. 

Expert Guests

• First, we’ll be speaking with Aruna Kashyap, the associate director in the Economic Justice and Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, where her work focuses on corporate accountability and human rights, especially in global supply chains. Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international organization that investigates and reports on human rights abuses across the globe, has completed extensive research on human rights violations, not just within supply chains, but all instances. Before joining the Economic Justice and Rights Division, she worked with the Women's Rights Division of HRW. Aruna’s research and advocacy for the organization has spanned different countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Myanmar, and Nepal. It has covered diverse topics, ranging from labor rights, social protection, violence against women, and access to health care. She has spearheaded international and regional advocacy for new binding and non-binding international standards governing corporations.

• As a lawyer, she has a background in strategic litigation on economic, social, and cultural rights, commercial contracting, and experience with criminal, contractual, and tort law frameworks. Previously, she litigated in India and got her law degree at the National Law School of India University in Bangalore.

• Next we’ll hear from Alex Silberman, an International Relations Specialist with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs, where he works in the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking. Alex leads research on labor exploitation to inform DOL’s International Child Labor & Forced Labor reports, including research on critical mineral and energy supply chains. 

• Prior to joining the Department of Labor, Alex led TERA, an ethical migrant worker recruitment company that enabled workers to travel and work abroad safely. Alex previously managed research and projects for Seefar across the Middle East, Afghanistan, East Africa, Southeast Asia, and Europe.

• Alex is a recognized subject matter expert on migration and forced labor, and he has delivered projects on these topics for a range of stakeholders including the European Commission, the International Organization for Migration, the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery, the Coca-Cola Company, and the Macquarie Foundation. Alex received his bachelor's degree and masters of public policy from Georgetown University and a certificate from the Institute for the Study of International Migration.

Resources shared by Alex Silberman:

• Reports: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/resources/reports/child-labor

• Comply Chain: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/comply-chain 

• Better Trade Tool: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/better-trade-tool

• Sweat & Toil App: https://www.dol.gov/general/apps/ilab

• Launch Event Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyLOCZheaB0