What do you predict will be the three biggest human rights issues for business in 2020?
Alice Cope | Senior Advisor
Modern slavery will continue to be high on the agenda as businesses publish Modern Slavery Statements under the Australian legislation for the first time. It will be interesting to see which companies are pushing hard to drive real impact, and those that are just ticking the box.
Expectations around business’ role in supporting human rights defenders and the civic space will continue to build , particularly as governments in many jurisdictions make it more difficult for civil society to advocate alongside a growing understanding that an erosion in the rule of law is bad for business.
Understanding climate change as a human rights issue is only going to get more critical for business, driven by frustration around the lack of progress in driving down global emissions and increasing tangibility of the human impacts of climate change.
Riana Cermak | Senior Advisor
Climate change
Modern slavery
Meaningful human rights due diligence across the whole value chain
Each of these areas relates to addressing human rights impacts which are not readily visible from corporate headquarters, and which require continued efforts to remedy. The rising trend towards bringing these areas within the legal scope of international and domestic corporate responsibility and increasing societal pressures will ensure that these issues remain extremely important throughout 2020 and after.
Siobhain Kastan | Advisor
Supply chain risk has a new dimension - supply chain risk is nothing new but with the Modern Slavery Act for some business considering risks from the perspective of rights holders in the supply chain is a new perspective and challenge.
Leveraging technology - the need to increase transparency in the tiers of complex global supply chains is creating an influx of data that must be managed, verified and interpreted. Stakeholders are increasingly expecting this data to be publicly accessible.
Labour rights - the underpayment of wages, business needs to ensure this is not happening in their operations or in their supply chains. Stakeholders will not tolerate complexity as an excuse.
In 3 words, where should business progress on human rights?
“Transparency around challenges”
“Customer due diligence”
“Commit and act”