Get the knowledge: How products impact human rights

Modern slavery in particular is a risk across many products including electronics, fashion, fish, cocoa, and sugarcane. Several organisations, such as the United Nations and the International Labour Organization (ILO) have definitions for slavery, stating that it generally means people who are illegally exploited for the personal or commercial gain of others. It includes forced labour, as well as sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, criminal exploitation and organ harvesting.

The Global Slavery Index estimates that 49.6 million people are victims of modern slavery, which affects every region of the world. More than half the men, women, and children living in modern slavery globally are in the Asia and the Pacific region (29.3 million). However, when the size of regional populations is considered, prevalence of modern slavery is highest in the Arab States (10.1 people per thousand people). This is followed by Europe and Central Asia (6.9 per thousand), Asia and the Pacific (6.8 per thousand), Africa (5.2 per thousand), and the Americas (5 per thousand).

The UK has one of the lowest rates of modern slavery, affecting around 122,000 people. However, the issue is growing. In 2022, almost 17,000 potential victims of modern slavery were referred to the UK’s National Referral Mechanism (NRM), representing a 33% increase on the previous year and the highest number of referrals since the NRM began in 2009.

“Forced labour can happen in any country around the world,” says Chloe Cranston, business and human rights manager at Anti-Slavery International, who cites car washes, nail bars, and farms as hotbeds for forced labour in the UK. “It’s less about the country and more about how companies are respecting workers who are more vulnerable, amending their business models so that they’re paying workers the proper amount of money and that they can join unions.”

You wear, consume and use the blood and suffering of a subclass of humanity

People have no idea about the conditions many endure, Kara says. “You wear, consume and use the blood and suffering of a subclass of humanity that toils in misery at the bottom of supply chains every day. Those realities haven’t been conveyed to the consumer in the global north viscerally and consistently."

Poor working conditions

Meanwhile, many people across the world are not technically living in modern slavery, but nonetheless face horrific working conditions producing garments, gadgets and food because there are few alternatives to support themselves and their families.  

This is despite the UN classing a "clean, healthy and sustainable environment" as a human right, with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stating “everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work, and to protection against unemployment”.

In Southeast Asia, for example, children walk barefoot through pools of contaminated water and work in environments that expose them to toxic substances. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the extraction of coltan, a mineral used in electronics, exposes individuals to high levels of pollution. These working environments contribute to illness and premature mortality. 

According to the ILO, nearly two million people die every year from work-related accidents or diseases (Get the knowledge: How products impact worker safety). The current key risk is exposure to long working hours – linked to approximately 750,000 deaths. Workplace exposure to air pollution (particulate matter, gases and fumes) is responsible for 450,000 deaths.

The Toxics Use Reduction Institute has called this exposure to hazardous materials an “invisible crisis”, stating that the electronics industry is especially problematic, with many working in this sector falling ill, having their fertility impacted, or conceiving children who have developed disabilities as a result of exposure to chemicals at work.

But if people feel there is no alternative for earning a living and have no way of contesting their working conditions – either through unions or representatives – it’s difficult for anything to change. 

For example, when it comes to mica – a silicate mineral that poses serious respiratory risks – a “boycott is not an option,” says Olivier Dubourdieu, project manager of the Responsible Mica Initiative (RMI). "Mica collectors in Bihar and Jharkhand in India or in the south of Madagascar are heavily depending on mica collection for their livelihood.” 

So how can working conditions be improved and human rights abuses eliminated in supply chains?

Tackling human rights abuses in the global value chain

Dr David R Boyd, UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, believes the first step is for us to consume less. “The reality is you can buy organic, fair trade products that are going to be significantly better for the people producing them, and the planet we live in, but overall the level of material consumption in wealthy countries has to be substantially reduced,” he says. (Learn more about fair trade practices and consumption).

A transition to renewable energy and a circular economy, where everything can be recycled or composted, would drive prices up and lead to reduced consumption, he adds. If the demand isn’t there, supply can be decreased – as too can the abuse of the people behind that supply. 

Individuals should also work alongside civil society to encourage governments to introduce stronger laws. As Cranston says, “We should be seeing governments all around the world implementing labour rights laws and companies respecting them.”

In the UK, there is an ongoing call to implement a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act, which would hold companies to account should there be environmental harm or human rights abuses in their operations. As the latest Parliamentary briefing, dated November 2022, indicates, YouGov polling shows four in five people in Britain want new laws to make sure businesses stamp out environmental damage and exploitative practices in their supply chains. The summary and recommendations have been signed by 31 UK civil society organisations including Oxfam, the TUC and the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.

In the US, President Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act into law in December 2021, which prohibits all businesses from importing any products connected to the forced labour of Uyghur populations in China. And in the EU, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive is set to come into force in early 2024. This would, among other things, impose due diligence obligations on companies to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for adverse human rights and environmental impacts from the company’s own operations, those of its subsidiaries and those of entities with which there is an established business relationship in the company’s value chain.

Putting pressure on companies to change their practices

“While we wait for such laws to be introduced, consumers should request more information from businesses,” says Cranston. This could include looking up whether a brand has a modern slavery statement, requesting information on the chemicals used in a product, or contacting a company about its worker conditions. 

“Corporate behaviour is unlikely to change of its own volition,” says Kara, explaining that there’s no penalty for failing to remedy poor conditions. “The fact it hasn’t been done means [companies] don’t feel the need to, so the pressure has to come externally, from some tandem of consumer outrage, social movement and policy-making pressure."

Company pledges are only there in the absence of strong laws

Some brands are doing the work in this area. UK supermarket Sainsburys, for example, publishes information on how many of its food and clothing suppliers have workers’ unions. Others like Apple, L’Oréal and Nike have anti-human trafficking, forced labour and modern slavery policies. And Fairphone produces smartphones with a focus on a low environmental footprint, responsible material sourcing, and good worker welfare.

But while it’s important for companies to commit to “meaningful” pledges, Cranston explained they are only there in the absence of strong laws. “Pledges have one role to fill and can show where companies are willing to take public leadership and commitment on a step, but ultimately they will only go so far and that’s why we need legal accountability as well,” she says.

Boyd agrees. “We need much stronger regulations globally, and at the national level, that require businesses to protect human rights and the environment,” he says.

According to Baskut Tuncak, director of the Toxics Use Reduction Institute, these regulations should insist that companies remove, and/or replace, any toxic chemicals in supply chains. Computer hardware company Hewlett-Packard, for example, has worked with suppliers to eliminate polyvinyl chloride – a type of plastic that can release harmful chemicals – while the EU is now considering a ban on the use of PFAs, often referred to as ‘forever chemicals’.

Consumers can use their purchasing power to collectively demand that retailers are putting safer products on the shelves.

But consumers have a critical role to play in using purchasing power to collectively demand that retailers are putting safer products on the shelves. Campaigns like Mind the Store in the US and consumer groups such as Ethical Consumer in the UK provide rating systems for products covering a range of environmental and social topics. And, ultimately, it’s up to individuals to exercise their democratic responsibility in electing governments that will accelerate the pace of change that’s needed.

This article – first published 10/06/22 – was updated on 29/06/23 to reflect the latest research and developments in this area.

This article was first published 10/06/2022 but has been updated to reflect the latest research and developments in this area.