Chasing the Next Shiny Thing: Can Human Rights Due Diligence Effectively Address Labour Exploitation in Global Fashion Supply Chains?
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UNSW Sydney
Australia
Abstract
Mandatory human rights due diligence is the latest global example of a legislative scheme for fostering corporate action on human rights risks within business supply chains. Such proposals stem from more than 30 years of increased pressure on companies to tackle labour rights abuses. If not clearly defined and implemented, human rights due diligence risks enhancing the legitimacy of techniques such as social auditing to serve as inadequate proxies for due diligence. Without mechanisms to incorporate the views of rights holders in its design and implementation and ensure access to remedies for rights holders, it is perhaps more accurately depicted (for now) as the next shiny thing that may be more a distraction than a substantive mechanism for pursuing real change and redress for labour exploitation in global supply chains.
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Author Biography
Justine Nolan is the Director of the Australian Human Rights Institute and a Professor in the Faculty of Law and Justice at UNSW Sydney. She has published widely on business and human rights and her latest book, Addressing Modern Slavery (2019) (with M. Boersma) examines how consumers, business and government are both part of the problem and the solution in curbing modern slavery in global supply chains. She advises companies, NGOs and governments on these issues and is a member of the Australian Government’s Expert Advisory Body on Modern Slavery. Justine has practiced as a private sector and international human rights lawyer. She is the Executive Editor of the Australian Journal of Human Rights, a member of the Editorial Board of the Business and Human Rights Journal and is a Visiting Scholar at NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.