On May, 3, 2023, the House of Commons passed Bill S-211, An Act to enact the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act and to amend the Customs Tariff (the Act). The Act introduces a public...more
The Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s aggression in Ukraine have disrupted supply chains and heightened the need for supply chain due diligence to ensure business continuity and sustainability. Coupled with these events are...more
The strategic value of paying attention to areas that benchmarks assess - Some companies are skeptical about engaging with human rights and ESG benchmarking, because they question whether human rights and ESG disclosures...more
Matt Friedman is an expert on modern slavery in corporate supply chains and corporate best practices. He is the president and founder of the Mekong Club in Hong Kong which is a leader in uniting and mobilizing the private...more
Five years ago, on June 16, 2011, the way we view the human rights responsibilities of companies changed. On that day, the United Nations Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed the UN Guiding Principles on Business and...more
Time for another overview of developments in the field of business and human rights that we’ve been monitoring. This past week’s post includes: Apple’s refusal to comply with a federal court order; a new report...more
A District Court judge in California has dismissed a complaint against Nestlé USA Inc. and Nestlé Purina Petcare Co. (together “Nestlé”) which argued that the company was obligated to inform consumers that seafood in its...more
Companies face a range of new requirements and expectations calling for enhanced transparency regarding human rights-related risks in connection with their operations. Responsible compliance with both mandatory requirements...more
As discussed in this Bloomberg article, Costco and some of its suppliers are facing class action litigation alleging that Costco misled consumers about the use of slave labor and human trafficking in its supply chain for the...more
In a landmark speech to the Clinton Global Initiative in September 2012, President Barack Obama declared that the “fight against human trafficking is one of the great human rights causes of our time” and that “our global...more
Twenty years ago less than 100 companies worldwide disclosed or reported on their supply chain compliance or corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Those that did were trailblazers supporting the idea that...more
Two years ago, in October 2010, I published a post, Human Rights Due Diligence and the Corporate Lawyer, that addressed the need for corporate counsel to assess stakeholder expectations that companies should be accountable...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently approved the much debated "conflict minerals" due diligence disclosure rules originally developed in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act of 2010. The rules, which were...more
The California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010 (TSCA) will go into effect on January 1, 2012. The TSCA will require certain companies with more than $100 million in annual worldwide gross receipts that do business...more
A new California law called “The California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010” will go into effect Jan. 1, 2012. This law affects any retailers and manufacturers “doing business” in California with annual global gross...more
Last February, I wrote this post about SB 657, the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010. This legislation will take effect on January 1, 2012 and will require retail sellers and manufacturers doing business...more
Copy of 'The California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010' a bill that goes into effect in January, 2012, and addresses the issue of corporate accountability in human traffic and slavery. Corporations doing businesses...more