Understanding the impact of anti-modern slavery legislation
Exploitation in global supply chains remains a reality, with an estimated 28 million living in forced labor. Anti-modern slavery laws aim to eliminate forced labor by requiring companies to report on their due diligence practices. But is it working? How do companies respond to those regulations?
To answer those questions, Walk Free partnered with Wikirate to assess Modern Slavery Statements published under the UK and Australian Modern Slavery Acts. Since 2016, more than 4000 modern slavery statements have been evaluated by volunteer researchers using a set of 18 metrics.
The result is a rich dataset, accessible through the Beyond Compliance Dashboard, showing whether companies respond to minimum requirements and take actions that rise above the minimum level of compliance to address forced labor and other human rights indicators. The data has been used by Walk Free and other organisations to formulate recommendations for policy makers on anti-modern slavery legislation. Beyond Compliance data also provides guidance to companies on how they can go beyond compliance in their reporting.
The findings show that stricter requirements are necessary to ensure the implementation of due diligence measures by companies. Sector-specific reports outline recommendations for the garment, renewable energy, hotels, finance, and asset management sectors.
Outputs
- Beyond Compliance Dashboard | Walk Free and Wikirate
- Sector-Specific Reports on the garment, renewable energy, hospitality, and asset management sectors | Walk Free
- Walk Free Modern Slavery Index 2023 | Walk Free
- Beyond Compliance dataset on Wikirate | Wikirate