Understanding human rights: implications for the management of supply chains

Description

The overall aim of the project is to understand the journeys, experiences and processes through the labour supply chains by which a migrant worker is made to do forced labour.

The project aims to achieve the following:

• Review literature about forced labour from different disciplines to inform supply chain literature
• Understand the implications of Modern Slavery, supply chain transparency and human rights regulations and responses from the industry
• Map the journeys, experiences and processes which migrant workers go through to identify the mechanisms that increase their vulnerability to forced labour exploitation
• Develop a theory or theoretical framework to understand (forced) labour supply chains.

The project involves conducting a literature review, conducting interviews, hosting a seminar and workshop, and the formation of a university-industry research consortium to implement funded projects, PhD studies and impact activities.

Key findings

Key findings from mapping recent Modern Slavery, supply chain transparency and human rights regulations:

• Most regulations are targeted at large multinationals
• There are new regulations that cover SMEs and the means to support them
• New regulations cover both direct and indirect suppliers
• There is an increased demand for a higher level of transparency
• There is an increased emphasis on integrating supply chain due diligence policy
• There are a variety of penalties for non-compliance.

Tentative findings from interviewing supply chain managers and human rights specialists regarding their views on recent supply chain transparency and human rights regulations:

• New regulations set a level playing field, making transparency, risk management and due diligence mandatory
• It is virtually impossible to fully map human rights risks at the entire upstream supply chain; the scopes and liability seem endless
• New regulations show governments are taking more responsibilities, but also passing on (hard to achieve) responsibilities to the industry
• The industry does not want to take responsibility in the policing of crimes (human rights violence)
• New regulations change voluntary behaviour to a focus on minimal compliance (to transparency and due diligence requirements), as opposed to actively eradicating forced labour practices in their supply chains.

Publications and outputs

Policy:

• Forced labour in the UK’s supply chains, Cited in Joint Committee report (page 19), July 2025

Media and blogs:

• Modern slavery: how the UK government’s 2023 reforms made it harder for victims to prove they are being exploited, The Conversation, January 2024. (Reposted on the Research and Innovation Blog) 
• An update on Modern Slavery trends in the UK: analyses of UK National Referral Mechanism (NRM) statistics, Research and Innovation Blog, January 2024
• Implications of the latest Human Rights legislations relating to supply chains, Research and Innovation Blog, April 2023

Conferences:

• Wong, C.Y., Zhang, Y. (2023). Forced labour in supply chains: a review of literature and regulations, Crossing Boundaries: The 2023 Business and Modern Slavery Research Conference, September 2023, Bath