How do you ensure your suppliers meet human rights and labor standards?

The first step I always look for is the kind of materials or resources being supplied by the supply chain. It is always crucial that are materials are sourced ethically and in an environmentally sound manner. Secondly, what I'm currently doing in my line of work, is to come up with Vendor ESG due diligence which covers what to audit & bare minimums for a supplier to be considered compliant.

It is absolutely clear now that ignorance is no longer bliss, especially when it comes to human rights and labor standards in your supply chain, both forward and backward. Simply claiming ESG compliance in the small microcosm of one's existence is not cool anymore and is often punished by the stakeholders of the firm. A firm today, has to create an audit trail through both formal and informal measures taken to understand the entire supply chain and its performance with respect to human rights, labor standards, and other environmental, social, and governance standards. Only this can help the firm create a feeling of trust in its intention of truly caring about the kind of impact that its business is affecting.

It’s also worthwhile looking at supply chain diversification so ensure smaller businesses/start ups are not being affected as a result of policy changes designed for med-large enterprises.

Great!! Maybe to add to this is the fact that conducting audits & assessments should vary according to the different vendors or supply chain partners you're dealing with. For instance, SMEs may not have the capacity to implement some of these policies. That's one thing that can be looked at.

Based on the signed commercial agreement, you should have an access to conduct audits/assessments both formal & informal. But the most crucial thing for this audit/assessment is creating an applicable standard based on your local regulations and best practices. Every country has their own labor standard & best practices. Conducting a "copy-paste" from other country's standards (just to look "cool") shall give you a very less benefit for your improvement and wasting your resources.

Consider looking at ESG regulations and frameworks that are emerging which will cover the latest human rights standards. Examples include ISSB

I agree with the statement... Transparency is the key. We should benchmark our efforts against reputable reporting frameworks & standards.

Concept of Vendor ESG should be incorporated to assess due diligence of the supply chain. The due diligence should be aligned to the company's ESG strategy & processes.