Aotearoa Business & Human Rights Update: December

Here’s the final monthly update for 2021! It covers:

1.????NZ’s modern slavery kōrero—an article by Rebekah Armstrong and a plea for policy coherence; the latest developments towards legislation, and commentary on the importance of language;

2.????Wider modern slavery convo—consumer attitudes to modern slavery; the impact of Covid-19; and new developments in Australia and the Pacific; ?

3.????Global updates on business and human rights—the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights releases a roadmap for the next decade; and a leading thinktank summarises the top 10 business and human rights issues for 2022.

If you missed November's update, there’s lots of commentary there on COP-26 and NZ’s contribution, amongst other interesting topics.

Call for applicants

Before we get going, I wanted to share an opportunity for anyone reading this who is a UK-based PhD/DPhil student working in Business and Human Rights. The Oxford Business and Human Rights network, which I help to facilitate, is running a workshop on 15 March 2022 for 6 students to present their research, and receive feedback from academic experts. More details here.

New Zealand – the Modern Slavery conversation moves forward

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A plea for coherence

The wonderful Rebekah Armstrong recently published with the National Business Review a summary of developments this year towards a modern slavery act for New Zealand. (If it’s behind the paywall for you, you can also find it here).

Rebekah argues that “NZ’s Modern Slavery Act must be coherent with other policies”, citing a new ‘duty to prevent’ due diligence law focusing on domestic worker exploitation and the new climate change reporting law. (We can also add the proposed bill clarifying that company directors can take into account a range of ESG factors when deciding what is in the best interests of the company). As discussed in my November update, these proposed laws all use different language and have different approaches. So harmonisation will be critical as the various bills move through Parliament in the months to come.

Facebook live to Petition’s committee – the importance of language

It’s well worth watching the Facebook live of the presentations to the Petition’s Committee, following the World Vision/Trade Aid Sign For Freedom campaign calling for a modern slavery act in New Zealand. There are great presentations from World Vision, Trade Aid, the Government (MBIE), and the Human Rights Commission.

I want to pick up on two themes that stuck out to me:

Scope: Who is this proposed legislation for?

I made this point in October's update, but it bears repeating. There remains a degree of ambiguity about exactly who this legislation is for.

• In their submissions, World Vision and Trade Aid seemed to largely focus on cases of serious exploitation in international supply chains—think cases of child labour or forced labour overseas, where that labour ends up in products imported into New Zealand. Like garments and electronics, which World Vision’s research reveals are the two largest categories of risky goods imported into NZ. Or like the tea industry, where issues of exploitation in the international supply chain (in the global South) was the subject of a comprehensive new report from the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre.
• But the Human Rights Commission talked mostly about domestic worker exploitation, particularly within Pacific communities and other ethnic minority communities. ?

Is the proposed legislation addressing both issues? They are both important, of course. But this question of scope matters because it will affect the proposed solution(s). For instance, if the key issues are domestic we might be inclined to dig deeper into the specifics by listening to affected communities—as the Migrant Justice Institute has done in their new report covering policy responses to the problem of wage theft and the lack of access to justice for migrant workers. And as the Government is already doing with its recent sweep of policy responses to protect migrant workers.

If the focus is on international supply chains, then this should be clear also—as it will have a bearing on nature of the legal obligation imposed on companies, and indeed, on the kinds of companies that should fall subject to it.

And if both, then there is a preliminary question of language to address to avoid confusion over exactly what this law is doing. Do we think 'modern slavery' is the best language to use for domestic worker exploitation? I am sure people will have arguments either way … and this leads onto my second observation.

Language: modern slavery or human rights?

Throughout the facebook live presentation, the language moves back and forth between modern slavery and human rights. In their submissions, the Human Rights Commission expressly calls for a broader focus on human rights rather than just modern slavery.

Such a shift is significant. Whatever one thinks of it, the shift does seem to match international trends—it is consistent with the United Nation Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the due diligence legislation being contemplated in the EU (although progress in the EU has been delayed yet again).

Human rights … and an indigenous perspective

While we’re talking about language, I recently read and thoroughly enjoyed Gary Shaw’s thought-provoking article on the limitations of human rights language—or rather, on any language or norms that are negative framed, externally imposed and easily politicised. Gary invites us to call on something deeper—something like the language of inherent dignity, the concept of ubuntu from South Africa, or the indigenous wisdom from our tangata whenua.

As we continue to admire India Logan-Riley’s inspiring speech at the beginning of COP-26, on the importance of indigenous leadership to our climate change response, we are led to ask: what does this indigenous leadership look like in the modern slavery / human rights conversation in New Zealand?

Global Modern Slavery Conversation

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Two new reports from the Modern Slavery PEC Centre

The UK’s Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy & Evidence Centre recently released two fascinating and timely new reports on issues around modern slavery.

Consumer attitudes towards modern slavery

The first report deals with consumer attitudes towards modern slavery. Some of its key findings are that:

• Raising awareness might be effective in shifting attitudes towards modern slavery, but will not necessarily impact on consumers’ actual behaviour. But by changing attitudes, consumers can still be mobilised to act as a lever to pressure decisionmakers.
• Responsibility for addressing modern slavery needs to be fairly distributed across different stakeholders, such as governments and businesses.

If you’re after a more digestible format, the Centre discusses the report in their newly launched podcast channel as well.

Impact of Covid-19 on modern slavery

The Center also published an evaluation of the impact of Covid-19 on modern slavery, highlighting how the pandemic has increased vulnerability to modern slavery all over the world.

On a more positive note, they also published a blog?analysing the impact of the pandemic on businesses’ ability to address forced labour?in their supply chains, suggesting that the pandemic may lead to longer-term positive changes to supply chain dynamics, increasing?resilience,?visibility?and transparency.?

Australia and Pacific News

NSW finally gets its (bolstered) modern slavery act

New South Wales has passed an amendment act bolstering their modern slavery legislation and ensuring it comes into force on 1 January 2020 (it had previously been indefinitely deferred and tied up in inquiries and reviews). You can find a quick summary of the amendments here.

The UN Pacific Forum on Business and Human Rights

This forum took place on 22-24 November in Fiji. It featured talks on mandatory human rights due diligence, reaching net zero, strengthening national human rights institutions, and much more. From New Zealand, the conference was attended by the Human Rights Commission and the NZ High Commissioner to Fiji.

Business and Human Rights Globally

UNGP roadmap

?The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights turned 10 in June 2021. The UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights took that opportunity to evaluate the first decade of its implementation, and just recently, they published a roadmap for the next decade.

You can find a summary here, or the full document here.

Because of its significance, I want to include its key recommendations and commitments in full below:

?Action Area 1: UNGPs As A Compass For Meeting Global Challenges

• Goal 1.1: Make business respect for human rights a core element of just transition and sustainable development strategies, by applying all three pillars of the UNGPs (State duty to protect, business responsibility to respect, and need for access to remedy) ...
• Goal 1.2: Enhance collective action to tackle systemic challenges ...
• Goal 1.3: Optimize digital transformation through respect for human rights ...
• Goal 1.4: Ensure coherence and alignment in standards development ...

Action Area 2: State Duty To Protect

• Goal 2.1: Improve policy coherence to reinforce more effective government action
• Goal 2.2: Seize the mandatory wave and develop a full smart mix ...

Action Area 3: Business Responsibility To Respect

• Goal 3.1: Scale up business uptake and translate commitments to respect into practice ...
• Goal 3.2: Embed human rights due diligence in corporate governance and business models ...
• Goal 3.3: Challenge business practices that are inconsistent with respect ...

Action Area 4: Access To Remedy

• Goal 4: Move from paper to practice in tackling barriers to access to remedy ...

Action Area 5: More And Better Stakeholder Engagement

• Goal 5: Ensure meaningful stakeholder engagement to reinforce protect, respect and remedy ...

Action Area 6: More And Better Leverage To Drive Faster Change

• Goal 6.1: Seize financial sector ESG momentum and align the S in ESG with the UNGPs ...
• Goal 6.2: Leverage other business community “shapers” beyond regulators and finance ...

Action Area 7: More And Better Tracking Of Progress

• Goal 7.1: Spur State action and accountability through more systematic learning and monitoring ...
• Goal 7.2: Improve the tracking of business impacts and performance ...

Action Area 8: More And Better International Cooperation And Implementation Support

• Goal 8.1: Plug the gap in UN system integration of the UNGPs ...
• Goal 8.2: Enhance capacity-building and coordination to support faster and wider UNGPs uptake and implementation ...
• Goal 8.3: Spur regional races to the top

Top 10 issues for 2022

The Institute for Human Rights and Business has rounded off the years with its “Top 10 Business and Human Rights with 2022”. The priorities draw on some of the successes and failures of COP-26 and express the growing interconnectedness between the climate change and human rights discussions.

They are:

• 1.????State leadership—placing people at the center of government strategies in confronting the climate crisis
• 2.????Accountable finance—scaling up efforts to hold financial actors to their human rights and environmental responsibilities;
• 3.????Dissenting voices—ensuring development and environment priorities do not silence land rights defenders and other critical voices
• 4.???Critical Commodities—addressing human rights risks in mining to meet clean energy needs
• 5. ?Purchasing power—using the leverage of renewable energy buyers to accelerate a just transition
• 6.????Responsible exits—protecting workers and communities in transitions out of high-carbon activities
• 7.????Green Building—constructing rights-based approaches and resilience for buildings and infrastructure
• 8.????Agricultural transitions—embedding equity and justice in global food production transformations
• 9.????Transport transformations—mobilizing green transport to be inclusive and rights-respecting ?
• 10.????Circular economy—generating positive social outcomes while reducing the impact of materials and waste.

Let's hope we can pull it off for 2022!

Happy holidays everyone ...