Top perfume brands linked to child labour violations, report finds
Household company names continue to appear in the media for connections to forced labour and child labour despite businesses being urged to better manage human rights violations in their supply chains. A recent BBC report investigated children in Egypt picking jasmine flowers, a key perfume ingredient, and connected the labourers to well-known perfume brands. ?
“Industry insiders told us the handful of companies that own many luxury brands are squeezing budgets, resulting in very low pay. Egyptian jasmine pickers say this forces them to involve their children,” the report read. “And we have discovered the auditing systems the perfume industry uses to check on supply chains are deeply flawed.”
While hidden child labour violations partially fall under the responsibility of insufficient audits, the ongoing issue could also be attributed to the lack of?visibility and insight businesses have over their suppliers and where critical violations may be more likely.?
Audit data shows child labour violations were detected in more than 40 regions in the past year, with key sourcing countries like India, China, Indonesia and Bangladesh showing critical risk levels for these violations.?
Businesses must gain a more granular understanding of their end-to-end operations and where to risk mitigation efforts to avoid perpetuating negative human rights impact.?
Need help understanding your supply chain ESG risks? Get a free demo of EiQ and a trial scan of your supplier base.?
Empowering suppliers to understand how to identify and prevent child labour in your supply chain?
Engaging suppliers to better understand expectations and policies is an often overlooked but equally important risk mitigation strategy. Ensuring your suppliers, especially ones located in higher risk locations for human rights violations, are properly trained on forced labour regulations and remediating risks has proven to promote overall site improvement and improve risk.?
Our digital learning service empowers suppliers to implement business best practice and offers training courses in local languages on various supply chain ESG topics.????
Our Recognising Child Labour course teaches companies how to identify and manage child labour instances in their supply chains. With reference to international regulations and research, the course defines what child labour is and how it impacts children, companies, and economies. This course aims support companies in taking the essential steps to prevent and stop child labour in all operational activities.??
To watch this course and receive free trial access to our course library, click here and enter the code 'demo' during registration.
Regulatory updates: new EU law aims to bring tougher sanctions for environmental crimes?
A new European Union directive, the Environmental Crime Directive, recently went into force and put into places more stringent consequences for those who commit environmental crimes in the EU. ?
Although the law does not explicitly call out businesses, it applies to any environmental offences committed in the region and introduces new offence categories from the previous directive, which includes placing products on the market that are in breach of the recently imposed EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).?
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A brief overview of the new directive: ?
Applies to: All offences committed in the EU. However, member states are able to choose to extend their jurisdiction to offences that have been committed outside their territory.?
What it says: The directive includes a comprehensive?list of environmental offences. Compared to 2008 Environmental Crime Directive (which this new Directive is replacing), new offence categories have been introduced such as:?
Penalty: The maximum prison sentence for qualified offences will be at least?eight years. For companies the fines will be at least 5% of the total worldwide turnover for the most serious offences or alternatively €40 million. For all other offences, the maximum fine will be at least 3% of turnover or alternatively €24 million.?
Effective date: Entered into force in May 2024. Member states will now have?two years to transpose the Directive.? ?
EU to also implement 'digital product passport' to promote circular products
The EU Council also recently adopted the new Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) , which sets requirements for sustainable products.
The new requirements include product durability, reusability and reparability, and includes rules on the presence of substances that inhibit circularity, such as recycled content, remanufacturing and recycling, carbon and environmental footprints, as well as information requirements, including a Digital Product Passport (DPP).
The DPP will provide information about products' environmental sustainability and help consumers and businesses make informed choices when purchasing products.
Contact us to learn more about adhering to new regulations and enhancing your due diligence strategy.
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