Addressing Modern Slavery is a highly readable book, apparently designed to raise awareness. It sounds the alarm on the pervasiveness of situations the authors place under the rubric of ‘modern slavery’. It effectively pairs moving testimonies of chattel slaves from long ago with quotations from people who find themselves in situations of ‘modern slavery’. There are additional case studies scattered throughout the text that provide graphic illustrations of such situations in a variety of settings (agriculture, fishing, artisanal mining, domestic work, migration, etc). The authors trace efforts to address the issue, and argue that it must be seen as part of a bigger picture.
The opening chapter describes modern slavery as a global problem, citing statistics while cautioning against their reliability. This in part relates to the fuzziness of the notion of ‘modern slavery’ itself, which the authors call ‘a broad non-legal umbrella term that refers to a range of abusive practices’ (p. 8). Casting the net this widely becomes somewhat misleading, however. The authors rightly condemn phenomena such as wage theft and precarious work, but these practices do not in themselves necessarily contain the crucial elements that lie at the core of modern slavery. As noted in a 2017 report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation, cited by the authors, modern slavery is not defined in law, but it does cover legal concepts, including forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage, other slavery and slavery-like practices, and human trafficking – each of which is defined in international law.Footnote 1 According to this report, the term ‘modern slavery’ is used as ‘an umbrella term that focuses attention on commonalities across these legal concepts. Essentially, it refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception and/or abuse of power’ (p. 7 of this report).
While the authors give a nod to the existence of international law definitions, they often paraphrase or shorten rather that cite them. Similarly, the authors’ assertion that ‘child slavery’ is distinct from child labour ‘as it involves not only children working but also their exploitation for someone else’s gain’ (p. 8) ignores the greater precision of the applicable international texts (in particular the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention).
Picking up on the earlier statement that ‘everyone has a slavery footprint, depending on your lifestyle, and what you own, wear and eat’ (p. 36), the second chapter of the book describes the pervasiveness of global supply chains. The authors drive home the point that economic globalisation and business innovation have outpaced the development of internationally binding norms concerning corporate responsibility for labour standards and human rights. The book critiques business efforts to address abuses in supply chains, and argues that governments are often complicit.
The following chapter (‘Emergence of the corporate social conscience?’) provides a brief history of corporate social responsibility. Noting some change over time based on selected examples, this part asserts that ‘through both legal and non-legal developments in recent decades, we have witnessed the emergence of a broader understanding of the social responsibilities of a company that seeks to embed respect for human rights in mainstream business operations…’ (p. 84). The authors discuss the ‘business case’ (and whether one is even needed) for preventing human rights abuses. At the same time, they criticise corporate responses to the Rana Plaza disaster (which was a deadly building collapse directly caused by construction safety violations). Although not explicit, the link of this example to modern slavery would seem to lie in the authors’ observation that in practice non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as trade unions, human rights activists and consumers have assumed the role of motivating companies to respect workers’ rights throughout their global operations (p. 112).
At the same time, the authors acknowledge the importance of the United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as well as the Sustainable Development Goal target 8.7 related to eradicating forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking by the year 2030. A box on ‘international human rights laws’ in this chapter refers to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Covenants, and ‘laws of the UN and the ILO’ (pp. 96–97). While the ILO’s eight core conventions are mentioned (without name), there is no reference to the 2014 Protocol to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29). This is a major oversight, as this new tool – with already 44 ratifications by 31 January 2020 – contains a specific cross-reference to due diligence processes, whose importance is highlighted in the book.Footnote 2 The Protocol calls for effective measures to prevent and eliminate the use of forced or compulsory labour, to provide victims protection and access to appropriate and effective remedies, and to sanction perpetrators [Article 1(1)]. It specifies that the measures are to include ‘supporting due diligence by both the public and private sectors to prevent and respond to risks of forced or compulsory labour’ [Article 2(e)] and ‘addressing the root causes and factors that heighten the risks of forced or compulsory labour’ [Article 2(f)].
The fourth chapter focuses on regulation, inquiring ‘law, what is it good for?’. It recalls the slavery footprint before outlining recent new laws for greater transparency about how and where our clothes, telephones, carpets and coffee are sourced and produced. The book features a useful tabular comparison of the laws of California, the United Kingdom, Australia and France relating to due diligence and transparency in supply chains. While the authors see some aspects of these laws as raising transparency through disclosure, they perceive their enforcement as having been essentially outsourced. They are ‘important but imperfect laws’ (p. 146). Another box briefly describes several lawsuits targeting global supply chains. This chapter again takes up historical developments related to voluntary corporate social responsibility, and mentions in passing the current efforts within the UN to conclude a new binding instrument. The chapter ends by interrogating how important the basic business model, investment policies, and pressure from trade unions, NGOs and consumers all are for avoiding systemic downward pressures on workers’ rights.
In the final chapter (‘Frontiers in the fight against modern slavery’), the authors argue for tackling the underlying causes of modern slavery, making the critical link to workers’ (especially women’s) empowerment and freedom of association. In addition, the book points to the importance of managerial incentives, government procurement, and activism among civil society, shareholders and consumers. In contrast to these already well-known aspects, the chapter highlights how technology might be harnessed to address modern slavery, particularly through use of big data and blockchain.
The book ends with a reminder that each of us needs to understand how our own actions are related to actual instances of modern slavery. This is probably the book’s strongest message, and one highly relevant to development of the business and human rights debate. However, the book’s strengths in readability and presentation are not always matched by a well-structured, non-rhetorical argument. Those seeking a more cogently presented and better documented account could read the 2019 report co-published by the ILO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the International Organization of Migration and UNICEFFootnote 3 (admittedly published after Addressing Modern Slavery went to press).
Addressing Modern Slavery provides an accessible introduction for readers who are not yet aware of the range or extent of abuses found in the world of work today, or of efforts to combat them. As an awareness-raiser, this new book by Nolan and Boersma is – despite its shortcomings – a useful addition to the business and human rights literature. It is a reminder that it is high time for business to ‘walk the talk’.
