Dear G7 Leaders,
You meet again while hundreds of millions of children continue to work across the world and while forced labour and modern slavery continue to infect global supply chains on a massive scale.
At the G7 Summits in Elmau, Hiroshima and Puglia, you committed yourselves to the elimination of child labour and forced labour in supply chains. All your governments also committed themselves under Sustainable Development Goal 8.7 to end child labour in all its forms and eradicate forced labour and modern slavery.
Yet despite those commitments, the exploitation continues.
Too many corporations continue to profit from the exploitation of tens of thousands of children, and many profit from the exploitation of hundreds of thousands of children in order to reduce production costs and increase profits.
At the same time, forced labour and modern slavery continue to expand throughout the global economy.
There are more slaves today than at any other moment in human history.
According to UNESCO, at least 275 million children are currently out of school.
For millions of children, child labour, poverty, forced labour and lack of access to education are deeply interconnected realities that rob them of their childhoods, their dignity and their future.
Defending the right of all children to education is not only a moral and legal obligation.
It is also essential if you want to preserve prosperous democracies in your own countries.
No society can expect long-term prosperity, stability and democratic resilience while tolerating a global economic system that denies hundreds of millions of children access to education, opportunity and human dignity.
Despite all the declarations made by G7 governments, not even one G7 nation currently applies a true zero-tolerance policy against child labour and forced labour in its public purchasing and procurement policies.
Governments continue purchasing products and services connected directly or indirectly to supply chains contaminated by child labour, forced labour and modern slavery.
This contradiction destroys credibility and raises serious questions about state complicity in economic systems that continue to depend on exploitation.
No government can credibly claim to defend human rights while continuing to financially benefit from supply chains linked to the exploitation of children and forced labourers.
Silence, inaction and the absence of enforceable laws do not constitute neutrality.
They constitute complicity.
This is not happening because governments lack information.
International organizations, journalists, researchers, trade unions and human rights advocates have documented for years the widespread use of child labour and forced labour across industries that supply the economies of the G7 nations.
The economic beneficiaries know where this exploitation exists.
Governments know where this exploitation exists.
Investors know where this exploitation exists.
Yet the exploitation continues because the financial incentives remain stronger than the political will to stop it.
No democracy that claims to defend human rights can continue tolerating an economic system in which the suffering, exhaustion, fear, lost education and stolen childhoods of millions of children, and the exploitation of millions trapped in forced labour, are treated as acceptable collateral for lower prices and higher corporate returns.
This is not merely a policy failure.
It is a failure to protect, defend and fulfil human rights and children’s rights.
Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ILO conventions and your own commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals, your governments have legal and moral obligations to act decisively against child labour, forced labour and modern slavery.
The elimination of child labour and forced labour requires more than declarations and summit communiqués.
It requires political courage and enforceable law.
If G7 governments are serious about defending human rights, then they must immediately adopt and enforce measures that include:
Criminal liability for corporations, executives, investors and economic beneficiaries that knowingly profit from child labour and forced labour.
Mandatory traceability across global supply chains to identify where child labour and forced labour are being used.
Full public disclosure of child labour and forced labour risks by corporations, financial institutions and sovereign wealth funds.
Zero-tolerance public procurement and purchasing policies excluding products and services linked to child labour, forced labour and modern slavery.
Import bans on products linked to child labour, forced labour and modern slavery.
Economic sanctions against repeat corporate offenders that continue profiting from the exploitation of children and forced labourers.
Independent international monitoring systems with unrestricted access to supply chains and production sites.
Annual public accountability repor…
Read the full article at IOL (Independent Online) →