INTRODUCTION Contributed by: Brian W. Burkett, Claudia Feldkamp and Chris Pigott, Fasken
launched NAPs, which are at various stages of development and implementation. Modern slavery legislation Several national governments have enacted leg - islation directed towards eliminating “modern slavery”, which is broadly defined as any form of forced or compulsory labour or human traf - ficking in a business operation or supply chain. Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK have each adopted a form of modern slavery legislation – although there are important differ - ences in the laws. Generally speaking, modern slavery legislation requires a business that oper - ates in the country to produce an annual report or “modern slavery statement” identifying: • which parts of their global operation or supply chain may carry a risk of modern slavery or other human rights abuses; • what steps the business took in the past year to address those risks; and • any actions taken to eliminate the risk of modern slavery or remedy any instances of modern slavery that have in fact arisen. Human rights due diligence legislation While modern slavery legislation generally only requires businesses to report on the human rights implications of their activities, mandatory human rights due diligence (mHRDD) legislation goes a step further by requiring businesses to take proactive, concrete measures to address and mitigate human rights risk in their opera - tion and supply chain. By way of example, in 2023 Germany enacted its Supply Chain Act, which requires businesses that meet certain size thresholds to take several actions, including: • establishing an internal risk management sys - tem to comply with the due diligence obliga - tions in the Supply Chain Act;
• designating or appointing an internal “human rights officer”; • conducting an annual human rights risk anal - ysis of their operations and the operations of their suppliers (both direct and indirect); • taking appropriate preventive measures to address any risks it identifies; and • taking remedial action if a violation of an obli - gation occurs or is imminent. Import bans on goods produced with forced labour A number of countries are taking action to com - bat forced labour in supply chains via trade rela - tionships or border enforcement action. This is often done in connection with modern slavery legislation: most of the above-mentioned coun - tries who have implemented modern slavery leg - islation have also enacted a complementary pro - hibition on imports produced in whole or in part with forced and child labour. These prohibitions allow domestic customs authorities to stop and seize goods at the border if they are suspected of having been produced with forced labour or child labour. Some countries that have not adopted tradition - al modern slavery or human rights due diligence legislation have also taken action at the border. Most notably, the USA enacted the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in 2022. The leg - islation targets forced labour in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China by estab - lishing a rebuttable presumption that goods mined, produced or manufactured wholly or in part in that region are made with forced labour and therefore are prohibited from import into the USA. US Customs and Border Protection has broad authority to enforce the import ban and, between June 2022 and May 2025, took action in respect of approximately USD3.7 billion worth of goods.
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