Addressing Modern Slavery

An estimated 40 million people are modern-day slaves, more than ever before in human history. Long after slavery was officially abolished, the practice not only continues but thrives. Whether they are women in electronics or apparel sweatshops, children in brick kilns or on cocoa farms, or men trapped in bonded labour working on construction sites, millions of people globally are forced to perform labour through coercion, intimidation, or deceit. In a world of growing inequality and trade-offs between the haves and the have-nots, consumers, business, and government are all part of the problem and the solution. While we have all become accustomed to fast fashion and cheap consumer goods, the affordability of these commodities often comes at the price of human exploitation. Addressing Modern Slavery examines slavery in the modern world and outlines ways it can be stopped.

Martijn Boersma is a lecturer in management at the University of Technology Sydney, specialising in industrial relations, business ethics and human resource management. He was part of a multi-stakeholder ‘Supply Chains Working Group’ initiated by the Australian Federal Attorney-General’s Department, which explored strategies to address labour exploitation in supply chains. Justine Nolan is Associate Professor and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales and co-author of The International Law of Human Rights (OUP, 2017) and Business and Human Rights: From Principles to Practice (Routledge, 2016). She has extensive experience as a human rights advocate, having worked in the US at Human Rights First.