Verité News

Amherst, MA, June 15, 2011 – Verité, the global NGO that works with the biggest companies in the world, today launches a tool to help eradicate human trafficking, debt bondage and slavery found in supply chains worldwide. The new online tool, part of Verité’s Help Wanted campaign, is based on years of research, on-the-ground investigation, and direct experience with workers and employers to understand and solve recruitment and hiring abuses.

In support of our mission, Verité regularly engages with companies and other stakeholders to assist in the identification, analysis and resolution of labor rights problems in their supply chains. We utilize a wide range of tools in this work, including social auditing, training, research, policy analysis and advocacy for the adoption of best practices.

Amherst, Mass. (February 8, 2011) -- Verité is excited to announce the addition of two senior staff, both of whom bring substantial experience within corporations building ethical supply chains.

Verité is pleased to announce the certification of our EICC Labor & Ethics Lead Auditor Course by IRCA (International Register of Certificated Auditors)

The report coincides with the organization's launch of the Well Made initiative, which aims to engage stakeholders in finding solutions to the problem.

At least as far back as 2001, when sustainable investors joined human rights activists in addressing Unocal's complicity in the use of forced labor on a Burmese pipeline, the issue has been central to the concerns of such investors in their role as shareowner activists. Yet today, nearly a decade later, an estimated 12 million people are victims of human trafficking, which includes sexual exploitation as well as forced labor.

Modern-day slavery is not just about sex workers or poor people in faraway places.

Some farmworkers in the U.S., for all practical purposes, work as slaves. Laborers with few or no rights, working under inhumane conditions, typically far home, have produced such products as blueberries, organic milk, personal computers or cell phones and garments imported from India, a new report says.

Consider:

An estimated 200 million children work in developing countries. Another 25 million people are enslaved in factories, farms, mines, and homes. Hundreds of millions more are cheated out of wages that are rightfully theirs and have no choice but to work in conditions that put them at risk of injury and even death.

Verité Will Ensure That Farm Workers Receive “Penny-Per-Pound” Raise and Improved Working Conditions Promised By Major Food Corporations

After more than a year of research, public consultation and dialogue, Verité and CREA are releasing the Standards for the Knowledge and Skills of Social Auditors, which define the knowledge and skills a social auditor must have at the foundational level.

An ebullient love-fest of corporations, philanthropists, (“rich guys" according to Ted Turner), NGOs big and small, CEOs, celebrities, politicians, world leaders, and academic thought leaders came together last week to schmooze, network, and get down to the serious business of making real commitments -- reporting progress on past commitments -- combating global challenges and improving the plight of the world's poor through entrepreneurship.