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.

Verité, the global NGO, together with the Alliance to Stop Slavery and End Trafficking (ASSET), announced today at the Clinton Global Initiative a commitment aimed at stemming forced labor and human trafficking world-wide. 

Verité is very pleased to announce that Joe Bohan, an experienced pharmaceutical industry executive, has joined our Board of Directors. Joe serves as Chairman and CEO of SciDose LLC, a privately held bio-pharmaceutical company with operations in Amherst, MA, and Hyderabad, India. From 2001 to 2006 Joe was Vice President of Worldwide Business Development for Nektar Therapeutics, which at his departure was a $400 million maker of advanced drug delivery technologies.

With consumers becoming increasingly concerned about how their goods are produced, international companies are faced with managing conditions — as well as productivity — all along their supply chains. In many cases, that means finding ways to oversee factories in China.

Verité is very pleased to announce that Mike Musuraca has joined our Board of Directors.  Mike is a long-time leader in the effort to link improvements in labor rights with investment performance, first as Designated Trustee on the Investment and Proxy Committees to the New York City Employees Retirement System (NYCERS), a 300,000 plus member pension fund with assets of almost $40 billion, and currently as a Managing Director of Blue Wolf Capital Management in New York City.