Verité is pleased to announce a new round of updates to the strawberries, bananas, pineapple, citrus, and melons commodity reports on the Responsible Sourcing Tool. These refreshed reports include the most recent information from the U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report and the U.S. Department of Labor’s List of Goods Produced by Forced Labor and Child Labor.
In 2016, Verité launched the Responsible Sourcing Tool (RST), providing a resource to federal contractors to meet the anti-trafficking compliance measures in the Federal Acquisition Regulation. The tool was developed with support from the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. In addition to federal contractors, the interactive website helps companies, advocates, and consumers detect, prevent, and combat trafficking in global supply chains and meet the growing number of legal, regulatory, and market demands for attention to severe exploitation in global supply chains. After a year of operation, Verité takes a look at the progress that has been made.
Verité was pleased to have a presence at the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility’s (ICCR) multi-stakeholder roundtable, “Emerging Best Practices in Implementing Ethical Recruitment Policies across Industries,” convened on January 19, in New York City. The roundtable is part of the ICCR’s “No Fees” Initiative, which is supported by Humanity United. The event brought together leaders from the private sector, NGOs, socially responsible investors, international organizations, and government to engage on this issue. Verité is proud to be a long term partner with ICCR on labor recruitment reform and many other supply chain challenges facing the broad range of companies in which ICCR members invest.
The U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons has contracted Verité to expand and enhance the Responsible Sourcing Tool over the next five years. The Responsible Sourcing Tool is a free web platform created to help visualize and understand the risks of human trafficking in supply chains. The website contains a model compliance plan with downloadable templates and other tools based on Verité’s deep experience helping leading companies combat trafficking in their global supply chains. Verité launched the tool in 2016 with a series of meetings in the Washington, DC area opened by Ambassador Susan Coppedge, who directs the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
From ground-breaking research and new technological tools to advocacy and addressing the changing regulatory landscape in 2016, Verité continues to be at the forefront of fighting forced labor, human trafficking, and unsafe labor conditions worldwide. Read below for some highlights from 2016 in five crucial areas.