2012 Best Practices for Government Libraries

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BEST PRACTICES 2012
Uncovering Human Trafficking in Supply Chains with LexisNexis Due
Diligence Dashboard
By Samir Goswami, CSR Consultant at G and C Consulting, Former Director of Corporate
Responsibility, Rule of Law at LexisNexis
When I used to visit my father at the Indian Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, the office
compound was often flooded with desperate looking men in tattered clothing. They
were sprawled out on the Embassy lawn, sleeping on the couches in the public
areas, and showering in the bathrooms next to the receptionist’s desk. My father
was a Diplomat and he told me that these were workers who were brought to Libya
with promises of good jobs in the oil fields. However, once they got there they were
often forced to work for long hours with minimal pay in brutal conditions. Those
camped out at the Embassy were able to get away and were awaiting repatriation
to their villages in India.
The oil they were forced to extract and process was headed to consumers in
Western markets.
This was in 1985 and I was ten years old. Although at the time there were
international labor conventions that recognized this form of deception and harm, it
was not until fifteen years later in 2000 that the U.S. Congress passed the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The international community didn’t enact the
landmark “Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons” until
2003. Both of these measures define such elements of exploited labor as human
trafficking and created comprehensive legislative frameworks to address the issue.
GROWING INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS AND LAWS:
The International Labor Organization estimates that out of 12.3 million forced labor
victims worldwide, around 2.4 million are trafficked and that as many as 1.2 million
are children. Much of this labor goes to produce goods that we commonly consume.
U.S. Department of Labor research indicates that forced and child labor is found in
a variety of sectors including agriculture, textiles, manufacturing, food processing,
fisheries and commodities such as cotton, rubber and in the extraction and
processing of rare earth minerals that are found in modern day electronics.
Thus, U.S. and foreign governments have created a regulatory framework to ensure
that we recognize and assist victims, punish traffickers and don’t inadvertently
support human trafficking by utilizing forced and child labor in the production of
goods we consume. A few examples include:
1. U.S. FAR Subpar 22.15: prohibition on federal procurement officials
purchasing goods made with child labor.