This book is a much-needed contribution to our understanding of labour exploitation in global value chains (GVCs). It brings together diverse voices that illuminate the invisible realities behind the products we use daily. This is a necessary step towards business grounded in dignity and justice. Only through informed study of lived experiences can we understand the full scope of the problem.

In my experience with children who have survived the worst forms of labour, I have witnessed first-hand the cost of unchecked greed. In the late 1980s, a few years after my colleagues and I began rescue work, we witnessed an alarming rise in the number of child labourers in South Asia's carpet industry, driven by growing demand for cheaper carpets in the West. I proposed a first-of-its-kind consumer campaign, which eventually led to the creation of Rugmark (now GoodWeave), a child-labour-free certification label, and helped reduce child labour in the regional carpet industry by 80 per cent.

This is the impact we can create when every person in the GVC – from board members to buyers – acts with compassion. Compassion is not a weak emotion; it is a powerful force, born from feeling others’ suffering as our own and taking mindful action to end that suffering.

Too often, I have seen the price children pay so the world can live in luxury. I have met mothers who sold everything to buy freedom, and fathers who broke chains with bare hands. Their stories are not peripheral; they are central to the hidden engine that powers global trade.

I have said time and again that businesses cannot sustain without human rights, and human rights cannot be protected without effective business leadership. Many governments have failed to safeguard the rights of the vulnerable, while the influence of businesses has grown. This places a moral responsibility on corporates to lead the way.