¹ Anna Patty, ‘Business and religious groups join forces to end modern slavery’, The Sydney Morning Herald (online), 1 December 2016 <:http://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations/business-and-religious-groups-join-forces-to-end-modern-slavery-20161201-gt1q1p.html>; Paul Farrell, ‘We had slavery in our supply chains, says Andrew Forrest’, The Guardian (online), 7 April 2017 <:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/07/slavery-supply-chains-andrew-forrest>; Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, Establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia <:https://business-humanrights.org/en/inquiry-into-establishment-of-a-modern-slavery-act-in-australia>.

² Australian Government Attorney-General's Department, Modern Slavery in Supply Chains Reporting Requirement—Public Consultation Paper and Regulation Impact Statement (2017) <:https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about/consultations/modern-slavery-supply-chains-reporting-requirement>; ‘Labor Taking Action on Modern Slavery’, Media Release, the Hon Bill Shorten MP, 5 June 2017 <:http://www.billshorten.com.au/labor_taking_action_on_modern_slavery_monday_5_june_2017>.

³ Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Parliament of Australia, Hidden in Plain Sight An inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia (2017) xxxi.

⁴ On 16 August 2017, prior to the completion of the parliamentary inquiry, the Australian Government released a consultation paper on a proposed model for a Modern Slavery in Supply Chains Reporting Requirement: Attorney-General's Department, above n 2.

⁵ Judy Fudge, The Dangerous Appeal of the Modern Slavery Paradigm (25 March 2015) openDemocracy <:https://www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/judy-fudge/dangerous-appeal-of-modern-slavery-paradigm>.

⁶ See generally Fudge, Judy and Strauss, Kendra (eds) Temporary Work, Agencies and Unfree Labour: Insecurity in the New World of Work (Routledge, 2014)Google Scholar; Judy Fudge, ‘Modern Slavery, Unfree Labour and the Labour Market: The Social Dynamics of Legal Characterization’ (2017) Social & Legal Studies 1 <:http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0964663917746736>; Judy Fudge, Modern Slavery and Migrant Domestic Workers The Politics of Legal Characterization (24 October 2016) The Foundation for Law, Justice and Society <:http://www.fljs.org/content/modern-slavery-and-migrant-domestic-workers-politics-legal-characterization>; Chuang, Janie A, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law’ (2014) 108(4) American Journal of International Law 609CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁷ Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework—Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, John Ruggie, Human Rights Council, 17th sess, Agenda Item 3, UN Doc A/HRC/17/31 (21 March 2011) annex.

⁸ Ibid. See also Shamir, Hila, ‘A Labor Paradigm for Human Trafficking’ (2012) 60(1) UCLA Law Review 76Google Scholar.

⁹ Chuang, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law’, above n 6.

¹⁰ Davidson, Julia O’Connell, ‘New Slavery, Old Binaries: Human Trafficking and the Borders of Freedom’ (2010) 10(2) Global Networks 244CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Davidson, Julia O’Connell, Modern Slavery: The Margins of Freedom (Palgrave MacMillan, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹¹ Protocol to Prevent Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children supplementing the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, GA Res 55/25, UNGAOR, 55th sess, Agenda Item 105, UN Doc A/RES/55/25 (8 January 2001) annex II art 3.

¹² Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery, signed 25 September 1926, 60 LNTS 253 (entered into force 9 March 1927) art 1(1).

¹³ Convention Concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour, opened for signature 28 June 1930, 39 UNTS 55 (entered into force 1 May 1932) art 2(1).

¹⁴ Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, signed 30 April 1956, 226 UNTS 3 (entered into force 30 April 1957) art 1(a). In Australia, debt bondage is criminalised under the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) s 271(8).

¹⁵ Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, opened for signature 17 June 1999, 38 ILM 1207 (entry into force 19 November 2000), art 3(a).

¹⁶ Chuang, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law’, above n 6, 613–28.

¹⁷ See, eg, Protocol to Prevent Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children supplementing the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, GA Res 55/25, UNGAOR, 55th sess, Agenda Item 105, UN Doc A/RES/55/25 (8 January 2001) annex II art 3.

¹⁸ Chuang, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law’, above n 6.

¹⁹ J J Gould, Slavery's Global Comeback (19 December 2012) The Atlantic <:https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/12/slaverys-global-comeback/266354/>.

²⁰ Chuang, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law’, above n 6.

²¹ In an address to the Clinton Global Initiative on 25 September 2012, for example, President Obama explained ‘I’m talking about the injustice, the outrage of human trafficking, which must be called by its true name—modern slavery’: The Daily Conversation, Obama On ‘Modern Slavery’ (27 September 2012) YouTube <:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KzXcHZU4us>. For a detailed discussion of the expansion of the trafficking frame under the Obama administration, see Chuang, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law,’ above n 6, 619–28.

²² See generally Chuang, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law’, above n 6, 626–8; O’Connell Davidson, ‘Modern Slavery—the Margins of Freedom’, above n 10.

²³ O’Connell Davidson, Modern Slavery: The Margins of Freedom, above n 10, ch 2.

²⁴ Walk Free Foundation, Modern Slavery (2018) <:https://www.walkfreefoundation.org/>.

²⁵ On the dynamics of ‘philanthrocapitalism’ in the realm of trafficking and slavery, see Chuang, Janie A, ‘Giving as Governance? Philanthrocapitalism and Modern-Day Slavery Abolitionism’ (2015) 62 UCLA Law Review 1516Google Scholar.

²⁶ Walk Free Foundation, The Case for an Australian Modern Slavery Act (2017) <:http://walkfreefoundation.org-assets.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/content/uploads/2017/03/20160209/The-Case-for-an-Australian-Modern-Slavery.pdf>

²⁷ Russell Crowe, for example, spoke at the Global Slavery Index Launch in London in 2016.

²⁸ Chuang, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law’, above n 6, 626–7.

²⁹ Walk Free has produced a ‘Global Slavery Index’ for a number of years and, in 2017, released its report Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage, ‘Global Estimates of Modern Slavery’ (International Labour Office and Walk Free Foundation, 2017) <:http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_575479.pdf>—the outcome of a collaboration with the International Labor Organisation and the International Organisation for Migration.

³⁰ Chuang, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law’, above n 6.

³¹ Ibid.

³² United Kingdom Government, News Story: Historic law to end Modern Slavery passed (26 March 2015) Home Office <:https://www.gov.uk/government/news/historic-law-to-end-modern-slavery-passed>.

³³ See Part 4 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (UK).

³⁴ Ibid s 54. See also Part III below.

³⁵ See, eg, Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Amplifying our Impact: Australia's International Strategy to Address Human Trafficking and Slavery (March 2016).

³⁶ This includes, for example, by way of funding the ILO's Triangle project and funding the ILO's Better Work Programme.

³⁷ The Bali Process is a regional forum for policy dialogue, information sharing and practical cooperation to help the region tackle people smuggling, trafficking in persons and related transnational crime: see <:http://www.baliprocess.net>.

³⁸ The Bali Process, Bali Process Government and Business Forum <:http://www.baliprocess.net/bali-process-government-and-business-forum/>.

³⁹ For discussion of the modern slavery frame's broad appeal in the US context, see O’Connell Davidson, Modern Slavery: The Margins of Freedom, above n 10, ch 1.

⁴⁰ Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, above n 3.

⁴¹ Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Parliament of Australia, Inquiry into Establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia—Submissions (2017) <:https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Foreign_Affairs_Defence_and_Trade/ModernSlavery/Submissions>.

⁴² Attorney-General's Department, above n 2.

⁴³ Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Parliament of Australia, Modern slavery and global supply chains: Interim report of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade's inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia (2017).

⁴⁴ This is significant considering the strength of these currents elsewhere in Australian political discourse.

⁴⁵ See, eg, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Submission No 32 to Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia, 4 May 2017.

⁴⁶ Attorney-General's Department, above n 2, 11.

⁴⁷ Chuang, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law,’ above n 6.

⁴⁸ Ibid 611.

⁴⁹ Fudge, ‘Modern Slavery and Migrant Domestic Workers’, above n 6, 2.

⁵⁰ Chuang, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law,’ above n 6, 611.

⁵¹ O’Connell Davidson, ‘New Slavery, Old Binaries’, above n 10, 245; Chuang, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law’, above n 6, 638.

⁵² Fudge, ‘Modern Slavery and Migrant Domestic Workers’, above n 6, 2.

⁵³ Chuang, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law,’ above n 6, 636–7.

⁵⁴ Ibid; Fudge, ‘Modern Slavery and Migrant Domestic Workers’, above n 6, 9–10.

⁵⁵ Walk Free Foundation, The Case for an Australian Modern Slavery Act (2017) Walk Free Foundation, <:http://walkfreefoundation.org-assets.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/content/uploads/2017/03/20160209/The-Case-for-an-Australian-Modern-Slavery.pdf>.

⁵⁶ LeBaron, Genevieve and Rühmkorf, Andreas, ‘Steering CSR Through Home State Regulation: A Comparison of the Impact of the UK Bribery Act and Modern Slavery Act on Global Supply Chain Governance’ (2017) 8(S3) Global Policy 15CrossRefGoogle Scholar; LeBaron, Genevieve and Rühmkorf, Andreas, ‘The Domestic Politics of Corporate Accountability Legislation: Struggles Over the 2015 UK Modern Slavery Act’ (2017) 0(0) Socio-Economic Review 1Google Scholar.

⁵⁷ LeBaron and Rühmkorf, ‘The Domestic Politics of Corporate Accountability Legislation: Struggles Over the 2015 UK Modern Slavery Act’, above n 56, 2.

⁵⁸ Chuang, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law,’ above n 6, 612.

⁵⁹ Fudge, ‘Modern Slavery and Migrant Domestic Workers’, above n 6, 2.

⁶⁰ Australian Council of Trade Unions, Submission No 113 to Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Parliament of Australia, Inquiry into Establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia, 4 May 2017.

⁶¹ Chuang, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law,’ above n 6, 649.

⁶² Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker, ‘Surf Clothing Label Rip Curl Using ‘Slave Labour’ to Manufacture Clothes in North Korea’, The Sydney Morning Herald (online) 21 February 2016 <:http://www.smh.com.au/business/surf-clothing-label-rip-curl-using-slave-labour-to-manufacture-clothes-in-north-korea-20160219-gmz375.html>.

⁶³ Adele Ferguson, ‘Wage Fraud: Pizza Hut Hit with Fines’, The Sydney Morning Herald (online) 27 January 2017 <:http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/wage-fraud-pizza-hut-hit-with-fines-20170126-gtzrbx.html>; Adele Ferguson, ‘Is the Caltex Franchise Model Worse for Workers than 7-Eleven?’, The Sydney Morning Herald (online) 26 November 2016 <:http://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations/is-the-caltex-franchise-model-worse-for-workers-than-7eleven-20161125-gsxth3.html>; ‘Baiada Accused of Using Labour Hire Companies which Exploit Foreign Workers’, ABC News (online) 5 May 2015 <:http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-05/baiada-workers/6444798>.

⁶⁴ Angel Gurría, ‘Opening Remarks’ (Speech delivered at the Fourth Global Forum on Responsible Business Conduct, Paris, 8 June 2016).

⁶⁵ Modern Slavery Act 2015 (UK) s 54(4).

⁶⁶ Ibid s 54(6).

⁶⁷ Ibid s 54(7).

⁶⁸ Broadly, this guidance recognises that the content and level of detail should be determined by each organisation based on its risk profile (including its sector, the complexity of its structure and supply chains, and the sectors and regions in which its suppliers operate): United Kingdom, Transparency in Supply Chains etc.: A Practical Guide, 10 [4.2] <:https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/649906/Transparency_in_Supply_Chains_A_Practical_Guide_2017.pdf>.

⁶⁹ CORE and Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, ‘UK Modern Slavery Act: First 75 Statements In’ (Press Release, 7 March 2016) <:http://corporate-responsibility.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/CORE-BHRRC-press-release_modern-slavery-statements_160307_.pdf>.

⁷⁰ KnowTheChain, Eradicating Forced Labour in Electronics: What Do Company Statements Under the UK Modern Slavery Act Tell Us? (March 2018) KnowTheChain, 4. <:https://knowthechain.org/wp-content/uploads/KTC-ICT-MSA-Report_Final_Web.pdf>.

⁷¹ Lis Cunha and Stuart Bell, Modern Slavery Statements: One Year On (April 2017) Ergon Associates, 10 <:http://ergonassociates.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/MSA_One_year_on_April_2017.pdf?x74739>.

⁷² Quintin Lake et al, Corporate Leadership on Modern Slavery: How Have Companies Responded to the UK Modern Slavery Act One Year On? (Hult International Business School and The Ethical Trading Initiative, November 2016) 16–17 <:https://ethicaltrade.org/sites/default/files/shared_resources/corporate_leadership_on_modern_slavery_full_report_2016.pdf>. Allocated budget does not of course indicate effectiveness, although it would seem a reasonable proxy for the seriousness with which a company takes an issue.

⁷³ KnowTheChain, above n 70, 4.

⁷⁴ Kevin Hyland OBE, UK Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, quoted in Lake et al, above n 72, 68.

⁷⁵ Wen, Shuangge, ‘The Cogs and Wheels of Reflexive Law—Business Disclosure Under the Modern Slavery Act’ (2016) 43 Journal of Law and Society 327, 355CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Todres, Jonathan, ‘The Private Sector's Pivotal Role in Combating Human Trafficking’ (2012) 3 California Law Review Circuit 80, 95Google Scholar.

⁷⁶ This provision essentially requires publicly traded companies that manufacture products using certain conflict minerals originating in the Democratic Republic of Congo and bordering countries to issue a Conflict Minerals Report detailing the due diligence measures taken to determine whether those conflict minerals directly or indirectly financed or benefited armed groups in the covered countries. Analysis of the first set of Conflict Mineral Reports submitted by companies in response to this requirement has found only around 7% of companies reported strong due diligence measures: Safarty, Galit A, ‘Shining Light on Global Supply Chains’ (2015) 56(2) Harvard International Law Journal 419, 423Google Scholar. Another study concluded that many companies complying with the requirements have done so, ‘in a largely superficially manner, suggestive of minimal effort’: Schwartz, Jeff, ‘The Conflict Minerals Experiment’ (2016) 6(1) Harvard Business Law Review 129, 131Google Scholar.

⁷⁷ Wen, above n 75; Weil, David et al, ‘The Effectiveness of Regulatory Disclosure Policies’ (2006) 25(1) Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 155CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁷⁸ Weil et al, above n 77, 155.

⁷⁹ Doorey, David J, ‘Who Made That? Influencing Foreign Labour Practices through Reflexive Domestic Disclosure Regulation’ (2005) 43(4) Osgoode Hall Law Journal 353, 371CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁸⁰ Ibid 156. See also Wen, above n 75, 329.

⁸¹ Weil et al, above n 77, 157.

⁸² Ibid; Hess, David, ‘The Three Pillars of Corporate Social Reporting as New Governance Regulation: Disclosure, Dialogue and Development’ (2008) 18(4) Business Ethics Quarterly 447, 457–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁸³ See, eg, Hess, above n 82; Weil et al, above n 77, 173; Fung, Archon and Graham, Mary and Weil, David, Full Disclosure: The Perils and Promise of Transparency (Cambridge University Press, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Doorey, above n 79.

⁸⁴ Doorey, above n 79, 363.

⁸⁵ David Weil et al, above n 77, 176.

⁸⁶ Wen, above n 75, 349.

⁸⁷ Ibid 355.

⁸⁸ Shamir, above n 8, 98.

⁸⁹ Chuang, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law,’ above n 6, 609; Fudge, Modern Slavery and Migrant Domestic Workers, above n 6.

⁹⁰ Cathy Feingold, A Binding Convention on Decent Work: The First Step to Workers’ Rights (13 September 2016) openDemocracy <:https://www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/gscpd/cathy-feingold/cathy-feingold-yes>.

⁹¹ International Labour Organization, Forced Labour (Supplementary Measures) Recommendation No 203, 4(j), 103rd ILC sess (11 Jun 2014).

⁹² Ibid. The protocol is part of the ILO's strategy to target the ‘worst forms of “un-decent labour”’ such as forced labour and child labour, so as to revive the institution's global relevance. While this approach has been successful, and resulted in new partnerships between nation-states and the ILO, it has been criticised for failing to see the worst forms of exploitation as the consequence of economic systems that produce various types of less than decent work. In other words, it accepts the rules of the game, instead of trying to change the rules: Lerche, Jens, ‘A Global Alliance against Forced Labour? Unfree Labour, Neo-Liberal Globalization and the International Labour Organization’ (2007) 7 Journal of Agrarian Change 425CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁹³ Australian Government, Department of Employment, Australia's Pledge to Progress Ratification of the Forced Labour Protocol (27 November 2017) <:https://docs.jobs.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/australias_pledge_final_0.pdf>.

⁹⁴ One explanation for this is, as Shamir puts it, ‘[f]rom a labor perspective, the difference between exploitation of workers and trafficking is a matter of degree and not kind. All forms of labor entail some degree of human commodification; forced labor and trafficking are perhaps its most extreme manifestations’: Shamir, above n 8, 110.

⁹⁵ Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) (‘Criminal Code’). Div 270 of the Criminal Code criminalises offences relating to slavery; sub-s 270.4(1) defines servitude; sub-s 270.6(1) of the Criminal Code defines forced labour; div 271 of the Criminal Code criminalises human trafficking into, from, or within Australia, and contains specific offences for domestic trafficking, child trafficking and organ trafficking.

⁹⁶ Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) ss 45, 293 (‘FW Act’). The National Minimum Wage Order 2017 [PR593544] set the wages for employees not covered by an enterprise agreement or a modern award.

⁹⁷ FW Act ss 323–6.

⁹⁸ Ibid s 557A.

⁹⁹ Ibid pt 4-1. These standards include the National Employment Standards, a term of a modern award or enterprise agreement or the sham contracting provisions. The civil remedies provided for generally include a pecuniary penalty and compensation orders, although the courts have a broad power to make ‘any order the court considers appropriate’: FW Act s 545.

¹⁰⁰ For a discussion of other strategies used by the FWO in this space, see Tess Hardy and Howe, John, ‘Chain Reaction: A Strategic Approach to Addressing Employment Noncompliance in Complex Supply Chains’ (2015) 57(4) Journal of Industrial Relations 563Google Scholar. See also Hardy, Tess, ‘Who Should be Held Liable for Workplace Contraventions and on What Basis?’ (2016) 29 Australian Journal of Labour Law 78Google Scholar.

¹⁰¹ To be liable under s 550 of the FW Act, an alleged accessory must have had ‘knowledge of the essential matters which go to make up the contravention,’ even if they were not actually aware that the law was being broken. For discussion see Hardy, above n 100.

¹⁰² FW Act s 557A.

¹⁰³ See FW Act pt 4-1, div 4A.

¹⁰⁴ Ibid ss 789CA, 789CB and 789CC stated that when a TCF outworker performs TCF work for a person, and that responsible person does not pay an amount that is payable, in relation to the TCF work, an indirectly responsible entity (higher in the supply chain) is liable to pay the unpaid amount.

¹⁰⁵ See Marshall, Shelley, ‘An Exploration of Control in the Context of Vertical Disintegration, and Regulatory Responses’ in Arup, Chris et al (eds), Labour Law and Labour Market Regulation: Essays in the Construction, Constitution, and Regulation of Labour Markets and Work Relationships (Federation Press, 2006) 542Google Scholar; Marshall, Shelley, ‘Australian Textile Clothing and Footwear Supply Chain Regulation’ in Fenwick, Colin and Novitz, Tonia (eds), Human Rights at Work: Perspectives on Law and Regulation (Hart, 2010) 555Google Scholar; Marshall, Shelley, ‘How does Institutional Change Occur? Two Strategies for Reforming the Scope of Labour Law’ (2014) 43(3) Industrial Law Journal 286CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rawlings, Michael and Howe, John, ‘The Regulation of Supply Chains: An Australian Contribution to Cross-National Legal Learning’ in Stone, Katherine Van Wezel (ed), Rethinking Workplace Regulation: Beyond the Standard Contract of Employment (Russell Sage Foundation, 2013) 233Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁶ United Nations Office of the High Commissioner, Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, UN Doc HR/PUB/11/04 (16 June 2011) <:http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf> (‘Guiding Principles’).

¹⁰⁷ Buhmann, Karin, ‘Neglecting the Proactive Aspect of Human Rights Due Diligence? A Critical Appraisal of the EU's Non-Financial Reporting Directive as a Pillar One Avenue for Promoting Pillar Two Action’ (2017) 3(1) Business and Human Rights Journal 11Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁸ See further Bonnitcha, Jonathan and McCorquodale, Robert, ‘The Concept of ‘Due Diligence’ in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights’ (2017) 28(3) European Journal of International Law 899CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ruggie, John Gerard and Sherman, John F III, ‘The Concept of ‘Due Diligence’ in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: A Reply to Jonathan Bonnitcha and Robert McCorquodale’ (2017) 28(3) European Journal of International Law 921CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The exchange between these authors concerns the nature of human rights due diligence and its relationship to the corporate responsibility to respect human rights. For yet another potential formulation, see Cassel, Doug, ‘Outlining the Case for a Common Law Duty of Care of Business to Exercise Human Rights Due Diligence’ (2016) 1 Business and Human Rights Journal 179CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁰⁹ Guiding Principle 18 of the Guiding Principles provides that the risk identification and assessment stage of the HRDD process should ‘involve meaningful consultation with potentially affected groups and other relevant stakeholders, as appropriate to the size of the business enterprise and the nature and context of the operation.’ There is a divergence of views as to what form and level of engagement this necessitates in practice, and the extent to which consultation is required at other stages of the due diligence process.

¹¹⁰ See further Guiding Principle 21 of the Guiding Principles.

¹¹¹ Guiding Principle 12 of the Guiding Principles and commentary. This includes, at a minimum, those in the International Bill of Human Rights (the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), and the principles concerning fundamental rights in the eight ILO core conventions as set out in the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

¹¹² O’Connell Davidson, ‘New Slavery, Old Binaries’, above n 10, 249. See also Chuang, ‘Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Trafficking Law,’ above n 6.

¹¹³ United Nations Office of the High Commissioner, The Corporate Responsibility to Protect Human Rights: An Interpretive Guide, UN Doc HR/PUB/12/02 (2012) <:http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/HR.PUB.12.2_En.pdf> 22.

¹¹⁴ See, eg, Jennifer Schappert, Rethinking Due Diligence Practices in the Garments Supply Chain, (24 April 2015) OECD Insights <:http://oecdinsights.org/2015/04/24/rethinking-due-diligence-practices-in-the-apparel-supply-chain/>; Ethical Trading Initiative, Human Rights Due Diligence Framework (May 2016) <:https://www.ethicaltrade.org/resources/human-rights-due-diligence-framework>.

¹¹⁵ See, eg, The H&M Group, The H&M Group Modern Slavery Statement: Financial Year 2015/2016 (30 January 2017) <:http://sustainability.hm.com/content/dam/hm/about/documents/en/CSR/Report%202016/HMgroup_Modern_Slavery_Statement_2015-2016.pdf>. See also the approaches taken by companies scored highest under the KnowtheChain benchmarking initiative: <:https://knowthechain.org>. A number of civil society organisations also advocate for this approach: see, eg, CORE et al, Tackling Modern Slavery through Human Rights Due Diligence (1 June 2017) <:http://corporate-responsibility.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Core_DueDiligenceFINAL-1.pdf>.

¹¹⁶ Loi n° 2017-399 du 27 mars 2017 relative au devoir de vigilance des sociétés mères et des entreprises donneuses d’ordre (France) JO, 28 March 2017. See also the Netherlands’ Child Labour Due Diligence Law (‘Wet Zorgplicht Kinderarbeid’): India Committee of the Netherlands, Child Labour Due Diligence Law for companies adopted by Dutch Parliament (8 February 2017) <:http://www.indianet.nl/170208e.html>.

¹¹⁷ See, eg, various civil society and academic submissions to the 2016–17 federal parliamentary inquiry into the Commonwealth procurement framework, available at <:https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Former_Committees/Government_Procurement/CommProcurementFramework>. See generally the International Learning Lab on Public Procurement and Human Rights, <:www.hrprocurementlab.org>.

¹¹⁸ This approach was advocated by a number of NGOs and trade unions in their submissions to the recent parliamentary inquiry. The final report noted that the mandatory reporting requirements could be expanded to other human rights issues ‘once the reporting requirement becomes established’: above n 3, [5.24]–[5.29].

¹¹⁹ See generally Buhmann, above n 107.

¹²⁰ Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, above n 3.

¹²¹ Ibid [3.58].

¹²² Ibid [3.65]. It also referred to Walk Free Foundation as ‘an international body’, on par with the International Labour Organisation.