Center Hosts Panel Discussion on Forced Labor in Global Supply Chains with International Experts

The Center for Human Rights and International Justice hosted a lunch panel with international academic experts on the topic of combating exploitation and forced labor in global supply chains  in conjunction with a convening of the Re:Structure Lab, a multidisciplinary, multi-institution team of researchers working to end forced labor, modern slavery, and human trafficking on a global scale by reimagining the business dynamics that sustain it. Set during a break in the two-day Re:Structure Lab gathering — which brought together 15 scholars from eight different academic institutions to discuss this pervasive global issue — the panel gave Lab contributors an opportunity to address undergraduate students directly. 

Moderated by Re:Structure Lab co-PI and Center Associate Director Jessie Brunner, the panel featured Professors Genevieve LeBaron (Simon Fraser University), Greg Distelhorst (University of Toronto), Janie Chuang (American University), Vivek Soundararajan (University of Bath), and Will Milberg (New School). At the forefront of the conversation was a focus on the broader sociopolitical and economic structures that make workers vulnerable to such abuse and hardwire their exploitation into global business systems. 

“How did we get here?” asked Distelhorst, an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto whose research focuses on multinational business and worker rights. “Globalization produced a very asymmetric and power-riddled structure, driven and governed by corporations. Forced labor reflects the consequences of this skewed power structure. Now the question is: Can you put the genie back in the bottle?”

For the Re:Structure Lab team, given that many existing “global estimates” do not reflect the full scope of forced labor around the world, addressing such exploitation depends in large part on generating more qualitative and quantitative data to better assess the problem. Although the International Labour Organization and Walk Free estimated in 2022 that 27.6 million people are in conditions of forced labor, for instance, Re:Structure Lab co-PI Genevieve LeBaron noted that this figure only reflects the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to issues of work and exploitation. 

“How does the tip of the iceberg relate to the larger iceberg?” LeBaron asked. “On a continuum of other types of everyday exploitation, for everyday workers, this can mean signing a contract you don't understand. It can mean experiencing a heart attack and being loaned money at an excessive interest rate to pay for your operation. We often hear that modern slavery is this horrific crime, and there is some truth in that. But these quiet, unremarkable moments can push someone over the line from having a poorly remediated job into a situation that meets the threshold of forced labor.”

By bringing academic expertise to bear on a problem often seen as too nebulous to address concretely, panelists said, they are hoping to guide key stakeholders from business and government towards implementing necessary reforms. That means approaching the problem both from a top-down perspective — asking multinational companies and regulators to do more to combat such gross human rights violations in global supply chains — as well as bottom-up, by supporting worker-led initiatives toward fair pay and working conditions.

“Global supply chains create legal distance from the people who profit from forced labor in the most immediate senses,” said Janie Chuang, a Professor of Law at American University who teaches and writes in the areas of international law, human trafficking and labor migration. “Supply chain regulation would go a long way to reduce [workers’] vulnerability.”

To address this pervasive and systemic issue, other possible responses mentioned by panelists include implementing anti-retaliation measures to protect workers who speak out against their employers, building rights-based immigration systems for migrant workers, and incorporating provisions around human trafficking and forced labor into trade regulations. 

In advising global stakeholders, however, speakers across the panel highlighted the importance of centering the workers who put their safety on the line to articulate their own conditions. Given that factors like class, race, and gender continue to feed vulnerable populations into the forced labor system, LeBaron said, any potential solutions must be attentive to the unique nexus of oppression that vulnerable workers confront throughout their daily lives. 

“We are listening to what workers say about conditions and solutions,” LeBaron said about the Re:Structure Lab’s work. “And, all the while,” she emphasized to the audience of about 30 undergraduate students, “we are keeping an eye to the role businesses can play in enforcing standards of decent work.”