Background

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As Human Rights Due Diligence legislation emerges throughout the world and supply chain abuses remain rife across a multitude of industries, the session will address pressing issues in the Asia Pacific in terms of past and ongoing supply chain cases and challenges facing trade unions and workers as well as legislative and policy responses . How do the current designs of HRDD laws fail to meet the challenges faced by workers, what is the reality and need on the ground and where could dramatic improvements be made? Despite advances in this area , there remains no significant ability within supply chains for workers or unions to hold supply chain actors legally accountable for deficiencies and illegalities they face. The presentation and discussion will focus on challenges facing workers in the Asia Pacific primarily and what are potential substantive next steps to truly hold supply chain actors and MNCs accountable.

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Key Objectives

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• Assessing the landscape in terms of current , relevant HRDD and MNC accountability mechanisms and what’s ahead

• A review of major challenges facing workers, trade unions and highlighting previous and ongoing advocacy successes, what worker, what didn’t and why

• A roadmap and review of reforms that would make tangible, binding and significant improvements to supply chains across a multitude of sectors from a worker and trade union rights perspective

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Guiding Questions

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• What would a just and accountable supply chain look like from a worker rights perspective?

• Are all industry challenges identical , is there a ‘one size fits all’ model for workers and trade unions facing significant rights challenges in supply chains?

• What stakeholders bear responsibility for true supply chain accountability , what are those responsibilities and how can they be achieved?

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Format

• Interactive Lecture Presentations with Significant Interactive Q and A session

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