Voices - Conversations on Business and Human Rights from Around the World

China has seen large-scale migration of workers from rural into urban areas. While the phenomenon of “left behind children” in rural areas has been widely reported, many children travel with their parents to cities. Given barriers to accessing public services that rest on a residency-status policy known as “hukou”, many of these migrant worker children are educated in privately-run migrant schools...

Adriano Nuvunga is a courageous anti-corruption activist from Mozambique who has played a leading role in building civil society institutions in Mozambique. At the Centre for Public Integrity, he raised many challenging questions about corruption in Mozambique. A keen critic of the extractive sector and how it affects political systems, he has been threatened personally but he continues to advocat...

Anton Mifsud-Bonnici is a Mediterranean-based independent business advocate. He specialises in ESG master strategy related to the low carbon energy transition. He is a thought leader on governance and an expert in stakeholder management and relationship building. He serves as a Commissioner overseeing the ongoing review of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights multi-stakeholder ini...

Egbert Wesselink is a historian by training and serves as Senior Advisor with PAX, the Dutch peace movement. Before joining PAX he worked at the Dutch parliament, as a teacher in a French Lycée d’État, as Human Rights officer with UNTAC, and as a Russia/Caucasus expert with the UNHCR. He has been deeply involved with civil society in Russia and continues to be so  today. At PAX, he leads the progr...

Mark Dickinson began his maritime career at age 16 and has been advocating for seafarers for several decades. He was instrumental in the original drafting of the Maritime Labour Convention, and leads the seafarers' representatives delegation at the STC in pushing for improvements to the convention.

In this Voices Podcast Neill Wilkins from IHRB talks to Spenser Bomholt Fain, Global Programme Manager at Quizrr a digital training platform which is used in the supply chains of a growing number of International Brands.   Jump-to points:  (1:00) What is Quizrr? (3:34) How does Quizrr work? (5:20) User centricity in Quizrr’s work (6:00) Suppliers gain from Quizrr (9:00) Quizrr and Responsible Recr...

Jump-to: (00:45) The case of labour rights in the apparel industry (1:30) What is Transparentem? (2:50) What does the Transparentum report cover? (4:35) Audits beyond the apparel industry (7:00)  Suppliers and their methods to conceal labour abuses (8:00) Why would workers lie during audits? (11:10) Concerning examples of recruitment agencies methods for extortion  (15:30) Do legislations on suppl...

The dystopian mood music surrounding the United Nations 26th annual climate change conference (COP26) is stark. Government and business leaders are not meeting the targets set in the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, and humanity is quickly running out of time to correct course. In this special episode of Voices, IHRB’s Haley St. Dennis and John Morrison unpack the concept and study of dystopian and...

  Jump-to points:    (03:20) The work of Our Journey in Malaysia (4:40) The impact of the pandemic on migrant workers in Malaysia (07:00) The additional burden on women (8:44) The risks for businesses in the absence of effective enforcement of migrant workers' rights (12:00) The active role of businesses and what businesses should do to avoid unethical recruiting  (24:45) The need to strengthen th...

PART I: #InvisibleHeroes Team (02:46) Why Singapore?  (07:23) A pronged strategy: Social media + cultural fairs + employee engagement (09:34) Scaling migrant workers stories on social media (12:50) The power of cultural fairs in making human connection (16:04) Breaking down silo’s across employees through mentoring (20:15) The importance of branding and messaging to tell stories effectively   PART...

This Day of the Seafarer podcast brings together Andrew Stephens of the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI), and Simon Bennett of Swire Shipping to reflect on the ongoing maritime crew change crisis and wider human rights issues among the world’s 1.6 million seafarers. In conversation with IHRB's Francesca Fairbairn, they discuss the impact on seafarers of being unable to disembark ships, someti...

Emily Kenway is an activist and author who was involved with the establishment of the office of the UK and slavery, Commissioner, where she was responsible for private sector engagement and has also worked for a number of organisations focused on Labor rights in both the UK and abroad. Find out more about the book    

Chrik Poortman has chaired the CoST Board since 2011. In addition to his role with CoST, he is Senior Adviser at Transparency International, where he was Director of Global Programmes for the International Secretariat until 2010. Prior to TI, Chrik worked for the World Bank in many regions.  Maria da Graça Prado is CoST’s Senior Policy & Research Adviser. She is a legal professional whose experien...

Know the Chain is a resource for companies and investors that ranks the 180 largest global ICT, food, and apparel companies on their efforts to address forced labour in their supply chains. 

Hundreds of thousands of seafarers are still stranded at sea due to port restrictions. The global crew change crisis, one of the  Top 10 Business and Human Rights Issues for 2021 , is now well into its second year. About Francesca Mangano and TFG London Francesca Mangano is the CSR and Sustainability Executive at TFG London . As head of the CSR and Sustainability Department, and with over 15 years...

A new report Developing Freedom  from the UN University suggests a new way of understanding and addressing slavery may be helpful. If slavery is a systemic issue deeply embedded in economic models which deny people any agency, how could improved development outcomes and the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals be used to understand the drivers and leverage better responses to prevent e...

About Shramik Sanjal Shramik Sanjal is a membership-based, worker-led network of migrant workers. Most members are low-income migrants in the Gulf states and Malaysia. Shramik Sanjal work to educate, empower, and support migrant workers and advocate for the right of migrant workers to live and work abroad with dignity and with respect for rights.

In March 2021, social media giant Facebook released its first human rights policy. Given the multiple challenges the company faces on a range of human rights issues, the announcement has generated great interest and questions about how it will be implemented. Few companies have an impact on society as vast as Facebook does. By offering a social network that brings together 2.8 billion users, it re...

About Impactt: Founded in 1997, Impactt were founded in 1997 specialises in ethical trade, human rights, labour standards and international development – working with organisations to improve working conditions and livelihoods, across global supply chains. Read more about Impactt's standards for maximising the impact of repayment of recruitment fees here: https://impacttlimited.com/standards-for-r...

Dr Kate Pike is Associate Professor Emeritus at Solent University and Director of Field Research, a company specialising extensively on the social science and human elements of the maritime industry. Kate is an experienced maritime researcher with applied expertise and project experience in seafarer’s welfare, gender equality and diversity, management and leadership and on-board safety cultures. K...

Export Development Canada (EDC) is a Crown corporation dedicated to helping Canadian companies of all sizes succeed on the world stage. As international risk experts, we equip them with the tools they need – the trade knowledge, financial solutions, equity, insurance, and connections – to grow their business with confidence.   Read more:  https://www.edc.ca/