Forced Labor Regulations

Modern slavery, a universal problem impacting every region in the world, manifests as human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, domestic servitude, child slavery, descent-based slavery, and forced/early marriage. These different forms of modern slavery include individuals being exploited, coerced, or tricked into losing their freedom. 

Although the numbers are challenging to track given the nature of what is being measured, the most recent reporting detailing this was the 2022 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery revealed alarming figures - about 49.6 million people affected (27.6 million in forced labor and 22 million in forced marriages, with roughly 25% overall being children). Unfortunately, this marks a significant increase over the past five years, with 10 million more people facing modern slavery compared to the 2016 global estimates. Forced labor challenges persist in business supply chains, especially in sourcing from countries lacking legal protections. Of the 27.6 million people trapped in forced labor, 17.3 million are in forced labor exploitation in the private economy, 6.3 million are in commercial sexual exploitation, and nearly 4 million are in forced labor imposed by state authorities.

The Investor Alliance focused efforts from 2020 to 2025 to address state-imposed forced labor in the Uyghur Region, bringing the voice of investors to advocate for robust worker and remedy-centered legislation to eradicate forced labor for example through trade bans of goods produced with forced labor. 

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which went into effect on June 21, 2022 in the United States, was supported by advocacy efforts from various stakeholders, including a joint effort with the Investor Alliance in 2020 with ICCR and CSO partners to establish a withhold release order under the 1307 petition. The UFLPA establishes a rebuttable presumption that any goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly, or in part, in the Uyghur Region, is implicated with state-sponsored forced labor, thus prohibited under the Tariff Act of 1930 from entry into the United States.  The tiles below highlight our work during this time in the EU, the US, and in other fora. 

Effective September 2025, this work has been transitioned to and is being led by ICCR's Global Equitable Supply Chain program. For more information, please contact Chavi Nana, Director of the EGSC program.