Panel on Ending Modern Slavery at the 50th World Economic Forum
The 50th World Economic Forum annual meeting is characterized by the need for action, and a Spotlight legal case focuses on foreign workers stuck in Japan.
Last week, the 50th World Economic Forum annual meeting took place in Davos, Switzerland. This year's meeting was characterized by the need to translate talk into action, as many key themes were also on the agenda last year, prompting criticism of the pace of change and lack of commitments. The announcements included the SDG500, a blended finance initiative set to invest $500 million in businesses working to achieve the SDGs, and data.org, a platform for partnerships that aims to build the field of data science for social impact.
On Thursday, Maya Roy, Nita Shala, James Cockayne, Rob Wainwright, and our colleague Sophie Otiende spoke on a panel about Ending Modern Slavery and current interventions.
Key points of the discussion included:
The lack of data and examples of existing data initiatives to address the current gap;
The need for caution against assuming that technology is a quick fix to the problem;
The need for community outreach and initiatives that address trafficking at a community level;
The need for an assessment of our all consumer behavior;
The need for changes in businesses operations to ensure that workers are well paid and that people are paying the true cost of products;
The need for accountability in supply chains and enforcement mechanisms;
And, the need for policy development that addresses the issue of human trafficking comprehensively.
The speakers also highlighted the need for a more intersectional approach to the issue. The human trafficking and modern slavery movement, to a large extent, remains siloed; however, we need to strive for a more comprehensive effort that includes addressing related and under-lying issues such as inequality, gender-based violence, climate change, and racism.
"We have built an ecosystem that promotes exploitation where it's profitable for people to abuse others," Sophie Otiende said in an interview following the panel discussion. "We are going to have to undo that system and think of a new system where people are actually important not because there is money in it but just because they are people."
Here’s a recap of other noteworthy updates and news:
A new report examines the success of litigation in pursuing justice for child victims of peacekeeper sexual abuse by looking at cases in which victims and their representatives have turned to the courts to seek accountability and redress. Over the last decade, media coverage of the Super Bowl has linked it to the trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation, but effective outreach can change how the media reports on ‘sex trafficking’ for the Super Bowl.
And, Stronger Together and the University of Nottingham Rights Lab are hosting a webinar on Modern Slavery Act Reporting in the Agricultural Sector on Friday 14th February 2020 at 11 am GMT.
BBC Feature: How a boy from Vietnam became a slave on a UK cannabis farm
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