9.00 am - 10.30 am > Panel 1
Modern-day-Slavery - Concepts and Developments in a Globalized Economy
Slavery changed its forms and is less today about literal ownership of people – except in some countries like Mauritania, where ancestral forms of slavery survive- and more about exploitation and systemic cases of coercion on a large scale.
Modern-day slavery is an umbrella concept covering various forms of severe exploitation affecting vulnerable workers. The recent focus on human trafficking and its definition respond to the new challenges of globalization, with millions of workers targeted by governments and companies in search of cheap labor. Worldwide, thousands of organizations are engaged in the fight to stop modern slavery and Member States of the United Nations have committed to fight against modern slavery in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal 8.7. It has been demonstrated that traffickers are responsive to risk. Therefore, anti-poverty strategies and policies must be coupled with international cooperation for the adoption of anti-slavery laws and for enforcement of these laws by local police, prosecutors and judges via capacity building programs. 

11.10 am - 12.30 pm > Panel 2
Business’s responsibility to eradicate labor slavery from supply chains
Organisations need to account for the social, environmental and economic consequences of their supply chain operations. Effective corporate and social responsibility (CSR) policies mitigate risk and influence the market perception of a corporate identity. But the nature of labor slavery in many industries - a corrupt and usually hidden criminal activity - is such that even the most scrupulous corporations will risk purveying slavery-tainted goods for economic gain While national governments of source countries have to take responsibility for the problem, corporations must engage in dialogue with those governments about the enforcement of criminal laws against slavery. Government AND business must collaborate to identify and investigate those individuals who are profiting from the unpaid, coerced and exploited work of children and adults in their industries.