The TVPRA List : a tool to end modern slavery

On the 1st of December, the US Department of Labor's (DOL) published its List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor. To be entirely accurate, the redaction of this list has been mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 and released by the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB). Now that you're accustomed with the acronyms, I'd like to talk about this project which could play a great role to fight slavery and child labor worldwide.

As its name indicates it, the list is intended to compile all the goods produced by forced and/or child labor in violation of international standards. That's already the sixth edition of this list which is yearly updated since 2009. That year, there were 122 goods listed from 58 countries : today, the amount of goods reach 136 from 74 countries across the world, whereas child labor significantly diminished from 215 to 168 million.
The main goal is to raise public awareness about child and forced labor around the world and to promote efforts to tackle them. For a few years it's easy to have accurate data, the challenge now is to use it. For a few years, in every areas (marketing, sport, management...) the use of data has improved performance, why not in the fight against slavery ? I could write a paragraph to explain in what extent big data could (and will) help to fight slavery but the article and the video in the link below would do it much better than me.

WATCH: How Big Data Is Fighting Human Trafficking

For some 27 million victims of modern-day slavery, there is one combatant leading the way in terms of prevention and protection: technology. A recent panel featuring Google, CNN, HuffPost and others

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/16/big-data-human-trafficking_n_3606060.html

Well, the US Department of Labor's realizes a list and then ? What happens ? A few examples show it helps to fight slavery.

Tobacco farms in Kazakhstan
In 2009, the ILAB placed tobacco from Kazakhstan on the list after investigations proving that children (either Kazakh or migrants) were performing labor-intensive tasks and that adult migrants faced passport confiscation. Like in Qatar with the kafala system, the passport confiscation is synonymous with coercive recruitment, forced labor and indebtedness. By highlighting the poor conditions in the tobacco industry, the ILAB prompted cigarette producers to be careful with whom they did business.
As a consequence Philip Morris Kazakhstan, the sole buyer of tobacco in the country, set up a program to be sure that its tobacco came from safe producers. In partnership with a local NGO, Philip Morris implemented a program including a monitoring of labor practices on all tobacco farms. Then, the american firm and the NGO have educated workers about their rights and worked with the Government to enforce actions in areas where child / forced labor was suspected. 4 years later, results were impressive : the number of farms decreased from 300 to 74, and complaints about illegal working conditions almost disappeared, only remaining in few tobacco farms.

By publishing these lists, our goal is to shed light on the plight of the estimated 168 million child laborers and 21 million forced laborers around the world, especially as they relate specifically to goods we use every day

Carol Pier, Deputy Under Secretary of Labor for International Affairs

Thai shrimp and seafood processing industry
The ILAB placed Thai shrimp on its list list for the first time in 2009. That year, it had some consequences as Thai government and international buyers put pressure on the industry to improve its practices. The International Labor Organization (ILO) closely worked with Thai authorities to develop a Good Labor Practices (GLP) program, whose missions consisted in promoting training and good practices for the prevention and elimination of forced and child labor. In addition, the GLP aimed to improve the working conditions in the the entire supply chain.
In 2013, the GLP Guidelines for Primary Processing Workplaces in the Shrimp and Seafood Industry of Thailand was signed and launched by the Thai Ministry of Labor. It provides information for supply chain enterprises to encourage them to develop human resource management and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in a general manner. However, even if these initiatives represent a real progress, there is still a long way to go. The recent trial of Andy Hall, a British activist who denounced the working conditions in Thai fish industry, reminds us that initiatives and laws are just a first step, the second one consists in changing mentality and punishing those who don't respect the laws.

There are more examples available on the complete report below (each one is between one and three pages). That's really interesting to see how collecting datas and raising awareness could have such a great impact. Many people are interested by the subject but think they have to go on the field to fight slavery, this kind of action proves it's not always necessary.

You can follow me on Twitter : @SlaveryFight

Or add me on Facebook : Guillaume Telori

Child labor, slavery: what price for the development of India? - Fight Slavery !

When a Western company decides to relocate (a part of) its activities in poorer countries, its favorite argument consists in arguing that it will bring wealth and skills elsewhere, to people who ...

http://slaveryfight.over-blog.com/2014/11/child-labor-slavery-what-price-for-the-development-of-india.html

http://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/pdf/TVPRA_Report2014.pdf

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