Dirty Names List

There is no doubt that slavery is still a thriving business across the world. 

According to the International Labor Organization, an estimated 21 million people across the world are trapped in some form of forced labor and other types of modern-slavery, feeding a booming industry in human exploitation generating profits of more than $32bn each year. 

The United Nations estimates that people-trafficking is the third biggest criminal industry behind guns and drugs.

In recent years there has been a growing awareness that modern-day slavery is largely a labor and economic, as well as a human rights issue, and that the worst forms of human exploitation continue to lurk in the murky depths of many global supply chains. Slavery isn't a word that any business wants to be linked with.

So far the association between global brands and slave labor comes largely from damaging media exposés – such as last week's story on the sugar giant Tate & Lyle, accused of child labor on plantations in Cambodia, allegations which the company has denied.

Yet interesting models for how to get businesses to engage with the problem of forced labor are starting to emerge. 

Since 2006, more than 170 global companies have signed up to the Athens Ethical Principles, where signatories pledge to ensure their own businesses are slavery-free and declare zero tolerance for dealing with other corporations benefiting from human trafficking.

In California the Transparency in Supply Chains Act, which came into force last year, legally requires companies doing business in California to report on what they are doing to eradicate slavery from their product lines. The act stipulates that larger companies must make this information public through a disclosure on their websites.

In Brazil an aggressive anti-slavery strategy launched by the government in the mid-90s has led to a controversial yet seemingly effective name-and-shame strategy towards eliminating slavery from major industries.

Thousands of Brazilians and laborers from neighboring South American countries are thought to be trapped in slavery in Brazil's booming agrarian, mining and materials sectors. 

Last year, Greenpeace released a report linking Brazil's charcoal industry, which fuels iron ore smelters producing metals for the international car manufacturing markets, to widespread environmental destruction and forced labor.