Human Trafficking - Your Business

Human Rights at Sea (HRAS) announced its partnership with the international NGO Finance Against Trafficking and the immediate availability of a new cost-effective on-line CSR tool for use by all commercial entities within the maritime industry known as 'ChainChecker'.

Exploitation of people in the workplace can often occur simply because legitimate companies are unaware of the unethical and sometimes even criminal behavior of others in their supply chain.

Business, regardless of its size, can support human trafficking either directly or indirectly. Human trafficking is not a straightforward challenge for business.

Risks posed to business by trafficking are:

? Legal

? Reputational

? Operational

ChainChecker will help a business understand whether they are at risk, highlight areas of concern and provide guidance on how to take actions to eliminate or reduce the risk.

By answering questions about your supply chain, sourcing of products and services, policies and practices, travel, property and investments, you will receive an assessment of the risk of your business being directly or indirectly involved in trafficking.

Colleen Theron, Director of Finance against Trafficking said, "ChainChecker is an online, anti-trafficking Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) question-based tool. It has been launched by the international NGO, “Finance Against Trafficking” and which is working in partnership with the Human Rights at Sea (HRAS) International initiative to deliver effective CSR remedies to all business working within the maritime sector."

Colleen said, "We are excited to be working in collaboration with HRAS and we hope to see the Maritime industry using the tool to encourage businesses, large and small, to take steps to ensure that they are not inadvertently supporting human trafficking in their organisations or supply chains. Both HRAS and Finance against Trafficking share a vision to see the eradication of human rights abuse".

David Hammond, Founder of Human Rights at Sea said, "In the last 4 months we have seen unprecedented interest in the HRAS on-line platform as a means for raising international awareness of numerous human rights issues throughout the maritime environment. This includes the abuse of persons through human trafficking chains which exist as a lucrative, yet illegal business model, continuously operating on a global scale and potentially operating in and around the maritime industry and its associated supply chains. Maritime business is, however, waking up to the fact that their reputation and international profile can be irreparably damaged through either direct and indirect association with traffickers and the consequences of their illegal trade."

“Today, with the close support and in partnership with FAT, HRAS seeks to provide a simple and cost effect solution for all maritime businesses in identifying and providing an on-line assessment of the risk of a business being directly, or indirectly involved in trafficking. In short, this allows entities whatever their size or industry standing to identify risk, react, mitigate and deal with any threats to their supply chain and which is the lifeblood of their business".