Final Project Social Policy

Human Trafficking

Social policies-Final project

Social policy and recent laws on human trafficking

Currently, under federal law, there are specific protections that are designed to help individuals who have been illegally trafficked to act as slaves in the sex industry or to labor in various occupations as unpaid or underpaid workers. However, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 has been criticized as penalizing victims more than helping them on many occasions. Victims are required to cooperate with authorities, and must show they face demonstrable harm if they return to their home nations to obtain a T. visa. Many victims are too afraid to come forward, and there is a real risk of deportation if they cannot present a strong case that their situation supports all of the required elements of the TVPA (Dovydaitis, 2011).

However, as well as federal legislation, most states of the union have legislation penalizing trafficking. Recently, California took aggressive action to create more stringent laws regarding trafficking than currently exist under U.S. federal laws. "The supply chains that companies rely on to bring consumer goods to the market have become so fragmented that a grocery or apparel company has no idea -- sometimes by design, sometimes inadvertently -- that it is enabling the forced exploitation of workers" (Cernansky 2012). Although some companies might honestly not know, it is arguable that a fair percentage of other enterprises do have an idea of what is going on, but turn a blind eye, given the immense profits they can garner by having a workforce that is paid almost nothing. The California Transparency in Supply Chains Act has made it the law that ignorance is no excuse for major enterprises.

Companies cannot say that they do not know how their production chain functions, including the aspects they outsource. The Act, which took effect in January 2012, is thought to have wide-ranging implications, despite the fact that it applies to only one state. California is a very large state and because the law "applies to any manufacturing and retail company with $100 million or more in sales that does business in California; one estimate predicted the law would impact 3,200 global companies" (Cernansky 2012). To comply with the Act, the company must audit its suppliers to see if they are complicit in human trafficking and slavery and assess what third parties use as a verification process to show that they do not use enslaved labor. The company is also required to certify "that materials used in a product comply with human-trafficking laws in the countries where business is conducted" (Cernansky 2012). The law does not require the company to change its policies, but it does force "companies to disclose what they are doing to identify and eliminate human trafficking from their supply chains" (Cernansky 2012). If they are doing nothing, they must say publically on their website and face public scrutiny (and potential boycotts).

What is particularly unique about California's law is that it is a 'supply-oriented' law, rather than a 'demand-oriented' law. Previously, the focus of legislation had been upon punishing those directly involved in trafficking, and trying to eliminate trafficking by empowering victims to report abuse. This law attempts to eliminate an important part of slave labor in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors by making it unprofitable for companies to use trafficked labor or to ignore the use of trafficked labor. Because California is such a large state, it is able to set a high standard for participating companies. The law has already had a demonstrable effect upon the actions of companies. "Companies have started publishing the information necessary to comply" even in anticipation of the law taking full effect (Cernansky 2012).

The law recognizes that a single ethical and watchful company alone cannot change the world. Consumers likewise can have trouble changing their buying habits based upon personal research. Although some highly-publicized companies, such as Nike, have been the subject of consumer boycotts and were pressured to change their ways, it can be difficult to know the full range of sourcing for every product an individual buys. Now consumers can easily find out precisely what is behind the production line of their favorite sneakers or jeans. If all major companies are vigilant about their supply chain, the demand for slave labor can be greatly reduced. The most difficult parts of the supply chain for a company to monitor are those at the very beginnings, or its raw materials. Countries where raw materials are harvested often have the least stringent regulations regarding worker conditions, such as "the fields and mines that supply raw materials like sugar and coltan, a mineral used in just about every gadget in the world" (Cernansky 2012).