It was more than 13 years ago that the United Nations (UN) unanimously adopted the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) – a moment of great hope for all of us committed to protecting human and labour rights.

With its outline of how to conduct ‘human rights due diligence’ (HRDD) in order to enable companies to ‘identify, prevent, mitigate and account for’ their adverse human rights impacts in global supply chains, it seemed that the end an era of unchecked worker exploitation and human rights abuses could be at hand.

Sadly, this has not been the case.

While recent years have seen a snowballing of legislation and campaigns for new HRDD laws in Europe in particular – alongside an uptick in efforts to secure a parallel, international ‘binding treaty’ at the UN – 13 years on, we are not where we expected to be.

This is precisely why groundbreaking partnerships, like the new HRDD agreement between our two organisations – leading UK fashion brand, New Look, and global trade union federation, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) – are needed to bridge the global gaps on protecting rights in supply chains that legislation is currently either unable to or failing to fill.

Together, New Look and the ITF have agreed to forge a partnership “to improve the safety, resilience and sustainability of transport supply chains, the customers they serve, and the transport workers that keep them moving”.

Our combined efforts to protect transport workers in New Look’s supply chain will be substantial. On the one hand, this reflects the reality of modern global business in sourcing from around the world to bring products and services to consumers. On the other, it reflects the vital role that transport workers – the global economy’s key workers – play in moving the world and enabling global trade.

New Look sells its clothing and accessories in outlets in the UK and Ireland, with its manufacturing located across 1,124 (Tiers 1-3) factories in 19 countries, with shipping – spanning sea, road and, to a lesser extent, air – coming from a total of 52 ports in 27 countries. As part of New Look’s commitment to the transparency that is crucial to accountability, it discloses where New Look clothes are made.

The ITF represents nearly 16.5 million trade union members drawn from more than 700 land, air and maritime trade unions from 150 countries. It has been at the forefront of developing pioneering approaches to HRDD for transport workers – including supply chain principles and maritime HRDD guidance.

Under our agreement, New Look will be able to advance freedom of association for its supply chain transport workers by, among other elements, ensuring the ITF’s affiliate trade unions have the right to organise and enter the premises of supply chain logistics providers.

In a move rarely undertaken voluntarily in the business world – that is also a vital component of effective HRDD – New Look commits to provide for or cooperate in remediation for harms transport workers suffer, when appropriate, through collective bargaining with the ITF or its relevant affiliated unions in affected regions of the world. Meanwhile, where and when needed, the ITF and its affiliated trade unions will conduct joint trainings for New Look and its transport suppliers.

We believe this is precisely what the UNGPs intended when they called for a “smart mix” of measures, spanning “national and international, mandatory and voluntary”. Indeed, voluntary partnerships such as ours are crucial for realising the respect for workers’ rights that is needed right now.

However, we also know that, in isolation, our partnership cannot generate the global change we urgently need to end the human rights abuses, worker exploitation and environmental harms that occur daily in the global supply chains of business. To achieve that, we need a global web of mandatory rules imposed from above by governments.

There is a strong business and investor call for such new laws where they are lacking, including in the UK where New Look operates. Otherwise, we risk responsible businesses losing competitiveness for doing the right thing by taking action to protect rights.

New Look was proud to join fellow responsible businesses and investors in making precisely this case to the UK Government in 2021 – via the Resource Centre – when we said: “Legislation can contribute to a competitive level playing field, increase legal certainty about the standards expected from companies, ensure consequences when responsibilities are not met, promote engagement and impactful actions between supply chain partners and, above all, incentivise impactful and effective action on the ground.”

The groundswell for HRDD laws cannot be ignored. In the UK, it encompasses a direct public call for change, clearly supportive public opinion, pledges of support from politicians and political parties, businesses and investors, trade unions and other civil society groups.

Globally, as more and more businesses and investors adapt to European rules, as the UN Binding Treaty advances, and as the G7 states its support for protecting rights in supply chains, it becomes ever clearer that HRDD is the emerging global consensus on how we protect rights in supply chains.

But it is important to never forget who we do this for: to protect the hard-won rights of people and workers everywhere from myriad abuses. We know that our partnership can protect some of those rights now – and we hope it can be a stepping stone towards a wider change that can protect many more in the future.

Sue Fairley is the Senior Head of ESG, Quality and Sourcing at New Look

Ruwan Subasinghe is the Legal Director of the International Transport Workers’ Federation