"Global Investors Welcome the EU's Proposed Forced Labor Ban While Urging Modifications to Strengthen its Effectiveness"

Today, investors shared a letter they submitted to the EU Commission and EU Parliament charged with the development of the EU’s Proposed Forced Labor Product Ban (proposed regulation), a legislative proposal to prohibit products made with forced labor from entering the European Union (EU) market.

The letter and signatories are available at this link...

While the group of 87 investors, who are members of the Investor Alliance for Human Rights, welcomed the regulation as “a good first step”, they are urging the European Parliament and EU Member States to consider and incorporate their recommendations for strengthening the regulation...

The investors centered their recommendations on three key areas:

1. Incorporating a worker and remedy-centered approach, with companies remediating the harm suffered by the affected communities....
2. Including mandatory human rights due diligence complementary to the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and requiring complete value chain tracing and required public disclosure for companies...
3. Ensuring that the scope of enforcement addresses systemic forced labor patterns across producers, manufacturers, or importers and systematic state-sponsored forced labor and patterns of forced labor in companies...

The Proposed Regulation is currently under review by the EU Parliament and Council and once ratified will enter into force upon publication and apply 24 months thereafter.