14 May 2019

[I]n February 2017 the Dutch Lower House passed the Child Labour Due Diligence Bill. This law requires companies to identify, prevent and if necessary address the issue of child labour in their supply chains. Now the Senate has voted to adopt the law, all companies must declare that they will make efforts to address these problems...

It is now up to the government to elaborate a number of important elements of the Act, in the form of General Administrative Orders... The law’s effectiveness will partially depend on the further specification of these elements. “The MVO Platform calls on the government to ensure, through these General Administrative Orders, that the law applies to a large scope of businesses... Strict enforcement of businesses’ compliance with the law is also of great importance..."

In addition to child labour, companies should also be required to address other risks of negative impacts on labour standards, human rights and the environment in their supply chains. The MVO Platform therefore calls on the Dutch government to promptly investigate the possibility of broad due diligence legislation...