Background

An annual report that companies use as an input into risk assessments and to conduct due diligence on their supply chains shows that most of the 131 countries and territories reviewed are continuing to make progress toward eliminating the worst forms of child labor. Doing so is one of the criteria for eligibility for trade benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences, the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act, and the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Companies are also paying more attention to this issue in the face of increasing efforts by federal agencies to enforce prohibitions against imports made with child labor and forced labor.

Companies in all industries are being encouraged to conduct reviews of their supply chains, and this report can aid in those reviews. In addition, Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg offers a comprehensive suite of services to help companies address child and forced labor concerns, including supply chain reviews, due diligence strategies, and proactive remediation. For more information, please contact David Olave (at (202) 730-4960 or via email), Amanda Levitt (at (212) 549-0148) or via email), or Nicole Bivens Collinson (at (202) 730-4956 or via email).

The annual report from the Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs tracks from year to year whether a country has made significant, moderate, minimal, or no advancement in eliminating the worst forms of child labor. It also includes more than 2,200 country-specific recommended actions on how best to combat labor abuses. To aid businesses, ILAB has released an updated version of its mobile applications that contain the latest data on goods produced by child or forced labor and that provide detailed guidance on how to develop and implement robust social compliance systems that prevent, detect, and address child labor in global supply chains.

For 2020, six countries received an assessment of significant advancement, 73 achieved moderate advancement, 38 made minimal advancement, and 11 saw no advancement. 

 

Significant advancement

Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru

Moderate advancement

Albania, Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Cook Islands, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mauritius, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Norfolk Island, North Macedonia, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay,

Philippines, Rwanda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan, Western Sahara, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

Minimal advancement

Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belize, Botswana, Cambodia, Eswatini, Falkland Islands, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Mali, Mauritania, Moldova, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Niger, Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia, Samoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Suriname, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Uganda, Ukraine, Vanuatu, West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Yemen

No advancement

Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Burma, Dominica, Eritrea, Grenada, Montserrat, Niue, Saint Helena, Ascensión, and Tristán da Cunha, South Sudan, Tokelau

 

 

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