Tackling Modern Slavery: What Role Can Accountants Play?

Human rights issues are gaining greater prominence alongside economic concerns for contemporary organizations, due largely to increasing public pressure and stakeholder expectations. A range of stakeholder groups, including shareholders, employees, governments or regulators, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the media and communities, have a growing interest in organizational human rights issues. As a result of human rights and modern slavery regulations and widespread stakeholder concerns, contemporary organizations face the challenge of developing sustainable solutions to deal with the complexity of integrating financial and human rights performance. New forms of disclosure regulations are emerging in this area, such as the California Transparency in Supply Chain Act, Dodd-Frank Act’s conflict minerals rule in the US, UK Modern Slavery Act, and the Australian Modern Slavery Act (when passed).
As members of the accounting profession respond to this changing landscape, the question is posed: Do accountants have a role to play in tackling modern slavery?