For every victim of modern slavery detected in Australia , four victims potentially go undetected. Fears about speaking up and a lack of effective reporting mechanisms means a significant portion of modern slavery cases, an umbrella term that covers some of the most severe human rights abuses, including forced labour, human trafficking and forced marriage, remain hidden.
The recent appointment of the Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner has further highlighted the need for reporting entities to demonstrate meaningful action on identifying and addressing the risk of modern slavery to people.
That's why the University of Sydney's Modern Slavery Unit is supporting a project by Monash University's Centre for Financial Studies. The project features a best-practice framework that aims to provide a people-centred approach to our systems, while meeting our compliance obligations.
In support of the framework, the University hosted a roundtable that facilitated engagement across a number of organisations, including Anti-Slavery Australia, the Australian Red Cross, International Justice Mission, The Salvation Army, Be Slavery Free, Australian Catholic Anti-slavery Network (ACAN), the Cleaning Accountability Framework (CAF) and Electronics Watch.
"Grievance mechanisms must be more than a policy - they must earn trust. The roundtable brings academic insights together with civil society organisation's practical expertise for us to understand what works best" says Dr. Nga Pham, senior researcher for Monash Centre for Financial Studies.
Staff from the Modern Slavery Unit and Monash University with representatives from Anti-Slavery Australia, the Australian Red Cross and International Justice Mission.
Key themes from the roundtable
- Human-Centred Design: Affected stakeholders and people with lived experience of modern slavery must be meaningfully engaged in the reporting mechanism design, implementation and monitoring to build trust, agency and accessibility
- Transparency: Communicate the process clearly to victim-survivors but also in our public reporting particularly with successful resolution of incidents to build confidence, trust and awareness of the grievance mechanism
- Independent Support: Ensuring access to independent advice and appeals to ensure fairness and survivor agency
- Holistic and contextual: Reporting mechanisms must be part of a broader framework of awareness raising, prevention and remediation, including going beyond providing financial compensation and include psychological and physical support
Monash Centre for Financial Studies' publication, along with a case study by the Modern Slavery Unit, will be published in the coming months. We hope the insights will provide a blueprint for Australian universities and others to design a truly effective, human-centred response to modern slavery incidents. Collectively, we can build the systems to enable more victim-survivors to speak up and seek help.
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"This is more than a compliance exercise. It is shaping systems that victim-survivors can trust, feel safe with and be respected for speaking up", says Sylvia Vuong from the University's Modern Slavery Unit.
Dr. Nga Pham and co-research lead, business and human rights expert Matthew Coghlan will also use the framework to review ASX100 corporate modern slavery reporting on grievances and remediation.
"Knowing how Australian companies are designing and operating modern slavery grievance mechanisms is crucial to share good practice and encourage more companies to provide satisfactory remedy to survivors of forced labour and other forms of modern slavery", says Matthew.
So, what next?
Insights from the roundtable will inform the best-practice modern slavery grievance mechanism framework, which the Modern Slavery Unit will adapt for the University context and use to review our own Modern Slavery Incident Reporting Form . Our reporting mechanism is an important part of meeting the University's requirements under the Commonwealth and NSW Modern Slavery Acts. This review will also include consultation with staff and students.
Monash Centre for Financial Studies' publication, along with a case study by the Modern Slavery Unit, will be published in the coming months. We hope the insights will provide a blueprint for Australian universities and others to design a truly effective, human-centred response to modern slavery incidents. Collectively, we can build the systems to enable more victim-survivors to speak up and seek help.
