Many have predicted that the sort of social issue-based regulatory disclosures the Securities and Exchange Commission gave birth to with its conflict minerals disclosure rule would eventually expand and that human trafficking was a topic to watch. This week, U.S. Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Chris Smith (D-N.J.) introduced the Business Supply Chain Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act of 2015, a bill that would require large public companies publicly disclose measures to prevent human trafficking, slavery, and child labor in their supply chains as part of their annual reports to the SEC.
Maloney first introduced the bill in 2011 as the Business Transparency on Trafficking & Slavery Act (H.R. 2759). Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) plans to introduce companion legislation for their latest attempt in the Senate. The current legislative proposal was timed to coincide with the State Department’s 2015 Trafficking in Persons report, which stressed the need for governments to “set clear expectations for businesses on human rights issues and adopt policies that promote greater transparency and better reporting on anti-trafficking efforts in supply chains.”
