Towards Operationalizing Human Rights and Environmental Protection in Supply Chains: Worker-Enforceable Codes of Conduct

February 2021

This short paper presents model clauses that companies can include in supply chain contracts to give those affected access to remedy: supplier and buyer codes of conduct that are enforceable by workers. 

This idea was born of CAL’s observation of three parallel phenomena: (1) systemic abuse of workers rights, human rights, and the environment across global supply chains; (2) a lack of access to justice for impacted workers; and (3) the proliferation of supplier and buyer codes of conduct that prohibit contracting parties from engaging in practices that abuse workers, communities, and the environment. The idea was further inspired by a general trend of contractualizing human rights protections in business agreements to address prevalent adverse consequences of business relationships and activities on workers and the environment.