Corporate responses to France’s 2017 Duty of Vigilance law point to the potential effectiveness of mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence (mHREDD) legislation to address modern slavery, but overall evidence is light, according to a policy brief by the Modern Slavery Policy & Evidence Centre. Around 70% of in scope companies started to revise their human rights and environmental risk mapping within the first financial year of the law, the report said, also noting low levels of voluntary implementation of HRDD by companies in the absence of regulation. The authors observe that potential overlaps between mHREDD legislation and existing legislation on forced labour import bans or supply chain transparency require policymakers to consider how a “smart mix” of regulatory tools can complement one another. In February, The European Commission proposed a Sustainable Corporate Due Diligence Directive aimed at ensuring European companies identify and mitigate the adverse impacts of their activities on human rights and the environment across their supply chains.
