Consultation response for the initiative "Effectively Banning Products Produced, Extracted or Harvested with Forced Labour"

The Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR)’s comments addressed the proposal’s coherence with EU regulations and key international frameworks on business and human rights, recommending that the proposal:

• Complement the proposed Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive: The DIHR recommended that the proposal and CSDDD be mutually reinforcing, incentivising the broadest range of economic operators to undertake human rights due diligence aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
• Promote engagement and remediation: The DIHR recommended that the proposal require or incentivise economic operators to engage with suppliers to address issues of forced labour before cutting ties and to provide or cooperate in remedy and remediation for those working in forced labour conditions.
• Relieve the burden on Competent Authorities: Noting that the proposal places a heavy burden on Competent Authorities to investigate and prove a violation, the DIHR recommended that the burden of proof shift from the Competent Authorities to the economic operator upon a preliminary finding of forced labour.

The DIHR submission draws from the expertise of the Human Rights and Business Department, which has worked for 20 years with companies, states and civil society to build a global environment in which negative impacts on human rights by business activities are minimised, including through implementation of the UNGPs.