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Regulatory Ramblings

Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 59 – Four Decades Fighting Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery – A Diplomat Reflects with Matt Friedman

As a former US and United Nations diplomat, Matthew Friedman has been a true warrior on the frontlines against modern slavery and sex trafficking for over four decades. He is an international human trafficking expert and the CEO of The Mekong Club, a non-governmental organization comprised of Hong Kong’s leading businesses that have joined forces to help end all forms of modern slavery.

The Mekong Club is very active in the ESG space and is well-versed in identifying red flags and appropriate metrics to gauge anti-human trafficking compliance.

Previously, he worked for the United States Agency for International Development and the UN in over 40 countries. Matt offers technical advice to numerous governments, banks, and corporations working to eliminate all forms of modern slavery and authorizes fifteen books. In 2017, he won Asia’s prestigious “Communicator of the Year” Gold Award.

His postings have taken him all over Asia, from Nepal to Bangladesh and Thailand. The Mekong Club works with private sector banks, manufacturers, retailers, and the hospitality sectors to do what they need to do in the fight against human trafficking and slavery.

The topic of modern slavery – more colloquially referred to as human trafficking – is a bleak one. In this episode of Regulatory Ramblings, Matt chats with host Ajay Shamdasani about what the global banking and financial institutions and multinational corporations can do about the matter.

The problem indirectly affects us all: estimates are that 50 million people in the world are currently in some form of slavery. Twenty-seven million of them are engaged in forced labor, of which 82% of this figure is associated with supply chains.

Though many survivors of human slavery put on a brave face and try to go about their lives as best they can, it is debatable whether or not they can truly ever be made whole.

The conversation begins with Matt sharing his background and what drew him to the cause of modern slavery. He also stresses that despite the Mekong Club being an NGO, it works with the private sector, perhaps more so than with other NGOs or state bodies. As he notes, there is a greater impetus to take action to effect change in the private sector than in the public sector.

Working with the private sector is an approach that has served Matt and the Club well because, as he puts it: “The private sector has a sense of urgency, unlike the public sector. If a company does an audit on human trafficking and there is a problem, within fifteen minutes, they will call a meeting of all the relevant stakeholders and work to remediate it. The private sector does more than traditional NGOs because they are closer to the action,” he said. He added that NGOs tended to intellectualize matters, often reducing them to purely academic or legal concerns.

Reflecting on his four decades in the field, Matt also recounts what has changed about human trafficking and what has remained the same. As he points out, the evolution of human trafficking is interesting, going from forced manual labor to compelling enslaved persons to undertake more elaborate crimes such as scam farms and ‘pig butchering’ schemes.
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The discussion concludes with Matt sharing his views on how the financial sector can protect themselves from becoming unwitting participants in human trafficking and the sex trade. There is an intersection between money laundering, financial crime, and human trafficking, he says, and it is something the UN Counter-Trafficking program was created to combat.

The Regulatory Ramblings podcasts are brought to you by the University of Hong Kong—Reg/Tech Lab, HKU-SCF Fintech Academy, Asia Global Institute, and HKU-edX Professional Certificate in Fintech, with support from the HKU Faculty of Law.

Useful links in this episode:

You might also be interested in:

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Compliance Week Conference Podcast

Matt Friedman on The Human Factor of ESG

In this episode of the Compliance Week 2022 Preview Podcasts series, Matt will discuss some of his presentation at Compliance Week 2022, “The Human Factor of ESG.” Some of the issues he will discuss in this podcast, and his presentation are:

  •  The state of modern slavery and examining the impact on the global supply chain.
  • Working to disrupt the human slavery trade.
  • The ways that compliance professionals can remain vigilant within the human rights sector.

I hope you can join me at Compliance Week 2022. This year’s event will be May 16-18 at the JW Marriott in Washington DC. The line-up of this year’s event is simply first-rate, with some of the top ethics and compliance practitioners around.

Gain insights and make connections at the industry’s premier cross-industry national compliance event offering knowledge-packed, accredited sessions and take-home advice from the most influential leaders in the compliance community. Back for its 17th year, compliance, ethics, legal, and audit professionals will gather face-to-face to benchmark best practices and gain the latest tactics and strategies to enhance compliance programs and many others to:

  • Network with your peers, including C-suite executives, legal professionals, HR leaders, and ethics and compliance visionaries.
  • Hear from 75+ respected cross-industry practitioners who are CEOs, CCOs, regulators, federal officials, and practitioners to help inform and shape the strategic direction of your enterprise risk management program.
  • Hear directly from the two SEC Commissioners, gain insights into the agency’s enforcement areas, and walk away with guidance on remaining compliant within emerging areas such as ESG disclosure, third-party risk management, cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, and more.
  • Bring actionable takeaways back to your program from various session types, including ESG, Human Trafficking, Board obligations, and many others, to listen to, learn and share.
  • Compliance Week aims to arm you with information, strategy, and tactics to transform your organization and your career by connecting ethics to business performance through process augmentation and data visualization.

I hope you can join me at the event. For information on the event, click here. As an extra benefit to listeners of this podcast, Compliance Week is offering a $200 discount on the registration price, and enter discount code TFLAW $200 OFF.

Categories
The ESG Report

Role of ESG in the Fight Against Modern Slavery with Matt Friedman


 
People often ask, ‘Which companies are bad and shouldn’t be bought from?’ In reality, there is no way of determining that, across the board. Some companies getting called out doesn’t mean that others aren’t having issues. “ESG has that potential to introduce the baseline we’re all looking for,” says Matt Friedman, and in this episode, he and host Tom Fox discuss ESG’s role in the fight against modern slavery. 
 

 
What is Modern Slavery? 
Modern slavery is defined as a situation where a person is tricked and deceived into a job situation where they can’t get out, and don’t get paid. Matt reveals that it often happens to migrants who are taken from one place to another, and that there are about 40 million people estimated to be in modern slavery around the world, “There are more slaves today than any other time in history.” 
 
While sex trafficking is a large component of modern slavery, it’s actually a much broader issue. Many Latin Americans who manage to get into the US are highly exploited; they’re picking our tomatoes and oranges, and they don’t get paid at all because they’re indebted, and domestic cleaners are in situations where they’re locked in the house, not able to do anything to protect themselves or escape.
 
The Work of The Mekong Club 
The Mekong Club is a non-government organization set up in Hong Kong to work with the private sector in a positive and supportive way, and to help them understand the issue of human trafficking and what needs to be done to address it. Matt says, “Our role is to work with them, not against them.” With some organizations, the only way to get the private sector to take action is to find something they’re doing and embarrass them enough for them to implement change. The Mekong Club isn’t that kind of organization. Instead, they try to offer the services and consultations needed by the company in order to protect themselves. 
 
About 32 tools are available, offering remedies that come from private sector companies, themselves. One of the first things done with companies is a self-assessment; based on the results, Mekong Club rates the extent to which they are achieving what needs to be done in terms of modern slavery, and works with them in order to mitigate the problems. “This is what they say they need, and whatever it is that they need, they get.” he tells Tom.
 
The ‘S’ in ESG
In Matt’s opinion, the ‘S’ in ESG has always been the orphan. Since it includes human rights, modern slavery, and safety, it is viewed by many as not having measurable, potential risk. As a result of this, a lot of modern slavery indicators – what Matt calls ‘superficial S indicators’ – aren’t up to par with other areas of ESG. Matt and The Mekong Club strive to change that, “We have to have companies actually demonstrate they’re actually doing something when they say they’re doing it.” 
 
The Road to a Robust Company
The Mekong Club focuses on various things when it comes to improving a company – many of which are easy, cost-efficient, and can be implemented by you now, in your own companies. Some of these include: 

  1. Making the leaders understand that modern slavery is a relevant and important issue.  
  2. Having a point person or team of individuals within the organization that are ‘focal people.’ They would be better trained and receive whatever tools/instructions.
  3. Issuing policies and procedures: e.g. Do you have a zero tolerance statement? Do you have a mechanism in place to ensure that workers’ voices are heard? If you find forced labor, how do you remediate it? 
  4. Developing tools. 

 
RESOURCES 
Matt Friedman | Where Were You?: A Profile of Modern Slavery
The Mekong Club | The Mekong Club paper | PDF summary of our tools | Here is our most recent membership brochure | The mini-assessment tool
 

Categories
STAKE: The Leadership Podcast

Instead of Encouraging Words, Try This


Are your words not having the effect you wish they’d have at work? I have a tip to share with you to help you change the results you’re getting from your communication efforts.
In today’s episode, I’m sharing two stories with you. One story is about the frustration of a manager in a class I led recently. The other story is about a mistake I made. There is one goal here…to help you be more successful in your own leadership journey. It is my hope that after today’s episode, that you’ll have your eyes, heart, and mind opened to a new way to better move forward as you communicate, connect, and lead your employees.
Wishing you huge success!
———-
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