Fighting Forced Labour in the 21st Century: Understanding the Success of Economic Pressure, Diplomatic Engagement and the Coalition Model
March 25, 1-2.30pm
Highfield House A02
With panellist responses and audience Q&A
Chaired by Zoe Trodd, Rights Lab Director
Panellists include:
Benedetta Lacey, International Strategy Deputy Director, UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and Rights Lab Visiting Professor of Innovation and Impact
Kevin Bales, CMG, Rights Lab Professor of Contemporary Slavery
Todd Landman, Rights Lab Research Director and Professor of Political Science
We are excited to welcome Bennett Freeman to the Rights Lab and the university.
How do you end systemic forced labour? What can we learn from one example for campaigns today? As co-founder of the Cotton Campaign, Bennett Freeman worked with a multi-stakeholder coalition to end decades of state-imposed forced labour in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry. The successful combination of economic pressure and diplomatic engagement - both supported by local labour rights monitors — culminated in the Cotton Campaign ending its call for a boycott of Uzbek cotton, which was joined by more than 300 global apparel brands. In the story of the Cotton Campaign are potential lessons for how a coalition model can end decades of oppression, and insights for other labour and human rights campaigns.
Over the last 25 years of a four-decade career, Bennett Freeman has worked at the intersection of governments, international institutions, multinational corporations, institutional investors, and civil society organizations to establish global standards for corporate responsibility and accountability. A pioneering leader in the business and human rights arena, he has played critical roles in founding and building multi-stakeholder initiatives and coalitions to protect human rights and labour rights around the world.
He is currently an Associate Fellow in the Global Economy and Finance Program at Chatham House, where he focuses on the roles and responsibilities of multinational corporations in geopolitics and conflict. He serves on multiple boards and advisory councils related to international labour and human rights and previously served on the boards of the Global Network Initiative, Oxfam America, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the Institute for Human Rights and Business, as well as Chair of the Advisory Board of Global Witness. He is co-founder and a Steering Committee member of the Cotton Campaign, the coalition of labour and human rights organizations, trade unions, socially responsible investors and industry associations that combined economic pressure and diplomatic engagement to end decades of systemic forced labour in the cotton industry in Uzbekistan. As Senior Vice President of Calvert Investments from 2006-16, he directed the ESG research, shareholder advocacy and public policy initiatives of the leading socially responsible family of mutual funds in the U.S.
Previously he served as a presidential appointee in three positions at the U.S. Department of State in the Clinton Administration, initially as chief speechwriter for Secretary of State Warren Christopher from 1993-96. As Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor from 1999-2001, he directed the State Department’s bilateral human rights diplomacy. In that position, he also led the year-long multi-stakeholder dialogue and negotiations to develop and launch the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights as the global human rights standard for oil, gas and mining companies. He earned an AB in History from Berkeley and an MA in Modern History from Oxford.