On Thursday 10 November, the Greens/EFA group, the NGO Anti-Slavery International and the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) published a “model law” to combat forced labour. They suggest an alternative to the European Commission’s proposal presented in September (see EUROPE 13021/17).
According to the authors, more focus should be given to the workers concerned, not just to banning products from the European market. This implies, in their view, that the competent authorities, in order to ban a product, should also impose remedial measures on the companies involved in forced labour.
At a conference on 8 November on the same subject, the S&D group also supported including remedial measures in the regulation.
Another major element proposed by the Greens/EFA, as well as by the S&D, is the reversal of the burden of proof in the investigation to show whether or not a product is made with forced labour. The Greens/EFA, Anti-Slavery International and ECCHR model law suggests including a “presumption of forced labour” that leads more quickly to a ban on a product or group of products from industries in certain regions or countries. The targeted companies can refute the accusations and prove that their goods are not made with forced labour.
For the German anthropologist Adrien Zenz, a specialist on China, it is also clear that the burden of proof must be reversed. The EU should also be able to ban products from a named region and the Commission’s proposal does not sufficiently address cases of State-sponsored forced labour, he told the S&D conference in the European Parliament.
See the Greens/EFA model law: https://aeur.eu/f/40e (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)