Recently, the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) released a report describing some of the challenges that the U.S. federal government faces in its ability to source and procure goods and services worldwide without transgressing the basic human rights of people throughout its complex supply chain. While the report focuses on some of the unique issues of government procurement, it made us once again think of the need for companies to adopt and implement their own protocols to address this timely subject. This Feature Article will set forth the scope of the human rights topic, outline some of the common procurement-related gaps in protecting human rights and argue in favor of the adoption of clear and strong procurement-focused protocols.

So what are the possible supply chain human rights issues facing companies? They include:

• unlawful or low wages
• excessive working hours
• harsh, unhealthy or unsafe working conditions
• child labor
• conflict minerals
• human trafficking and forced labor
• restrictions on freedom of association; and
• restrictions on freedom of movement.

The prevalence and materiality of any human rights issue to any one company's particular situation will be unique to its industry and the characteristics of its supply chain. So there's no universal "problem" or, for that matter, solution. And because supply chains change over time, issues and their relevance change as well. This point will be important to remember when designing and implementing supplier-facing protocols - embed continuous improvement mechanisms. 

ICAR's report found that government procurement lacked a number of policies and practices that could better safeguard human rights. We found much of their list consistent with our observations of potential "problems" in corporate procurement, particularly: