Linda Rizk, Thomas A. Rizk, and Rizk Ventures, LLC announced today the launch of Counter Human Trafficking Compliance Solutions, LLC (CHTCS), a global compliance and advisory company that provides corporations the training, assessment, research, and supply chain transparency required to combat human trafficking, forced labor, and child labor within their global supply chains.

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The United States House of Representatives passed three measures to combat human trafficking: The Human Trafficking Prioritization Act (H.R. 514), The International Megan’s Law to Prevent Demand for Child Sex Trafficking (H.R. 515), and The Human Trafficking Prevention Act (H.R. 357). The chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs said while these three bills mark great progress in the fight against human trafficking, there is still so much more the government can do to eradicate all human trafficking, forced labor, and child labor around the world.

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The United Kingdom introduced a new modern slavery bill in June 2014 and it is expected to take effect in May 2015. It aims to bring together many legislative measures to help combat human trafficking. These measures include strengthening the power law enforcement has to control both land and sea borders in order to prevent human traffickers and victims from entering and leaving the country and creates a new Anti-slavery commissioner position in order to make efforts to combat human trafficking more coordinated. It is recommended that business put human trafficking policies in place to proactively protect themselves from the repercussions of the modern slavery bill.

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In his first mass of 2015, Pope Francis advised people of all cultures and religions to help end human trafficking. One of the ways he urged people to do so is through avoiding low-cost goods that may be products of forced labor. He stated that it is a God-given right for everyone to be free.

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President Obama released a proclamation declaring January 2015 National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. This month will culminate in National Freedom Day on February first. President Obama called on all Americans to recognize their role in helping to eradicate modern slavery by buying products free of forced labor. He called for business and non-profit leaders to ensure their supply chains do not employ the use of slavery. President Obama also promised that the United States Government would continue to try to fight human trafficking on the legislative level.

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New legislation in Baltimore would require hotels to train staff to recognize any signs of forced prostitution. Baltimore officials have received reports of human trafficking occurring in the city despite the difficulty of identifying the crime. In this respect Human Trafficking may be more prevalent than previously known. This new bill will attempt to combat human trafficking as best it can.

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A recent International Labor Rights Forum report has found that there are still about 1.5 million children working on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world’s two top producers of cocoa. There has been significant effort to reduce child labor over the last ten years, but to little success. Cocoa‬ farming involves dangerous work this has been deemed one of the worst forms of child labor.

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Gap Inc., the parent company of Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy, is partnering with the investment fund Tau in an effort to address human rights violations within the Asian garment industry. The fund hopes to raise $1 billion in order to improve labor conditions in factories throughout Asia. The Tau fund and its investors intend to purchase minority stakes in Asian factories and install technology that will increase supply chain transparency, as well as upgrade environmental standards and improve productivity.

Tau cofounder Ben Skinner expressed the hope to create factories within the $1 trillion apparel industry that are the “most radically transparent and most radically compliant” in the world.

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Britain has named Kevin Hyland as its very first Anti-Slavery Commissioner in a continued campaign against human trafficking, forced labor, and child labor. Hyland is the former head of London’s Metropolitan Police human trafficking unit and is now bringing his expertise into the corporate atmosphere. The Anti-Slavery Commissioner role was created as a part of the Modern Slavery Bill which will require British corporations to annually disclose their efforts to tackle slavery in their supply chains.

The CHTCS team got the chance to speak with Hyland at the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s Trust Women Conference in 2014. Hyland emphasized the need to monitor corporations because “once they know they are being monitored…they will want to have clean supply chains. If they fail they will be exposed – and no company in the world wants to be shown as employing slaves.”

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Tim Ballard is a former Homeland Security agent, who now heads up Operation Underground Railroad, a non-profit group that rescues trafficked kids. In this video interview, Mr. Ballard explains why he left his job to start OUR.

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