Modern slavery frequently slip beneath the surface of mainstream business discourse. This article, “Humanizing supply chains: Turning the spotlight towards remediation in modern slavery scholarship,” investigates the importance of designing meaningful processes to help victims of exploitative working conditions. Governments have begun to impose additional legislative responsibilities on organisations, but such efforts often fail to prompt the deep-rooted changes that are urgently required. Indeed, the UK and Australian Modern Slavery Acts have shown little traction in producing robust survivor-centered remedies and mechanisms, underscoring the necessity for more thorough interventions.
Against this backdrop, our article explores how firms and entire supply chain networks can craft strategies that do more than merely satisfy legal requirements. We recognise that victim-survivors are often left marginalised, both by the cruelty of modern slavery itself and by well-meaning initiatives that fail to holistically address the dimensions of exploitation. To counteract this, we emphasise the importance of cross-disciplinary collaborations among supply chain scholars, legal experts, technology specialists, and non-governmental organisations. By joining forces, each perspective can shed new light on persistent blind spots and collectively foster restorative measures that actually matter.
We also highlight the need for real engagement with the lived experiences of workers previously ensnared by modern slavery, rather than seeing them as faceless statistics. When unethical labour is uncovered, there must be a concerted push toward sustainable solution-building that provided long-term solutions to structural issues. Businesses that genuinely confront these problems, rather than seeking to terminate contracts and walk away, are more likely to see improvement and earn trust from partners and the public. A proactive stance that embraces data-driven detection tools, thorough due diligence, and open collaborations with local stakeholder groups can help set a new standard.
Ultimately, the challenge lies in going beyond superficial compliance. It is about turning modern slavery into an urgent, shared concern that compels practical and immediate action. In our article, we strive to reorient the conversation around these needs and point researchers toward the gaps that must be addressed next. With the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive coming into force, companies will face increased scrutiny, but we believe it is the human element—the individual voices and stories behind the term “modern slavery”—that must guide scholarship and practice moving forward.
