An Initiative of the International Justice Project
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The Slave-Free Car Campaign at a Glance
The goal of the Slave-Free Car Campaign is to ensure that there are no vehicles that contain any slave-made parts or components. A car has about 30,000 parts. When we achieve our goal, we will be certain that every one of those 30,000 parts is slave-free. For example, if a part were painted metal, we will be confident that the taint of slavery cannot be found in the mining of the metal, or in the manufacture of the part, or in the mining of the elements of the paint, or the manufacture of the paint. In short, every single part and component of the car will be slave-free, from the paint on the hood, to the leather on the seats, to the frame of the car, to the tiniest fleck of gold in the car's computer. Learn more about our mission, our vision, our programs, and how you can help.
An Overview of Our Theory of Change
Slave-made goods and products will be eradicated when those manufacturing and selling vehicles achieve two broad goals: (1) Having transparent and verifiable supply chains and (2) Committing their businesses to (a) eradicating slave-made goods and products across every supply chain, (b) eradicating slave-made goods and products through every tier of every supply chain, (c) ensuring that there is verifiable confirmation of the achievement of goals (a) and (b), and (d) ensuring that necessary, contracts, programs, and processes are in place, and remain in place, to prevent the introduction of any slave-made goods and products at any place in any supply chain.
The successful eradication of slave-made goods and products by any business will require the adoption of a plan with many elements, some of which may be unique to that business. While we will not set forth all possible elements of any such plan here, it is our belief that a plan that follows best practices will include, without being limited to: provisions for cascading slave-free contractual responsibility running through every level of every supply chain and provisions for monitoring, auditing, and enforcing the slave-free standard at every level of every supply chain. Central to any plan is worker engagement and participation, without risk of retaliation or penalty of any sort. Worker engagement and participation would include, but not be limited to, worker education, free association among workers, worker participation in development of the plan, and worker access to remedy at every level of every supply chain. The plan, and performance under the plan, must be transparent to all stakeholders.
Acknowledgements
The Slave-Free Car Campaign respectfully acknowledges the work undertaken over many years by many groups and organizations to address the issues that are the focus of the Campaign. In particular, the Campaign acknowledges the ground-breaking work done by the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment in its initiative Shifting Gears: Accelerating Human Rights in the Auto Sector, which, from a faith-based and responsible investor perspective, calls upon companies to take action with respect to human rights risks to workers.
"We differ like the waves, but we are one like the sea."
Frederick Douglass
