18 August 2022

What do we mean by ‘modern slavery’?
Modern slavery describes situations where coercion, threats
or deception are used to exploit victims and undermine or
deprive them of their freedom.
Modern slavery practices are major violations of humanrights and serious crimes.
Modern slavery is not practices like substandard working
conditions or underpayment of workers.
Modern slavery can occur in every industry and sector - risk
may be higher for large companies with extensive, complex,
global supply chains.
Modern slavery has severe consequences for victims.

Does modern slavery happen in the Asia-Pacific region?
•In 2016, an estimated 24.9 million people were living inmodern slavery in Asia and the Pacific. The region had thesecond highest prevalence in the world with 6.1 per 1,000.

•APAC had a higher prevalence of forced labour (4.0 per1,000 people) than other regions. Over half of the victims
were held in debt bondage, and this affected male victims
more than female victims.

•••

Within the region, North Korea, Afghanistan, and Pakistan
were the countries with the highest prevalence of modern
slavery. India, China, and Pakistan had the highest
absolute number of people living in modern slavery andaccounted for 60 percent of the victims in the region.
In 2016, there were 37,000 people living in conditions ofmodern slavery in Japan, a prevalence of 0.3 per 1,000.

Why was IAST APAC set up and what does it do?
Why: to engage with companies in APAC in which we collectively invest, and promote effective action
amongst them to find, fix and prevent modern slavery, labour exploitation and human trafficking.
Who: the initiative was convened by First Sentier Investors and the Steering Committee includes Aware
Super, AustralianSuper, Ausbil Investment Management, Fidelity and the Australian Council ofSuperannuation Investors. Walk Free together with the Liechtenstein Initiative for Finance Against
Slavery and Trafficking act as Secretariat and Knowledge Partners to the initiative.
How: investors joining IAST APAC
can contribute one or both of twowork streams.

Steering Committee:
governance andstrategy

Work stream 1:
investor advocacy

Work stream 2:
company
engagement

What is Australia’s Modern Slavery Act and how does it work?
The Australian Modern Slavery Act 2018 established Australia’s national Modern Slavery Reporting Requirement.
The Act’s primary objective is to assist the business community in Australia to take proactive and effective actions to address modern slavery.
Certain large businesses and other entities (reporting entities) must publish annual Modern Slavery Statements online on a central register.
A Statement must cover mandatory criteria by describing:• The reporting entity’s structure, operations and supply chains• The potential modern slavery risks in its operations and supply chains• Actions it has taken to assess and address those risks, including
due diligence and remediation processes, and• How it assesses the effectiveness of the actions.

A statement must be signed by a responsible member for the reporting entity, approved by its principal governing body and provided to the Minister
within six months from the end of its financial year.
Investors can be large businesses that must report under the Act, and investment portfolios can be part of either operations or supply chains.
Investors can also review and use Statements as part of their ESG analysis and company engagement.

How does IAST APAC engage with companies?
Who: Investors can join the company engagement
work stream as either a lead or support investor,
within small group collaborations that engage thedifferent focus companies selected from four
initial sectors:••••

Consumer discretionary
Consumer staples
TechnologyHealthcare

What: The group develops an engagement plan
based on the IAST APAC engagement guidelines,
which sets time bound goals and milestones inrelation to finding, fixing and preventing modern
slavery and centres on the following 4 questions:

NoCan youdemonstrate arigorous process tolook for it?

Have you foundmodern slavery inyour operations or
supply chain thisyear?

Yes

Yes

NoYes

Can youdemonstrate theprovision ofeffective remedy forvictims?
No

Engagement on risk
assessment/ due
diligence

Engagement on remedy

Have you reported
your actions and thesteps taken toprevent an(re)occurrence?

How has IAST APAC helped your company engagement?
IAST APAC helped us to:• Understand the basics of modern slavery issues,
regulatory developments around the world, and risks
in different sectors.
• Make an engagement plans, including objectives,questions, and approaches, by sharing usefulframeworks, guidelines, and tools to conductengagement on modern slavery issues.
• Build knowledge and learn from other investors by
hosting a meeting on regular basis whereparticipating investors share their engagement
experiences and challenges.

Does addressing modern slavery make business sense?
For investors, business taking action to address
modern slavery in operations and supply chains
makes good business sense because it:
Protects them against possible harm
Improves the integrity and quality of supply chainsIncreases profitability
Improves investor and consumer confidence andfinancing opportunities• Improves relationships with workers and localcommunities, and• Leads to greater access to business opportunities.
••••

Modern slavery is not just an issue in developing
countries and it is not only a social issue.

Disclaimer
Investors Against Slavery and Trafficking Asia Pacific (IAST APAC) is an investor-led multistakeholder initiative convened to promote effective action among companies in the AsiaPacific region to find, fix and prevent modern slavery, labour exploitation and humantrafficking in their value chains. Membership to IAST APAC is open to any asset owner orasset manager with an office in the Asia Pacific region. This document has been preparedfor general information purposes only. The views expressed in this document are the viewsof IAST APAC and do not necessarily reflect the views of individuals or members associatedwith IAST APAC. Such views are subject to change without notice and may substantiallydiffer from the views of individuals or members associated with IAST APAC. To the extent
permitted by law, no liability is accepted by IAST APAC nor any members of IAST APAC for
any loss or damage as a result of any reliance on this material. This material contains, or isbased upon, information that IAST APAC believes to be accurate and reliable, howeverneither IAST APAC nor any individuals or members associated with IAST APAC offer anywarranty that it contains no factual errors.