Global supply chains and digital economies connect people, industries, and markets across borders, yet they often conceal severe forms of exploitation and abuse. This event will examine exploitation across three distinct but interconnected sectors of the global economy: agricultural supply chains, the garment industry, and the rapidly expanding world of online scam centers. An analysis of the persistent vulnerabilities that enable exploitative practices to persist, as well as the broader economic structures that sustain them, will be conducted so as to highlight the challenges they pose to the protection and fulfilment of human rights, the safeguarding of labour rights, and the promotion of accountability.
By bringing these different contexts into dialogue, the event aims to move beyond sector-specific analyses of labour exploitation, human trafficking, and contemporary forms of slavery to investigate the institutional responses required to address them. By fostering a deeper and more integrated understanding of the invisible chains linking global production, service provision, and labour exploitation in the global economy, the event will open a discussion on the responsibilities of States, businesses, and other relevant international actors in preventing exploitation and abuse, protecting victims, and promoting more transparent and accountable economic systems.
Parlano:
Prof. Chiara Giaccari (Partner Africa and John Cabot University)
Prof. Pietro Masina (University of Naples L’Orientale and John Cabot University)
Prof. Silvia Scarpa (John Cabot University)
Moderator:
Prof. Marta Bordignon (Temple University, Rome Campus)
