Tackling Human Trafficking in Governments Supply Chains: Legal Certainty and Effectiveness Issues Under the Australian Commonwealth Procurement Rules Model

Abstract

International organisations emphasise how Governments around the world must use the public procurement process to aid a global drive to eliminate human trafficking in their supply chains. In this significant and original contribution, the authors examine a leading procurement model, the Australian Commonwealth Procurement Rules (CPR), for the purpose of examining whether the CPR model satisfies the necessary standards of Legal Certainty and Effectiveness for addressing the risk of trafficking occurring in public sector supply chains. The research generates new insights for countries seeking to tackle trafficking via public procurement systems and identifies pitfalls for countries to avoid if seeking to emulate the Australia CPR model, making appropriate reference to US and UK models where appropriate. The authors demonstrate how key elements of the CPR model fail to provide for the required degree of Legal Certainty and Effectiveness to tackle trafficking. System failure is demonstrated by analysis of the CPR, showing either how key CPR provisions fail to satisfy these 2 key tests, or because there is a complete absence of appropriate provisions to comprehensively deal with the risk of trafficking in public sector supply chains. This article should serve not only as a guide to countries yet to address human rights considerations in their public procurement supply chains, but also as a blueprint for countries around the world seeking to re-evaluate whether existingprovisions in their domestic procurement frameworks are fit to tackle the global scourge of trafficking in public supply chains.