The Marine Stewardship Council Board has issued a statement condemning the use of forced labour, and has agreed to include a clear policy on the issue of forced labour within the future requirements of MSC certification.
Companies which have been successfully prosecuted for forced labour violations in the last two years will be out of scope of the MSC programme and will be ineligible for MSC certification.
For fisheries, this amendment will be included in the MSC fisheries certification requirements to be released in October.
For Chain of Custody certification, this addition has been incorporated into the revised Chain of Custody certification requirements, which opened for public consultation on 1 August as part of the Chain of Custody Programme Review.
Mercator Media Ltd 2014