Human Rights Watch open letter to BAT shows signs of supply chain abuse.

Human Rights Watch and Swedwatch had strong words for UK Tobacco giant, British American Tobacco (BAT), in an open letter to BAT shareholders.

The letter’s tone is pretty clear from the first paragraph. The organization’s skepticism of BAT’s engagement in seeing to their supply chain’s human rights and sustainability standards is obvious.

Human Rights Watch and Swedwatch writes, “Our research raises questions about whether the company has taken adequate steps to protect the human rights of the people farming the tobacco that goes into its products.”

Their letter goes on to call out BAT on sourcing from suppliers that have clear cases of child labor abuse present.

In a report from 2016, it was uncovered by Human Rights Watch that there was thousands of tobacco operations present in Indonesia that were exposing children, as young as 8 years old, to “serious hazards while working”. A portion of these tobacco farms supplies British American Tobacco with materials for production.

The lack of engagement BAT has shown in their supply chain, the governance of their suppliers, and the lack of compliance with sustainability standards is disheartening.

We, at Kodiak Rating, cannot stress enough the important of having insight into, and compliance over, the operations of suppliers and supplier groupings.

Best said by Swedwatch director, Alice Blondel, “Without transparency, human rights abuses go undetected and are not remedied.”

She continued by challenging BAT to take action with “[…] rigorous internal and third-party monitoring and publish details on the content of the assessments and results.”

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