Supply Chain Injustice, Hanoi to Holyrood

That the Parliament considers labour rights abuses in the electronics industry abhorrent and that public bodies have an obligation to ensure that goods purchased with public funds are not enabling abusive labour practices; believes that supplier and industry self-regulation has comprehensively failed, as noted in several recent reports, such as the University of Sheffield report, Ethical Audits and the Supply Chain of Global Corporations, and Amnesty's Democratic Republic of Congo: "This is what we die for"; notes that that the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (2011) state that public bodies' procurement activities “... provide States – individually and collectively – with unique opportunities to promote awareness of and respect for human rights by those enterprises, including through the terms of contracts, with due regard to States' relevant obligations under national and international law”; understands that in 2013-14 the Scottish public sector spent £739 million on supplies of ICT-related goods, of which at least £153 million was central Scottish Government spend, and calls on the Scottish Government to help in the campaign to stop supply chain injustice by affiliating to Electronics Watch, the independent pan-European labour rights monitoring organisation, which brings together public sector buyers across Europe and civil society groups in manufacturing countries.