A/HRC/36/43 related forms of exploitation, witnesses and members of the victim’s family often face threats and harassment from the perpetrator, the perpetrator’s community and in some cases the authorities. Such practices have been shown to have a negative influence on the outcome of trials as victims and witnesses can be intimidated into not cooperating with law enforcement authorities. In some cases, despite credible fears of reprisals, the law enforcement agencies have failed to take adequate measures to ensure victim and witness protection, despite being requested to do so by the courts. 34 The fear of reprisals from perpetrators and the sense of insecurity is often exacerbated in cases were the victims continue to live in the same community as the alleged perpetrators. D. Challenges encountered by persons subjected to contemporary forms of slavery in gaining access to justice and remedy for violations taking place in international supply chains 38. The globalized economy has created opportunities for transnational corporations across different sectors to source goods and services at a low cost from complex chains of suppliers, and has allowed those corporations to extend their operations across national borders, including to developing countries.35 Transnational corporations with supply chains that are long and complex are more likely to face challenges related to contemporary forms of slavery. In particular, lower levels of supply chains are often at risk of products or raw materials being sourced from home-based or small workshops in the informal economy and made under conditions that include slavery, forced labour or debt bondage. 36 39. Access to justice and remedy for victims in that context is often constrained by legal rules limiting the liability of transnational corporations for human rights violations not directly arising from their business operations. Furthermore, the absence of laws with extraterritorial effect often denies victims of contemporary forms of slavery access to justice in cases in which the exploitation of individuals occurs in a territory different from the one where the corporation is domiciled. Often, victims are left with the only option of seeking redress in the territory where the violation has occurred and denied an effective remedy:37 the challenges that some developing countries face in regulating companies (e.g. due to governance issues, weak or non-existent legal frameworks or lack of sufficient resources) have meant that people vulnerable to exploitation are more likely to experience corporate human rights abuses and are less able to have access to justice and remedy. 40. The measures undertaken by corporations to handle complaints of violations of workers’ rights within their supply chains, such as operational-level grievance mechanisms, can play a role in facilitating access to justice and remedy and feed into the fulfilment of businesses’ due diligence obligations, through the identification of adverse human rights impacts. However, several aspects of those mechanisms raise questions regarding their adequacy, which include: the unequal power dynamics between victims of contemporary forms of slavery and companies, the enforcement of the outcomes of such mechanisms and the remedies awarded not being proportionate to the harm suffered and the lack of criminal sanctions. 34 35 36 37 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Opening the Door to Equality, Access to Justice for Dalits in Nepal (Nepal, 2011), available from www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/gscpd/urmila-bhoola/urmila-bhoola-yes. See also The Freedom Fund, Putting Justice First: Legal Strategies to Combat Human Trafficking in India, available from www.trust.org/contentAsset/raw-data/ceedfd4f-0573-4caa-85ce-d5c222570078/file. See Urmila Bhoola, “Soft law not enough to prevent slavery and exploitation” (Open Democracy, 13 September 2016). Available from www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/gscpd/urmilabhoola/urmila-bhoola-yes. See A/HRC/30/35, para. 20. Amnesty International, Injustice Incorporated, Corporate Abuses and the Human Right to Remedy (London, 2014). Available from www.amnesty.org/en/documents/POL30/001/2014/en/. 13