A/HRC/35/37 C. 1. Voluntary standards and how they address trafficking in supply chains What are multi-stakeholder initiatives and industry coalitions? 32. Multi-stakeholder initiatives are organizations that have established voluntary sustainability standards, often for a specific commodity or industry sector. They offer a common label for companies that commit to align to the principles set by the standard and that agree to be monitored under the relevant assurance programme under which their commitment to and compliance with the standards are verified. The voluntary set of standards developed under the initiative often covers a wide spectrum of sustainability concerns, ranging from environmental risks and corruption to working conditions and labour rights. Examples of the initiatives identified under the project include the Forest Stewardship Council, Fairtrade, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, UTZ and the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, which are also part of an umbrella organization, the ISEAL Alliance, created to strengthen these standards systems by improving their impacts, defining and advancing credibility, increasing their adoption and proliferation and improving effectiveness. 33. The governance structure of multi-stakeholder initiatives is usually composed of a wide variety of stakeholders, including businesses, their suppliers and civil society representatives. The multi-stakeholder nature plays an important role, particularly in the standard-setting process, through which stakeholders define the criteria and indicators that the initiative will use to evaluate company compliance with the agreed standard. In this regard, the quality of the criteria and indicators relating to trafficking in persons depends largely on the level of stakeholder awareness of the issue, as well as on the initiative’s success in raising awareness about the standard-setting process among relevant stakeholders, in particular among those that can provide significant feedback. Ultimately, the degree to which this feedback can be integrated into the process will be contingent on the capacity to transmit to other stakeholders the importance and impact that risk indicators relating to trafficking in persons would have in their activities and on their overall performance as measured against labour-related standards. 34. In order to evaluate the compliance of companies and grant certification, if applicable, multi-stakeholder initiatives establish an assurance programme. The ISEAL Alliance defines assurance as the demonstrable evidence that specified requirements relating to a product, process, system, person or body are fulfilled. Some voluntary standards organizations use the term certification system instead. Models of assurance vary in their approach and level of rigour, which range from self-assessments to third-party auditing. Models of audit methodology may differ in terms of frequency and intensity, and with regard to the requirements auditors need to meet to perform the audit. Assurance programmes also use different scoring systems to rate applicant companies on their level of compliance with the standard. Today, many multi-stakeholder initiatives have opted for a stepwise or continuous improvement approach, rather than a pass-fail approach, and assign a prominent role to capacity-building activities that help companies to understand and tackle challenges in the implementation of the standard and in fulfilling compliance requirements. 35. Companies have also addressed sustainability concerns through industry-led initiatives. These are industry associations or coalitions that bring together companies around a voluntary code of conduct or standard and a compliance programme on sustainability issues, including human rights and labour standards. While the modus operandi is similar to that of multi-stakeholder initiatives, there may be differences in the organization of the governance structures, with businesses, including suppliers, playing a stronger role. 36. Some examples of industry coalitions are the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition and the Business Social Compliance Initiative of the Foreign Trade Association. The Coalition brings together companies such as Apple, HP and Intel and has developed a code of conduct and audit scope that includes extensive references to issues such as unethical recruitment practices. The Business Social Compliance Initiative is a crosssectoral initiative that has also developed a code of conduct and an implementation plan, 8