A/HRC/30/35 9. The Special Rapporteur also delivered a keynote speech at the fourth international seminar on contemporary forms of slave labour, which was held at the Universidade Estadual Paulista, Franca, Brazil, from 5 to 8 May 2015. 10. On 18 June 2015, the Special Rapporteur provided an introductory statement via video message at a Council side event on the role of the United Nations in combating the intersection of caste and gender in the area of forced and bonded labour, sponsored by Human Rights Watch, the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism, the Minority Rights Group, Anti-Slavery International and Franciscans International and organized in association with the International Dalit Solidarity Network. 11. In relation to the present thematic report, on 2 April 2015, the mandate holder organized an expert meeting on eradicating contemporary forms of slavery from supply chains in Geneva. 1 The meeting brought together more than 20 leading experts from international organizations, businesses, employer organizations, trade unions, nongovernmental organizations, investor groups, foundations and academia. The Special Rapporteur wishes to thank the expert participants for their valuable contributions to the consultation and follow-up thereto. 12. While taking note of the previous initiatives undertaken by mandate holders relating to human rights violations in the context of supply chains, 2 in the present report, the Special Rapporteur focuses, inter alia, on legal and policy frameworks and stakeholder initiatives to ensure that businesses, in relation to their supply chains, respect human rights and eradicate contemporary forms of slavery, understood for the purpose of the present report primarily as forced labour, debt bondage and the worst forms of child labour, through increased human rights due diligence and effective remediation. III. Enforcing State and business accountability for ending contemporary forms of slavery in supply chains 13. Following egregious violations of health and building safety standards that resulted in fatal accidents, such as the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh leading to death of over 1,100 garment workers, 3 additional attention has been given to increasing State and corporate accountability for violations of human rights, including labour rights, in global value or supply chains. 4 In this context, the recent commitment by leaders of major global economies at the recent Group of Seven (G7) Summit to take action to address human rights in global supply chains is welcome and needs to be followed up by concrete actions.5 1 2 3 4 5 4 See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Slavery/SRSlavery/Pages/ExpertMeeting2015.aspx. See, for example, A/67/261 and A/HRC/23/48/Add.4. These incidents continue to occur. The Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development called for increased business accountability after 72 women workers burned to death in factory fire in the Philippines in May 2015 (www.apwld.org). See Ending Exploitation, OSCE occasional paper series No.7, p.7. A United Nations Children’s Fund report (Children’s Rights and Business Principles, p. 9) explains that the value chain of a business “encompasses the activities that convert inputs into outputs by adding value. It includes entities with which the business has a direct or indirect business relationship and which either a) supply products or services that contribute to the business’s own products or services [a ‘supply chain’], or b) receive products or services from the business” (conventionally known as a production chain). See Leaders’ Declaration, G7 Summit, 7–8 June 2015, pp. 4–6, https://www.g7germany.de/Content/EN/_Anlagen/G7/2015-06-08-g7-abschlusseng_en.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=1. See also International Trade Union Confederation statement, available at www.ituc-csi.org/international-union-bodies-welcome.