A/HRC/42/44 There is consequently a growing view that “survivor-informed policy and survivor-led initiatives should be the norm and not the exception”.86 37. Fourth, there is a growing view that successful interventions work with market mechanisms, although they do not depend solely upon them. Supply-chain transparency initiatives are increasingly being supplemented by other steps encouraging businesses to discharge their responsibility to respect human rights by effectively implementing the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, including through human rights due diligence, as well as use of leverage and provision of remedy for harms to which business is connected. In recent years, efforts have been increased to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises. To this end, the Human Rights Council, in resolution 26/9, decided to establish an open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights.87 38. Fifth, there is a growing recognition of the power of both big data and smart technology. In February 2019, more than 100 organizations joined a workshop convened by the United Nations University to explore the use of computational science and artificial intelligence to combat slavery. 88 A recent landscape mapping found over 260 digital technology tools in use to fight contemporary slavery, 38 per cent in the global South. 89 Blockchain is being used to improve traceability in supply chains and foster responsible sourcing and recruitment practices. Digital platforms are being used to enable migrant workers to share information about prospective and current employers. 90 The International Trade Union Confederation Recruitment Adviser lists more than 10,000 agencies in Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore and in Hong Kong, China.91 Satellite imagery is being used to identify high-risk sites.92 And new digital finance technologies are opening up new microloan, microinsurance and micropayment options that may help mitigate the risk of slavery. 93 What is missing? 39. Even as practitioner and researcher efforts have helped begin to identify “what works” to tackle contemporary forms of slavery, there is also a growing consensus around what is missing from contemporary anti-slavery efforts, especially when measured against the forms of slavery that can be expected tomorrow. Tackling impunity at all levels 40. A recurring theme is the need to tackle persistent impunity and to ensure accountability. Slavery is illegal in most countries, but it persists because it is not effectively identified or punished. Many of the developments canvassed above represent efforts to find ways to fill this impunity gap and use other forms of leverage – including 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 12 Rights Lab submission, p. 7. See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Business/Pages/WGHRandtransnationalcorporationsand otherbusiness.aspx. United Nations University, Code 8.7 Symposium: Using Computational Science and AI to End Modern Slavery (New York, 19–20 February 2019). Tech Against Trafficking submission, p. 5. Ethical Trading Initiative submission; Freedom Fund submission, Q6; and Hannah Thinyane and Francisca Sassetti, “Apprise: using sentinel surveillance for human trafficking and labor exploitation”, UNU-CS Policy Briefs, 2019. ILO, Ending Forced Labour by 2030, pp. 62–63. Kevin Bales and others, “Slavery from space: demonstrating the role for satellite remote sensing to inform evidence-based action related to UN SDG number 8”, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, vol. 122 (August 2018), p. 380; and Sarah Scholes, “Researchers spy signs of slavery from space”, Science, 19 February 2019. See James Cockayne, Innovation for Inclusion: Using Digital Technology to Increase Financial Agency and Prevent Modern Slavery, Financial Sector Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Secretariat Briefing Paper 3 (United Nations University, 2019).