A/HRC/23/48 conduct (with which businesses require their suppliers to comply) or procurement policies. A few of them focus on stopping human trafficking, but many more mention specific forms of exploitation, such as forced labour or child labour, alongside other corporate social responsibility commitments. Some are accompanied by compliance or verification procedures designed to check that commitments are being respected by all involved, but the independence and quality of such checks varies, raising questions about the effectiveness of such commitments. 48. Consumers and investors play an important role in pressing businesses to take appropriate action. However, they depend on accurate information being provided by others. In this context, journalists and NGOs that investigate supply and product chains have played an important role and organizations representing exploited workers or providing assistance to them are well-placed to provide accurate information. 49. Evidence suggests that when businesses work together to stop human trafficking, they can have a significant impact. For example, 10 food corporations in the United States of America involved in selling fast food, food services and groceries signed what were called “fair food agreements” in 2010 with an organization representing migrant farmworkers.19 Retailers purchasing large quantities of tomatoes accepted a legal obligation “to cut off purchases in the event slavery is discovered in their supply chain”. The agreement came after a consumer boycott of one retailer, organized as a result of a campaign by the migrant farmworkers‟ organization. The consumer boycott was started after it became known that labourers subjected to forced labour had worked on several farms that were supplying tomatoes to major retailers. 50. Another example, as highlighted by the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, is the experience of Brazil, where to address the pattern of exploitation known as “slave labour” in farming industry the Government initiated a series of measures, including the launching of 2005 National Pact for the Eradication of Slave Labour, which businesses were encouraged to join. The Pact was supplemented by a code of conduct that all signatories of the Pact are required to respect. That Special Rapporteur has recommended that the National Pact be extended to cover the textile industry of Brazil, as cases of forced labour have also been found there (A/HRC/15/20/Add.4, para. 123). By 2011, the Pact‟s website reported that it had been backed by more than 220 businesses, business organizations or civil society organizations, with a collective turnover worth more than 20 per cent of country‟s gross domestic product. Nevertheless, despite evidence that numerous companies have stopped doing business with suppliers on the basis of their commitments under the Pact, there has been a notable lack of engagement by companies whose business focuses on some of the commodities linked most closely with slave labour, such as cattle-ranching and the production of beef, soya and cotton. 51. In the case of any Government-run organizations which function or carry out transactions outside the national territory, this responsibility requires taking measures to discourage demand while individuals employed by the Government are based in another country. In this case, it is not only the procurement policies of the institutions involved which the State must check; it must also influence the personal behaviour of civil servants who might themselves employ or pay for the services of someone who has been trafficked. 19 More details on the fair food agreements available from www.ciw-online.org/FFP_FAQ.html. 13