Public procurement for protecting human rights

Abstract

Public procurement presents opportunities for improved human rights protection, specifically requiring that suppliers of government goods and services respect human rights. We discuss two recent developments: the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) (MSA) which applies to businesses and Commonwealth entities and particularly, recent moves by the Western Australian government to introduce a procurement debarment regime as part of the Procurement Act 2020 (WA). Noting that these are positive developments, we nonetheless identify ways to strengthen both the MSA and the debarment regime.