Audience:
Open industry. All apparel and footwear industry professionals, regardless of AAFA membership, are encouraged to participate.
Description:
Protection of human rights for workers is moving beyond voluntary compliance to regulated compliance where buyers must demonstrate they have taken steps to identify and remediate human rights violations in their global supply chains. Failure to conduct adequate due diligence and address human rights issues can have legal consequences. Germany’s government has already passed a mandatory due diligence law. The recent EU directive on mHRDD will extend the requirement across Europe. In the US, states like New York and Washington are considering related laws.
Attendees of this webinar will learn:
- What Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence "mHRDD" is.
- The consequences of not complying with mHRDD laws.
- Which social compliance programs / approaches best position buyers to comply with mHRDD.
Speakers:
Avedis Seferian
President & CEO
WRAP
Avedis H. Seferian joined WRAP in 2004 and became its President and CEO in 2012. He has extensive knowledge of social responsibility issues within the highly complex worldwide supply chains of the apparel, textile and footwear sectors. A recognized expert in the area of social compliance and responsible sourcing, Mr. Seferian was named by Assent Compliance as one of the Top 100 Corporate Social Responsibility Influence Leaders for 2020. He often speaks on topics in this field at different forums around the world and has contributed to many leading trade publications and news outlets. Mr. Seferian is the Chairman of the Executive Board (and a member of the Stakeholder Board) of the Association of Professional Social Compliance Auditors (APSCA) and sits on the Impartiality Committees of several audit organizations; he also served on the Board of Advisors of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety.
Mr. Seferian began his career working for a business research and development organization before migrating over to legal research. Prior to joining WRAP, he was with a small law firm in Washington, DC. Mr. Seferian has also taught in various capacities in the business and legal arenas, including as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland University College. He speaks five languages, has lived in four countries and holds three degrees from three continents - a Bachelor’s in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University in India; an MBA from the American University of Armenia; and a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center in the United States, where he was a Law Fellow and made the Dean’s List. Mr. Seferian is a member of the American Bar Association and the Virginia State Bar. He resides in Fairfax, Virginia with his wife and their 2 sons.
Nate Herman
Senior Vice President, Policy
AAFA
Nate Herman oversees AAFA’s Policy department, managing the association’s lobbying, policy, and regulatory affairs activities. Nate leads AAFA’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, formulating and implementing CSR policy and representing AAFA and the industry on CSR issues before governments, NGOs, and other key stakeholders. In addition, Nate develops all apparel and footwear industry data and statistics as AAFA's resident economist. Prior to joining AAFA, Nate worked for six years at the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration assisting U.S. firms in entering the global market. Nate spent the last two years as the Department's industry analyst for the footwear and travel goods industries. Nate received a Masters of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh in 1994 and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Economics from the University of Delaware in 1992.
Learn more about AAFA’s Corporate Social Responsibility Partner