SOCIAL AUDITOR LIABILITY 

Given the multitude of challenges to hold multinational corporations legally accountable for human rights and environmental abuses in their supply chains, it’s not always strategic (or possible) to only target the most powerful actor, like a brand or retailer. Corporate accountability can be advanced by focusing on enabling actors like social auditors. Supply chain auditing for social and environmental practices has become more common over the last couple of decades, with little improvement on human rights practices. In fact, social audits preceded major human rights disasters like the 2019 Vale dam collapse in Brazil and the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh. Corporate accountability can be advanced by focusing on social auditors as enabling actors of human rights and environmental abuse.