Modern slavery and conflict minerals are often treated as two separate grand challenges governed by different legislation, yet conflict mineral settings commonly involve and inflict slavery in supply chains – hence these two wicked problems are deeply interconnected. This paper focuses on due diligence in the context of conflict mineral supply chains, and in doing so provides important insights for modern slavery in general. Using more than 38 h of recordings from exploratory interviews with 46 experts from 43 organizations, our study investigates: a) how due diligence costs and benefits are actually distributed in supply chains in practice; and b) the means through which due diligence costs and benefits can be (more appropriately) shared. We find that there is a lack of contextualization of cost-sharing mechanisms to conflict mineral supply chains, with most mechanisms being imported from the standard business literature where the producer must pay the production costs before reaping the benefits that offset these costs. But in conflict mineral supply chains, these benefits often do not materialize for the producer and, consequently, cost-sharing mechanisms lead to unintended consequences. The findings question the usefulness of due diligence, call for alternative financing mechanisms, and for contextualized solutions designed from the bottom up. This in turn has important implications for enhancing legislation on modern slavery.

现代奴隶制和冲突矿产通常被视为由不同立法管辖的两个独立的重大挑战，但冲突矿产环境通常涉及并造成供应链中的奴隶制——因此这两个邪恶的问题是密切相关的。本文侧重于冲突矿产供应链背景下的尽职调查，并在此过程中为现代奴隶制提供了重要的见解。我们的研究使用来自 43 个组织的 46 位专家的探索性访谈超过 38 小时的录音，调查：a）在实践中，尽职调查成本和收益如何在供应链中实际分配；b) 可以（更恰当地）分担尽职调查成本和收益的方式。我们发现，冲突矿产供应链的成本分摊机制缺乏背景化，大多数机制都是从标准商业文献中引入的，在这些文献中，生产者必须先支付生产成本，然后才能获得抵消这些成本的收益。但在冲突矿产供应链中，这些好处通常不会为生产商带来好处，因此，成本分摊机制会导致意想不到的后果。调查结果质疑尽职调查的有用性，呼吁替代融资机制以及自下而上设计的情境化解决方案。这反过来对加强现代奴隶制立法具有重要意义。大多数机制都是从标准商业文献中引进的，在这些文献中，生产者必须先支付生产成本，然后才能获得抵消这些成本的收益。但在冲突矿产供应链中，这些好处通常不会为生产商带来好处，因此，成本分摊机制会导致意想不到的后果。调查结果质疑尽职调查的有用性，呼吁替代融资机制以及自下而上设计的情境化解决方案。这反过来对加强现代奴隶制立法具有重要意义。大多数机制都是从标准商业文献中引进的，在这些文献中，生产者必须先支付生产成本，然后才能获得抵消这些成本的收益。但在冲突矿产供应链中，这些好处通常不会为生产商带来好处，因此，成本分摊机制会导致意想不到的后果。调查结果质疑尽职调查的有用性，呼吁替代融资机制以及自下而上设计的情境化解决方案。这反过来对加强现代奴隶制立法具有重要意义。呼吁替代融资机制，以及自下而上设计的情境化解决方案。这反过来对加强现代奴隶制立法具有重要意义。呼吁替代融资机制，以及自下而上设计的情境化解决方案。这反过来对加强现代奴隶制立法具有重要意义。