Today’s globalized garment industry is characterized by fast fashion powered by modern-day slave labor. Garments go from seed to store via complex chains of transactions among independent parties that keep brands ignorant and unaccountable for labor abuses in...
Journalists have an important role to play in the effort to address child trafficking in Ghana. They can spread awareness with government officials and the general public that children are forced to work in hazardous conditions. They can explain the difference between...
The year 2020 brings several important anniversaries. It’s the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Palermo Protocol, the landmark treaty to confront modern forms of slavery worldwide. It’s the 20th anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the...
“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth.” Author William Faulkner’s thoughts about the value of standing up and speaking...
Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt once observed that “the future belongs to those who believe in their dreams.” At Free the Slaves, we dream of a future where everyone is free from slavery. Roosevelt believed in that dream too. Freedom from slavery is near the top...
It’s a simple concept, and a universal value: acceptance. “He who is different from me does not impoverish me — he enriches me,” wrote the French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. But in the Dominican Republic, a lack of acceptance fuels modern slavery. Haitian...
Human rights activists from around the globe strategized new ways to confront the widespread problem of human trafficking and modern slavery during a special three-day convening at the U.N. Conference Center last week in Addis Ababa. Experts from 46 organizations in...
Free the Slaves is thrilled to announce that a courageous advocate for the rights of women and children has joined the organization as executive director. Bukeni Tete Waruzi has helped put a Congolese warlord behind bars, has helped women trafficked into domestic...
Good news today from the U.S. State Department. Both Haiti and Senegal have been removed from the Tier Two Watch List in the annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, an indication that the governments of both countries are increasing their efforts to combat human...
Every shekel counts! That’s how Arava Lightstone sees it. Arava has been studying the story of Passover (Pesach) for the past month in her school, and also at home with her parents. She was deeply moved by the story of how God chose Moses to help Him free the Hebrew...
The Human Trafficking Legal Center in the U.S. has a saying: “When survivors have lawyers, survivors have rights.” That’s the key message that staff attorney Sarah Bessell brought to India for a workshop coordinated by her center, the Institute of Social Studies in...
As the federal government gets back to business this week after the paralyzing government shutdown, the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking has issued its annual ATEST Advocacy Report. The report takes stock of advocacy accomplishments in 2018, and looks toward...
This statement originally appeared on the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST) website. Free the Slaves serves as ATEST co-chair. WASHINGTON — Four key pieces of legislation that form the architecture of America’s federal response to human trafficking and...
Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the United States, a key part of Trafficking Prevention Month. There are three simple things you can do right now to spread awareness that slavery still exists. It will only take one minute. Literally. Share the...
I dream of a world without slavery. I hope to see that world one day. I am writing to tell you my story because I hope it will prompt you to take action. There are so many people victimized by human trafficking just like I was. For me, it started with a dream about...
It was down to the wire in the final days of the current Congress, but near-unanimous bipartisan action has renewed an important package of legislation that shapes the U.S. government’s efforts to eradicate modern slavery. The four bills (S. 1311, S. 1312, S.1862 and...
Field testing is underway for our latest training initiative. A Free the Slaves team this month debuted our new handbook on the liberation, rehabilitation and reintegration of people who’ve been trapped in modern slavery. The first five-day beta test workshop was...
I am a descendant of slaves. Some of my ancestors were from Malaysia and Indonesia, brought to South Africa to work in the port of Cape Town. It always surprises Americans when I tell them that people were brought to Africa more than a century ago and enslaved....
With tens of millions of individuals victimized by traffickers and slaveholders, the world urgently needs solutions that can be effectively and efficiently implemented at-scale in a wide variety of situations. I was happy to see that many of my colleagues in India’s...
We are deeply concerned by accelerated efforts to deport black Mauritanians living in the United States who run the serious risk of enslavement upon return to their home country. This campaign is particularly focused on Columbus, Ohio, which, according to the Columbus...
The reviews are in, and our 2018 Fashion for Freedom Event in New York is being heralded as a fantastic success. Scores of Free the Slaves supporters and ethical fashion advocates gathered in Manhattan for the uplifting evening. “The Fashion for Freedom Event was a...
Great news this week. Our colleague at the Human Trafficking Institute, John Cotton Richmond, is being nominated to become America’s next human trafficking ambassador (White House announcement here). Once confirmed by the Senate, Richmond will run the State...
The U.S. State Department says many African governments are doing a better job combating modern slavery. More than a dozen African nations received upgrades in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP). The upgrades include Ghana, where Free the Slaves has helped...
The Free the Slaves Fashion for Freedom Campaign returns this summer to bring awareness to atrocity of modern slavery within the fashion industry. By bringing together brands and speakers that offer alternatives to questionably-made clothing, we will show that there...
People who don’t care about intellectual property rights don’t care about human rights either. That’s why Free the Slaves is proud to be affiliated with DH Anticounterfeit, a Swedish software firm that helps companies manage their investigation of counterfeiting cases...
One of the most important annual gatherings of anti-slavery leaders is set to get bigger and better this year. The Freedom From Slavery Forum will double in size and move to the Global South for its fifth annual convening. The event is slated for December 3-5, 2018 in...
Today brings a close to Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. But at Free the Slaves, it’s not a time to relax. We will not rest for one instant until everyone, everywhere is free from bondage. The great civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer noted that...
Saturday marks the first anniversary of Donald Trump’s inauguration – and around the world there will be Women’s Marches in major cities. For Free the Slaves, the anniversary is a moment to take stock of Trump promises and performance. In February, Trump pledged to...
Every day, the staff of Free the Slaves works in solidarity with local partners and communities to help bring about a more just world. We do so in Haiti, in several countries in Africa, and in Asia. Every day, our staff manifests tremendous dedication and skill. Every...
Members of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking ended their two-year term of service this afternoon with a plea to Ivanka Trump’s trafficking adviser to get their successors appointed, and provide stipends so they can serve without struggling financially....
Free the Slaves believes in stopping slavery at its source by changing the conditions that allow slavery to exist. You can read about this important strategic focus today in a CNN.com op-ed from FTS Executive Director Maurice Middleberg. “How to Stop the Slave Trade...
Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick asks big questions. Who are we? What do we want to make of life? Who counts as human? And in the historical reckoning of slavery—how do we want to be judged? In his staunch support of Free the Slaves, Choi-Fitzpatrick thinks deeply about that....
This week’s release of new estimates on the scope of slavery worldwide are both shocking and encouraging. Shocking because the figures are worse than many experts had believed. But encouraging because the report’s release at the United Nations General Assembly has...
As the United Nations General Assembly convenes this week in New York, an important announcement is coming about modern slavery worldwide. The International Labor Organization (ILO), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the group Walk Free will be...
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report illustrates “the commitment of our country that we have this joint effort underway across the entire United States government” to combat modern slavery. “Human trafficking is as old as...
This post was written by Kanta Mendon, with contributions from Sarah Bluestein and Shannon Fallon Nobel Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi says American consumers play an important role in the fight against child labor. America has one of the largest import economies in...
Your tax dollars have helped combat slavery worldwide. America has been the global leader in funding front-line anti-trafficking programs run by nonprofit organizations like Free the Slaves. Just this year, our team rescued three boys from traffickers on the very day...
President Trump in February promised America would “do more” to fight human trafficking. Last month, presidential adviser and first daughter Ivanka Trump pledged to make this fight a “major priority.” But last week, the Trump administration released a 2018 budget that...
This week has been designated as Combating Human Trafficking and Child Protection Week in the U.S. House of Representatives. A good time for a situation update on the state of play for America's most critical human trafficking legislation. Trafficking Victims...
I often get asked why I wrote a book about contemporary slaveholders. Once people get over the fact that slavery still exists they want to know who on earth is out there, right now doing what it takes to exploit their fellow humans in the worst sort of way? At the...
"President Donald Trump says he will bring the 'full force and weight' of the U.S. government to combat an 'epidemic' of human trafficking," according to the Associated Press coverage of today’s listening session with several anti-slavery organizations at the White...
A little-noticed executive order last week from President Donald Trump has directed federal officials to ramp-up efforts to target transnational criminal organizations, including human trafficking rings. The order, issued February 9, says criminals are “threatening...
Our work to end slavery in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is under threat. Our Congolese partner organizations say an executive order being drafted by the Trump White House would undo years of progress. The executive order would suspend the Conflict...
Trafficking Prevention Month ends today, but we would like to ask Free the Slaves supporters to remain vigilant throughout the year. With fast-moving changes at the White House and Capitol, this is a critical time for letting government officials know that fighting...
Fighting slavery isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do. That simple truth underpins the anti-slavery movement’s recommendations to the Trump administration, which were made public this week. Simply put: slavery anywhere is a threat to freedom...
I believe today holds the promise of being a transformational moment in the history of the modern anti-slavery movement. This moment occurred in a large, nondescript room in an annex to the U.S. State Department located on G Street in Washington, far removed from the...
As thousands march today in Washington, Free the Slaves stands arm-in-arm with activists in the social justice movement who are calling for America's elected officials to maintain U.S. leadership in safeguarding human rights. Free the Slaves belongs to many policy and...
At the edges of the dark, shifting and murky pools of modern slavery are growing glimmers of liberation – and there is no more powerful source of freedom’s light than American tenacity. A profound moral test for the incoming administration will be sustaining U.S....
One of the most important things to remember about slavery is that it never really ended. It has been outlawed worldwide, but never eradicated. There are tens of millions of people trapped in modern forms of slavery around the globe today. That’s why Free the Slaves...
The turning of a new year is always a pivotal moment; the past is behind us and our eyes focus on the future. That’s especially true with the passing of the 2016 elections and the potential in 2017 for strengthening policies that will benefit those affected by human...