Bukeni Waruzi, Executive Director of Free the Slaves, recently conducted a critical training session with survivors of forced labor, modern slavery, sex trafficking, and child labor in Kinshasa, the national capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The...
Advocacy
FTS and Partners Urge G7 to Take Action Against Forced Labor in Supply Chains
On June 13, 2022, Free the Slaves joined 20 civil society organizations, survivors, and academics in urging the G7 to adopt new measures in ensuring forced labor is eradicated from the global supply chain. The leaders of these prosperous countries have the resources...
Free the Slaves Partners with Three New Organizations in Vietnam
Free the Slaves is excited to announce our new partnerships in Vietnam. These partnerships will allow us to understand more about the country and its need to have more players in the human trafficking space. These partnership endeavors are essential for developing...
Free the Slaves Partners with Three Filipino Organizations
Free the Slaves is excited to announce new partnerships with local organizations in the Philippines. These partnerships will allow us better to understand the context of slavery in the Philippines and strengthen our efforts to combat it. We partner with the Balaod...
Migration Vigilance Committees
Free the Slaves along with our partner organizations MSEMVS and Verite are running The Safe Migration to GCC program in the Mirzapur and Bhadohi districts of Uttar Pradesh. To learn more about the safe migration guide click here. If you’re interested in learning about...
Inaugural Elkes Impact Award Winners Announced
The Elkes Impact Awards were established in recognition of the tremendous work local advocate survivors and civil society organizations are doing in their communities. Local survivors and organizations too often do not receive widespread acknowledgment of their work,...
2021 Regional Forums Initiative Concludes
It’s been a busy past three months! The Freedom from Slavery Forum held three regional events focusing on Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and the combined regions of North America, Europe, and the Caribbean. This concluded the series of 2021 regional...
Omicron Variant Postpones Annual Freedom from Slavery Forum
Due to the sharp rise in cases and uncertainty associated with the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus, Free the Slaves is announcing the postponement of the global Freedom from Slavery Forum in Marrakesh, Morocco. The Forum, scheduled for December 5-8, would have...
Understanding the Modern Slavery Landscape of the Middle East and North Africa
Women, children, migrants, refugees, and other minorities are especially vulnerable to human rights violations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This vulnerability is magnified by a wide range of factors, including economic instability, conflict, climate...
Fair Food: Who Picked Your Produce?
Editor’s Note: This guest blog from a Free the Slaves advocacy partner in the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking highlights how a key program to fight modern slavery in American agriculture has moved from a theory of change to a proven solution. The Coalition of...
Freedom from Slavery Forum Focuses on Asia
Anti-slavery movement leaders across Asia convened virtually via Zoom in August at the first-ever Freedom from Slavery Forum - Asia to discuss issues most pertinent to the continent and set priorities for next year around the theme of “Resilience and Resistance to...
FTS & Anti-trafficking Leaders Ask G7 Ministers to Increase Efforts Against Modern Slavery
Free the Slaves Executive Director Bukeni Waruzi and 33 other anti-trafficking leaders are asking the Group of Seven industrialized nations to step-up and coordinate action against forced labor worldwide. Earlier this year at the G7 Summit in the U.K., world leaders...
Cutting the Long-term Costs of COVID-19: Building Resilience Against Exploitation in Senegal and Kenya
To date, the cost of the global COVID-19 pandemic has most frequently been measured in lives lost and the cost to domestic economies, while triumphs have often been charted in terms of vaccine roll-outs and partial or full returns to the ‘freedoms’ outside lockdown. ...
Kenya Runner’s Tips for Immigrants on Avoiding U.S. Traffickers
Editor’s note: With the Olympics focusing on track and field events last week, we are privileged to share a survivor’s story about how human trafficking can happen to anyone, even a professional athlete. My name is Moninda Marube and I am a Kenyan national currently...
Freedom from Slavery Forum Begins Regional Convenings
The Freedom from Slavery Forum is pioneering new ground this year as the anti-slavery movement’s premiere thought-leadership convening. For the past eight years, the Forum has been a collegial space for anti-slavery leaders from around the world to coalesce, create...
Joint Statement and Call to Action on the Crisis in Haiti
In response to the crisis in Haiti, which has deepened in the wake of the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, we, the undersigned individuals and organizations, express our condolences and sympathy to all of the Haitian families that have lost a loved one to the...
FTS Joins Global Push to End Child Labor
Saturday, June 12 is the U.N. World Day Against Child Labor, and this year takes on special importaance because 2021 is the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labor. Organizations around the globe, including Free the Slaves, have pledged to create special...
ATEST Briefs Congress on Opportunities for Action
Members of the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST), including FTS Board Member Evelyn Chumbow, and leaders from the Congressional Human Trafficking Caucus and the Senate Caucus to End Human Trafficking gathered this week for a virtual briefing and...
Webinar Recording: Ending Modern Slavery in Our Communities
What are the differences between historical slavery and slavery today? What are the key dates and accomplishments in the history of the abolition movement? How can you take action to make communities slavery free? Find out in our newest webinar recording: “Building...
New Video for Passover Zoom Seders
Unable to safely gather in person in large numbers, many of us will turn to Zoom and other digital platforms for Passover Seders. The Free the Slaves Passover Project has produced a unique video to help deepen the experience of this year’s online and hybrid...
Celebrating Women of Free the Slaves
For more than 100 years, International Women's Day has put a spotlight onto issues affecting women around the world. Today, International Women's Day belongs to everyone who believes that women's rights are human rights. We Asked some of Free the Slaves’ leading...
Learning About Slavery is the First Step to Ending It
January is Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Month in the U.S. It's an important opportunity to learn why slavery still exists, what can be done to end it, and how you can help. Thanks to the Lowenstein Sandler law firm, there's a one-hour video that will help you...
Leave No One Behind on Human Rights Day
It’s Human Rights Day, when the world commemorates the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which includes the right to be free from slavery. Human rights are supposed to apply to everyone, everywhere, without regard to sex or race or age. But in Ghana, three...
Why We Produced Free the Slaves’ Untold Story
522 Productions is proud to assist Free the Slaves as the winner of the #untoldstory nonprofit video contest, launched in July 2019. 522 Productions is an award-winning video production company committed to driving social change through the videos we create. As we...
Free the Slaves and the Rights Lab Form New Partnership to Combat Modern Slavery
On this International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, two of the world’s leading antislavery institutions are proud to announce a new partnership to merge research, community activism and global advocacy. Free the Slaves, headquartered in the U.S., and the Rights...
2020 Freedom from Slavery Forum Report and Recordings Now Available
The Freedom from Slavery Forum 2020 Advisory Committee would like to express thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s virtual convening, “Opportunities in an Age of Adaptation.” This year’s gathering in late October was a remarkable success. Across four days...
Can You Help Promote Safe Labor Migration?
What happens when the promise of a better tomorrow suddenly becomes a nightmare? The transatlantic slave trade was the largest forced migration in history. For more than four centuries, Africans were kidnapped, sold to slave traders, and forced onto slave ships...
ATEST Calls for Catalytic Investment to Fight Human Trafficking in Recommendations to Biden Transition Team
The Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST) stressed the need for a whole-of-government approach to combat human trafficking inside the U.S. and around the world in comprehensive recommendations to the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden....
Stand Against Anti-Haitian Racism
For more than 150 years Haiti and the Dominican Republic have shared the island of Hispaniola. Their relationship, however, has not been pleasant. Sadly, this antagonism has led to the creation of racially biased policies against Haitians in the Dominican territory. ...
Help Free Indians Trapped in the Caste System
Are you aware of the caste system in India? If you’re unfamiliar, it is a social structure that divides different groups into ranked categories. A person’s caste determines their social status, their livelihood, who they can marry and where they can live. In the...
Hillary Clinton Calls for “Decade of Dedication” on 20 Anniversary of Anti-Trafficking Act
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recalled the formative days of the modern anti-slavery movement, and called for a "Decade of Determination" to end modern slavery as we observe the 20th anniversary of the U.N. Palermo Protocol and the U.S....
Freedom Needs Truth
The ATEST Coalition, which includes Free the Slaves, has signed on to this open letter about the impact of QAnon on anti-trafficking work. An open letter to Candidates, the Media, Political Parties, and Policymakers: As survivors, service providers, human and labor...
Can You Help Stop Child Slavery?
Did you know that 1 in 4 victims of modern slavery are children? At 7 years old, Kwezi left his childhood home with expectations of a better life and more opportunities. But that was far from his reality. Instead, he was tricked by traffickers and was forced to work...
Promoting Racial Justice Can Stop Modern Slavery
Racial injustice is a legacy of slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment outlawed slavery in the U.S., and the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights helped prohibit slavery around the world. But these remarkable achievements did not end slavery. And...
ATEST Expands, Adding Three New Organizations
Three trailblazing organizations have joined the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST), expanding the alliance’s depth and breadth of expertise and strengthening the alliance’s collective voice. HEAL Trafficking, Humanity United Action and the McCain...
Haiti Government Pledges Financial Support to Fight Child Trafficking
Haiti’s National Committee to Combat Trafficking in Persons will have the financial capacity to carry out its ambitious agenda, thanks to a commitment by the government to provide 20 million Haitian gourdes (about $185,000 USD) in financial support. It’s the first...
Preventing Imports Tainted by Uyghur Forced Labor
The Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST), which is co-chaired by Free the Slaves, supports legislation that will prevent Chinese products tainted by Uyghur forced labor from being imported into the United States. See the letter to the U.S. Senate Foreign...
Opportunities in an Age of Adaptation
The 8th annual Freedom from Slavery Forum is happening in a unique and exceptional environment. Countries have taken measures to contain the COVID-19 global pandemic, but modern-day slavery including sexual slavery, forced labor and human trafficking has grown worse...
Grassroots Advocacy Continues via Zoom
The COVID-19 global pandemic has disrupted anti-trafficking work around the world. But the Free the Saves India team has continued to press ahead with vital online advocacy training that builds bridges between communities and government officials. FTS work in India...
Dominican Republic Coalition Joins Court Case against Child Marriage
Free the Slaves and Participación Ciudadana filed a friend of the court brief this week in the Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court to get child marriage declared an unconstitutional practice that harms girls and permanently affects their rights. The brief, filed...
Slavery Survivors Help Haiti’s COVID-19 Response
I’d like to share some important and inspiring news from our program in Haiti. There’s a deep sense of community spirit among Haiti’s slavery survivors. That’s why the Adult Survivor Network has stepped forward to be part of the country’s response to the COVID-19...
FTS Solidarity Statement on Racial Violence and Justice in the United States
On behalf of Free the Slaves, we stand in solidarity with the growing global outcry against racial violence and for racial justice in the United States. Free the Slaves is appalled by the ongoing systemic injustices directed at Black people and other people of color...
Freedom Forward
It is a great honor for me to become the next chair of the board of directors for Free the Slaves, one of the founding and leading organizations of the global movement against modern slavery. I am grateful to my dear friend and predecessor, Dan Elkes, whose uncommon...
Steps on the Journey to a World Free from Modern-Day Slavery
There was a time when people were unaware that slavery continues on in the world, that the buying and selling of people had stopped with the United States Civil War and legislation by countries around the world. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Free the Slaves...
The Enslaved Need Your Help on #GivingTuesdayNow
Your generosity has changed lives around the world. The programs you support at Free the Slaves help people learn new skills and start microenterprises that build financial resiliency. Your contributions mean that slavery survivors are less likely to be re-enslaved,...
COVID-19 Impact on Communities Plagued by Slavery
I hope that you and your family are healthy and safe during these difficult times. I am reaching out to you today to share about how the Covid-19 global pandemic is affecting communities where slavery makes people especially vulnerable to disasters and financial...
Global Freedom One Community at a Time
Dear Friends and Supporters, I write this letter as I shelter in place amidst the spreading of the coronavirus pandemic. The close tethering to our homes underscores the importance of communities even in today’s hyperconnected world. Likewise, eliminating slavery...
Dealing With the Present, Preparing for What Comes Next
The countries where Free the Slaves works (Ghana, India, Haiti, Nepal and Dominican Republic) have not reached peak level in the COVID-19 pandemic. But it is affecting them all, directly or indirectly. And we know from experience that every crisis has an aftermath....
Technology for Transparency in the Garment Industry
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...
Telling the Story of Ghana Child Trafficking
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...