On July 31, 2026, we convened two stakeholder meetings in Kathmandu, one with civil society organizations and one with survivor-led organizations. Needs assessments discussed in both sessions describe a system where national commitments under Alliance 8.7 have not yet reached the provincial and local level.
Free the Slaves met with Nepal’s Ministry of Youth, Labor and Employment in Kathmandu to begin planning a September stakeholder workshop under the Alliance 8.7 pathfinder initiative. Ministry leadership raised two priorities: capacity building for provincial officials and stronger national systems for tracking data.
Free the Slaves and SOS Esclaves brought together thirty civil society representatives in Nouakchott, Mauritania, for a training on the legal frameworks that protect children from labor exploitation. The session is part of a broader program supporting paralegals, journalists, and Mauritania’s progress as an Alliance 8.7 Pathfinder Country. Participants studied national and international child labor law and left with concrete action plans for their own organizations.
Conversaciones sobre Esclavitud Moderna brings together UN agencies, government practitioners, private sector voices, survivor leaders, and researchers in one Spanish-language collection — a practical resource for anyone working to prevent exploitation in Latin America, right when new trade regulations are turning that work into a market access advantage.
Survivor experts in Guatemala moved from testimony to training to a seat at the policymaking table this month. Free the Slaves reports on a week of advocacy training, high-level government meetings, and a new coordination agreement with Guatemala’s anti-trafficking secretariat.
Strong systems for addressing human rights violations depend on the people responsible for turning reports into action. In Cameroon’s cocoa-producing regions, Free the Slaves and CAM-CRIN are strengthening the skills of investigators, social workers, and government representatives to identify and document violations, engage survivors with dignity, and connect cases to effective referral and response systems. This training in the East Region is the first step toward building a more coordinated approach across five cocoa-producing regions.
Free the Slaves and UNODC worked alongside officials in Tucumán, Argentina, to validate a local roadmap addressing human trafficking and forced labor. The workshop marked a step toward a coordinated municipal response built with the teams responsible for carrying it out.
Lasting change against forced labor risk factors takes more than outside intervention. It takes systems that communities themselves sustain. In four cocoa-producing communities in Cameroon, trained committees, engaged traditional leaders, and a radio campaign reaching remote households are building exactly that kind of durable, locally led infrastructure. Free the Slaves and its partners are supporting the work, but the committees, chiefs, and community monitors are the ones carrying it forward, meeting by meeting, risk factor by risk factor.
The people most likely to notice when exploitation is happening in a cocoa community are often the ones no one thinks to train. They are the staff who visit farms, hold conversations with households, and observe working conditions firsthand. They are close to the...
Lasting change in anti-trafficking work requires protection systems and the people those systems serve to work in genuine partnership. At 28, Glory reflects what that looks like. After surviving sex trafficking across five countries on a false promise of education abroad, she has rebuilt her life in Kédougou, Senegal, and now volunteers at the shelter where she once found safety, offering peer support to other survivors and building a future on her own terms.