The newest front in fighting slavery involves educating consumers that many everyday products are tainted by slavery. Sometimes it’s sweatshop slavery where products are made. Other times, slaves are forced to harvest or mine raw materials. America’s most influential...
Some of them run away. Some of them simply have nowhere to go. But the lives of prostitutes—often coerced into sex slavery—are usually misunderstood. Trafficking is considered the third largest industry for organized crime, generating billions of dollars annually....
Recent news that cotton used by Victoria’s Secret to sew women’s lingerie may have been harvested by slaves has sparked a broader debate about how deep companies should go into policing their supply chains. It’s also prompting discussion in Washington about...
Here's a surprising story that was in the news this week: Atlanta, Georgia. Third graders were presented with a math assignment with questions about slavery. Reports say that these questions were an attempt to "integrate social studies and math lessons." But the...
Free the Slaves and our frontline partners in the DRC have found multiple forms of slavery in and around mining areas of eastern Congo. We in the U.S. are not separated from these human rights abuses, because there is evidence that minerals from Congo mines end up in...
Today, December 2nd, is the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery- marking the anniversary of the UN's adoption of the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (resolution...
For the past several weeks, one of the world’s major 24-hour news channels, Al Jazeera English, has been airing investigative documentaries on modern-day slavery. The network wraps-up its series on Thanksgiving Day with a town-hall debate on whether enough is being...
Last year's recipient of the Fredrick Douglass Freedom Award, activist Tina Frundt, made headlines when she returned to Cleveland—the place she had been trafficked into sex slavery when she was just a teenager. Frundt has been active in the fight against the...
One of the world’s major 24-hour global news channels is about to launch a multi-part documentary series on modern slavery. Many of the programs, including the series premiere, will feature FTS co-founder and president, Kevin Bales. The series is called “Slavery: A...
In this week’s news, several organizations have made attempts to not only aid the victims of human trafficking, but also to introduce new resolutions to combat slavery. Both New York’s Legal Aid Society and the U.N. Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human...
The June 23rd ATEST/CNN International event featured Congressman Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, the State Department’s human trafficking chief, Academy Award-winning actress and U.N. Goodwill Ambassador for Human Trafficking Mira Sorvino, CNN...
There’s been plenty of news coverage since Monday’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report from the U.S. State Department. The report ranks 184 countries on how well they’re combating trafficking and slavery. On MSNBC and in the Washington Times, stories highlight that...
Last Friday, Free the Slaves President Kevin Bales was interviewed on CNN, talking about modern-day slavery in the United States. He stressed that victims of slavery are often the people we overlook—"the people we tend to treat as if they were almost invisible." Take...
Woman to Run, Bike & Swim for 27 Hours Straight, to Raise Awareness of 27 Million Modern-Day Slaves: Paula Heron, a woman from Lexington, Kentucky will be raising awareness about modern-slavery by spending "27 straight hours of swimming, biking and running." She's...
Earlier this month, it was reported that Delta Air Lines became the first U.S. airline to sign on to the Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism (The Code), pledging to train employees to identify and report...
CNN's year-long Freedom Project continues to churn out great coverage on modern-day slavery. We were excited to see Amanda Kloer's (editor of Change.org's Human Trafficking blog) recent article highlighting the importance of the U.S. government appointing a special...
In this week's round-up of slavery news in the U.S. and around the world we have: possibly a new school for Texan Johns; Missouri cracks down hard on traffickers and increases support for victims; Columbia, Italy, and Taiwan receive high praise for their efforts to...
Editor's note: This blog post was written by Benjamin Skinner, a longtime friend of Free the Slaves who won the 2009 Dayton Literary Peace prize for his book A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery. To learn more about Mr. Skinner’s work as an...
Free the Slaves partner in Nepal, WOSCC (The Women Skill Creation Centre) works to rehabilitate women returned from slavery. Many of the women who come to WOSCC are survivors of circus slavery in India. Life in the circus can be horrifying for these enslaved young...
In the U.S., thousands are brought into our borders to be used as slaves. Thousands of U.S. citizens are enslaved within our borders. Slavery is by no means a foreign issue—it happens right in our back yards. Just this past week arrests were made and convictions...
Free the Slaves' U.K. partner Anti-Slavery International estimates there are over 1.8 million people living in slavery in Pakistan. Canadian NGO SOS Children's Villages recently sited an Asian Human Rights Commission report highlighting the enslavement of Pakistani...
State legislatures across the country are considering legislation to combat human trafficking last week. In the Empire State, Assemblywoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing) and Senator Stephen Saland (R-Poughkeepsie) sponsored a bill to extend New York's Interagency Task Force...
FTS President Kevin Bales was featured on CNN's Freedom Project last week, speaking a little bit about how he became an anti-slavery activist. "[Free the Slaves] ultimate goal is to end slavery on the planet," Bales says. "I know it's kind of like putting somebody on...
Brazilian anti-slavery activist, and 2008 Freedom Award winner Leonardo Sakamoto runs a popular and influential blog on modern-day slavery, which has been nominated for a Deutche Welle International Blog Award, otherwise known as the BOBs. The award is given to "11...
Tomorrow, Free the Slaves President Kevin Bales will be on Voice America radio's 'Disability Matters' show, hosted by Joyce Bender at 2pm ET. Bales was a guest on this one-hour show in February, 2010. Hear audio of that interview here. Around the 34 minute mark, Joyce...
This video, produced by Free the Slaves, takes a big picture look at slavery in Nepal, and how FTS works to end it. We've told you about Human Goods, a magazine-style website that publishes feature-length articles on modern-day slavery around the world. Christa...
The third installment of CNN's series on debt bondage slavery in Uttar Pradesh, India is now live. Earlier pieces showed how entire families bec0me embroiled in bonded labor for generations, and depicted the efforts of NGOs like Free the Slaves to stage raids and...
CNN’s coverage of anti-slavery efforts in Uttar Pradesh, India continued yesterday, with Indian Labor Secretary Prabhat C. Chaturvedi (shown in the video below) responding over use of the "S" word in the news reports. Secretary Chaturvedi disagrees with the use of the...
Al Jazeera: Ruby trade hides Myanmar slavery: Behind precious stones lie tales of exploitation of children, some as young as four: Myanmar on Thursday opens one of its biggest ever sales of precious gems - an opportunity for the government to flaunt its massive ruby...
Sara Sidner of CNN is continuing covering of Free the Slaves' work in Uttar Pradesh, India. Just launched on Monday, CNN's Freedom Project covers modern-day slavery all over the world. New stories are going online and broadcast every single day—a truly unprecedented...
More from CNN's Freedom Project: Free the Slaves President Kevin Bales, along with other modern-day slavery experts discusses the difficulty in counting the number of slaves around the world. Via CNN: The challenges of counting a 'hidden population' By Manav Tanneeru...
In the course of her work, there are times when Free the Slaves South Asia Director Supriya Awasthi feels that her safety is at risk. This was the case when she was with the CNN news crew as they documented the reality of modern-day slavery in India. At one point,...
Vice President Joe Biden will address modern-day slavery: Human trafficking on agenda for U.S. vice president's trip to Moldova, Russia: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden plans to address the issue of human trafficking on his visit to Moldova and Russia next week, a White...
From CNN's press release: This year CNN will join the fight to end modern-day slavery. With its unmatched global reach and resources, CNN will shine a spotlight on the horrors of modern-day slavery and amplify the voices of the victims. Through passionate...
The Hindu: 500 Indians say they were trafficked to post-Katrina Louisiana to work in shipyards: Over 500 Indian citizens who were brought to the United States to work in shipyards, following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, have initiated what might well become the largest...
Here's a news link about a part of the world that Free the Slaves is very active in: Uttar Pradesh, India. Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India, has high rates of generational slavery. Entire villages have been trapped in debt bondage for generations. With...
Here's a great story about the power of social media. In China, microblogging helped reunite a kidnapped child with his family. Via the BBC: It is estimated that up to 20,000 children in China are kidnapped every year. Some are sold to gangs to be used as beggars,...
An explosive New Yorker exposée on the Church of Scientology is making major waves today. The article profiles film director / screenwriter Paul Haggis (Quantum of Solace, Million Dollar Baby), a Scientology member for 35 years. Haggis left the religion in 2009 over a...
The University of Michigan Law School is continuing to be a groundbreaking, legal resource for the U.S. anti-slavery movement. In 2009, the school opened the country's first legal clinic dealing exclusively with human trafficking. Directed by Professor Bridgette Carr,...
Here's the trailer for the Freedom Awards, which premiered last night on Halogen TV. If you missed it, don't fret! It's airing again tonight at 8pm ET.
We told you about the Freedom Awards airing on Halogen TV this Saturday. But there is more! Halogen is giving away Abolitionist Prize Packs to some very lucky people. Enter your name into the online raffle on HalogenTV.com for a chance to win! One person will...
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) put out a press release saying the "new frontier" in labor trafficking will be employment discrimination laws. In their book on slavery in the U.S., The Slave Next Door, Ron Soodalter and FTS President Kevin...
Free the Slaves partner in the U.K., Anti-Slavery International (ASI)—the oldest human rights organizations in the world—was featured on the BBC yesterday in a segment on slave labor in Dubai. The piece was produced by veteran foreign correspondent John Simpson, noted...
CHILD SLAVERY DOCUMENTARY 'NOT MY LIFE' PREMIERS IN NEW YORK Earlier this week Not My Life, a documentary on child slavery and exploitation, premiered at Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center in New York. In an interview with UNICEF (a sponsor of the film), director...
Free the Slaves Policy and Research Associate Jody Sarich is featured on Big Think today, speaking about her research on forced marriage and its relation to slavery and human trafficking in China. With FTS President Kevin Bales, Sarich is currently writing the first...
Details: The King of Hollywood Philanthropy: "A Hollywood philanthropy consultant, [Trevor Neilson] pairs celebrities with causes and helps them transform from the world's biggest stars into its most responsible citizens, one photo op at a time. "For fees upward of...
In October, the Associated Press reported on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Siem Reap, Cambodia where she visited with non other than 2009 Freedom Award winner Sina Vann. Sina was among a group of survivors of slavery in Cambodia, who met with Clinton...
A great article on modern slavery in the U.S. came out this week on The Prisma website. Written by Carolina Cositore, the piece sites Free the Slaves (thanks for the shout out!), and refers to the book The Slave Next Door written by FTS President Kevin Bales and...
Causecast: Freedom Awards 2010 Shout Out Loud Success for Free the Slaves: "This last Sunday, human rights organization Free The Slaves held their annual Freedom Awards and Freedom Rocks! ... Causecast was there to livestream the awards show to an audience of over...
Florida's farm industry has long been plagued with high profile cases of worker abuse—including several instances of slavery. But one advocacy group, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) has works to bring justice and better working conditions for the mostly...