Blog
Survivors Take the Lead – A Week That Moved Guatemala’s Anti-Child Labor Agenda Forward
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.
Investigators Training Workshop on Human Rights Violations in Cocoa-Growing Communities
Community monitors can identify risk factors. Corporate sustainability staff can recognize warning signs. But when a report of a human rights violation formally reaches an investigator or social worker, something different is required: legal knowledge, investigative...
Tucumán, Argentina Validates Local Roadmap Against Human Trafficking for Labor Exploitation
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.
Communities taking the lead: Combating forced labor risk factors in Cameroon’s cocoa belt
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.
Building frontline knowledge to combat modern slavery in Nigeria’s cocoa communities
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...
Rebuilding on Her Own Terms: How Survivor Leadership Is Changing the Response to Sex Trafficking in Senegal
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.
Guatemala Shows Child Labor a Red Card. The Numbers Demand We Don’t Stop There.
Guatemala marked World Day Against Child Labor with an Informational Fair that drew more than 400 participants, including Vice President Karin Herrera and senior Ministry of Labor officials rallying around the ILO’s 2026 theme: “Show Child Labor a Red Card.” Free the Slaves was there alongside survivors whose advocacy is pushing Guatemala’s national Roadmap toward meaningful improvements.
Survivor Participation in Anti-Trafficking Policy: Evidence from Latin America
Survivor participation in anti-trafficking work has become a widely accepted principle. What remains harder to achieve is making that participation genuinely meaningful. Drawing on field evidence from Guatemala and Bolivia, Free the Slaves joined the UNODC and the Organization of American States in Vienna to share what the work actually requires.
From Planning to Action: Grassroots Leaders Advancing Anti-Trafficking and Safe Migration Efforts
When community members are equipped to lead, lasting protection becomes possible. In eastern Uttar Pradesh, 22 grassroots leaders from Migrant Vigilance Committees and Azad Shakti Abhiyan groups recently completed Community Action Plan workshops, translating a year of training into structured, village-level strategies to prevent exploitation, promote safe migration, and connect vulnerable families to support. Here is what that looks like in practice.