Targeted Policy Change

We work with liberators around the globe to learn exactly what needs to happen at a systemic level to end slavery for good. People closest to slavery help us identify interventions that can make a widespread and lasting difference. We then translate those needs into targeted policy advocacy.

Free the Slaves is a nonpartisan and politically independent organization. We have established a successful record of accomplishment with the many Democrats and Republicans who support American investment in changing the conditions that allow slavery to persist. We speak out when elected officials forget that freedom is the most important American value.

Our advocacy agenda focuses on six key components:

Corporate Transparency and Accountability

Increasing corporate transparency and accountability for human rights abuses in the manufacturing and sale of products will help reduce slavery-tainted goods in the global economy. Consumers and investors need data to make informed choices. See our Slavery-Free Commerce page for details.

Strengthening Communities

The vulnerability of impoverished and marginalized people can be reduced by increasing investments in economic development, rights awareness, and public services that make people less susceptible to trafficking and slavery. Strengthening entire communities reduces the risk that someone else will take the place of a slave who escapes or is rescued.

Law Enforcement

Increasing knowledge about and enforcement of anti-trafficking laws can reduce the profitability of slavery, making it too risky a gamble for criminal gangs and business owners.

Survivor Services

Increasing education, vocational training, access to credit, and a range of services that help survivors successfully reintegrate into their communities will reduce the chance that survivors might fall back into slavery.

Foreign Labor Recruiters

So many people are migrating today looking for work that it’s easy for traffickers to pose as legitimate labor recruiters. Regulating the industry by requiring the registration of recruiters and prohibiting exorbitant recruiting fees will reduce the chances that traffickers can operate with impunity.

The ‘Slavery Lens’

Increasing investment and engagement in anti-trafficking programs by donor agencies and multilateral institutions will deepen and broaden the scope of anti-slavery activities worldwide.

The anti-slavery movement can’t be successful working alone. We need other organizations to see that slavery exists in places where they are already working—and then educate their front-line staff to take action.

Policy Partners—Free the Slaves collaborates with a wide range of organizations that have similar advocacy goals and interests. See our Coalitions & Affiliations page.

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