Do the products you buy support slavery and labor abuses?  Learn how your favorite brands relate to trafficking and other labor abuses. Free2Work provides consumers with information on forced and child labor for the brands and products they love.  Access the system here

Not For Sale is at the forefront of creating innovative, replicable, and sustainable solutions to fight modern-day slavery. Not For Sale believes that trafficking can be stopped up.  Read about their international projects.

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Recent international news posts from the Not For Sale campaign to support modern solutions to modern-day slavery.

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TeachUNICEF is a portfolio of global education teacher resources designed and collected by the U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s Education Department for teachers, afterschool instructors, and parents. The units, lesson plans, stories, videos and multimedia cover topics ranging from the Millennium Development Goals to poverty and water and sanitation.

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U.S. Senator Jeff Chiesa (R-NJ) used his first speech on the Senate floor to shine the light on the issue of human trafficking, what he deems, “modern-day slavery".   See the full speech and other articles of interest on opportunity for women worldwide. 

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“We see it as fundamental to our own interests to support a just peace around the world—one in which individuals, and not just nations, are granted the fundamental rights that they deserve.”  – May 2010 National Security Strategy

The annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – the Human Rights Reports – cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements. The U.S. Department of State submits reports on all countries receiving assistance and all United Nations member states to the U.S. Congress in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act of 1974.

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Local woman helps fight human trafficking:  Sarah Symons, 48, and her husband, John Berger, 46, founded and operate Made By Survivors, a nonprofit group that offers survivors of trafficking the education and training to restart and improve their lives.

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Modern-day slavery: a global forum.  Announcing the launch of a project on modern-day slavery, investigating root causes and potential solutions.  Over the next twelve months, the Guardian, in partnership with Humanity United, a US-based foundation dedicated to building peace and advancing freedom, will shine a light on the phenomenon of modern-day slavery.

See the forum here

Why Slave Labor Still Plagues The Global Food System.  When the State Department released its annual report on human trafficking Wednesday, we got a chilling reminder that even in 2013, slave labor is still embedded in the global food system.

As many as 27 million men, women and children are estimated to be trafficking victims at any given time, according to the report. And some of those victims, the State Department says, are later forced to work in agriculture and food processing (though no one has a good idea how many).

See the full article here on npr.org

Does the media do enough for human rights? Shaming government leaders into doing the right thing.  View the video on YouTube

Hawaii Gov. Abercrombie Signs Human Trafficking Bills:  three new bills combating human trafficking in Hawaii and increasing services for victims.

The most important of these measures is SB 192, which mints the offense of solicitation of a minor (a person under the age of eighteen) for prostitution, graded as a class C felony that carries a minimum $2,000 fine, while extending the civil statute of limitations for coerced prostitution to six years, expanding asset forfeiture laws to cover an increased range of solicitation offenses, and adding solicitation of a minor to the state's list of crimes subject to the sex offender registry.

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Resources for locating jobs relating to human rights, United Nations and NGOs.

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There are numerous ways for you to get involved. Take action and push for a cause that matters to you. Check out the Human Rights Watch traveling film festival and learn the difference that someone with a vision and a camera can make. Sign up for our newsletter – staying informed about human rights issues is the first step towards making change. And see what our supporter committees are doing in 17 cities worldwide.

Human Rights Watch partners with organizations around the world to increase the pressure for change and maximize our impact. Check out our resource guide for local activists. Read about the winners of this year’s Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism, including the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. Together, we will promote human rights and justice around the world.

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Human Rights Watch is one of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. We work tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep rooted change and fight to bring greater justice and security to people around the world. Through our Human Rights Watch Film Festival we bear witness to human rights violations and create a forum for courageous individuals on both sides of the lens to empower audiences with the knowledge that personal commitment can make a difference. The film festival brings to life human rights abuses through storytelling in a way that challenges each individual to empathize and demand justice for all people.

In selecting films for the festival, Human Rights Watch concentrates equally on artistic merit and human rights content. The festival encourages filmmakers around the world to address human rights subject matter in their work and presents films from both new and established international filmmakers.

Each year, the festival's programming committee screens more than 500 films and videos to create a program that represents a range of countries and issues. Once a film is nominated for a place in the program, staff of the relevant division of Human Rights Watch also view the work to confirm its accuracy in the portrayal of human rights concerns. Though the festival rules out films that contain unacceptable inaccuracies of fact, we do not bar any films on the basis of a particular point of view,

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An Introduction to
Human Rights Education

What is Human Rights Education?

Simply put, human rights education is all learning that develops the knowledge, skills, and values of human rights.

The United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004) has defined Human Rights Education as "training, dissemination, and information efforts aimed at the building of a universal culture of human rights through the imparting of knowledge and skills and the molding of attitudes which are directed to:

(a) The strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms;

(b) The full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity;

(c) The promotion of understanding, respect, gender equality, and friendship among all nations, indigenous peoples and racial, national, ethnic, religious and linguistic groups;

(d) The enabling of all persons to participate effectively in a free society;

(e) The furtherance of the activities of the United Nations for the Maintenance of Peace." (Adapted from the Plan of Action of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004), paragraph 2)

During this Decade, the UN is urging and supporting all member states to make knowledge about human rights available to everyone through both the formal school system and through popular and adult education.

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Online Tools and Manuals for Human Rights Defenders - a resource of numerous and varied manuals and tools for defenders.

The purpose of this manual is to provide human rights defenders with additional knowledge and some tools that may be useful for improving their understanding of security and protection. It is hoped that the manual will support training on security and protection and will help defenders to undertake their own risk assessments and define security rules and procedures which suit their particular situation.

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SUCCESS STORIES:  Around the world, Human Rights First seeks to protect human rights defenders, all too often both the champions of progress as well as the victims of repression.

What is a Human Rights Defender?

Following the principle set forth in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels,” human rights defenders are individuals and groups that non-violently promote and protect universally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms. They may include lawyers, judges, journalists, bloggers, students, religious leaders, trade unionists, and any others who work to promote human rights and combat violations.

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Firstcast – Human Rights First’s Podcast:  FirstCast is a podcast by Human Rights First, providing news and in-depth analysis on human rights issues around the globe.

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The Obama Administration’s Record on Human Trafficking Issues:  This White House Forum to Combat Human Trafficking brings together advocates, service providers, researchers and academics, business leaders, faith leaders, leaders in the technology community, law enforcement, and local, state and federal government leaders to discuss strategies for countering trafficking in persons.

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The film is a collaborative effort between Human Rights Education Associates, Sokka Gakkai International and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.A Path to Dignity: The Power of Human Rights Education is a 28 minute long documentary which demonstrates the impact of human rights education. Successful practices and projects in India, Australia and Turkey illustrate the power of human rights education in transforming people's lives and empowering individuals to make a difference in their communities.