Slavery In History:  Read this slavery timeline, from Mesopotamia to our present day, to see how the anti-slavery movement evolved through the ages.

Slavery Timeline

The Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE Act) would help protect child farmworkers:  Grecia Balli began working in farm fields when she was 10 years old.  Grecia is one of an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 children who work in U.S. agriculture. Child farmworkers aren’t treated the same as other children, either, under current U.S. labor laws.

Full story here...

The Department of Labor's annual Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor focuses on the efforts of 144 U.S. trade beneficiary countries and territories to eliminate the worst forms of child labor through legislation, enforcement mechanisms, policies and social programs.

The Report presents:

• Findings on the prevalence and sectoral distribution of the worst forms of child labor in each country.
• Country-specific suggestions for government action (since 2010).
• Individual country assessments that identify where Significant, Moderate, Minimal, or No Advancement has been made (since 2011).

The Report serves as a resource to foreign governments, NGOs, academics and policymakers working on labor and human rights issues. It helps inform Congress and Executive Branch agencies that formulate labor and trade policy and is an important resource for the Department in assessing future technical assistance and research priorities as it seeks to combat child labor around the world.

The Department's Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) has published the Findings each year since 2002, as mandated by the Trade and Development Act of 2000 (TDA). The TDA requires that countries fulfill commitments to eliminate the worst forms of child labor to be eligible for certain U.S. trade preference programs. It also requires the U.S. Secretary of Labor to issue annual findings on beneficiary country initiatives to implement these commitments.

See more here

The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report is the U.S. Government’s principal diplomatic tool to engage foreign governments on human trafficking. It is also the world’s most comprehensive resource of governmental anti-human trafficking efforts and reflects the U.S. Government’s commitment to global leadership on this key human rights and law enforcement issue. It represents an updated, global look at the nature and scope of trafficking in persons and the broad range of government actions to confront and eliminate it. The U.S. Government uses the TIP Report to engage foreign governments in dialogues to advance anti-trafficking reforms and to combat trafficking and to target resources on prevention, protection and prosecution programs. Worldwide, the report is used by international organizations, foreign governments, and nongovernmental organizations alike as a tool to examine where resources are most needed. Freeing victims, preventing trafficking, and bringing traffickers to justice are the ultimate goals of the report and of the U.S Government's anti-human trafficking policy.

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Be Here Now:  One of the greatest battles for human rights rages on. There are an estimated 27 million people enslaved at this very moment. Slavery is more prevalent today than at any other time in history.  Made In A Free World produced this three part video campaign to galvanize an ever growing number of concerned citizens.  

See the site here

More than 100 teens rescued in weekend sex-trafficking raids:  More than 100 teenagers — many of them children from broken homes — were rescued over the weekend in a sex-trafficking crackdown that swept more than 70 cities, the FBI said. 

See the video here

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.

Go to the site here

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

View the news here

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. 

View the site here

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.

See the full article here

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

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.

View the full article here

Human Trafficking Training.  Through Shared Hope International's offering of various human trafficking training programs, the goal is to increase the identification of those victimized and vulnerable to trafficking and improve the response of service providers and justice systems.  See the site here

National Human Trafficking Resource Center:  Call 1-888-373-7888 or text BeFree (233733). The National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) is a national, toll-free hotline, available to answer calls and texts from anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year.  View the full information here

Recognizing the Signs -  Is someone you know being trafficked? Is human trafficking happening in your community? Is the situation you may have encountered actually human trafficking?  The following is a list of potential red flags and indicators of human trafficking to help you recognize the signs.  Read the full article here

Announcing the Fourth Annual Freedom Award Winners:  Three amazing women are being honored as the latest recipients of the Free the Slaves Freedom Awards. Two are former slaves who have dedicated their lives to helping others to freedom. One is a former governmental official who has shown the world how to combat slavery at a national level.  View the site here

From Free The Slaves, research and documents:  Here you’ll find documents, links, and other resources to help you learn more about the modern anti-slavery movement.

This manual provides practical suggestions for all aspects of helping former slaves to recover.  It is written as a simple tool for frontline anti-slavery workers who want to start new programs for freed slaves, improve their existing work, or show funders the types of assistance that are needed.  The manual was written for Free the Slaves by Helen Armstrong, drawing on the experience of rehabilitation programs around the world.

Learn more

The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking is a strategic community awareness campaign that educates at-risk children and their parents about the dangers of child trafficking. A digital library of anti-trafficking resources for children. 

Freedom Acts: Forced Labor Adam's story of how he was exploited for forced labor in Northern Ireland

Freedom Acts: Grooming  Alisha's story of how she was groomed for sexual exploitation as a teenager in Northern Ireland

Freedom Acts: Sexual Exploitation Anna's story of how she was tricked and forced into sexual exploitation in Northern Ireland

Freedom Acts: Conclusion The end of Adam, Alisha, and Anna's stories along with more information

Journey to Freedom True stories of two men—21st-century Cambodian Vannak Prum and 19th-century American Solomon Northup—who were sold into slavery more than 150 years apart, and the abolitionists who fight to free slaves.

Warning to Young Women in China: Video in Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles; a good warning to young women everywhere, not just in China. 

Backstory: MTV's Interactive Anti-Slavery Campaign:  Interactive videos that show youth how poor choices can lead to being trafficked.  Note: Backstory doesn't play in all browsers; it worked better for us in Safari than in Firefox. 

View the full website here