Open Democracy

The Two-Fronted Fight of Sex Workers Against Trafficking

Sex workers are in a difficult position, fighting both exploitation in the sex industry and misguided policies that are supposed to [...]

What is the role of awareness-raising in tackling modern slavery?

Freedom United on sex work & building resilience to trafficking

Freedom United’s Executive Director, Joanna Ewart-James, explains why Freedom United supports the full decriminalization of sex [...]

U.S. anti-trafficking law putting sex workers & trafficking survivors in danger

The controversial Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act and Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (FOSTA/SESTA) is due to face an important [...]

Samyar’s story: how the U.K. immigration system turns migrants into criminals

In 2022 the former U.K. government made a ministerial change with supporting legislation that seemed on paper quite minor. However, [...]

Beyond Survival to End Domestic Trafficking

This articles argues that we must look beyond survival to end domestic trafficking. Ending labour trafficking requires us to elevate [...]

International law on organized crime key in tackling human trafficking

Long-standing debates within the counter-trafficking and counter-smuggling space have focused on the ineffectiveness around the [...]

Why Freedom United supports the decriminalisation of sex work

European asylum could drive down exploitation

Italy received criticism last month for introducing a controversial code of conduct for search and rescue boats which would put people [...]

A closer look at forced labor import bans

In her insightful Open Democracy article, Judy Fudge unpacks the growing popularity of forced labor import bans—and urges us to think [...]

Slavery Proposal in Australia Lacks Due Diligence

Komala Ramachandra, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, reports that Australia’s justice minister proposed a new legislation in August [...]

Ethiopian migrants forced to work without pay under Lebanon’s kafala system

Ethiopians make up the majority of the foreign domestic work population employed in Lebanon. The majority of these domestic workers are [...]

U.S. anti-trafficking organizations constrained on sex workers’ rights

The U.S. government makes around $300 million in funding available annually for anti-trafficking organizations, a significant amount [...]

Is the anti-trafficking sector ready for real survivor leadership?

“Survivor leaders are too often viewed as incapable of learning or doing effective anti-trafficking work, and they are tokenised in [...]

New President of Uzbekistan Fails to Keep His Promise

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan, promised to outlaw forced labor in his country, but institutions–schools, faculties, [...]

Concerns for migrant workers in U.S. farms and meat plants as COVID-19 spreads

COVID-19 is spreading rapidly through the largely immigrant workforces of U.S. farms and meat factories, but insufficient protections [...]

Institutionalized victimhood: debating sex work in the Philippines

The Philippines enacted its own anti-trafficking law in 2003 with a core focus on ending the sexual exploitation of women and children. [...]

Trafficking survivors in East Asia need greater representation

The majority of people who experience modern slavery are in the Asia Pacific region, nearly 60% of the estimated 50 million according [...]

Misuse of Indian Law May Lead to Forced Child Marriage

The 2012 Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act (POSCO) in India is intended to safeguard children from sexual abuse. Among [...]

With Brexit, U.K. has key opportunity to take a stand on Uzbek cotton

In an opinion piece for openDemocracy, a human rights lawyer called for the United Kingdom to end its complicity in forced labor in [...]

Empower and protect: rethinking bans on child labor

“Child labor isn’t going anywhere, so children’s safety in work must become the priority.” Writing in Open Democracy, [...]

Better economic prospects would help prevent re-trafficking in India

Survivors of human trafficking and exploitation in India face significant hurdles in accessing the support they need to rebuild their [...]

Confronting the Root Causes of Forced Labor in Global Supply Chains

Where does forced labor come from? What are the root causes? Often this is traced back to two explanations: poverty and globalization, [...]

Pandemic could be opportunity to improve plight of migrant workers in Middle East and North Africa

Across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the exploitation, inequality, and [...]

The U.K. is turning its back on modern slavery survivors

Trafficking survivors in the United Kingdom already face many barriers to receiving the support they need to recover and to better [...]