Speak Free

Wednesday February 10, 2021

Robert Kraft: A case study in caution for the anti-trafficking sector

Jamison Liang

Nearly two years ago, Robert Kraft made national media headlines. The owner of the New England Patriots had apparently been linked to a massive, multimillion-dollar sex trafficking ring spanning from Florida to New York, where authorities claimed immigrant Chinese women working in massage parlors were trafficked, brought to the United States under false promises of legitimate spa jobs, only to be forced to provide sexual services to customers on the side. The media and a curious public descended on Orchids of Asia Day Spa, a small massage shop tucked away in a strip mall in Jupiter, Florida t

Other slavery

Monday February 1, 2021

Calling on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) to divest from prison slavery

Are you an HBCU student, alumni, or staff member looking to take action? Add your name below to call on your university to divest from prison slavery! We are calling on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) to divest from Aramark Company, a food service company that holds contracts with corrections departments across the United States and has well-documented links to reports of forced labor within prisons. On July 21, 2020, we wrote to HBCU colleges that have contracts with the company calling on them to divest from Aramark. This includes 14 schools: Alabama Agricultur

Activists

Friday January 22, 2021

Welcoming campaigner Payzee Mahmod to the Board of Directors

Freedom United is delighted to welcome Payzee to its Board of Directors, effective January 13, 2021. Payzee Mahmod is already familiar to many of our supporters as she leads Freedom United’s campaign to help end forced or coerced child marriage by criminalizing marriage under the age of 18. In the UK under 18s can get married with the permission of their parents which facilitates parental coercion. Payzee Mahmod is a powerful speaker and advocate, a campaigner against child marriage and FGM, who is currently serving with IKWRO – Iranian and Kurdish Womens Rights Organisation and as a mem

Other slavery

Thursday January 21, 2021

Calling on Universities to divest from prison slavery

You probably know that the United States did not abolish slavery with the 13th Amendment. Involuntary servitude remains legal as punishment for a crime. However, even those who are not convicted of crimes – including immigrant detainees – have allegedly been subjected to forced labor behind bars. The U.S. public and private prison and immigration detention industry continue to exploit profit from inmates, particularly people from black and brown communities. They are, in effect, trafficked into the prison industrial complex. That is why we are partnering with Be Better Belmont, a commun

Anti-slavery activists

Friday January 15, 2021

Survey results: What our supporters want from Freedom United in 2021

We can’t wait to share the results of our 2020 supporter survey! We now have a better idea of what inspires the Freedom United community and how YOU want to see the Freedom United platform used to effect meaningful change. So, what modern slavery issues matter most to you? How will your input inform our campaign priorities for the coming year, and how will we keep offering new ways to get involved in the movement? Explore the survey results to find out! Would you like to see more content from us in languages other than English? If so, please let us know which language. The most pop

Activists

Friday January 8, 2021

Urge California to protect all temporary migrant workers

Campaign Summary: Thousands of temporary workers are being trafficked into forced labor in California under threat of violence, deportation, and harm to their families. The vast majority of temporary workers are recruited via third-party foreign labor contractors, some of whom act neither lawfully nor ethically. That is why we are working with the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking and calling on the California State Legislature to support legislation that would help protect temporary workers from modern slavery. My name is Kanti and I am a survivor of human trafficking and forced

Forced Labor

Wednesday December 16, 2020

Enforcement of U.S. prohibition of forced labor palm oil imports examined

On December 15, 2020, 25 members of the oldest committee of the U.S. Congress – the House Ways and Means Committee – sent a letter to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to seek more information on the administration's enforcement of the prohibition of forced labor palm oil imports. The Ways and Means Committee has jurisdiction over taxation and tariffs, including Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. § 1307), which prohibits the importation of merchandise mined, produced or manufactured, wholly or in part, in any foreign country by forced or indentured labor – including force

Law & Policy

Thursday November 26, 2020

Freedom United responds to Scottish Government’s ‘Equally Safe: challenging men’s demand for prostitution’ consultation

Below are Freedom United's responses to the consultation's questions most relevant to our work regarding the Scottish Government's approach to sex work and preventing violence against women and girls. You can read the full consultation here and we invite you to leave your thoughts in the comments below! Question 1. Do you agree or disagree that the Scottish Government's approach to tackling prostitution, as outlined in this section, is sufficient to prevent violence against women and girls? As an anti-modern slavery organization, Freedom United’s experience from the sector makes cle

Anti-slavery activists

Friday November 20, 2020

INTERVIEW: Why does Freedom United use the term ‘modern slavery’?

This interview with Freedom United's Executive Director, Joanna Ewart James, was originally published in openDemocracy. Joanna Ewart-James is the executive director at Freedom United, an international organisation working to end modern slavery. Beyond Trafficking and Slavery spoke with her on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the UN Trafficking Protocol to discuss whether or not it is better to be on the ‘inside’ of the anti-trafficking and anti-modern slavery project, or to defend a more radical viewpoint centred on labour rights from the fringe. Neil Howard (BTS): What does

Law & Policy

Friday November 6, 2020

Forced labor in Italy cannot be tackled without international law

Carlo Ladd

This article by our Advocacy Officer Carlo Ladd was originally published in Italian in Affari Italiani. The world’s most important international law against forced labor has yet to be ratified by Italy. And according to the academics and activists monitoring labor conditions in our country, it is urgently needed. Protocol no. 29 (2014), which supplements the Forced Labor Convention (1930) of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO), makes important changes to its source document and adapts it to a world that has changed considerably in 90 years. The Protocol focuses in particular