2022 in action

Resisting slavery and restoring freedom in 2022

2022 was another challenging year . But despite this, we can proudly celebrate our successes together in the fight for freedom from slavery – for everyone, everywhere, always.

Here are some of the of the amazing achievements you’ve been a part of over the last year:

Historic success in Uzbekistan

We, together with the Cotton Campaign, celebrated an historic achievement of eliminating systematic state-imposed forced labour in the 2021 Uzbek cotton harvest. For over 10 years, we campaigned alongside the Cotton Campaign raising awareness of the abuses and advocating at governmental, UN and ILO levels to put pressure on the Uzbek government to end its forced labour system. None of this work would have been possible without your support and the brave work of Uzbek civil society, human rights activists, and labour monitors.

Campaigning to put people and the planet before profit

UK and EU laws are not strong enough to stop companies selling goods tainted with modern slavery  . But with your help, we continued to call for new laws in the UK and EU to hold business and the public sector to account for supply chain human rights abuses and environmental harms. Thanks to your tireless campaigning, we’ve been at the forefront with our partners, the Corporate Justice Coalition (CJC), calling for the UK Government to introduce new Business, Human Rights and Environment Act.

Empowering migrant workers to defend their rights

Millions of people migrate every year in search of work to support their families. Sadly, migrant workers are extremely vulnerable to trafficking and many end up in forced labour. They are often afraid to speak out due to fear of reprisals by their employer, the threat of deportation, and the loss of income needed to support their families back home. Over the last three years, you’ve helped support the launch and running of a Migrant Resource Centre in Mauritius to protect vulnerable workers from exploitation. As part of the project, migrant workers received information on their rights, including monthly awareness raising sessions, and access to remedy when their rights were violated.

Equipping children to live in freedom

In Tanzania and Ghana many children work as domestic servants in people’s homes.

Forced labour, violence and sexual harassment are common and hidden from sight. Thanks to your support, we worked with children in domestic work, child advocates, law makers, schools, and employers to prevent and respond to abuse and exploitation in domestic work. Because of you, children were supported to leave abusive situations; educated and empowered to understand and defend their rights; and trained as plumbers and seamstresses to find safer and better paid jobs.

As you can see we’ve had a busy year! It’s wonderful to look back and see what can be achieved when we work together to challenge injustice. Every letter to your MP, every share on social media and every donation all adds up to power the movement for freedom – thank you so much for refusing to accept slavery in any form.