FreedomUnited.org

Friday October 21, 2022

Open Letter to CBP on Trade Data Transparency

This week, the news broke that a group of major U.S. businesses, including Walmart, General Motors and Intel, as part of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC), sent a proposal to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) requesting key import data not be publicly disclosed. The following is a joint open letter to the CBP Commissioner calling for the CBP's continued commitment to combating forced labor in global supply chains by rejecting this proposal. October 20, 2022 The Honorable Chris Magnus Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection 1300

Survivor Stories

Tuesday October 11, 2022

Driven out of a shelter because of my mental health issues

Jessie, a trafficking survivor, shares her experiences of living in a shelter Shelters for trafficking survivors in the U.S. are often called “safehouses,” but there was nothing safe about the shelter I lived in. While living there, my medical history was used as a weapon against me. Rather than offering me support, the shelter used my mental health issues as a reason to try at all costs to push me out, even when that meant lying to the police and having them come for me with guns and handcuff me. No confidentiality: my medical records were open for all to see As a

Slavery-Free Goods

Friday October 7, 2022

Eight myths keeping cocoa farmers in poverty

Recent years have seen important developments on the topic of living income for cocoa farmers, and yet, poverty is still a daily reality for virtually all cocoa farmer families in West Africa. If we want to tackle child labor, deforestation and other social and environmental harms associated with the production of cocoa, we must first ensure cocoa farmers are earning a living income. Because as Antonie C. Fountain writes: When farmers must choose between feeding their family, and not cutting down old growth trees, it is not a choice. When they must choose between feeding their family

Anti-slavery activists

Friday September 30, 2022

Designer Louise Xin’s mission to fight forced labor with fashion

Krysta Bisnauth

Photo credit: Emma Grann Louise Xin makes stunning, one-of-a-kind dresses that almost float down runways with an ethereal quality. Xin is a Chinese-Swedish couture designer who used the pandemic to realize her dream of becoming a designer. Like her clothes, her methods are quite unique. Xin is self-taught and her line is rental-only. She upcycles as much material as she can because she can’t 100% know" where her fiber comes from and "if someone says they do, mostly they're lying..." She also made her fashion debut last year with a digital runway presentation – protesting Uyghur forced

Environment

Tuesday September 6, 2022

EU: Tip the scales to put people and the planet before profits

Image credit: Philip Reynaers / Photonews / Justice is Everybody’s Business Time is up for companies profiting from modern slavery and environmental destruction in their global value chains. The E.U. is preparing a new due diligence law, and together with 100 other civil society and trade union organizations, the Freedom United community is mobilizing to ensure the legislation can effectively hold companies accountable. Activists have taken to the streets of Brussels to make our demands clear. On September 6, the Justice is Everybody’s Business campaign launched with a bang.

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