Our vision is a world free of modern
slavery and human trafficking
We are the world’s largest community dedicated to ending human trafficking & modern slavery.
We mobilise a united community to create power for change by making the public stakeholders in ending modern slavery as allies to survivor advocates.
We equip millions of supporters with awareness, education & ways to take action that drive real change.
March 2020: We joined over 100 people from the many Lift the Ban partner organizations to celebrate how far the campaign has come in urging the UK to grant people seeking asylum the right to work.
May 2017: Freedom United and partners present nearly 190,000 signatures calling on investors to drop the mining firm Nevsun Resources over its use of forced labor in Eritrea. The protest took place outside their Annual General Meeting in Vancouver, Canada.
Jan 2020: Freedom United gathers roundtable discussion in New York to discuss the ILO Forced Labour Protocol. Pictured: The Permanent Representative of France, H.E. Nicolas de Rivière, and the Deputy Permanent Representative of Côte d’Ivoire, H.E. Tiemoko Moriko, along with our Advocacy Officer, Herrana Addisu.
March 2019: A survivor campaigns outside the UK Home Office in London calling for better protections for all victims of trafficking and modern slavery.
Why we use the term
modern slavery
We use the umbrella term modern slavery for extreme forms of exploitation that constitute forced labor, forced marriage, debt bondage, bonded labor, trafficking for labor and sexual exploitation. We know that society does not tolerate slavery. However to see a world free of modern slavery we need a bigger part of society to recognise what contemporary forms of slavery are and set clear expectations that exploitation is not tolerable. Only then will we see a future in which modern slavery no longer thrives.
Our values
Action
We must bring together global voices as one to create power for sustainable change
Empowerment
We believe that the anti-slavery movement should be survivor-led
Community
Collaborating in strong partnerships and coalitions is central to our impact
Respect
We prioritize accuracy over sensationalism, rather we embrace complexity and nuance
Transparency
We share what we know and collaborate wherever we can
Our beliefs
Our values are headlines that reflect a shared understanding of the following beliefs to which all staff members subscribe:
Mass action
Ending slavery requires widescale systems and values change that demands mass action from the bottom up for a society that’s intolerant to exploitation and successfully secures a sustainable end to modern slavery.
Empowerment
Efforts to end modern slavery and human trafficking have been undermined by a victim-oriented approach that fails to draw on the power of survivors or create space for their leadership. We seek change through our My Story, My Dignity campaign and hold ourselves to account through our Content Guidelines.
Systemic change
Systemic racism and discrimination contribute to the existence of modern slavery through governmental systems, in particular immigration policies and in criminal justice, in society’s tolerance of the exploitation of discriminated people and within the movement to end modern slavery. We recognize that racism and prejudice exist within our community and we will not tolerate it.
Collaborative
Our role in the fight to end modern slavery is to mobilise action and direct it to power the movement. We do not deliver services or work directly with affected communities. Therefore we consult widely bringing local knowledge and expertise through partnerships with activists and organisations to inform our work.
Consultative
Our staff recognises its privilege and the benefit that lived experience brings to our understanding of what change is needed. That’s why we consult and encourage advocates with lived experience to use Freedom United’s platform to spread their message.
Identity diverse
Our small team and Board of Directors are relatively identity-diverse. We’re actively considering diversity and lived experience in recruitment. We recognise the benefits of unjust privilege, particularly western privilege and white privilege. We seek to be interrogating, open and progressive in our thinking to act in a way that supports our vision of equality.