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Dried cocoa beans in cupped hands Child Slavery
Thursday April 21, 2022

Climate and cocoa: why an anti-modern slavery movement is talking about the environment

At the time of writing, almost 180,000 people within the Freedom United community are calling for change from major chocolate companies. Those changes include a call for an end to deforestation and a rapid reduction of pesticide usage. So why is an anti-modern slavery community pushing for improved environmental protection policies in the cocoa sector?  Drivers of the climate crisis and hazardous child labor are mutually reinforcing  Pesticides endanger children  The cocoa sector has become more dependent on pesticides in recent decades as a means of increasing yields. As a result,

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U.K. Home Office Law & Policy
Wednesday April 20, 2022

FAQ: The UK Business, Human Rights, and Environment Act

Jamison Liang

Ready for ethical supply chains free from modern slavery, human rights abuses, and environmental harm? So are we. Freedom United and our partner Corporate Justice Coalition (CJC) are campaigning for a game-changing new law — the Business, Human Rights, and Environment Act. Below is a primer on principal elements of the law we're calling for and why it is crucial for the UK is to hold abusive corporations to account and provide access to justice for victims. Why do we need a new corporate accountability law? Negative human rights and environmental impacts are embedded in the supply

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Slavery-Free Goods
Wednesday April 6, 2022

The Chocolate Scorecard: Putting more ethical chocolate on the menu

Whether we’re celebrating or commiserating, chocolate is a sweet and familiar companion for many of us. But when we take the time to learn about cocoa’s global value chain, the social and environmental costs it currently entails leave a bitter taste in our mouths.   The reality is that the chocolate industry’s current business model leaves cocoa farmers living below the poverty line. To meet production demands and lift themselves out of poverty, farmers often turn to using children as a cheap labor source. Many children working in cocoa carry out hazardous tasks, such as

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Fountain pen laying on paper Survivor Stories
Wednesday March 23, 2022

To my old master: A former slave writes to his old owner and tells him to get stuffed

This letter is reshared from Letters of Note: In 1864, after 32 long years in the service of his master, Jourdon Anderson and his wife, Amanda, escaped a life of slavery when Union Army soldiers freed them from the plantation on which they had been working so tirelessly. They grasped the opportunity with vigour, quickly moved to Ohio where Jourdon could find paid work with which to support his growing family, and didn’t look back. Then, a year later, shortly after the end of the Civil War, Jourdon received a desperate letter from Patrick Henry Anderson, the man who used to own him, in

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Cotton pickers in Uzbekistan Victories
Thursday March 10, 2022

Historic end to state-imposed forced labor in Uzbekistan cotton

Today we are celebrating news that proves making a noise, signing petitions, and posting on social media does lead to change. The system of state-imposed forced labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry has ended. Freedom United, together with our colleagues the Cotton Campaign, announces the lifting of the global boycott of Uzbek cotton. This announcement comes as the Uzbek Forum for Human Rights releases its report findings of the 2021 harvest. This breakthrough has come about because of the persistent and coordinated engagement by Uzbek activists, advocates like you who called

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