This is an archive listing of all posts into separate categories for news, campaigns, and raids/rescues.
October 7, 2026: Anniversary of the death of John Woolman (early American abolitionist) October 7, 1772. He was a member of the Religious Society of Friends. He travelled around the eastern United Colonies of America advocating for the freedom of slaves. He campaigned against cruelty to animals and refused to wear dyed clothes […]
August 23, 2026. Journée internationale du souvenir de la traite négrière et de son abolition (International Day for Remembrance of Slave Trade and Its Abolition). It commemorates the date on August 23, 1791 when the uprising against slavery in French colony of Saint Domingue (now Haiti) began. The date was designated by UNESCO. […]
August 28, 2026:Anniversary Abolition Act 1833 abolishing slavery throughout the British Empire receives the Royal Assent August 28, 1833
August 24, 2026: Anniversary birth of William Wilberforce August 24, 1759
August 22, 2026: Anniversary death of Benjamin Lundy, August 22, 1839 (US abolitionist)
August 5, 2026: Anniversary William Wilberforce buried in Westminster Abbey, London August 5, 1833 July 29, 2026. Anniversary of the death of William Wilberforce on July 29, 1833
August 2, 2026: Anniversary birth of Joseph Sturge August 2, 1793 (British abolitionist)
August 1, 2026: Abolition Act 1833 abolishing slavery throughout the British Empire comes into force August 1, 1834
June 16, 2026. UNICEF Day of the African Child.
Bonded child laborer supported by the Society’s program in Karnataka, India June 12, 2026. World Day Against Child Labor
June 30, 2026. Anniversary of death of Blessed Gennaro Maria Sarnelli (1702–1744) who fought against child labor in the Kingdom of Naples.
Slave mother and her children photographed by the Society’s Secretary during a Mission to investigate traditional slavery inAfrica “Am I not a mother and a sister?” This Mother’s Day, we remember the nearly 3,000 Yazidi girls captured and enslaved by the Islamic State who have not been found. Many of them were […]
Cocoa is the essential ingredient for making chocolate. A significant proportion of the world production of cocoa is grown and harvested on plantations by African slaves. These slaves are on cocoa plantations in remote rural areas in West Africa. Some of the chocolate Easter eggs which we buy is made using slave […]
Movie poster ‘La Traite des Blanches’ May 4, 1910: International Convention for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic 1910. The objective of the Convention was to take the most effective steps for the suppression of the traffic known as the “White Slave Traffic”. A draft Convention was prepared at a first Conference […]
Zachery Macauley bust by Henry Weekes in Westminister Abbey, London May 2, 1768: Birth of Zachary Macaulay, a Scottish abolitionist. He was an active member of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. He was a former Governor of Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone was a settlement for former slaves from […]
April 30 is Child Labor Day
Palais de Nations, Geneva April 30, 1956: Adoption of the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery 1956. The Convention expanded on the definition of slavery in the Slavery Convention 1926. The Convention entered into force of the Convention on April 30, […]
Iqbal Masih was a former slave carpet weaver since the age of 5. He became a child activist after he escaped from slavery, working with the Bonded Labour Liberation Front of Pakistan. He was the winner of the Reebok Prize He was murdered on April 16, 1995. The Society preserves the memory of […]
UN General Assembly, New York On March 25, 2026, the UN General Assembly adopted UNGA Resolution 123-3 declaring the transatlantic slave trade a “gravest crime against humanity” and calling for reparatory justice. The Society notes that the text of the resolution carefully avoids condemning what is currently happening in many states, […]
Sir Thomas Buxton, Bt April 1, 1786: Birth of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet Buxton of Belfield and Runton (“The Emancipator”). He was a British abolitionist. He is called “The Emancipator” because of his role as leader of the abolitionist Members of Parliament in the House of Commons which saw the passage of […]
Thomas Clarkson March 28, 1760: Birth of Thomas Clarkson, a leading British abolitionist and ancestor of one of the Members of the Society’s Board of Trustees.
Houes of Parliament March 25, 1807: Anniversary on which the Slave Trade Bill, which prohibited British vessels engaging in the slave trade, received the Royal Assent (ie, it became law).
Palais Wilson, Geneva March 9, 1927: Slavery Convention 1926 enters into force. Slavery was defined in Article 1 as “the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised.” This definition was expanded by the Supplementary Convention on the […]
Cocoa is the essential ingredient for making chocolate Easter eggs. A significant proportion of the world production of cocoa is grown and harvested on plantations by African slaves. These slaves are on cocoa plantations in remote rural areas in West Africa. Some of the chocolate Easter eggs which we buy is made using […]
February 19, 1845. On this day Thomas Foxwell Buxton, Bt, died. He became the leader of the abolition movement in the House of Commons after William Wilberforce retired. He achieved his goal for the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. , 1st Baronet Buxton of Belfield and Runton
Since the end of the former civil war in Côte d’Ivoire (the largest exporter of cocoa with plantations were slaves work), exports from that country have increased and cocoa prices have increased, so that there has been an increase in the use of slaves on the plantations.Lindt. Children in the Republic of Ghana […]
Professor Tomoya Obokata, the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, including its causes and consequences, visited Australia from 14 to 27 November 2024. Following an analysis of the legal and institutional framework and the existing institutional architecture to combat contemporary forms of slavery, the Special Rapporteur examined the challenges faced by populations in particularly […]
January 31, 1910. The Imperial rescript issued by the Qing court abolishing slavery throughout the Chinese Empire comes into force. Unfortunaly, many slaves were not aware that they had been liberated as they were not informed of the imperial rescript, so they remained in slavery, particularly in rural areas and remote provinces. In addition, slave […]
January 4, 1789: Birth of Benjamin Lundy (US abolitionist)
Picture of Houses of Parliament January 1, 1808: Slave Trade Act 1807 comes into force.
January 1, 1863. President Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation. The painting shows a Union soldier reading Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to a slave family.
The Victims The Elite The latest files released by the White House show that, even after Epstein’s conviction, various wealthy people such as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly HRH the Duke of York) and Lord Mandelson (until recently His Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador to the United States of America) continued to communicate with him and who, […]
November 25: Anniersary of the death of Cardinal Lavigerie, founder of the Société Antiesclavagiste and tireless campaigner against slavery in Africa, November 25-26, 1892. He commanded the anti-slavery corps composed of former Papal soldiers.
November 21: Anniversary of birth of Granville Sharp, British abolitionist, on November 21, 1735 (November 10, 1735 old style)
November 20 1989: Anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
October 11, 1933: International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women of Full Age 1933
October 7, 1772: Death of John Woolman (early American abolitionist)
September 7, 2005. Anniversary of Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery 1956 done at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on September 7, 1956.
September 2, 2025. Anniversary of entry into force of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on September 2, 1989.
August 23, 2025. International Day for Remembrance of Slave Trade. It commemerates the date on August 23, 1791 when the uprising agianst slavery in French colony of Saint Domingue (now Haiti) began.
June 30, 2025. Anniversary of death of Blessed Gennaro Maria Sarnelli (1702–1744) who fought against child labor in the Kingdom of Naples.
June 16, 2025. UNICEF Day of the African Child.
June 12, 2025. World Day Against Child Labor
Anniversary of murder of Iqbal Masih on April 16, 1995, a former slave carpet weaver since the age of 5; child activist after he escaped from slavery; and winner of the Reebok Prize.
180th anniversary of death of Thomas Foxwell Buxton on Fewbruary 19, 1845,
Breaking News. The Society is seeking to confirm reports that large numbers of young Kurdish women have been captured and are being sold into slavery. Further details of this story, as they emerge, will be provided in the next few hours. There have also been reports of captured of young ethnic Greek women (whose ancestors […]
October 25. Bonded Labour Day or Bonded Labour System Awareness Day (photo of bonded child laborer who has been assisted by one of the Society’s programs in India
Palais desNations, Geneva October 20, 1947. Protocol amending the 1921 and 1933 Trafficking Conventions approved by the United Nations General Assembly on October 20, 1947. It amended the International Convention of 30 September 1921 for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children and the International Convention of 11 October 1933 for the Suppression […]
October 19, 1720: Birth of John Woolman (American abolitionist)
October 16, 1859. Capture of Harpers Ferry in what was then Virginia (now West Virginia) by John Brown. It was a tragic failure. It was retaken by forces under the command of Colonel (as he then was) Robert E Lee. It has been described as the “tragic prelude ” to the Civil War. […]
Palais Wilson, headquarters of the League of Nations October 11, 1933. International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women of Full Age 1933. It focused on two problems. First, the problem of the traffic in girls under age by traffickers who presented them as being over age by the use of false birth […]
October 10, 1832. Death of James Stephen, Socitor-General of St Kitts, Member of Parliament for Tralee (Ireland) and East Grinstead (England) and subsequently Master in Equity. He was reponsible for drafting the Slave Trade Bill (which received the Royal Assent as the Slave Trade Act 1807). He became Director of the Africa Institution for the […]
October 7. Anniversary of death of John Woolma, early American abolitionist, October 7, 1772.
Photo Palais Wilson, seat of the League of Nations September 30, 1921. Anniversary of International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children 1921. It required parties to prescribe such regulations as were required to ensure the protection of women and children seeking employment in another country.” and to “undertake in connection […]
September 26, 1846. Death of Thomas Clarkson. Canon John Clarkson, a direct descendant, was an active member of the Society’s Board of Governors.
September 25, 2024. Anniversary of Slavery Convention 1926 signed at the Palais Wilson in Geneva on September 25, 1926. The High Contracting Parties undertook to take measures to prevent and suppress the slave trade and to bring about, progressively and as soon as possible, the complete abolition of slavery in all its forms. The Convention […]
Septemer 18, 2024. Anniversary of the historic decision on bonded labor on September 18, 1988 by Justice Muhammad Afzal Zullah of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. It declared all peshgis (advances) of more than seven days’ wages illegal and that coercive methods for recovery of the loans was unlawful. It accepted the relationship between advances and […]
September 16, 2024. Jeevika Day for bonded laborers in the State of Karnataka in the Republic of India
September 7, 2024: Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery 1956 done at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, September 7, 1956.
Mai 10, 2024. Mémoires de la traite négrière, de l’esclavage et de leurs abolitions dans la République française (Day for the Memory of Slavery)
“Am I not a mother and a sister?” This Mother’s Day, we remember the nearly 3,000 Yazidi girls captured and enslaved by Islamic State who have not been found. Many of them were young mothers. The Society salutes you. We also remember the young hierodulic slave girls in Ghana, Togo and Benin, many of whom […]
Two suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) group have been arrested in Germany accused of enslaving and sexually abusing a pair of Yazidi girls in Syria and Iraq. Full story
April 2, 2024. The Vatican issued the Declaration “Dignitas Infinita” On Human Dignity, which condemns trafficking: “Human trafficking must also be counted among the grave violations of human dignity. While it is not a new phenomenon, it has taken on tragic dimensions before our eyes, which is why Pope Francis has denounced it in particularly emphatic […]
April 1, 1786. Birth of. He was a British abolitionist. He is called “The Emancipator” because of his role as leader of the abolitionist Members of Parliament in the House of Commons which saw the passage of the Bill abolishing slavery throughout the British Empire. The territories administered by The Honourable East India Company were […]
Cocoa is the essential ingredient for making chocolate Easter eggs. A significant proportion of the world production of cocoa is grown and harvested on plantations by African slaves. These slaves are on cocoa plantations in remote rural areas in West Africa. Some of the chocolate Easter eggs which we buy is made using slave […]
March 9, 1927. Anniversary of the entry into force of the Slavery Convention 1926
March 25, 2024. International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. On December 17, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly designated 25 March as an annual International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, beginning in 2008, as a complement to the existing International […]
February 20, 1895. On this day Frederick Douglas died. He was a former slave and an abolitionist. He was born in February 1818.
February 19, 1845. On this day Thomas Foxwell Buxton, Bt, died. He became the leader of the abolition movement in the House of Commons after William Wilberforce retired. He achieved his goal for the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.
February 23, 1807. On this day Charles Grey, then Leader of the House of Commons and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (and a future Prime Minister), rose to move the Second Reading of the Bill to prohibit British ships and His Majesty’s subjects from engaging in the slave trade. The Bill was passed by […]
Buying Chocolates for St Valentine’s Day? Were They Produced by Cocoa Plantation Slaves in West Africa? Cocoa is the essential ingredient for making chocolates. A significant proportion of the world production of cocoa is grown and harvested on plantations by African slaves. These slaves are on cocoa plantations in remote rural areas in West Africa. […]
Children in the Republic of Ghana in West Africa help produce cocoa for Swiss chocolate manufacturer Lindt & Sprüngli, according to a recent report by Swiss public television, SRF. The company says that combatting child labour is a “top priority”. The Society urges members to refrain from purchasing Lindt chocolates until the corporation is compliant […]
In the areas of the Republic of Yemen controlled by Ansar Allah, popularly known as Houthis (a label which they reject), have effectively reinstituted slavery in the areas of the Republic which are under their control. Ansar Allah are currently in the news as they are attacking shipping in the Gulf of Aden. “Who are […]
Photograph of bonded child laborer who has been supported by one of the Society’s Raid and Rescue programs in India. October 25. Bonded Labour Day, also called Bonded Labour System Awareness Day.
October 13, 2023. Human traffickers are getting more sophisticated – using high tech methods such as mobile phones and social media accounts to target young girls in remote mountainous areas, mostly teen girls between 15-16 years old who are not well-educated, have limited social awareness and live in precarious circumstances. Most households in Lai Chau […]
October 20, 2023. 76th Anniversary of the Protocol amending the 1921 and 1933 Trafficking Conventions approved by the United Nations General Assembly on October 20, 1947. It amended the International Convention of 30 September 1921 for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children and the International Convention of 11 October 1933 for the […]
Serbian police, with the support of Europol and law enforcement authorities from Austria, France and Germany, have smashed a criminal syndicate in Serbia. There were 8 victims: 6 minors between the age of 5 years and 17 years and two young women. One was Ukrainian and the rest were Serbians. The traffickers used what is […]
Palais de Nations, headquarters of the League of Nations October 11, 1933. International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women of Full Age 1933. It focused on two problems. First, the problem of the traffic in girls under age by traffickers who presented them as being over age by the use of false […]
October 10, 1832: Death of James Stephen (British abolitionist)
October 7, 1772. Anniversary of the death of John Woolman, a Quaker and early American abolitionist.
Photograph of young devadasi October 2, 2023. The president of the devadasi movement in the State of Karnataka, India, urged the State goverment to provide support for young devadasis. Her call concides with the release of the film ‘God’s Wives, Men’s Slaves’ depicting the plight of young devadasis. The Society’s secretary investigated the plight of […]
Source Dreamstime licence September 29, 2023. “160 million children—nearly one in 10 worldwide—were subjected to child labor in 2020. This marks an increase of 8 million since 2016, with nearly half of these children engaged in work that poses direct threats to their health, safety, and morals.” Source Bureau of International Labor Affairs of the […]
September 27, 2023. Geneva. A new analysis by the International Labour Organization (ILO) reveals that children from indigenous communities face a significant risk of child labour and often don’t have access to education. According to the findings, indigenous children face educational disadvantages, making them more vulnerable to child labour. In the studied countries, indigenous children […]
September 14, 2023 US Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives announces the Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations will convene a hearing entitled, “Children are not for Sale – Global Efforts to Address Child Trafficking”. Source Foreign Affairs Committee
The film opens in Honduras, a little girl at home, beating a drum. What seems innocent at first, a young talent scout persuading a father that his little girl should come to an audition, along with her little brother. He agrees and delivers them. But, we realise quickly that this is grooming. Children are posed, […]
WARNING. This post contains material which some readers may find disturbing. “The first girl she [Sister Eugenia] introduced me to was a 15-year-old who had been raped three thousand times,” Bayhi said. “I went home to Louisiana as a changed priest. Sister Eugenia showed me that trafficked children have no voice – no one to […]
Tim Ballard, a former U.S. Homeland Security agent who risked his life to fight child trafficking, discussed the impact of the movie “Sound of Freedom,” which is based on his work, in an August 29, 2023 interview with ACI Prensa, Cantholic News Agency’s Spanish-language news partner. “I’ve spent more than 20 years helping children in […]
Photo Palais Wilson, seat of the League of Nations September 30, 1921. Anniversary of International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children 1921. It required parties to prescribe such regulations as were required to ensure the protection of women and children seeking employment in another country.” and to “undertake in connection […]
September 26, 1846: Death of Thomas Clarkson. Canon John Clarkson, a direct descendant, is an active member of the Society’s governing body.
Three pregnant girls between 14 and 20 years old have been rescued from a criminal trafficking syndicate in Anambra State in South-east Nigeria. This follows an earlier rescue of 5 pregnant teenage girls in Imo State. These girls were in a facility known as a “baby factory.” This is a facility run by a syndicate […]
There has been a resurgence of slave raiding in East Africa. Militia units of the Islamic State Central Africa Province are reported to have raided settlements in Cabo Delgado in the Republic of Mozambique to seize young woman as slaves. According to a report by the Denis Hurley Peace Institute (named after a deceased Roman […]
On September 25, 1926, the Slavery Convention 1926 was signed at the Palais Wilson in Geneva. The High Contracting Parties undertook to take measures to prevent and suppress the slave trade and to bring about, progressively and as soon as possible, the complete abolition of slavery in all its forms. The Convention was based on […]
Anniversary of the death of William Wilberforce on July 29, 1833
Anniversary of Second Reading of the Bill to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire on July 26, 1833
Anniversary of the entry into force of Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons etc 1949 on July 25, 1951
Police in the Rivers State (located near the Niger delta) they freed 15 children abducted for trafficking. The children were found with a 44-year-old woman, Maureen Wechinwu, falsely claiming to be a Roman Catholic religious sister.
The Department of Justice has removed content from its webpage on child trafficking that highlighted the plight of international trafficking of minors.
“During missions to West Africa and Asia, I have seen girl-children being trafficked and met some of them in refuges,” Paul Bravender-Coyle, Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society stated today. “I also met police undercover agents”. “It is not a QAnon myth,” he added.
Comment on Sound of Freedom
Clips from Sound of Freedom Girl being seized Sound of Freedom
Mel Gibson: “One of the most disturbing problems in our world today is human trafficking, and particularly, the trafficking of children. Our future is our children. Now, the first step in eradicating this crime is awareness.”
June 23, 2023. Two teenage girls 16 and 17 years old were rescued from a hotel in India. The hotel manager and two male traffickers were charged under the Immoral Trafficking Act.
July 2, 2023. A seven-year-old girl, who was working at the Suman Restaurant near the Namkum Railway Station in India, was rescued. She had been forced to work by the owner. She is now in a shelter for girls. This followed the rescue on June 24, 2023 of 67 children aged 11 to 17 […]
The ‘Sound of Freedom” is now showing in cinemas in the USA and in selected cinemas in Australia. It has been trashed by CNN and by The Guardian newspaper as “QAnon-adjacent”.
Fighting to free the women and children still enslaved by the Islamic State. BBC article. Visitors to this website will recall that thousands of Yazidi women and children were enslaved by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Iraq and Syria. Many are still missing.
Children are captured and sold by trafficking syndicates to supply three markets. Commercial child exploitation (formerly known as white slavery), child labor and human organ harvesting. The youngest are sold into commercial child exploitation as the younger a child is the higher the premium paid by the buyer. Older children are sold for child labor. […]
Los Zetas, described as “once the most feared drug cartel in Mexico,” has moved into trafficking, including the trafficking of children. The traffickers usually befriend the girl or child and establish trust. Often the trafficker poses as a wealthy businessman who promises to marry the girl. Instead, the girl ends up trapped in a hotel. […]
Woman jailed in Germany for keeping Yazidi woman as slave.
Elon Musk recommends “Sound of Freedom’ movie about trafficking of children into exploitation, the story of an undercover US agent fighting the child traffickers The twitter wedsite for the movie is here.
Stock photo Dreamstime published under licence June 16, 2023 is the International Day of the African Child. The Day of the African Child was established by the Organisation of African Unity on June 22, 1991. The date chosen commemorates June 16, 1976, when 10,000 to 20,000 black high school children marched in a column more […]
June 12, 2023 World Day Against Child Labor The International Labour Organization is organizing a high-level side event during the 111th Session of the International Labour Conference on 12 June to mark World Day Against Child Labour. The event aims to explore the connection between social justice and the eradication of child labor. Experts at […]
Financier Jeffrey Epstein was arrested and charged with operating a trafficking ring. Details of the circumstances of his death have just been released. The circumstances of his death echo the suicide of Jean-Luc Brunel, a notorious international trafficker of under-age models, whose agency, MC2 Model Management, provided models to Epstein’s ring. The Epstein ring trafficked […]
One method used by traffickers is fake child adoption. For many years, traffickers adopted children from orphanages in Romania, until the Romanian government introduced legislation. The predators have now moved their operations from Romania to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With the chaos in that country and the many people killed by roving militias, […]
Girl-child trafficking is one of the fastest-growing business for criminal syndicates. It is estimated that the profit is $99 billion per annum. The problem is identifying the girls.
Former Victorian police commissioner Christine Nixon will head the crackdown on sex traffickers using the migration system to exploit vulnerable foreign workers. Former Victorian police commissioner, she will target criminal organisations abusing the system, calling allegations of sex trafficking through migration schemes “concerning”. Source The Canberra Times, 30 January 2023
225 missing children have been recovered by the US marshals as part of a 10-week operation that spanned 16 federal districts. In a statement, the United States Marshals Service states: The United States Marshals Service (USMS), along with state and local agencies in 16 federal judicial districts and geographical locations across the US, led a […]
22 May 2023 A Mara Salvatrucha syndicate trafficking young teenage girls in Washington DC was smashed when a US marine officer of the US Marine Forces Reserve noticed a girl. She had the number 13 branded on both arms. The gangs always brand their property. He followed the girl and her driver to the hotel. […]
“It is the fastest growing international crime network that the world has ever seen. It has already passed the illegal arms trade and soon it will pass the drug trade.” Jim Cavezel, who appeared in Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, will star in a new film, Sound of Freedom, which is based on the true […]
Iqbal Masih was a former slave carpet weaver since the age of 5. He became a child activist after he escaped from slavery, working with the Bonded Labour Liberation Front of Pakistan. He was the winner of the Reebok Prize. He was murdered on April 16, 1995. The Society preserves the memory of those who have […]
Cocoa is the essential ingredient for making chocolate Easter eggs. A significant proportion of the world production of cocoa is grown and harvested on plantations by African slaves. These slaves are on cocoa plantations in remote rural areas in West Africa. Some of the chocolate Easter eggs which we buy is made using slave cocoa. […]
January 4, 1789: Birth of Benjamin Lundy (US abolitionist)
January 1, 1808: The Slave Trade Act 1807 comes into force, abolishing the slave trade throughout the Broitish Empire.
January 1, 1863: President Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation(painting of a Union soldier reading Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to a slave family)
September 12, 2022 “Fifty million people were living in modern slavery in 2021,” according to the latest ILO report on Global Estimates of Modern Slavery. “Of these people, 28 million were in forced labor and 22 million were trapped in forced marriage.” One in every 150 people are trapped in modern slavery “The number of […]
September 14, 2022 Three girls and 24 boys, some as young as 10 years, have been rescued in raids on sweatshops in the Wazipur industrial area of New Delhi in India. They were working in shirt dye factories and in sweatshops making car filters, steel polishing and making plastic pipes. They worked more than 12 […]
September 18, 1988: Historic decision on bonded labor by Justice Muhammad Afzal Zullah of the Supreme Court of Pakistan
September 7, 1956: Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery 1956 done at the Palais des Nations in Geneva
August 23, 2022 Children have been rescued from a bus on the Faizabad highway travelling to New Delhi. The 11 children, four of whom were from Nepal, were being trafficked into slavery. Six slave traders were arrested. bus n
August 28, 1833: Abolition Act 1833 abolishing slavery throughout the British Empire receives the Royal Assent. The common law of England did not recognize anyone as a slave (although in Scotland, which does not have the common law, bondage still existed until the late eighteenth century, when it was abolished by legislation). Slavery, however, existed in a […]
August 23: International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition
On 14 August 2022, Kailash Satyarthi, the joint recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, was interviewed by Umamaheswara Rao of The Times of India about the trafficking of children. Kailash explained that this was caused by an increase in demand for online child exploitation material on the internet. “This has gone up manifold […]
As the Society has previously warned, Ukrainian women and children were being trafficked into slavery. Ukrainian women and children are being sold into slavery in the United Arab Emirates, according to a report “Modern Slavery In Dubai” by the Washington Institute for Defence and Security and the New York Center for Foreign Policy Affairs. It […]
We attach the Report on the Role of organized criminal groups with regard to contemporary forms of slavery – Note by the Secretary-General
We attch the Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery in Sri Lanka
August 11, 2022. Children are increasingly involved in sand mining in Kenya and Tanzania. The illegal sand trade occurs in mostly remote areas. Mined sand is widely used in the construction industry.
Thursday, June 16, 2022 The Day of the African Child was established by the Organisation of African Unity on June 22, 1991. The date chosen commemorates June 16, 1976, when 10,000 to 20,000 black high school children marched in a column more than half a mile long in Soweto. They were protesting against being forced […]
Sunday, June 12, 2022 is the World Day Against Child Labor. In 2002, the International Labour Organization launched the World Day Against Child Labour to focus attention on the global extent of child labour and the action and efforts needed to eliminate it. The World Day brings together governments, employers and workers organizations, civil society, […]
May 30, 2022 A group of UN human rights experts have welcomed the adoption of the Durban Call to Action on the Elimination of Child Labor on 20 May 2022 by representatives of governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations, UN agencies, civil society and regional organizations attending the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour […]
May 13, 2022. During 4 – 13 May 2022, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Tomoya Obokata, is visiting Nouakchott and Nouadhibou in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania in West Africa to investigate and report on the persistence of descent-based slavery, as well as the social, economic and political situation of former slaves. […]
May 24, 1879: Death of William Lloyd Garrison (US abolitionist)
May 18, 1904: International Agreement for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic 1904 (Arrangement international en vue d’assurer une protection efficace contre Ie trafic criminel connu sous Ie nom de “Traite des Blanches” 1904) was adopted in Paris on May 18, 1904. It is the first trafficking convention. Adopted in Paris in 1904 Background […]
May 14, 1859: Death of Joseph Sturge (English abolitionist), leading member of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.
May 13, 1838: Death of Zachary Macaulay. He was a member of the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery. He was appointed Governor of the Province of Freedom from March 1794 – 6 May 1795 and again from March 1796 – April 1799. The Province of Freedom was founded to provide a […]
May 12, 1789: William Wilberforce (“The Liberator”) rises in the House of Commons to deliver his first speech to demand the abolition of the slave trade through the British Empire. He began his speech with his famous opening words: “When I consider the magnitude of the subject which I am to bring before the House — a […]
Mémoires l’esclavage, leurs abolitions,
Were they made by child slaves? Cocoa is the essential ingredient for making chocolates. A significant proportion of the world production of cocoa is grown and harvested on plantations by African slaves. These slaves are on cocoa plantations in remote rural areas in West Africa. Some of the chocolates and drinking chocolate which we buy […]
NEWSFLASH The Society has completed a preliminary investigation about women and teenage girls who are fleeing hostilities in Ukraine being trapped in servitude. The forms of servitude are agricultural labor. Some women and teenage girls have also been trafficked to unlicensed or illegal house of ill repute. The male recruiters approach the women and teenage […]
During 4 – 13 May 2022, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Tomoya Obokata, is visiting Nouakchott and Nouadhibou in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania in West Africa to investigate and report on the persistence of descent-based slavery, as well as the social, economic and political situation of former slaves. He will also […]
Trafficking in women and girls
May 2, 1768: Birth of Zachary Macaulay (Scottish abolitionist and former Governor of Sierra Leone)
April 30, 2022. Child Labour Day
April 30, 1956: Adoption of the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery 1956 April 30, 1957: Entry into force of the Convention
“They call it bonded labour, but that’s just a polite term for slavery. And India has 8 million people working in abysmal conditions, for almost no pay despite a ban on the practice.” Source “Does India have 8 million slaves?” The Times of India, April 22, 2022.
April 24, 2022. 30 children were rescued from brick kilns, restaurants, brick kilns and shops in Udaipur.They included a pregnant 16 year old girl.
April 21, 2022. A jury in the Republic of Liberia convicted Issa Kanneh, a female trafficker, of trafficking 10 women into slavery. In addition, the Republic of Liberia has charged Pastor Paye of Boys Town Community of trafficking. The charges in both cases relate to trafficking of women from Liberia (in West Africa) through the […]
FOCUS ON CHILD LABOR. Jade picking is hazardous work. Many children work in the jade mines of Burma or Mynamar. Full story to follow.
April 20, 2022. China’s legislature has ratified two forced labor conventions., The International Labour Organization (ILO) has welcomed the decision by the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China to approve the ratification of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) and the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) . The National People’s Congress is […]
April 20, 2022. Two men were sentenced to 14 years for trafficking. As a result of an investigation by the Society’s program partners, the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, 33 children were rescued in the State of Jaipur in India. The children were slaves in a bangle manufacuring factory where they worked each day from 8 am […]
April 16, 1995 Murder of Iqbal Masih, a former slave carpet weaver since the age of 5. He was a child activist after he escaped from slavery. He was the winner of the Reebok Prize.
A report by the Human Trafficking institute found that 59% of online sex trafficking recruitment in 2020 took place on Facebook. The report is entitled ‘Federal Human Trafficking Report.’
The ILO and UNICEF have compiled a report on child labor. The Society has been informed about its contents as it has been released to the media. However, publication of the report is embargoed until June 9, 2021 at 5.30 pm Geneva time. The headquarters of the ILO are in Geneva.
Police in Bangladesh have arrested seven slave traffickers who used the TikTok app to lure young women and girls before selling them as slaves in India. The women and girls are poor. They were promised work in India, only to be sold as slaves. A video emerged showing one of the women being tortured. Source. The […]
The government of the dictator of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, usually referred to as North Korea, has embarked on state-sanctioned forced child labor in its mines. This is the first time in decades that a regime has officially acknowledged a state-sanctioned policy of forced child labor. All the minors are orphans. The regime […]
Kailash Satyarthi warned that at least 140 million more children have been pushed into extreme poverty as a result of the pandemic, and the number of children exploited in child labor is expected to increase for the first time in decades.. As members will be aware, Kailash, who has been a guest of the Society, […]
May 24, 1879: Death of William Lloyd Garrison (US abolitionist)
The International Coca Initiative has revised its definitions. While the Initiative is a major step by global chocolate and cocoa manufacturers, the Society points out that the scheme only covers 25% of the production of cacao beans in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire and the Republic of Ghana, who together export 55% of the world’s […]
May 18, 1904: International Agreement for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic 1904. It came into force on July 18, 1905. It was subsequently amended by a Protocol in 1949.
Burgess Owens (R) Utah, and Virginia Foxx (R) North Carolina have sent a letter to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro asking the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to examine the Federal Government’s efforts to combat child trafficking. Source ABC4.com
The International Labour Organization and partners launched a nation-wide campaign to tackle the worst forms of child labour in Iraq. The campaign will target 10,000 children, their families and guardians, teachers, employers, and the media through a series of activities which aim to raise awareness on the increasing dangers of child labour, mobilise efforts to […]
May 12, 1789: William Wilberforce (“The Liberator”) rises in the House of Commons to deliver his first speech to demand the abolition of the slave trade
May 14, 1859: Death of Joseph Sturge (English abolitionist)
A survey carried out in Tamil Nadu in India between September and November 2020 showed that child labor had increased three-fold during that period. The investigators attribute the dramatic increase to the economic effects of Covid-19.
Police rescued a 19 year old girl in the State of Karnataka in India who was to be dedicated as a devadasi. The rescued girl’s mother in this instance was a former devadasi. The Society classifies the devadasi system as a form of hierodulic servitude. The girl is dedicated to a Hindu deity. After dedication, […]
Freed devadasis march against this form of servitude. One of the women was 15 years old when she was dedicated as Lord Hanuman’s spouse. The Society classifies the devadasi system as a form of hierodulic servitude.
A photographer has produced a photographic report on child labor in Lake Volta in the Republic of Ghana in West Africa. You can read it here.
Yan Zhi, a members of the National People’s Congress, has called for an increase in the penalty under the Criminal Law for child trafficking to 10 years, according to a report in the Global Times.
37 people, many of them procurers and child brokers, have been arrested by police in Arizona in a large scale operation.
Angelina Jolie writes about meeting a Congolese girl. She writes that: “In a 1996 report the former Mozambiquan freedom fighter and First Lady of South Africa, Graça Machel, denounced the existence of a “desolate moral vacuum…devoid of basic human values” in which children were being killed, maimed, conscripted and starved as a result of conflict. Her […]
Anniversary of the entry into force of the Slavery Convention 1926 on March 9, 1927. The Convention defined “slavery” as “the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised”. It defined the “slave trade” as including “all acts involved in the capture, […]
Police have arrested four slave traders and rescued 19 children in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa. The children were being trafficked from the Republic of Burkina Faso. The children were being transported from Korhogo to Aboisso, a coastal town known for its large cocoa plantations. The children were aged between 12 and […]
Four bonded child laborers aged 15 to 17 were rescued in a raid on a construction site in Trichy in India. They were living in a shed on the construction site. The raid and rescue was carried out by our program partners the Bachapan Bachao Andolan and labor inspectors.
Eight men from the Republic of Mali have commenced a class action in a US federal court against Nestle, Cargill, Mars, Mondelez, Hershey, Barry Callebaut, and Olam. The men allege in their claim that they were trafficked into slavery and forced to harvest cocoa in the Republic of Cote D’Ivoire. The claim alleges breaches of […]
November 25-26, 1892:Death of Cardinal Lavigerie, founder of the Société Antiesclavagiste and tireless campaigner against slavery in Africa
October 20, 1947: Protocol amending the 1921 and 1933 Trafficking Conventions approved by the United Nations General Assembly
Child laborers have been rescued by police from cocoa plantations in Côte d’Ivoire. The owners were arrested. “We conducted this operation this morning in the two major cocoa-producing cities, “ Police Commissioner Luc Zaka said. The children were shelling cocoa pods. In December 2019 Ivorian police rescued more than a hundred children from cocoa plantations […]
Present Trump issued Executive Order on Addressing the Threat to the Domestic Supply Chain from Reliance on Critical Minerals from Foreign Adversaries, in which he condemns child labor and forced labor.
United States Customs and Border Protection determined that palm oil and palm oil products from FGV Holdings Berhad in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are now subject to a Withhold Release Order. Its palm oil and palm oil products have been detained at the US border. United States Customs and Border Protection explained that this is “the […]
As many as 20 children have been rescued from three bangle-making factories in the State of Hyderabad in India. According to the police, the owners made false promises to their children’s parents (who lived in poverty) to convince them to allow them to bring their children from the State of Bihar (the second poorest State […]
Tomoya Obokata, the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, warns that COVID-19 risks pushing millions of children, women and men into contemporary forms of slavery and other forms of exploitation unless governments act now to protect them, a UN human rights expert warned today. “There is an acute risk that the poorest will be […]
Two UN human rights experts called on authorities in Mali to end slavery once and for all after 4 men regarded as born into slavery were beaten to death and an 80-year-old woman and two other people were seriously injured last week. One of the dead men, a 69-year-old considered a slave, had won a […]
Eight girl-children are rescued in India. They had been sold by three slave traders for 50,000 rupees each to wealthy families in Tadepalli, Dolas Nagar and other places. They worked for their owners as unpaid domestic servants. They only received food and a place to sleep. The owners refused to let them return to their […]
The US ambassador to Zimbabwe, His Excellency Brian Nichols, urged the government to eliminate child labor in tobacco and sugar cane farming. According to the Society’s research, a large portion of the tobacco production and sugar production is exported to the USA and the European Union. However, according to our investigations, the amount produced by […]
Cargill has launched CocoaWise, a tool that aims to monitor child labor in the cocoa supply chain.
“Estimates suggest that around one in three children living in cocoa-growing areas of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana (which account for more than 65% of global cocoa production) is involved in child labor,” according to the International Cocoa Initiative. “Child labour in cocoa remains a significant challenge despite extensive efforts to tackle it over the past […]
President Donald Trump intends to end trade benefits for Mauritania on January 1, 2020 for not making sufficient progress on ending forced labor practices, the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office said.
The Society’s Board of Trustees met in the Royal Automobile Club in Sydney. Present included The Honourable John Dowd, AO, Dr Keith Suter, Dr Ian Barnett, Reverend John Martin and Julie Ganner.
The Society’s executive met in the Pullman Sydney Hyde Park to plan the Society’s campaigns in 2014
Cocoa is the essential ingredient for making chocolate Easter eggs. A significant proportion of the world production of cocoa is grown and harvested on plantations by African slaves. These slaves are on cocoa plantations in remote rural areas in West Africa. Some of the chocolate Easter eggs which we buy is made using slave […]
The Society has reports of women and children fleeing the hostilities in Ukraine being trapped into servitude. Currently, the major problem is the number of women and children laboring in the fields. Another area of concern are reports of women and girls being traffcked by criminal syndicates into houses of ill repute. Men, acting as […]
Cocoa is the essential ingredient for making chocolate Easter eggs. A significant proportion of the world production of cocoa is grown and harvested on plantations by African slaves. These slaves are on cocoa plantations in remote rural areas in West Africa. Some of the chocolate Easter eggs which we buy is made using slave cocoa. […]
The Society estimates that there are 8,000 girl-slaves — slaves in the fullest sense of the term — in West Africa today. These girls are hierodulic slaves, combining the roles of agricultural slave, domestic slave, temple slave and sex slave. Originally offered as human sacrifice to ensure success in war, these girls are the helpless […]
Hierodulic child prostitution is a generic term which the Society uses to describe religiously-sanctioned child prostitution, and, specifically, those children engaged in religious cult prostitution known variously as aradhinis, basavis, bhavanis, bhogam-vandhis, devadasis, jjgateens, jogins (or jogatis), kalavanthulas, kudikars, maharis, muralis, natis and thevardiyars in India, and as deukis in Nepal. Although there are differences […]
2021 is the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labor.
Was your sparkling diamond mined by child slaves? Children work as slaves in the diamond mines near Koidu Town, the capital of the Kono district of the Republic of Sierra Leone (ironically, a former British colony which was established for freed West African slaves and which was once the base for the Anti-Slavery Squadron of […]
Cargill has launched CocoaWise, a tool that aims to monitor child labor in the cocoa supply chain.
According to the Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, sports are not immune to the sale and exploitation of children. There have been cases of large-scale sexual abuse of children within gymnastics, football and other sports. Moreover, there are several practices that can amount to the sale of children specifically in […]
Designers pledge for child labour-free fashion world The Fashion Design Council of India has collaborated with Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation to launch #Notmadebychildren campaign. The campaign aims to stop child labour in India’s fashion and textile industries. “There are so many people who follow fashion,” Kailash said. “So, I feel this is one of the […]
The Society is promoting ‘Rugmark’ carpets — hand-woven carpets, which carry a guarantee against the use of child labor — in preference to carpets made by children (some as young as four years of age). ‘Rugmark’. In August 1994, the Rugmark Foundation was registered in India by a consortium comprising the following business associations and […]
For the second time in a month, boys have been rescued from a construction site in Trichy. Eight boys aged 15-16 were rescued. Six were from Jharkhand, one from West Bengal and another from Tamil Nadu. The rescue involved our program partners in India, the Bachpan Bachao Andolan. The boys were forced to work in unsafe […]
Four boys — one as young as 12 — were rescued by raids were conducted in commercial establishments in the State of Tamil Nadu in India. The 12-year-old worked in a bakery, a 15-year-old boy in a gas station, and the two 16-year olds in motor mechanic shop. The raids occurred on September 22, 24, […]