Free the Slaves

Applications are still open, and the deadline has been extended to June 15.

The Summer School on Human Trafficking, hosted by Free the Slaves and the Wilberforce Institute at the University of Hull, offers a rare opportunity to engage deeply with one of the most complex global challenges.

Taking place online from June 29 – July 3, 2026, the five-day program brings together leading scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to explore trafficking from multiple perspectives, including migration, supply chains, climate change, conflict, technology, and survivor engagement.

Through 30 hours of interactive lectures, case studies, and workshops, participants will gain both the analytical frameworks and practical tools needed to respond to trafficking in real-world contexts.

Open to graduate students, researchers, civil servants, journalists, and practitioners globally.

Fee: $350, with scholarships available for eligible participants.

Apply by June 15: https://freetheslaves.net/school/

What does it take to strengthen a country’s response to human trafficking?

In Kenya, that work is happening through policy reform, human rights processes, and collaboration across government, civil society, and survivor communities.

Free the Slaves recently contributed to national discussions on updating anti-trafficking laws and advancing human rights commitments. The focus was not only on what needs to change, but how systems can better protect people in practice, from improving survivor support to addressing risks like online exploitation and deceptive recruitment.

These kinds of processes are not always visible. But they shape how protection, accountability, and justice actually work on the ground.

Read the blog to see how Kenya is working to strengthen its response and what it means for preventing exploitation: https://freetheslaves.net/advancing-kenyas-response-to-human-trafficking-and-human-rights-protection/

Free the Slaves’ Senior Program Manager for Research and the partners from CWISH Nepal are in Kathmandu and Lalitpur to expand the dissemination of their joint research on child domestic workers among local schools.

They met with +60 children aged 11-15 (grades 6 through 9) and presented the research findings and recommendations to the students and their teachers. Presentations were followed by interesting exchanges with the children, who were invited to reflect on what they learned about child labor, how they felt about the research, and what solutions they think should be implemented to protect children in Nepal from exploitation.

In each school, the team distributed copies of the child-friendly version of the research report in Nepali. The report will be accessible to students in the schools’ own libraries and teachers will be using the report as part of their awareness-raising sessions on child labor and children’s rights throughout the academic year.

In Guatemala, survivors of child labor are shaping the policies meant to end it.

With support from Free the Slaves, survivor representatives stood before the national child labor commission and presented eight concrete recommendations grounded in lived experience.

Their message was clear. Ending child labor requires more than policy commitments. It requires survivor participation, stronger implementation of laws, access to justice, and sustained dialogue between communities and government.

These recommendations reflect what survivors know from experience: prevention must include education, community awareness, and systems that truly support recovery and accountability.

This is what inclusive policymaking looks like, when those most affected are recognized as essential partners in building solutions.

Read the blog to learn how survivor leadership is shaping national action in Guatemala: https://freetheslaves.net/survivors-of-child-labor-shape-national-policy-discussions-in-guatemala/

Real progress is happening. Nepal, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam, Fiji, and Samoa have made serious commitments to ending child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking, and the results are beginning to show.

But our new analysis also reveals what's holding the next phase of progress back: data gaps, hard-to-reach informal economies, donor-dependent funding, and limited survivor participation in program design.

Read the full white paper to see what it will take to move from frameworks to field-level change:

🔗 https://freetheslaves.net/alliance-8-7-pathfinder-countries-in-asia-pacific-progress-persistent-gaps-and-what-it-will-take-to-accelerate-change/