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Global Freedom From Slavery Forum 2023

The 2023 Global Forum comes at a time when modern slavery has increased around the world and the contributing factors are exacerbating the scale of the problem. According to global estimates, nearly 50 million people were living in modern slavery in 2021. Of these people, 22 million were in forced labor.

While these figures do not tell the whole story, they help us get a sense of the scale of the problem and call for us as a movement to respond with urgency.

Asia Regional Forum 2023

The Asia Regional Forum brought together stakeholders from across Asia to discuss the most pressing issues of modern slavery and develop effective solutions. Over two days, the Asia Regional Forum participants considered how to increase collaboration and the development of working partnerships across the region and engage with survivors from the region to learn more about best practices for engaging with survivors and ensuring they are meaningfully included in the planning, program delivery, policy design, and justice activities.

Africa Regional Forum- 2022

Africa – 2022
Enabling Local Engagements and Global Synergies for Addressing Modern Slavery in Africa

Faciliter les engagements locaux et les synergies mondiales pour lutter contre l’esclavage moderne en Afrique

South and Southeast Asia Regional Forum 2021

Anti-slavery movement leaders virtually convened via Zoom for 3 days at the second regional Freedom from Slavery Forum-Asia to discuss issues most pertinent to the continent and set priorities for the next year around the theme of “Resilience and Resistance to Modern Slavery: Key Priorities for Asia.”

Middle East and North Africa Regional Forum 2021

Anti-slavery movement leaders virtually convened via Zoom for 3 days during the third regional Freedom from Slavery Forum to discuss issues most pertinent to Latin America and set priorities for the next year. This year’s theme was “Resilience and Resistance to Human Trafficking: Key Priorities for Latin America.”

2020 Global Forum

The 2020 Forum featured 27 presenters from governments, multilateral institutions, academia, foundations, and civil society organizations. The diverse panels included representatives from organizations in Australia, Canada, France, Ghana, Kenya, India, Switzerland, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The virtual events were free to attend and open to everyone in the anti-slavery movement. Across the four days, 554 individuals registered and 285 individuals from 33 countries participated (including presenters).

2018 Global Forum

The 2018 Freedom from Slavery Forum took place in Bangkok, Thailand from December 3-5, 2018. This iteration of the Forum, the sixth annual, built off the work and goals of years past by bringing leaders from the anti-slavery field together to coalesce, create partnerships, discuss promising practices, and develop a shared agenda for action.

2016 Global Forum

The Freedom from Slavery Forum was designed to provide a place for leaders of the global anti-human trafficking and anti-slavery movement to come together, share and discuss best practices and lessons learned, identify gaps in the field, brainstorm new ideas, and build relationships with one another. Additionally, the Forum is meant to educate the public about this issue.

2014 Global Forum

The 2014 Freedom from Slavery Forum was designed to facilitate open dialogue among the leaders of anti-slavery organizations, as well as to educate the interested general public about efforts to combat modern-day slavery. Accordingly, the Forum consisted of two major components – an off-the-record meeting of organizational leaders and a public forum where community members could engage with leaders in the anti-slavery movement.

Caribbean Regional Forum 2023

The Caribbean Regional Freedom From Slavery Forum will be held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, from February 6-8, 2023. The last Regional Forum of the 2022/23 series will focus on “Enabling Local Engagements and Global Synergies for Addressing Modern Slavery in the Caribbean”.

Middle East and North Africa Regional Forum 2022

The second year of the MENA Regional Forum brings together various regional stakeholders from North Africa and the Middle East to discuss the most pressing issues of modern slavery in the region and come up with effective solutions. The theme this year is “Enabling local engagements and global synergies for addressing modern slavery.”

North America and Europe Regional Forum 2022

The 2022/2023 North American and European Regional Forum theme this year is: “Enabling local engagement and global synergies to address modern slavery.” This Forum will focus on a range of critical topics connected to sex trafficking and labor trafficking, including recent trends and prevention strategies.

Latin America Regional Forum 2022

Latin America Regional Forum – 2022Free the Slaves (FTS) se complace en haber celebrado el Foro Regional de América Latina: Permitiendo Compromisos Locales y Sinergias Globales para Abordar la Esclavitud Moderna. El evento tuvo lugar de forma virtual los días 22 y 23…

Global Forum 2022

The Forum is a living embodiment of the anti-human trafficking and anti-slavery movement, bringing together individuals and groups whose work may not otherwise intersect. The Forum recognizes that the movement itself is only as strong as its members, and one of the essential pillars of the Forum is to convene voices from a plethora of different backgrounds. The Forum has taken great care to increase access and infuse democratization at its very core and, by extension, the movement itself. These notions are the foundation of the reinvention of the 2021 Forum format.

Africa Regional Forum 2021

Anti-slavery movement leaders virtually convened via Zoom for 3 days at the first regional Freedom from Slavery Forum-Africa to discuss issues most pertinent to the continent and set priorities for the next year around the theme of “Resilience and Resistance to Modern Slavery: Key Priorities for Africa.”

Latin America Regional Forum 2021

Anti-slavery movement leaders virtually convened via Zoom for 3 days during the third regional Freedom from Slavery Forum to discuss issues most pertinent to Latin America and set priorities for the next year. This year’s theme was “Resilience and Resistance to Human Trafficking: Key Priorities for Latin America.”

Europe, North America, and the Caribbean Regional Forum 2021

Anti-slavery movement leaders virtually convened via Zoom for two days at the fourth regional Freedom from Slavery Forum – Europe, North America, and the Caribbean to discuss issues most pertinent to the continent and set priorities for the next year around the theme of “Resilience and Resistance to Modern Slavery: Key Priorities for Europe, North America and the Caribbean.”

2019 Global Forum

The 2019 event focused on developing concrete action steps that civil society organizations can take. Participants began with the Bangkok Statement of Principles for civil society groups, governments, unions, and businesses, adopted at the 2018 Forum in Thailand, and mapped out 51 direct steps their groups could take to realize those principles in their area of operations.

2017 Global Forum

The 2017 Freedom from Slavery Forum marked the fifth time this annual event was held and its fourth iteration in this format. The 2017 Forum was sponsored by the Elkes Foundation, with additional support from the Freedom Fund. The Forum took place October 5th through 7th at Stanford University, with the support of Stanford’s WSD HANDA Center for Human Rights and International Justice. The two-and-a-half-day event included off-the-record sessions for leaders of anti-slavery organizations, with one evening dedicated to an open event for interested members of the public.

2015 Global Forum

The 2015 Forum was a two-and-half-day event comprised of two days of private meetings among the anti-slavery experts and a half-day presentation by Martha Mendoza, a Pulitzer Prize-winning AP reporter who has written extensively about slavery and who discussed the intersections of trafficking and ethical journalism.