Anti-Slavery International Today

Anti-Slavery International, founded in 1839, is the world's oldest international human rights organisation and the only charity in the United Kingdom to work exclusively against slavery. We work at local, national and international levels to eliminate all forms of slavery around the world by:

• Supporting research to assess the scale of slavery in order to identify measures to end it;
  
  
• Working with local organisations to raise public awareness of slavery;
  
  
• Educating the public about the realities of slavery and campaigning for its end.
  
  
• Lobbying governments and intergovernmental agencies to make slavery a priority issue and to develop and implement plans to eliminate slavery;

Anti-Slavery International's work is divided among three teams: the Programmes and Advocacy Team, the External Relations Team and the Administration and Finance Team. See here for a staff list.

Programmes and Advocacy

The work of this team involves working with partner organisations around the world on joint projects to tackle debt bondage, forced labour, forced marriage, child slavery, human trafficking and descent based slavery. It also involves carrying out and publishing research on these different types of slavery and advocating for changes in policies and behaviour which will contribute to their eradication.
 
The team’s advocacy work takes place through public awareness raising and campaigning, educational work with schools, engagement with the media and lobbying national governments and inter-governmental fora (e.g. the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union and the International Labour Organization).

External relations

The team is responsible for public awareness raising, campaigning, educational work with schools, engagement with the media. It also raises funds from the public, charitable trusts, foundations and other institutions are critical to our ability to work towards the elimination of slavery. See donations for more detail on how to help.

Finance and Administration

Financial information is available in our Annual Review and Annual Accounts

Anti-Slavery International staff list

Director – Aidan McQuade

Programme and Advocacy Team

Programme and Advocacy Team Manager – Romana Cacchioli
Africa Programme Coordinator– Sarah Mathewson
South Asia Programme Coordinator– Krishna Prasad Upadhyaya
Child Labour Coordinator– Catherine Turner
Supply Chain Project Coordinator – Joanna Ewart-James
Domestic Worker Programme Coordinator - Audrey Guichon
Trafficking Programme Coordinator– Klára Skrivánková
International Advocacy Officer – Kate Willingham
Statutory Fundraising Officer – Rod Leith
Researcher and Co-ordinator for the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group - Rachel Annison
Fundraising Executive - Thais Bessa
Learning and Accountability Officer - Lucy Brealy

External Relations Team

Education Officer – Michaela Alfred-Kamara
Press Officer – Paul Donohoe
External Relations, Website and Publications Executive – Jakub Sobik
External Relations Assistant - Stephanie Mooney

Administration and Finance Team

Finance Manager – Martin Hubbard
Office Manager – Mariela González
Administration Assistant and Volunteer Coordinator – Melissa Ritchie
Finance Administration Assistant - Grace Andrews

Email contact

The email address of Anti-Slavery International staff is their first initial followed by a dot and then their surname followed by @antislavery.org, e.g. a.name@antislavery.org

Trustees

Paul Whitehouse – Chair
John Cropper - Vice Chair
Graham Duncan – Treasurer
Lady Lucy Chandler OBE
Ester Stanford - Xosei
Emma Snow
Vanita Patel
Tracy Ulltveit-Moe
Rob Grimshaw
Ruth Powys
David Knight
Shahid Malik
Malcolm John

General inquiries can be made to info@antislavery.org

Delivering change

Anti-Slavery International's work has produced real change. Throughout the last century, the organisation was involved in many successful campaigns, such as those to stop the abuse of rubber workers in the Belgian Congo and the use of child slaves -- Mui Tsai -- in Hong Kong. In the 21st century we continue to be closely involved in achieving progress in the fight against slavery:

• Our Home Alone campaign played a big part in persuading the International Labour Organisation to adopt a Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, which secures the rights of millions of domestic workers across the globe.
  

• We successfully campaigned to force the UK government to sign up to a new EU anti-trafficking law that will help better protect the victims and secure justice for people who have been trafficked (2011).

• Last December our Cotton Crimes campaign convinced MEPs to overwhelmingly reject a proposal to extend a trade deal with Uzbekistan because of the ongoing use of forced child labour in the country's cotton industry.

• The United Nations’ decision to create a new Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery in 2008, who will report directly to the UN Human Rights Council on measures that Governments need to take to tackle slavery practices in their respective countries.  This is the first new UN mechanism on slavery in over 30 years.

• In 2008 we supported a former slave, Hadijatou Mani in obtaining the verdict of international ECOWAS court that found the state of Niger guilty of failing to protect her from slavery . This was a major victory in the figh against slavery in West Africa. The ruling sets a legal precedent with respect to the obligations of states to protect its citizens from slavery. The ECOWAS Court decisions are binding, and the human rights obligations the Court interprets are applicable to all member states.
  
  
• Nepal (2002), Niger (2003), Brazil (2003) and Mauritania (2007) are some of the countries which have introduced or amended laws so that slavery practices are prohibited and properly punished. These reforms have led to the release of more than 100,000 people from slavery.
  
  
• In 2005, the United Arab Emirates recognised that some 3,000 children had been trafficked to the UAE to be used as camel jockeys and passed a law banning anyone under 18 from taking part in camel racing. The Government also provided UNICEF with US$2.7 million to assist these children to return to their homes. Qatar and Kuwait also passed laws prohibiting children under 18 from being camel jockeys.
  
  
• The UK has taken various measures to raise awareness of slavery issues and counter trafficking in people, including: introducing laws against trafficking for sexual and labour exploitation and funding support services for those affected (2004); the creation of a national slavery memorial day in the UK (from 23 August 2008); making it obligatory to teach the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the UK National Curriculum (from September 2008); and committing to ratify the Council of Europe Convention against trafficking (by the end of 2008).
  
  
• The approval of the Council of Europe Convention against trafficking in 2005 which is the first international standard to guarantee trafficked people minimum standards of protection and support.  This Convention came into force in February 2008 and has been signed or ratified by nearly 40 countries.