Each week the Freedom Fund curates the most insightful and timely news stories about modern slavery. Check out what we’re reading among this week’s top slavery articles.

Ashton Kutcher testifies in the Senate on modern slavery
The Washington Post, 15 February 2017
The actor, who heads an organization that uses technology to identify and locate victims of trafficking, nearly broke into tears as he described his work. Kutcher testified at a hearing on modern slavery before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “Technology can be used to enable slavery, but it can also be used to disable slavery,” he said.

What the Costco lawsuit means for supply chain transparency
Thomson Reuters Foundation, 14 February 2017
Despite increasing media coverage, forced labour taints many of the products we consume daily. Companies need transparency to ensure their workers all the way down the supply chain are not exploited, writes KnowTheChain’s Kilian Moote in an oped for Thomson Reuters Foundation.

ILO launches project to combat forced labor
Republica, 14 February 2017
The International Labor Organization has launched a project ‘From Protocol to Practice: A Bridge to global action on Forced Labor’, aiming to combat slavery and forced labor systems in Nepal. Funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, the project will strengthen the capacity of line ministries to develop, implement and monitor policies and national action plans on forced labor.

How One Group Is Using Soap Making to Help Fight Human Trafficking
NBC News, 10 February 2017
A subsidiary of the non-profit organization Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, the Hawaii-based soap company Pono Soaps benefits survivors of human trafficking and the homeless who are vulnerable to labor and sexual exploitation. The company trains volunteers and survivors to make soaps, and also intends to start a jobs program.

Can going green help pick the slavery out of cotton?
Thomson Reuters Foundation, 9 February 2017
With the global cotton industry under scrutiny for using forced and child labour and polluting the environment, more Western companies are starting to work with farmers to clean up fashion’s leading natural fiber – and its complex supply chain.

Learn more

For more news and updates about the Freedom Fund, visit our Newsroom. You can also view issues of our monthly slavery research bulletin here.

Do you have a story you’d like to see featured in our roundup? Submit articles at [email protected].