A web search will show you thousands of web sites, videos, articles, and books about this topic — so many that knowing where to start can be difficult. Here are a few suggestions.

Web sites

• The CNN Freedom Project

• The Human Trafficking 101 training from Polaris

Books 

• Slavery in History: a free e-book from Free The Slaves

• The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery throughout History: available for on-line borrowing from Archive.org

Videos

• Slave Free Today lists 31 video documentaries and 22 TED-style Talks

• I am Jane Doe

• Sold for Sex: Trafficking in Nebraska

• Tricked

• Not My Life

• Oblivious

• Matt Friedman’s powerful Ted Talks Where were you? and Every 15 seconds

Podcasts

A web search will find many podcasts about HT/MS, but the following lists some of the more enduring podcast series that are still producing new episodes in 2024:

• Celia Williamson's Emancipation Nation

• Sandie Morgan's Ending Human Trafficking Podcast

A significant driver of human trafficking is the demand for cheap goods and services. So one thing we can all do is reduce that demand by adding ethical considerations to our purchasing. That is most obvious in areas like sex trafficking, where the demand for coerced commercial sex is directly linked to the abuse and exploitation of sex workers. But even when the consumer is several steps along the supply chain away from the actual abuse, the consumer nevertheless generates the demand which necessitates the abuse.

A key challenge, however, is the difficulty in knowing whether our purchases contribute to labour exploitation or not. We may suspect that a super-cheap t-shirt imported from another country cannot possible pay ethically for all the costs of manufacture and distribution, but then simply paying more for a different t-shirt may not be any better.

Several anti-trafficking initiatives help to inform consumers about the ethical stance of major brands. For instance:

1. The Chocolate Scorecard, led by Australia's Be Slavery Free 

2. Australia's Baptist World Aid Ethical Fashion Guide 

3. The UK organisation Ethical Consumer includes a category in their rating system for treatment of workers 

4. A Student Guide to Ethical Shopping from Street Grace.

One way Rotarians can use their influence is to lobby large corporations and government agencies to address the risks of modern slavery. You might do that through personal connections with managers of corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies, or through existing lobby groups.

The top-down approach seeks to create appropriate laws, public policies, and codes of practice that protect people from being exploited, and constrain the behaviours of those who would exploit others. Such top-down pressure can strengthen the rule of law, protect human rights, increase the ethical dimension of supply chains, and alter what society overall considers acceptable behaviour.

Examples of this approach include:

• The Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime  (normally just called The Bali Process)

• In the sex trafficking area, the US-based National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE).

A bottom-up approach seeks to facilitate change through grassroots community building. We can all exemplify the kinds of personal virtue and relational integrity to those around us and encourage others to do the same. Our small spheres of influence in our families, friends, work places, churches and other community organisations can create a kinder, more generous, and less abusive society.

As long-term anti-trafficking advocate and RAGAS member Matthew Friedman advises in Be The Hero: Be The Change, we do not need a few huge acts of monumental heroism but millions of small acts of everyday heroism.

Make a personal commitment to live in a way that respects everyone's human dignity. See the world as a co-operative rather than competitive venture. Be a protector rather than predator. Encourage others to do the same. Challenge situations where that is not happening.