The Alliance to Stop Slavery and End Trafficking (ASSET) is an advocacy NGO dedicated to the eradication of slavery through amplifying the victims voice and supporting systemic solutions.

Slavery is an extremely profitable economic crime, in which people are either forced into labor, often in the mining or farming of raw materials that feed into insufficiently monitored and regulated supply chains, or are brutally reduced to being treated as a commodity themselves within illegal supply chains, as in child prostitution, captive domestic servitude, or organ trafficking.

Slavery is a global problem, affecting not just the men, women and children enslaved, but all of us who profit or benefit from their exploitation. Slavery taints the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, and the computers and cell phones we depend on. Poverty is a major root cause of slavery where raw materials are sourced; ASSET, however, primarily focuses on the demand side of the equation, considering it equally as a root cause of the problem.

ASSET’s advocacy reaches out to and collaboratively convenes the communities that fuel and monitor demand, and educates all stakeholders on the realities and solutions of slavery today.

ASSET engages NGOs, corporations, governments, international organizations and consumers around concrete strategic solutions that increase transparency, legality and accountability throughout supply chains. This approach addresses and strengthens the weak links within supply chains that allow slavery to exist and flourish.

ASSET works to help the public appreciate the complexity of todays supply chains and the challenges facing companies operating in an often complex global marketplace for commodities. ASSET also helps companies understand that making a comparatively tiny investment to eliminate slavery from their supply chains offers a competitive business advantage with incalculable long-term rewards, and we connect them with ngos and companies who will work with them to innovate and implement best practices at key points along their supply chains.

Founded by former UN Goodwill Ambassador Julia Ormond, ASSET is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and Humanity United’s Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST).

ASSET is supported by the generous contributions of Humanity United and other foundations and individuals who share our commitment to eradicating slavery and human trafficking.

“If you can’t afford to do business ethically, you can’t afford to do business.”
- Neil Kearney (1950-2009), Former General Secretary of the Brussels-based International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation.

Corporate Approach
Through the Clinton Global Initiative, ASSET is currently partnering with Verite, an NGO dedicated to designing and implementing solutions to eradicate slavery within supply chains. ASSET and Verite welcome the opportunity to collaborate with commodities corporations on finding ways to combat slavery, trafficking, forced labor and child labor, and in our advocacy we will profile the leadership and success of these solutions in order to further corporate engagement around the issue and raise public awareness. ASSET and Verite are specifically seeking to collaborate with companies committed to investigating the entirety of their supply chain all the way to raw materials.

Government Approach
ASSET was the chief organizational sponsor of the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010. Drafted by Senate President Darrell Steinberg and signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2010, this law requires companies with over $100 million in worldwide sales to disclose what policies they have in place to ensure that their products are not tainted with slavery and trafficking.

ASSET encourages all companies to make a good faith effort to eradicate slavery and trafficking in their existing supply chains rather than stop doing business in areas where they discover their supply chains are tainted by slavery and trafficking, and works to educate the public that boycotting is often counter-productive today, and that slavery is in many supply chains.

Since California’s economy is the tenth largest in the world, this law will have a significant impact on global supply chains and would also serve as a model for federal legislation.

ASSET is also an active member of Humanity Uniteds Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST), which works in the United States and globally to improve laws and government policies against slavery and human trafficking, research trends and best practices, and raise public awareness and action in the fight against slavery.

After nearly two years of advocacy by ATEST, the U.S. Congress reauthorized the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2008, which included more than 90 percent of the amendments supported by ATEST. In late 2008 ATEST also produced a detailed policy paper for the incoming Obama administration outlining recommendations for improving the U.S. governments response to slavery.

Public Approach
ASSET involves the public in the fight against slavery through Chain Store Reaction, a consumer tool that enables individuals to ask companies that produce and sell the brands they love to investigate slavery in their supply chains and eliminate it where they find it. To date, more than 33,000 emails have been sent to over 700 businesses, and a number of leading companiesincluding Nike, Starbucks, the GAP, Tommy Hilfinger, Levis and Timberland, among many othershave completed the Chain Store Reaction supply chain survey and signed its anti-slavery pledge.

ASSET generates media coverage about slavery and trafficking and has participated in the film projects Call and Response, a feature-length documentary film exposing the realities of slavery around the globe, and Playground, an in-depth look at child prostitution trafficking victims in the United States.

Moving forward, ASSET will mobilize celebrities to amplify the voice of ATEST, the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking, and most importantly the urgent cry of the worlds victims and survivors of slavery. We welcome your support and invite you to join the alliance today.