Advocacy and Impact
IJM UK’s Advocacy and Impact team works to bring the lessons learned by IJM to shape the UK’s response to modern slavery and violence.
The Problem: Everyday Violence
The threat of violence is part of everyday life for people living in poverty.
It is as much a part of poverty as hunger, disease or homelessness. This is not the violence of war or genocide, but common, criminal violence that is already against the law—crimes like slavery, violence against women and children and police abuse of power.
In many communities, criminals expect no consequences for these crimes. Laws are not effectively enforced, so they continue to enslave and abuse people living in poverty.
An estimated 5 billion people live without the protection of the law.
If we are to effectively and sustainably end violence against the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities, we must first ensure that they can have confidence that the justice system will offer them protection.
Our solution
In the face of this abuse, IJM and our partners protect people in poverty from violence.
We collaborate with local authorities to build communities where all people can expect to be safe and protected.
IJM Theory of Change
Bring People to Safety
We partner with local authorities to bring to safety individual victims of violence and provide trauma-informed support to survivors. Over 76,000 people have been brought to safety from slavery and violence. Read stories of hope here.
Strengthen Justice Systems
Slavery still exists because traffickers and abusers can freely exploit people living in poverty. This is possible when police, judges and other officials are not equipped to enforce the laws. We provide training, mentoring and support to local law enforcement and other community leaders to slow down and stop the cycle of violence.
Bring Criminals to Justice
We work alongside justice system officials to ensure that criminals are held accountable, stopping the cycle of violence and deterring others from abusing vulnerable people.
Scale Demand for Protection
We convene and equip champions to advocate and scale demand for protection as an essential and tangible future for everyone.
Our Impact
We are seeing evidence that IJM’s model works—that enforcing the law deters criminals and protects people from violence.
86% reduction in child sex trafficking in places where we’ve worked in Angeles City and Mabalacat, Philippines.
(Child Sex Trafficking Report, Angeles City, 2016).
72% reduction in availability of children for sexual exploitation in places where we’ve worked in Cambodia.
(Project Lantern, 2007.)
75% reduction in child sex trafficking in Metro Manila, Philippines.
(Child Sex Trafficking Report, Metro Manila, 2016.)
50% reduction in prevalence of land theft in Mukono Country, Uganda.
(An Endline Study, 2018.)
A deeper look
What is slavery?
Slavery is illegal almost everywhere—but 50 million children, women and men are trapped in slavery around the world (ILO, Walk Free, IOM 2022).
Traffickers use deception, threats or violence to force people into gruelling labour or sexual exploitation for little or no pay. These individuals are often denied adequate food or sleep, and they’re often barred from leaving for school or medical care.
IJM addresses labour trafficking, sex trafficking and the online sexual exploitation of children in communities around the world: Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Ghana, India, Myanmar, Philippines, Romania and Thailand.
Read more about IJM's work to tackle forced labour and online sexual exploitation of children.
What is Violence Against Women and Children?
Because women and children around the world often are not effectively protected by the law, they are particularly - and often disproportionately - vulnerable to violent abuse.
IJM’s teams in Uganda, Guatemala, Bolivia, El Salvador and Kenya work to address sexual violence and domestic violence. Read more about this work here.
What is Police Abuse of Power?
In many places, police not only fail to protect people in poverty from violence, but they are perpetrators of violence themselves.
Learn more here.
IJM UK Research and Briefings
Latest: Access to Justice Briefing
Access to Justice Briefing
IJM UK’s recommendations on how upcoming domestic legislation can be strengthened to ensure greater access to justice for survivors of modern slavery.
Online Safety Bill Proposed Amendments
IJM supports the ambition of the Online Safety Bill to hold regulated services accountable for online sexual exploitation of children occurring on their platforms. The Online Safety Bill has great potential to make a global impact and set a world-leading example. The implications of the duties of care introduced by the Bill will be felt around the world in the prevention, disruption and detection of online sexual exploitation of children. We are encouraged by the prioritisation of tackling the dissemination of child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) content. However, there is room for the Bill to go even further in strengthening child protection online in particular in relation to:
1. The use of online platforms to generate new CSEA content
2. Enforcement to protect children around the world
Lessons from Lockdown
COVID-19 lockdowns created the optimal conditions for an increase in many forms of online sexual exploitation of children, including trafficking of children to produce child sexual exploitation material via livestreaming.
The Parallel Pandemic
COVID-19 has exposed the lack of systemic protections for people most vulnerable to violence. As resources were diverted towards COVID-19 efforts and frontline responders were put at risk of becoming infected, additional stresses were placed on criminal justice systems.
Preventing Modern Slavery
Recommendations to the UK’s FCDO: ‘By tacking the impunity which enables modern slavery to thrive around the world and affecting sustainable change, the newly established Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office can guarantee its position as the leading actor in the anti-slavery movement.’
Integrated Review
In considering the UK’s role on the international stage, in both the short term and looking towards 2030, IJM believes it is essential that the UK Government prioritise ending the violence suffered by poor and marginalised communities.
Falling Short
Demand-side sentencing for online sexual exploitation of children.