Fair Trade

In recent years there has been a big increase in demand for and availability of fair trade products, which are products where farmers in developing countries are paid fair rates for their produce. A fair trade label on a product guarantees that exploitative labour and practices have not been a part of that product's manufacture.–United consumer power can be very influential. Large corporations are driven by consumer demand, and if consumers start boycotting products made with trafficked labour and demand for fair trade products increases, the multi-national corporations that sell products such as chocolate, coffee, tea and cotton will be forced to source fair trade product and reduce demand for raw product produced using slave labour. This will have a massive impact on the use of forced labour around the world. It has been done before, as 200 years ago consumers boycotted sugar over the use of slave labour in the sugar industry, and this was changed in response to the drop in demand.

BLOOD DIAMONDS

Awareness of conflict or "blood diamonds" has increased with the release of big budget movies highlighting the issue. The reality of diamond mining profits subsidising wars around the globe is horrifying. The ongoing trafficking of men, women and children to mines and the slavery conditions present needs to come to the consumers attention.