Attaining Lasting Change (ATLAS)

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Better Enforcement of Labor and Criminal Law to Address Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking
Region/Country:
Americas Argentina Bolivia Paraguay
Global
Sub-Saharan Africa Liberia
East Asia & the Pacific Thailand
Project Duration:
January 2019
-
December 2022
Funding and Year:
FY
2018
: USD
7,500,000
FY
2020
: USD
1,300,000

The ATLAS project seeks to build the capacity of host governments to more effectively combat child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking by helping them strengthen their laws and regulations, improve their capacities to enforce them, and strengthen coordination between law enforcement and social protection entities.

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The Problem

Child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking are abusive labor practices that provide an unfair advantage to countries and their producers that fail to comply with their trade-related labor commitments and/or internationally recognized labor standards. These abusive labor practices could harm workers and businesses in the United States as they are competing with products made by children and/or workers in forced labor, including, as a result, of human trafficking. Gaps in countries’ labor and criminal legal frameworks, weak enforcement of labor and criminal laws, and a lack of coordination among law enforcement and social protection entities create vulnerabilities leading to such labor exploitation of children and adults.

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Our Strategy

The ATLAS project works to increase the capacity of host governments in Thailand, Paraguay, Liberia, Argentina, and Bolivia to reduce child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking by helping host governments:  

  • strengthen labor and/or criminal legal frameworks concerning child labor, forced labor, and/or human trafficking;
  • improve enforcement of the labor and/or criminal legal framework, specifically related to child labor, forced labor, and/or human trafficking; and
  • increase coordination among law enforcement and social protection entities to address child labor, forced labor, and/or human trafficking.

This work involves identifying roles and responsibilities of government and other relevant stakeholders; mapping existing social protection programs and coordination systems, processes, and activities; assessing gaps and weaknesses in existing coordination within and among law enforcement and social protection entities; and establishing or improving the existing coordination framework.

Grantee: Winrock International
Implementing Partners: Lawyers Without Borders, Partners for the Americas
Contact Information:
(202) 693-4843
/
Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT)
Tags: Child Labor Capacity Building Forced Labor Human Trafficking