Loading AI tools
International human rights organisation based in Australia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Walk Free is an international human rights group based in Perth, Western Australia. Its goal is the end of modern slavery.[1]
Formation | 2010 |
---|---|
Founders | Andrew Forrest |
Founded at | Perth, Western Australia |
Type | Nonprofit |
Purpose | Human rights (Slavery) |
Headquarters | Perth, Western Australia |
Product | Global Slavery Index |
Website | www |
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8.7 – part of a framework adopted by the United Nations in 2015 – seeks to end modern slavery by appealing to the international community.[2] Walk Free's approach to achieving SDG 8.7 involves building a knowledge base to inform action and driving legislative change in countries in partnership with faiths, businesses, academics, NGOs, and governments. Through these partnerships, direct implementation, and grassroots community engagement Walk Free believes modern slavery can be eradicated.
The initiative was founded by Grace Forrest in 2011. Walk Free are best known for their publication of the Global Slavery Index, now in its fourth edition.
In 2013, Walk Free became a co-founder of the Freedom Fund, an anti-slavery non-profit organisation. The Freedom Fund works to tackle the many forms of modern slavery in regions where it is most highly concentrated.[3]
In 2017, the inaugural Global Estimates of Modern Slavery were produced by the International Labour Organization and Walk Free in partnership with the International Organization for Migration. The analysis drew on data from nationally representative surveys implemented through the Gallup World Poll including a module on modern slavery in 48 countries, and data from the Global Slavery Index Vulnerability Model.[4]
Acknowledged data gaps in earlier editions of the Global Slavery Index, including lack of data on forced sexual exploitation and children in modern slavery, were addressed by adopting a combined methodological approach when developing the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery. This involved drawing on three sources of data:
The Global Slavery Index presents a ranking of 160 countries based on the percentage of the population estimated to be in modern slavery.
In 2013, Walk Free released the first edition of the Global Slavery Index. Later editions were released in 2014, 2016 and 2018. The 2018 Global Slavery Index Vulnerability Model provides a risk score for 167 countries[6] while the Government Response Index provides an assessment on 181 governments.[7]
The index provides rankings across three dimensions:
The methodology of early editions of the Global Slavery Index has been criticized by researchers Andrew Guth, Robyn Anderson, Kasey Kinnard, and Hang Tran. According to their analysis of the 2014 edition, the Index's methods had significant and critical weaknesses which raised questions about its replicability and validity.[9]
The Walk Free Foundation has stated that it "welcomes constructive criticism",[10] and subsequent editions of the Global Slavery Index, published in 2016 and 2018, have undergone significant changes to the methodology to determine prevalence estimates.
As well as the Global Slavery Index and the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, Walk Free have produced a number of other reports. Recent releases include
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.