Equidem

Founded in May 2021, Equidem works to expose labour rights violations in the Global South, and to develop concrete recommendations on how these might be addressed. The group works with UN agencies and other international NGOs, as well as civil- society and trade union groups to bridge the gap between human rights activists and the global movement. The group has teams working in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Its investigations target supply chains, especially those of major brands, as well as state-corporate partnerships where human rights abuses may occur. Prominent themes of Equidem’s work include forced labour, modern slavery, child labour, discrimination, recruitment practices, wage theft, coercion, reprisals, restrictions on movement, and unsafe working conditions. The group rose to prominence in late 2022, with its extensive, data-rich coverage of the World Cup in Qatar. Its findings confirmed practices such as nationality-based discrimination, illegal recruitment, dangerous working conditions, wage theft, and a culture of fear and cover-up that collectively amounted to forced labour.