report launch event banner

Around the globe, investigative journalists have helped to shine a light on the millions of people trapped in child labor and forced labor, abuses often hidden in the supply chains of big brands and consumer products.

Join the U.S. Department of Labor as we launch our annual flagship reports on child labor and forced labor and explore the power of journalism in the fight to end labor exploitation. Department leaders will share the latest research findings on the scope and nature of child labor and forced labor around the globe as well as our updated tools to combat these abuses. Then, peek behind the lens of youth photojournalists in Burma documenting child labor in their communities and hear from a panel of investigative journalists about their work exposing labor exploitation in global supply chains.

Read Our Reports

Access Our Apps and Tools

Explore the Work of Our Panelists

Explore the power of journalism in the fight to end labor exploitation through the work of Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Don Bartletti and Associated Press Global Investigative Reporter Margie Mason.

Photography by Don Bartletti

A group of people is packed onto the bag of a truck with bags and equipment driving down a hilly road.
Two people hang their heads out of the back of a truck filled with bags. A long road of shown behind them.
A girl with a hat on works in a green field with a bucket.
A boy carries a bag of chile peppers on his shoulders.
Three people work in an agricultural setting between rows of plants. A boy stands with his back to the camera.
A man lies face down between rows of plants on the dirt, covering his head with a hat in a small amount of shade.
A man, woman, and child ride in the back of a pick-up truck with a bucket. A young girl walks behind them on the road.
A women tends to a wound on the heel of a girl.
A young boy carries a bucket full of tomatoes on his shoulder as he walks by rows of plants.
Two people gather around a small orange table with bowls of food and a bottle of Coke.
A woman stands and washes a young girls hair on the banks of a muddy canal.
Tractor trailer trucks lined up on a highway with a cluster of buildings and mountains in the background.
Tomatoes on display at a grocery store with a sign that read, “We promise fresh, quality produce, 50 cents per pound. Mexico”
spacer
spacer

View more the photography of Don Bartletti documenting labor abuses in the chile pepper and tomato industry in Mexico here.  

Reporting by Margie Mason

Read the Pulitzer Prize Finalist reporting by Margie Mason and Robin McDowell on labor abuses in the palm oil industry here. 

Access the AP series on labor exploitation in Southeast Asia’s fishing sector by Margie Mason and her colleagues here.

Virtually Tour the Photo Exhibit - Through Their Eyes: Stories of Child Labor in Burma

Since 2016, ILAB’s My-PEC project has partnered with PhotoDOC Association, founded by veteran photojournalist Christophe Loviny, to train journalists, civil society representatives, and young activists to document child labor through “photo-stories.” You can view one of these photo-stories here.

A small boy named Weirdo