A 2008 report from the U.S. labor rights group the Solidarity Center found child labor, debt bondage and wage theft on both Thai and Bangladeshi shrimp farms.

Solidarity Center Program Officer Nhlanhla Mabizela’s work on gender equality in South Africa is highlighted as part of a look back at the United Nation’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. “Each time when I am part of a conversation about gender inequality, I leave with renewed hope and validation that I am part of a greater cause of realizing equal treatment of all genders,” Mabizela says.

Trafficked oil workers won a legal battle against Signal International, which falsely promised hundreds of Indian men secure jobs and permanent residency in the United States but instead were met with lost wages and poor working and living conditions. After a years-long lawsuit–the result of a mobilized group of workers, observant and concerned community members, engaged advocacy groups and, ultimately, an unprecedented collaboration between the Southern Poverty Law Center (SLPC) and other for-profit law firms across the country–Signal filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to implement a $20 million settlement with more than 200 workers. “It took years,” says Neha Misra, senior specialist for migration and human trafficking with Solidarity Center. “And a lot of money.”