Our Work
The Systems We Dismantle. The Path to Their Freedom.
Their Freedom is mapping the architecture that enables abuse.
Our work focuses on four interconnected systems of violation across the Gulf: the economic exploitation of migrant labour, the legal subjugation of women and children, the political weaponization of citizenship and the global machinery of sportswashing. We approach these incidents as a cohesive structure that must be dismantled piece by piece.
To achieve this, Their Freedom treats every testimony as evidence in a potential legal case.
We employ forensic documentation methods, using open-source intelligence (OSINT), geolocation analysis and medical corroboration of trauma to verify witness accounts against satellite imagery, leaked corporate records and government decrees. This rigour allows us to transform individual stories into irrefutable data sets that can withstand cross-examination in international courts and compliance tribunals.
Beyond documentation, Their Freedom will leveragethis evidence to force high-level accountability. We are aiming to file direct legal complaints with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the International Labour Organization while simultaneously engaging privately with corporate boards and foreign ministries. By triggering sanctions, freezing supply chain contracts and making human rights a non-negotiable condition of trade, we hope to ensure that the cost of abuse outweighs the profit of impunity.
Where We Operate
The Gulf region comprises six member states of the GCC: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. Although they share certain structural issues including forced labour, arbitrary deprivation of citizenship, discrimination against women and children and the use of sports investments to mask human rights violations, each country operates under a distinct legal system and cultural context.
Their Freedom monitors each nation according to its specific laws, judicial practices and social structures. We recognize that effective advocacy requires deep knowledge of local legal codes, that a one-size-fits-all approach does not always work effectively.
Core Investigations
Modern Slavery & Labour Exploitation
The Gulf economy relies on the kafala system, a framework used across all six GCC states that ties a migrant worker’s legal status directly to their employer. By granting sponsors excessive control over residency and mobility, this system creates a breeding ground for forced labour, including passport confiscation, debt bondage, and wage theft. Their Freedom documents these abuses not as anomalies, but as inherent features of a supply chain that prioritizes profit over human dignity.
Women and Children: Disadvantaged Populations
Women and children in the region face systemic discrimination enshrined in law. Male guardianship regulations tether women’s autonomy to male relatives, trapping many in cycles of abuse and dependence. Their Freedom documents how these legal structures strip women of agency and leave vulnerable children, particularly those of non-citizen fathers, at risk of statelessness and neglect.
Political Prisoners & Citizenship Revocation
Citizenship is weaponized as a tool of control, with governments stripping critics and human rights defenders of their nationality to silence dissent. This administrative violence renders individuals stateless and legally invisible, often preceding arbitrary detention. Their Freedom tracks these cases to ensure that no prisoner is erased from the public record.
Sportswashing
Gulf states invest billions in global sports to distract from domestic human rights records, using events like Formula 1 to rehabilitate their image. This “sportswashing” strategy masks the abuses required to build the infrastructure for these spectacles. Their Freedom exposes the direct link between the stadium and the cell, ensuring the glamour does not obscure the repression.