Our History

The Global Business Coalition Against Trafficking (GBCAT) was initiated through a series of dialogues with the private sector led by co-founders David Arkless, Dawn Conway, Mark P. Lagon, and Robert Rigby-Hall between 2010 to 2012.  These dialogues brought together leading corporations that shared the ambition of ending human trafficking both for labor and sexual exploitation, one of the most egregious human rights violations of our time. 

GBCAT was established as the first cross-sectoral business alliance focused only eliminating human trafficking in company operations and supply chains, with the critical mission to harness the power of business across sectors to prevent and reduce human trafficking, and support survivors. The coalition became internationally recognized when President Obama announced the launch of GBCAT during the UN General Assembly in September of 2012.

Over the course of its history, GBCAT has hosted several events around the world to highlight the challenges that businesses face in understanding and addressing human trafficking. Participating companies of GBCAT have set about increasing their own capacity to prevent human trafficking within direct operations and supply chains, as well as actively advancing the international agenda to tackle human trafficking at a global level.  GBCAT members were stakeholders in the crafting, supporting, and advancing adoption of the UK Modern Slavery Act in 2015.

In July 2017, BSR, an organization of sustainable business experts, was appointed Secretariat to help the initiative grow and more fully realize its mission over the long-term.

In July 2023, the Tech Against Trafficking coalition joined forces with GBCAT to enable a more comprehensive approach to addressing human trafficking and to strive for and achieve greater impact.