Aidan Joseph McQuade is a former Director (Chief Executive) of

Anti-Slavery International Anti-Slavery International, founded as the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1839, is an international non-governmental organization, international non-governmental organisation, registered charity and advocacy group, based in the Unit ...

from 2006-2017. He comes from South Armagh, Northern Ireland. McQuade is a contributor to ''The

Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unit ...

,'' ''Equal Times'' and ''The

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

'' on issues of slavery, forced labour and related matters. In 2013 he highlighted the need for slavery eradication to be made a post-2015

Sustainable Development Goal The ''2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development'', adopted by all United Nations (UN) members in 2015, created 17 world Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aim of these global goals is "peace and prosperity for people and the planet" – wh ...

. In 2014 he called for greater regulation of international business to reduce slavery in global supply chains. In an article for The Independent in March 2015 he accused

Sepp Blatter Joseph Sepp Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former association football, football administrator who served as the list of Presidents of FIFA, eighth president of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participatin ...

Fifa The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

of moral responsibility for the death and enslavement of South Asian construction workers preparing

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

for the

2022 World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

. In 2012/13, he won the BBC's ''Mastermind'' Quiz with specialist subject,

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

. When asked about the stress of the quiz, MacQuade replied "It takes as much energy to think as to panic". He received an honorary OBE for his work in anti-slavery in 2017, which he returned in 2024 in response to government policies, in particular the plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McQuade, Aidan Oxfam people Alumni of the University of Strathclyde Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Honorary officers of the Order of the British Empire