by Amanda Kloer
Each year on January 11th, the U.S. celebrates National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. But this year, one coalition of anti-trafficking organizations is making today about more than just awareness. They’re launching a national initiative to make anti-trafficking efforts a priority and protect critical funding to fight trafficking. Continue reading
by Amanda Kloer
Today, thousands of advocates from across the country are coming together to take action against child sex trafficking in America. They’re calling their representatives in Congress, signing petitions, and supporting the grassroots campaign to pass national legislation that will provide critical services to American children who have been forced into the commercial sex industry. Will you join them?
In America, at least 100,000 children are forced into prostitution each year. With increased resources and an understanding that child prostitution is child trafficking, thousands of those kids are now being rescued. However, only a handful of shelter beds for those thousands currently exist. That means trafficked children have no place to go for safety, shelter, and therapeutic services. Too often, this lack of resources means law enforcement arrests these young victims as juvenile offenders, simply to get them to safety. This lack of resources means crime victims are being imprisoned while their traffickers and predators remain free. Continue reading
Posted in Child Abuse, Child Labor, Child Prostitution, Event, Forced Labor, Human Trafficking, Modern Day Slavery, Sex Trafficking and Prostitution, Sexual Exploitation
Tagged Child Abuse, Child Labor, Event, Forced Labor, Human Trafficking, Human Trafficking Awareness Day, Human Trafficking Education, Modern Day Slavery, Resource, Sex Trafficking and Prostitution, Sexual Exploitation
by Amanda Kloer
At least 100,000 American children are forced into prostitution each year, right here in the U.S. You can help make that number zero by uniting your voice with thousands of people from across the country to demand an end to child sex trafficking and pass landmark legislation which will keep traffickers off the streets, punish those who buy sex with kids, and protect victims.
On November 17, the National Coalition to End Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking is organizing a National Day of Action to pass the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act. Right now in the U.S., there are only a handful of shelter beds for the thousands of children who are being removed from prostitution each year. This legislation will mean more young domestic sex trafficking survivors will have access to the shelter and restorative care services they need. It will also increase resources for law enforcement to arrest and prosecute the traffickers and predators who victimize our children. Continue reading
Posted in Child Abuse, Child Labor, Event, Forced Labor, Human Trafficking, Modern Day Slavery, News, Sex Trafficking and Prostitution, Sexual Exploitation
Tagged Child Abuse, Child Labor, Event, Forced Labor, Human Trafficking, Modern Day Slavery, News, Sex Trafficking and Prostitution, Sexual Tourism
The horrors of the Nazi Holocaust shocked the conscience of the world. Hitler’s machinery of mass murder methodically led 12 million civilians to their death, and, upon his demise, sparked a revolution in international law and politics that forever changed the landscape of our global systems — even if actual implementation of the new norms remains lagging.
Today, on the Israeli holiday of Yom HaShoah, the world pauses to commemorate the six million Jews lost to the Nazi’s campaign of hatred. Events, small and large, are scheduled today and tomorrow throughout the world, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is holding a week-long “Days of Remembrance,” which this year honors the Allied soldiers who liberated the Nazi death camps at the end of World War II, and were among the first to uncover the sheer brutality of Nazi rule. As General Dwight D. Eisenhower remarked after a visit to Buchenwald: Continue reading
by Amanda Kloer
In the months leading up to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, a number of organizations were giving Canadians a strong warning: human trafficking, and especially child sex trafficking, increases around major sporting events like the Olympics. Organizations working with trafficked women swear up and down that when a big athletic event comes to town, they do more business. Other organizations, often those working with prostitution but not human trafficking issues, have claimed these predictions are baseless fear-mongering. Well, information from the latest Olympics is starting to roll in, and of course, the results are different in the eyes of different groups.
Having only been over for a couple weeks, Vancouver is still recovering from what was a very busy Winter. However, a couple reports regarding prostitution and human trafficking in the area have come out. Local organization Prostitution Alternatives Counseling and Education (P.A.C.E) has said that street level prostitution in the most common areas, whether voluntary or involuntary, was slow throughout the games. They’ve categorically stated that the Olympics caused no bump in human trafficking, which was what they predicted. Another organization, Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter, claims that trafficking was a reality during the Olympics. They said they served at least five internationally trafficked women and saw at least 100 domestically trafficked women. They also postulated that a lot of the commercial sex was taking place indoors, where no one was looking for it. Continue reading
Posted in Child Abuse, Event, Human Trafficking, Modern Day Slavery, News, Sex Trafficking and Prostitution, Sexual Exploitation, Sexual Tourism
Tagged Child Abuse, Child Sex Trafficking, Chinese Baby Trafficking, Forced Labor, Human Trafficking, Modern Day Slavery, News, Olympics, Sex Trafficking and Prostitution, Sexual Exploitation, Sexual Tourism
A discussion with Washington Post reporter Shankar Vedantam, author of The Hidden Brain
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1 p.m.
Helena Rubinstein Auditorium
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
How do we explain the actions of perpetrators, collaborators and bystanders in genocide? Fundamental questions about human behavior raised by the Holocaust continue to be debated in light of Rwanda, Bosnia and 21st century mass killings. Join us for a discussion with Washington Post reporter and author, Shankar Vedantam, whose new book, The Hidden Brain, explores how groups and unconscious bias shape human behavior and decision making.
Shankar Vedantam is a national science writer at the Washington Post. Between 2006 and 2009, Vedantam authored the weekly Department of Human Behavior column in the Washington Post. He is the winner of several journalism awards and is a 2009-2010 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University
Reservations are requested at: www.ushmm.org/events/shankarvedantam