Helping to bring an end to child trafficking is in your hands

June 30th www.examiner.com

Do you watch the news, read news articles, or blog posts and question what you can actually do that will make a difference? Feel you are stretched for time or don't have any money to give? Well there is something that you can do today to help end child trafficking. Help those in the field, and other concerned citizens like yourself to pass the Child Protection Compact Act of 2009 (HR 2737). The bill was introduced by Chris Smith, U.S. Representative for New Jersey’s 4th District, a leader in the fight against modern slavery. However the introduction of the CPCA is only the beginning in what is often a long legislative process, one that can only be successful with a united voice of the American voter. Read more

Indiana: Prison guard faces sex misconduct count

State Government Watch, Friday June 26, 2009

A former correctional officer at the New Castle Correctional Facility faces criminal charges over her alleged dealings with an inmate.

25-year-old Jamie A. Shelley of Richmond, is charged with sexual misconduct by service provider with detainee, a Class C felony carrying a standard four-year prison term, and trafficking with an inmate, a Class A misdemeanor with a maximum one-year jail term.

Under state law, the felony misconduct charge applies to "a service provider who knowingly or intentionally engages in sexual intercourse or deviate sexual conduct with a person who is subject to lawful detention."... [Read more] (6/26/2009)

2009 Trafficking In Persons Report

Voice of America - USA
On June 16, the US Department of State released the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report. The report, which this year looks at conditions in 175 countries, ... read more

Of Hunger and Human Trafficking

The fact remains that the report’s rating of over 170 countries is both thorough and largely consistent with facts as observed, reported by the media and examined in other comprehensive reports pertaining to the same issue. Indeed, the UN’s own Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, launched by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in February 2009, affirms much of the State Departments’ findings regarding the pattern of abuses reported around the world, most noticeably in Africa, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.

The report examined the calamity and governmental responses to the exploitation of people, including children, for the purposes of forced labour, sexual servitude and stolen organs. At least 12.3 million adults and children are used to sustain the thriving business of modern-day slavery. One can only predict that the number is much higher, considering that human traffickers have little interest in divulging exact data.

Read more

Khaleej Times Online , Of Hunger and Human Trafficking

Ramzy Baroud (Issues), 24 June 2009

Local Non-Profit Organization Awarded $100,000 to Help Victims of Human Trafficking

MEDIA ADVISORY, June 23 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the award of over $2 million in grants to state and local organizations to identify and help victims of human trafficking.

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Modern Day Slavery Exisits in America

Many Americans may think of modern day slavery as existing exclusively within the informal service sector in far off lands — usually sex slavery or domestic servitude — and thus do not consider it to be a problem related to free trade, or America at all. Although countries with large informal sectors are more likely to be a source of slave labor, Americans would be shocked to learn that, not only does modern day slavery exist in America, but there are plenty of goods consumed in this country that were made with slave labor somewhere along a complex global supply chain. Shrimp imported from Bangladesh and Thailand, found at Costco, and some textiles from India are just some of the examples that Lagon cited.

Click here for the full story.

U.S. Secretary of State Comments on Human Trafficking

“Human trafficking flourishes in the shadows and demands attention, commitment and passion from all of us. We are determined to build on our past success and advance progress in the weeks, months and years ahead. Together, we must hold a light to every corner of the globe and help build a world in which no one is enslaved.”

 

- U. S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton

Recession boosts global human trafficking

The global financial crisis has increased the worldwide trade in trafficked persons, says a State Department report released Tuesday. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the report aims "to shine the light brightly on ... modern slavery."

The State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report also says trafficking has increased in Africa and slaps six African nations on a blacklist of countries not meeting the minimum standard of combating trafficking. The report, mandated by Congress, features data and statistics from 175 countries around the world regarding the amount of human trafficking that goes on within their borders.The report cites the International Labor Organization, which estimates that at least 12.3 million adults and children are victims of forced labor, bonded labor and sex slavery each year.

- CNN News

2009 Trafficking in Persons Report Read more

Take A Stand. Join Us.

Stand Against Trafficking (StAT) is a coalition of Indiana citizens networking to abolish human trafficking through Awareness, Education, Response, Prevention, and Resources. Over 27 million people are currently victims of human trafficking. Men, women, boys, and girls are being used as sex slaves and labor slaves all over the world, including Indiana. Bring a group and join us for a Community Forum.

TIME:

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.

PLACE:

Heartland Church Auditorium in Fishers (I-69 & 96th)

Take A Stand. Join Us. Learn more about the event.