Stanford researchers fight human trafficking - CDDRL

http://cddrl.stanford.edu/news/stanford_researchers_fight_human_trafficking_2011112
SOURCE: STANFORD UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY, DEVELOPMENT, AND THE RULE OF LAW
November 22, 2011 - CDDRL, FSI Stanford, PHR News

Photo Credit: trendsupdates.com

By Sarina A. Beges
Human trafficking is a global phenomenon that each year forces millions into lives as prostitutes, laborers, child soldiers, and domestic servants. Traffickers prey on the weak and vulnerable, targeting young victims with promises of a better life. This modern form of slavery impacts every continent and type of economy, while the industry continues to grow with global profits reaching nearly $32 billion annually. In spite of these mounting figures, prosecution and conviction rates are not increasing relative to the surge in these crimes. According to the U.S. State Department, for every 800 people trafficked in 2006, only one person was convicted.

As the size and scope of human trafficking increase, less is known about the root causes of human trafficking on this new scale. A better understanding of the conditions that give rise to human trafficking – income inequality, rural poor populations, cultural norms, and gender disparities – will bring the international community closer to curbing the growth of this criminal industry. Understanding how multi-lateral institutions – from the World Bank to the United Nations – may unwittingly encourage the industry will lead to more informed policies for its eradication.
The Program on Human Rights (PHR) at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law is launching a new research initiative on human trafficking to address these challenges and generate new knowledge on this issue of international concern. Working in collaboration with Stanford faculty and students, this project will draw on research underway across the university to create a forum on human trafficking. The goal is to produce collaborative research and policy recommendations to better address the multiple dimensions of human trafficking.
"This research collaborative will shift the agenda on human trafficking from one that has adopted a criminal-legal paradigm to one that focuses on all the pre-conditions for trafficking," said Helen Stacy, director of the Program on Human Rights. "Interdisciplinary tools drawing on law, health, gender, and psychology will introduce an integrated approach to this critical area of study."
The speaker series will begin Dec. 12 at a private research workshop featuring Madeleine Rees, the United Nation's representative in post-genocide Bosnia, and Laryssa Kondracki, director of The Whistleblower. Rees is known for her efforts to expose the U.N. for its failure to shut down brothels in Bosnia where they were actively used for human trafficking. The Whistleblower documents this story and helped ignite a debate at the U.N. over this problem.
The Dec. 12 workshop will bring together a multidisciplinary group of Stanford faculty, researchers, and students working on aspects of human trafficking in preparation for the launch of the 2012 speakers series offered in the winter quarter. The 2012 roster of speakers represent a diverse group of those advancing research, policy and activism on human trafficking.
Participants include: Rosi Orozco, Mexican congressional representative and anti-trafficking leader; Bradley Myles, executive director and CEO of Polaris-USA; and Dr. Mohammed Mattar, executive director of the Protection project at Johns Hopkins Univeristy. Stanford researchers will be paired with speakers to pursue original research on the causal factors impacting this field of study.
The 2012 Human Trafficking is Global Slavery speakers series is funded by Diana Jenkins, founder of the Sanela Diana Jenkins Foundation for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The series is free and open to the public. It will meet on Tuesdays from Jan. 10 to Mar. 13 at the Bechtel Conference Center at Encina Hall, Stanford. It is available to Stanford students as a 1-unit course cross-listed under INTNLREL 110, IPS 271, and POLISCI204.

African Americans Turn Headlights on Sex-Traffic | Womens eNews

ttp://womensenews.org/story/prostitution-and-trafficking/120429/african-americans-turn-headlights-sex-traffic

Source: Womens eNews

By Margaret Summers

WeNews correspondent

Monday, April 30, 2012

Brook Bello had all the trappings of a successful career. But the actress-poet-filmmaker also had a horrible childhood secret. Now she's teaming up with the International Black Women's Public Policy Institute to talk about sex traffic.

(WOMENSENEWS) -- African American film artist Brook Bello, whose toned, slim build and close-cropped blonde hair belie her 40 years, has appeared in TV commercials and dramas, such as the science fiction program "Stargate SGI."

She was featured in the 1995 futuristic movie "Strange Days," starring Angela Bassett and Ralph Fiennes. She has also authored a book of poems, "To Soar without Leaving the Ground."

Despite her achievements, Bello was desperately unhappy for many of these apparently successful years. She had a horrific youth hidden deep inside her. Often, to block it out, she numbed herself with drugs and alcohol. She fought the impulse to take her own life.

Bello had been one of the millions of women and girls in the U.S. and internationally who are abducted, duped or coerced into selling sex for their "owners'" profit.

For years she said nothing, but now she's going as public as she can.

Bello has written, produced and directed a documentary film, "Survivor: Living Above the Noise," in which she tells her own story as a sex trafficking victim, as do others in the film. The documentary takes the viewer to Bahrain in the Middle East, one of the global hotspots of the practice, where Bello went to recover from her experiences and learn about the impact of sex trafficking on women and girls there.

She is also partnering with the International Black Women's Public Policy Institute to expose the problem of sex trafficking in the African American community. Bello and the policy institute, founded in 2009 in Washington, D.C., are planning nationwide discussions and screenings of her film, which will be shown next month at the 65th Cannes Film Festival.

Keeping a Special Eye

Ka Flewellen, co-founder and executive director of the International Black Women's Public Policy Institute, says African Americans must keep a special eye on trafficking victims who are women and children from the African diaspora.

"We will mobilize women of African descent within the U.S. to participate in a special hearing this fall on Capitol Hill, in an effort to develop a public policy response," Flewellen said. "Sexual slavery and trafficking aren't just international occurrences.  They happen in our communities here in the U.S. We must eradicate these practices."

As a vehicle for sharing her experiences and raising awareness of sexual trafficking, Bello said her documentary has helped her healing process.

"Through the film, I speak for those who didn't make their way out," Bello told a gathering in March of African American female leaders convened in Washington, D.C., by the International Black Women's Public Policy Institute. "I speak for the prostitutes on the street."

Bello said that like most sex trafficking victims, she was abused and sexually assaulted as a child. "There was violence in my family.  My mother was a highly educated woman, but she lived with a lot of pain. I had four stepfathers.  She was beaten regularly, so much so that there were times I couldn't recognize her face. Then, when I was 11, I was raped."

She said she started drinking to ease her pain, and when she felt she could no longer stand the violence at home, she and a friend ran away to Los Angeles, where she started working for a madam as a prostitute.

"They kept me high on Quaaludes and heroin," she said, so she would keep working in order to buy drugs and earn money for the madam.

Eventually, Bello and her friend escaped. They hitchhiked to Las Vegas, then to New York, where Bello was arrested at 16 for prostitution. Upon release, Bello moved back to Los Angeles and began her acting career.

"I was always good at accents and characters," Bello told the Washington gathering.

Losing herself in film roles helped her pretend her earlier life of sexual abuse and victimization hadn't happened. But denial and delusion didn't help. "I was gripped by fear.  I tried to commit suicide.  I didn't know how to talk to people." 

Producing the film and founding the nonprofit Above the Noise, which assists sex traffic victims, helped Bello overcome the years of abuse and victimization.  

1.75 Million Internationally

The numbers of women and girls involved in sex slavery are hard categorize, since they are often included with statistics for other forms of involuntary labor and smuggling undocumented immigrants across borders.  But in 2009 UNICEF estimated that 1.75 million women and children have been trafficked for sexual purposes internationally.

U.S. State Department data indicate that between 14,200 and 17,500 women and children are trafficked in the U.S. annually. Most are between 12 and 14 years old.  Increasingly, boys between 11 and 13 are also trafficked.

Sexual trafficking of women and girls is highly profitable. A 2008 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that trafficking in Europe alone generates $3 billion per year.  

Children are usually abducted from their families or sold to traffickers by parents or guardians to pay off a debt.

Women are often tricked into sex slavery.

"A well-dressed man might approach a family in Nigeria, for example, and say that their daughter is eligible for a full scholarship to study in Paris," Ellyn Jo Waller, wife of the pastor of Philadelphia's Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church, told those at the gathering. 

From there Waller described a typical scenario. The man will pay the daughter's airfare and arrange for her identification papers and passport.  At the airport, he will take the daughter's papers from her for "safekeeping." After landing in France the daughter is abducted and told that she has to sell sex. 

At that point she is cut off and without any options, said Waller. "The daughter is trapped in a country where she knows no one, doesn't speak or understand the language and is afraid to report her situation to authorities."

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Margaret Summers is a Washington-based writer.

For more information:

"United Nations organizations cooperate to stamp out human trafficking and sex tourism," United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime:
http://tinyurl.com/6wq8oo2

-"Child And Women Sex Trafficking Fastest Growing Crime - In America," OfficialWire:
http://www.officialwire.com/main.php?action=posted_news&rid=40953&catid=1065

Deborah Bergman: How You Can Help Protect Victims of Human Trafficking by Voting in the Next Presidential Election

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deborah-bergman/how-you-can-help-protect-_b_1462959.html

Source: The Huffington Post

Deborah Bergman, Mieko Faileyand Jennifer Hahm

04/29/2012 3:31 pm


Marina* was recruited from Ukraine with the promise of a well-paying job and free housing in the United States. But upon her arrival, she found herself in a nightmare. Her traffickers took away her passport, told her that she owed them a debt and forced her to work. She cleaned houses during the day and offices at night. On the weekends, she cooked and cleaned for her traffickers. They paid her only $100 a month for working more than 16 hours a day, seven days a week. Marina's traffickers used gang 

rape, physical abuse and threats to make her submit. They pulled her hair so hard that she bled and then pushed her down a staircase. They told her they would drown her in the ocean if they caught her trying to run away, and that if she ever left the apartment or called the police, she would be arrested and deported. They also threatened that if she ever escaped, they would traffic her 8-year-old daughter and force her into prostitution.

Marina's story is not unique. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that there are approximately 14,500 to 17,500 human trafficking victims in this country. The numbers are more staggering globally, with an estimated 27 million human trafficking victims worldwide. Eleven percent of these victims are trafficked into the commercial sex industry, while the other 89 percent are, like Marina, forced into labor.

On March 15, as part of his efforts to prevent human trafficking, President Obama convened the annual Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who chaired the event, made it clear that the Obama administration remains committed to preventing human trafficking. She stated that human trafficking is an "affront to our most fundamental values" that affects "men, women and children toil[ing] in bondage." Her statement echoed those of President Obama, who recently said that, from those forced into "labor and debt bondage to [those] forced [into] commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary domestic servitude," the victims of "this ongoing global tragedy are men, women and children." These announcements recognize the plight of labor trafficking victims -- people like Marina who are forced to work in horrendous conditions, subject to physical, psychological and even sexual abuse by their traffickers.

The Obama administration's specific recognition of labor trafficking victims is notable because it stands in stark contrast to the George W. Bush administration, which focused heavily on sex trafficking. President Bush spoke often about wanting to make the fight against sex trafficking a legacy of his presidency, and he frequently conflated human trafficking with prostitution. For example, in a 2003 speech to the United Nations General Assembly, he said, "Each year, [a staggering number] of human beings are bought, sold or forced across the world's borders. Among them are hundreds of thousands of teenage girls, and others as young as five, who fall victim to the sex trade." Absent from his speech was any mention of labor trafficking. The prosecutions undertaken by the Department of Justice during his time in office reveal his disproportionate focus on sex, rather than labor, trafficking. For example, from 2001 to 2004, the ratio of sex trafficking to labor trafficking prosecutions was nearly three to one. This imbalance overlooked the thousands of men, women and children who were victims of labor trafficking during that time.

By contrast, the Obama administration has focused more evenly on labor and sex trafficking. For example, of the 95 trafficking cases prosecuted by the Department of Justice in 2009 and 2010, roughly half (51) have been prosecutions for labor trafficking. These prosecutions better reflect the reality of human trafficking in the United States today than those undertaken during President Bush's time in office, since ten times more people are trafficked into labor than sex.

None of the Republican candidates for the 2012 presidential election have yet taken a strong stance on human trafficking. However, former candidate Rick Santorum frequently stated that he believes there is a "pandemic of porn" in the United States, which "contributes to misogyny and violence against women. [He believes] it is a contributing factor to prostitution and sex trafficking." He proposed to solve these problems by enforcing obscenity laws, which prohibit the distribution of lewd words and pictures. Mitt Romney echoed this sentiment by saying that he also supports"strict enforcement of our nation's obscenity laws." It thus appears that Romney may be poised to follow in President Bush's footsteps.

Yet, if the goal of a human trafficking policy is to prevent human trafficking, it would be wise for the remaining candidates' positions to be driven by actual statistics rather than personal morals. They should look for solutions that actually work. Enforcing obscenity laws will not combat human trafficking because the vast majority of trafficking victims do not work in the pornography industry. It will only consume resources that should be used to aid the victims of all forms of trafficking and to prosecute their traffickers. It will also reverse the progress that President Obama has made by rescuing more labor trafficking victims. Now that Romney is likely to win the Republican Presidential primary, he should think hard about this decision and discuss his position with the public. And we, as voters, should pay attention so we can make an educated decision this November at the ballot box. If we do, we may be a part of the reason for the rescue of people like Marina, who are not being forced into prostitution but are nevertheless suffering brutal abuse, and who would otherwise continue silently "toil[ing] in bondage."

* The names of trafficking victims in this piece are fictional because their real names were protected in court, and are therefore unknown.

The authors are students at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, where they recently completed the Human Trafficking Seminar.

Related articles

• UNODC, UNWTO stress need for tourism industry cooperation to combat human trafficking
• Two-fifths of UK trafficking victims are male, survey reveals
• San Francisco Airport Human Trafficking Prevention: SFO Launches Landmark Program (VIDEO)

S'pore firms urged to join fight against human trafficking - Channel NewsAsia

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1198043/1/.html

Source: Channel NewsAsia

By Imelda Saad | Posted: 28 April 2012 2107 hrs

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/video/index.php?vidfile=w120428_sg_trafficking_768.flv

SINGAPORE: Singapore companies have been urged to join in the fight against human trafficking in the country.

The call was made at a forum organised by non-governmental organisations, and comes just a month after authorities here launched a National Plan of Action Against Human Trafficking.

The plan outlines the country's strategies to combat the problem holistically, with a more victim-centric approach. 

Retailer The Body Shop was one company singled out as taking a firm stand against human trafficking.

It launched an anti-sex trafficking campaign in 2009 and over three years, raised about S$200,000 for the cause.

The company also collected about 115,000 signatures in Singapore, for a global petition that was sent to the United Nations.

NGOs said the issue of human trafficking is not on the radar for most companies when it comes to social corporate responsibility, and they hope to change that.

Those Channel NewsAsia spoke with said companies need to be aware of the problem because they may unwittingly be employers of trafficked victims, or have victims in their midst without knowing.

"For example, in the hotel industry, hotel rooms could be used as places where traffickers bring in victims for customers to exploit. Therefore hotels should be alerted as to how they can be more vigilant against the use of their premises for such purposes. Carriers like ships ferries, they should also be alerted," said Bridget Tan, founder of the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics. 

Experts said businesses should be involved because human trafficking is a global problem, coming in third after illegal drugs and arms.

Authorities said as an open and cosmopolitan city, Singapore is especially vulnerable to human trafficking, not just as a transit but also a destination point. Most of the cases seen here have to do with men, women and girls being subjected to sex and labour trafficking.

NGOs in Singapore said they are willing to provide businesses with the resources and training to raise awareness so that both the employer and worker will know their rights and what to do when they come across victims of trafficking. 

- CNA/cc

Related articles

• UNODC, UNWTO stress need for tourism industry cooperation to combat human trafficking
• Pope condemns human trafficking, sex tourism :: Catholic News Agency (CNA) | Catholic Glasses

• Research is important first step in understanding human trafficking in S'pore - Channel NewsAsia (trafficking-monitor.blogspot.com)

Pope condemns human trafficking, sex tourism :: Catholic News Agency (CNA) | Catholic Glasses

http://catholicglasses.com/2012/04/28/pope-condemns-human-trafficking-sex-tourism-catholic-news-agency-cna/

Source: Catholic Glasses

“Vatican City, Apr 23, 2012 / 10:27 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has told a global gathering of those involved in tourism that they must be alert to ethical dangers associated with the travel industry.

“The trafficking of human beings for sexual exploitation or organ harvesting as well as the exploitation of minors, abandoned into the hands of individuals without scruples and undergoing abuse and torture, sadly happen often in the context of tourism,” said the Pope April 23.

“This should bring all who are engaged for pastoral reasons or who work in the field of tourism, and the whole international community, to increase their vigilance and to foresee and oppose such aberrations.”

Pope Benedict made his comments in a letter to mark the opening of the VII World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Tourism, which is taking place in the Mexican resort of Cancún from April 23 to 27.”

UNODC, UNWTO stress need for tourism industry cooperation to combat human trafficking

http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/stories/april2012/unodc-unwto-stress-need-for-tourism-industry-cooperation-to-combat-human-trafficking.html?goback=.gde_2051349_member_110454474

Source: UNGIFT.COM

UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedetov and UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai emphasized the need for the tourism industry to contribute to anti-human trafficking efforts, on a panel talk during the twenty-first session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Vienna on Tuesday.

With 1 billion tourist expected to travel internationally in 2012 - up from just 25 million in 1950 - tourism is a major global phenomenon that contributes greatly to economic growth and job creation. However, it also creates the potential for trafficking in and exploitation of persons.

"While tourism infrastructure is or can be used to commit hideous crimes, it can also be used to fight not only trafficking, but all forms of exploitation," said Mr Rifai.

Mr Fedetov highlighted a variety of successful anti-human trafficking campaigns already run in conjunction with the travel industry, including UN.GIFT's distribution of awareness-raising material and public service announcements in planes and hotels around the world. He also encouraged companies to offer employment opportunities to former victims of human trafficking.

Representing the private sector, Barbara Powell, Senior Director, International Social Responsibility and Community Engagement, Marriott Hotels International, discussed the hotel chain's proactive approach to training staff and reporting instances of trafficking or sexual exploitation.

"We can and do work with governments and law enforcement on prosecuting these crimes, but we also wanted to work on prevention. The root cause is poverty," Ms Powell said, describing Marriott's cornerstone economic empowerment program, theYouth Career Initiative.

Also on the panel were: Thomas Mayr, National Expert, Division for International Tourism Affairs, Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth of Austria; and Katlihn Declarcq, ECPAT International Board Member for Western Europe.

Human trafficking is one of the focus areas included in a Memorandum of Understanding that UNODC and UNWTO signed earlier this week. The two organizations will be joining efforts to fight various aspects of organized crime within the travel and tourism industry, including trafficking in persons especially women and children, corruption, and smuggling of illicit goods, among others.

Related articles

• Pope condemns human trafficking, sex tourism :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)
• Top corporations highlight ending human trafficking as "smart business"

Responding to human trafficking requires shift in thinking, trafficking, victims, victim - Local News - LimaOhio.com

http://www.limaohio.com/news/trafficking-82767-victims-victim.html

Source: LimaOhio.com

April 27, 2012 8:09 PM

HEATHER RUTZ - 
419-993-2094

:
The national hotline for trafficking help or information is 1-888-3737-888.
In the region, contact Laurel Neufeld Weaver, rape crisis and anti-human trafficking program coordinator for the Northwest Ohio Human Trafficking Rescue and Restore Coalition at 419-222-8666.

LIMA — To a police officer, a prostitute is a suspect in a crime. To view that person as a human trafficking victim requires a major shift in philosophy.

First responders, court workers and health and social service providers discussed this blurred line and new views Friday in a workshop designed for them: “Waiting for Us to Care: Responding to Human Trafficking in Our Communities.”

The workshop featured author Theresa Flores, who travels the country to share her personal story as a trafficked teenager. Those attending also heard a legislative update and received information on how to recognize, counsel and provide help for trafficking victims. The day was sponsored by the Northwest Ohio Human Trafficking Rescue and Restore Coalition, Allen County Rape Crisis Coalition, Bradfield Community Center, Crime Victim Services and Lima Memorial Health System.

Sex and labor trafficking is modern day slavery, said David Voth, director of Crime Victim Services, which operates in Allen and Putnam counties. It exists in Ohio and the region. Crime Victim Services have assisted nine victims of the crime in the past 18 months, Voth said.

Here are the demographics of those nine:

Eight are women.

Eight are Ohio-born; one is foreign.

Seven were trafficked for sex; two were trafficked for labor.

Four are juveniles.

Six had contact with law enforcement.

Lima Police Investigator David Gillispie is also a sworn federal officer and works with FBI on the Northwest Ohio Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force. Gillispie is one who's made that shift in thinking. He told the group of nearly 100 gathered at Bradfield Community Center that taking a victim-centered approach is being “half-cop, half-social worker.”

Task force members spend time at the truck stops in Beaverdam and social workers encounter victims at shelters and hospitals. Similar to domestic violence victims, Voth and Gillispie said, trafficking victims can need multiple chances to ask for or seek help.

“Really, it's about learning how to begin a conversation with someone who's worn down, possibly brainwashed, possibly addicted,” Voth said.

From his perspective, Gillispie said he has come to understand that working with people, especially young women, to identify people who have trafficked them and made them victims is an opportunity to take out the real perpetrators.

Related articles

• BWI, Dulles human trafficking transit points | WJLA.com (trafficking-monitor.blogspot.com)
• Bay Area law enforcement adopt victims-based approach to combat human trafficking - CDDRL (trafficking-monitor.blogspot.com)

Bands and Pop Singers Join Fight Against Backpage.com Ads - NYTimes.com

Bands and Pop Singers Join Fight Against Backpage.com Ads -
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/26/bands-and-pop-singers-join-fight-against-backpage-com-ads/

Source:  NYTimes.com

April 26, 2012, 8:33 PM

By JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR.

More than a dozen prominent pop singers and rock bands have joined a campaign aimed at forcing The Village Voice to stop running ads on Backpage.com for escorts, strip-clubs and other “adult services,” a publicist for the campaign said. The list of bands who have signed a petition against the ads includes the former members of R.E.M and the members of the Roots, Alabama Shakes, the Civil Wars and Drive-By Truckers. Among the singers who have lent their support are Alicia Keys, Rosanne Cash and Talib Kweli.

Village Voice Media, whose 13 weeklies include The Village Voice, Westword and Phoenix New Times, has been under fire for eight months for continuing to run the ads, which critics say lead to the exploitation of minors. Last August the country’s 51 attorneys general sent a letter demanding that the company close down the adults section on its Backpage.com, much of it related to the sex trade.

A coalition of about 600 religious leaders have also gone after the company. The group was organized by Groundswell, an interfaith social justice group sponsored by the Auburn Seminary in New York, which ran a full page ad in The New York Times last year that was signed by clergy from all faiths and cited the arrests of adults who had sold minors for sex using Backpage.com. “It is a basic fact of the moral universe that girls and boys should not be sold for sex,” the ad said.

Since then, a petition against the site started on the Web site Change.org has gathered 225,000 signatures, and several national brands, among them AT&T and American Airlines, have dropped advertising in the media company’s publications.

The musicians who are joining the fray have begun using their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts to generate support for the campaign. Mike Mills, the former bassist for R.E.M., said in a statement that the fact that musicians who admire the Voice’s coverage of popular music are complaining “should send a clear message to the company that it needs to take action to ensure no child is sexually exploited through use of its site.”

The principals of Village Voice Media – Jim Larkin and Michael Lacey – have said the company spends millions to reject ads that feature minors and has worked with law enforcement officials and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to make sure the “adult” section only includes adults.


Related articles

• Boycott the Village Voice!
• Age verification for 'sex-ads' now the law in Washington; first in nation : NPR
• Not Quite a Teen, Yet Sold for Sex - NYTimes.com
• Online Sex Trade Flourishing Despite Efforts to Curb It - NYTimes.com

Developments in the Village Voice Media Battle | ECPAT USA

http://ecpatusa.org/2012/04/developments-in-the-village-voice-media-battle/

Source: ECPAT USA

April 25th, 2012 | 

Today Ana Morse, president of the ECPAT-USA board of directors, gave testimony to the New York City Council Committee on Women’s Issues concerning Backpage and the $26.7 million dollars in advertising revenue it generates annually for Village Voice Media from prostitution alone.

Recently, Nicolas Kristof has been writing op-eds about children sold for sex on-line through Backpage. His latest article can be found byclicking here, and the Huffington Post’s supporting article can be found by clicking here. These articles have not been written in a vacuum, they are emblematic of the media battle still being waged between people that are against child sex trafficking and the Village Voice. For those that haven’t been following, this current melee was set off by a series of op-eds Mr. Kristof had written giving detailed accounts of how young girls were being sold on Backpage. Mr. Kristof’s articles have lead to a call for the Village Voice to end its role in child sex trafficking through Backpage, signed by 19 US Senators on March 23rd, 2012.and a Nightline expose on the website

John Buffalo Mailer, son of Norman Mailer, one of the co-Founder of Village Voice, protested outside the Village offices. asking them to take down their adult classified ads to help stop the sex trafficking of children. But Nicolas Kristof wasn’t the first to get into a brawl with the Village Voice over the issue of Backpage. The Village Voice tried to take on Ashton Kutcher during his campaign “Real Men Don’t Buy Sex”. It seems fairly innocuous, even down-right helpful, that a celebrity would lend his star power to the fight against sex trafficking and spread awareness of prostituted children. Even if it were just the issue of men shouldn’t solicit prostitutes in general, be they adults or children, that’s a downright wholesome message that should be welcome in the public discourse. Let’s not forget that prostitution is illegal in virtually every part of the country, so an alternate title for his campaign could have been “Real Men Don’t Break the Law”.

The oddity is the vitriol the Village Voice reserves for people who point out that Backpage is used by traffickers to sell children for sex. Yes, it is an adult classified ad website that is intended only for mutually consenting adults, but it has clearly developed into something else and has created the unintended consequence of being a website for sex traffickers to sell children. While there are two sides of the argument to the former issue, about what mutually consenting adults can and should be able to do, there can only be one side to the latter issue, that Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) is wrong, and that it is something we should all be able to agree with openly and publicly. Also, just to repeat, prostitution is still illegal for adults outside of a few of Nevada’s counties, and even there the sex takes place within a brothel and is not, to our knowledge, an on-line delivery service, so we at ECPAT-USA are having a difficult time understanding the Village Voice’s side of this media kerfuffle.

The reason why so many people are calling for Backpage to be shut down is because the Village Voice has not taken the time or effort to effectively police itself, and the real police don’t have the resources to do it for them. The Village Voice has attacked anyone who has criticized them and released article after article in an attempt to minimize and get its readership to ignore the serious problem of prostituted children. They claim to have dedicated staff screening the ads for minors and say they’re working hand in hand with law enforcement when infringements of its honor code are found, but some law enforcement agencies say they’ve received no help in prosecuting cases where Backpage was used to facilitate the commercial sexual exploitation of a child. As for their self-policing efforts, you have a handful of people physically checking the 16,000 – 19,000 personal ads added every month. While they do forward about 400 ads a month to law enforcement, hand checking internet pages is not an effective method this day in age. They have called for support of Senate Bill 596, which addresses the sorely needed funding for shelters, counseling, and rehabilitation for the victims of CSEC, but that’s the equivalent of supporting legislation to compensate drowning victims rather than legislation that supports more lifeguards. Yes, victims of a crime need support, but only when implemented in tandem with greater prevention and enforcement can it be truly effective, otherwise we’ll just continue to spend more and more money on treating more and more victims. We have to address the issue of CSEC head on by dealing with websites like Backpage that facilitate the trafficking of children, and we applaud people like Ashton Kutcher and Nicolas Kristof who are at least trying to do something about the problem.

Real Men Get Their Facts Straight: Ashton and Demi and Sex Trafficking, June 29, 2011, Village Voice
Ashton’s Twitter feed, published by Business Insider, June 30, 2011
Ashton Kutcher Attacks Village Voice in Late Night Twitter Tantrum, June 30, 2011, Village Voice
Ashton Kutcher and the Problem of Underage Prostitutes, July 1, 2011, Village Voice
How Pimps Use the Web to Sell Girls, January 26th, 2012, New York Times
Where Pimps Peddle Their Goods, March 18th, 2012, New York Times
What Nick Kristof Got Wrong: Village Voice Media Responds, March 21st, 2012, Village Voice
Responding to the Village Voice on Sex Trafficking, March 21st, 2012, New York Times
Norman Mailer’s Son Protests Outside the Village Voice, March 29th, 2012, New York Magazine
Financiers and Sex Trafficking, March 31st, 2012, New York Times
Change.org Petition to Tell Village Voice Media to Stop Child Sex Trafficking on Backpage.com
Girls Sold for Sex Online, Backpage.com Defends Decision to Keep Ads Up, April 24, 2012, ABC News
Click here to read Ana Morse’s Testimony


Related articles

• Fighting sex trafficking in hotels, one room at a time - CNN.com (trafficking-monitor.blogspot.com)
• Financers and Sex Trafficking - NYTimes.com (trafficking-monitor.blogspot.com)
• Not Quite a Teen, Yet Sold for Sex - NYTimes.com (trafficking-monitor.blogspot.com)
• Musicians Sign Petition Against Village Voice Sex Worker Ads (rollingstone.com)