Last week, Indian Country Today published a story by independent journalist and photographer Mary Annette Pember (Red Cliff Tribe of Wisconsin Ojibwe) about generations of American Indian women who have been sexually exploited—in Duluth, Minn., of all places. Pember begins her story with Mary G.: Mary G. was born from the boats. Her children were […]
Trafficking
Human trafficking is a crime involving the capture, transport or harboring of people through coercion or force to exploit them for profit. This can include sex trafficking, but also includes forced labor. People of all genders and backgrounds can become victims of global trafficking, though women and girls of color are disproportionately targeted.
Judge Gives $600,000 in Traffickers’ Assets to Victims
Last week, U.S. district judge Lynn Hughes set an important legal precedent in the fight against human trafficking in the U.S. He ruled that five teenaged survivors of sex slavery in Houston will receive the entire proceeds from the sale of their traffickers’ property. As U.S. prosecutors have until now been mostly unsuccessful in getting traffickers’ assets seized, this […]
Future of Feminism: Say No to Human Trafficking
Two things separate trafficking from sex work. One, trafficking isn’t always about sex; the majority of cases are about labor. Two, all people trafficked for the purposes of sex or labor are either coerced or recruited with false promises.
But there are so many gendered dimensions to labor trafficking — its victims are often subject to sexual harassment and sexual assault. Moreover, many trafficked women have escaped some form of gendered violence or discrimination in their country of origin, so they can end up trapped between a rock and hard place when faced with the threat of deportation–which can deter them from going to authorities for help.
Court Rules Against Bishops In One Birth Control Fight
The Catholic Bishops‘ battle against reproductive healthcare was dealt a significant blow on Friday when a federal judge ruled against the bishops in a battle over whether the group could impose its views on contraception and abortion through its control of taxpayer dollars. Over the last six months the bishops have argued the Obama administration […]
Future of Feminism: Sex Workers Deserve Dignity and Care
There’s no doubt that sex work in its various manifestations, ranging from stripping to prostitution to pornography, remains a contentious issue. It’s one on which even feminists notoriously disagree–a “fracture in ideology,” according to Kate Holden–with discussions veering back and forth between victimization and empowerment. Of course there’s a substantial difference between becoming a sex […]
Catholic Bishops Lose Grants, Raise Stink
Yesterday, some House Republicans attempted to sacrifice the reproductive-health needs of trafficking victims to political gamesmanship. (Yes, given the players involved, we think gamesmanship is the right phrase). At GOP prompting, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee held hearings on the administration’s rejection of a grant application from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) […]
Helping Trafficking Victims Isn’t Biased
Earlier this week, Michael Gerson, an op-ed writer for The Washington Post, penned a particularly troubling piece, accusing the Obama administration—and the ACLU—of anti-Catholic bias, because “the conscience protections of Catholics are under assault.” The “conscience protections” he mentions are really a license for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, powerful lobbyists whose political agenda […]
Wishing to Change the World for Women
Some art presentations are about viewing, but “Women Hold Up Half the Sky,” at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles through March 2012, is about doing. Developed by consulting curator Karina White in conjunction with Skirball museum director Robert Kirschner, “Sky” is centered on women’s international issues, inviting patrons to take action on them. […]
Blowing the Whistle on “Peacekeeping” Sex Traffickers
The book version of The Whistleblower provided a harrowing, page-turning account of sexual trafficking in post-war Bosnia, revealing how the private military contractor DynCorp, the United Nations and the U.S. State Department were complicit in hiding, as well as perpetuating, the global sex trafficking industry. The film adaptation now out in theaters, with an original […]
Anti-Trafficking Enforcement in U.S. is an Abysmal Failure
It’s been over a decade since the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) was passed into law, and a new report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics reveals that astonishingly little has been done since. The TVPA defines a human trafficking victim as A person induced to perform labor or a commercial […]