We’re working to create a world where no person is bought, sold, or exploited. Read more about our latest efforts here.
Join local survivors and anti-human trafficking advocates/allies in a virtual Town Hall co-hosted by World Without Exploitation and the Michiganders for the Equality Model coalition as we discuss the harms of the recently passed full decriminalization policy in Washtenaw County, Michigan, home to University of Michigan Ann Arbor and other major colleges and universities.
It’s never acceptable to put profits over people. Yet the actions of extractive industries – businesses and corporations that remove non-renewable raw materials such as oil, gas, metals, and minerals from the earth – have been implicated in a range of human rights violations. Because these businesses operate in rural areas with minimal infrastructure and limited rule of law, the mining boom towns that spring up around them are vulnerable to a range of crimes - including exploitation and trafficking.
The brutal murders of eight people in Atlanta this past week – among them six Asian American women - highlight the deeply entrenched white supremacy and violence that permeates so much of American culture. But these tragic events also highlight the intersection of racism, misogyny and the extreme vulnerability of women of color - particularly Asian and Pacific Islander women – who are employed by massage businesses.
Glamorized images of the sex trade abound in today’s media. As a result, many in the public, including far too many health care providers, have no conception of how inherently damaging it is to be bought, sold or exploited. The ugly truth about the sex trade is that the physical, mental and emotional harm done to prostituted persons can be long-lasting and severe. These are harms that cannot be regulated away: peer-reviewed research shows that a legal or decriminalized sex trade is still deeply damaging to those who are in it.
Sex traffickers frequently ensnare their victims in related criminal activity. In fact, it is an integral part of the sex trafficking victimization process that the victim is committing criminal acts at the behest of their trafficker. Throughout this country, there have now been decades of work done to decriminalize human trafficking victims. However, much of that progress only addresses the issue of charging trafficking victims with prostitution crimes. So often, survivors are caught up in serious criminal activity and end up without recourse in the criminal justice system.
Changing minds and hearts on social justice issues is challenging, even during the best of times. And these are not the best of times. Today, Americans are more divided, and less willing to listen to one another, than at any point in the last half century. But there are effective strategies for meeting people where they are in order to move them closer to justice. And time-tested ways to break through barriers in order to make sure that your message is heard and acted on.
Much has changed for all of us over the last year. But one thing has remained the same: World Without Exploitation’s collective commitment to creating a world where no person is bought, sold or exploited. What made this possible? The survivor leaders who inspire and drive our work. The 190+ member groups at the heart of our national network. And generous partners like you. Here are just a few highlights from our year:
Creating a world in which no person is bought, sold or exploited starts with listening to survivors of the sex trade. On December 10th, eleven extraordinary movement leaders will come together to share their perspectives on the harms caused by commercial sexual exploitation, discuss the ways that race, class and income inequality fuel the sex trade, and make an impassioned case for the Equality Model, which seeks to protect the rights of those who have been exploited while holding traffickers, exploiters and buyers accountable for the harms that they cause.
Data about the sex trafficking of Indigenous women and girls in the United States had been woefully lacking. That changed over a decade ago, with the publication of two research reports: Garden of Truth: The Prostitution & Trafficking of Native Women in Minnesota (2011) and Shattered Hearts: The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of American Indian Women and Girls in Minnesota (2009). Those reports exposed, for the first time and in great detail, the extent of sex trafficking within the population of Indigenous women and girls, and how that trafficking impacts them.
