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Human Rights and Economic Opportunity Will End Trafficking
One of NYATN’s founders and Steering Committee member, Juhu Thukral, wrote a journal article in the Anti-Trafficking Review. Here is a short preview:
Response to ATR Debate Proposition: ‘Prosecuting trafficking deflects attention from much more important responses and is anyway a waste of time and money’
This statement by the editors of this issue on the place of prosecution in ending human trafficking is of course hyperbolic, but it points to a basic truth about different strategies to protect human rights around the world. The ultimate goal in any anti-trafficking work should be twofold: preventing trafficking from happening in the first place; and helping survivors reclaim their voices and their lives so they can define how they want to move forward. Engaged audiences care about trafficking as a global issue and find it horrifying because it violates a shared hope—dignity for all people—and the communal belief that everyone deserves a chance to thrive and seek opportunity in life. To continue, please click here.
Please cite this article as: J Thukral, ‘Human Rights and Economic Opportunity Will End Trafficking’, Anti-Trafficking Review, issue 6, 2016, pp. 134–137 issue 6, 2016, pp. 130–133, www.antitraffickingreview.org.
The Anti-Trafficking Review promotes a human rights-based approach to anti-trafficking. It explores trafficking in its broader context including gender analyses and intersections with labour and migrant rights.
Clearing the Slate: Seeking Effective Remedies for Criminalized Trafficking Victims
Update: This event will be livestreamed.
NYATN member Sienna Baskin will be speaking on a panel, “Clearing the Slate: Seeking Effective Remedies for Criminalized Trafficking Victims,” at CUNY Law School on February 27
Women trafficked into the sex industry are particularly vulnerable to abuse and face the added threat of criminal prosecution for acts they were forced to commit. Resulting criminal convictions can continue to haunt trafficking survivors, preventing them from rebuilding their lives. A novel New York law passed in 2010 helps remedy this harm by allowing survivors to vacate these convictions.
CUNY Law School’s new report Clearing the Slate: Seeking Effective Remedies for Criminalized Trafficking Victims, from the International Women’s Human Rights Clinic, looks at the problem of criminalization of trafficking victims and New York’s experience with the vacatur law in order to identify best practices for New York and other states.
This event will examine the factors that lead to criminalization of trafficking victims, identify the successes and challenges of implementing the law, and discuss other reforms to help trafficking survivors.
New York State Assembly Member Richard Gottfried, sponsor of the vacatur law, will give introductory remarks.
Panelists:
- The Honorable Toko Serita (’89), presiding judge, Queens County Human Trafficking Intervention Court
- Sienna Baskin (’07), co-director of the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center
- Kate Mogulescu, supervising attorney at the Trafficking Victims Advocacy Project at the Legal Aid Society
- John Temple, attorney-in-charge at the Human Trafficking Program at the New York County District Attorney’s Office
