Hillary Clinton Comments on Slavery

As we've been following over the past few weeks there have been numerous calls for modern-day slavery to find its way onto the radar of the new administration. From our own wildly successful petition to, New York Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof's illuminating articles it looks as if our collective voices are beginning to be heard.

During today's confirmation hearing of Secretary of State Designate Hillary Clinton answered a question on human trafficking:

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA):
I don't think we can look away from the plight of women around the world. Nicholas Kristof confronts this issue in a series of compelling articles… Kristof tells us the story of a Vietnamese girl who was kidnapped at age 13. She was sold into sex slavery in Cambodia. When she refused to see customers, she was tortured brutally with electric shocks and locked in a coffin filled with insects. And Kristof details another story in a piece called "If this isn't Slavery than what is?" in which a young Cambodian girl had her eye gouged out by a brothel owner after taking time off to recover from a forced abortion. I'm introducing some legislation—one is a companion piece to Rep. Carolyn Maloney and another is the Afghan Women Empowerment Act. That's just the beginning. Senator I know how deeply you feel about this so I wanted you to take a little more time to talk about your commitment to this particular issue and obviously I would be so pleased if we could work on legislation to fight this immorality.

Secretary of State Designate Hillary Clinton:
As Secretary of State I view these issues as central to our foreign policy, not as adjunct or auxiliary or in any way lesser from all of the other issues that we have to confront. I too have followed the stories…this is not culture, this is not custom, this is criminal. And it will be my goal to persuade more governments as I spoke with Beijing some thirteen years ago that we cannot have a free, prosperous, peaceful, progressive world if women are treated in such a discriminatory and violent way. I've also ready closely Nick Kristof's articles over the last many months on the young women he's both rescued from prostitution and met who have been enslaved, tortured in every way—physically, emotionally, morally and I take very seriously the function of the State Department to lead the US Government through the Office on Human Trafficking to do all that we can to end this modern form of slavery. We have sex slavery. We have wage slavery and it is primarily a slavery of girls and women. I look forward, Senator, to reviewing your legislation and work with you as a continuing partnership on behalf of these issues we care so much about. And finally, the work that the women of the Senate did in connection with First Lady Laura Bush on behalf of the women of Afghanistan has been extremely important. That program started in the State Department. It was assisted by an organization I helped to start in the White House called Vital Voices. Mrs. Bush has been outspoken on behalf of Afghan women…and other women facing oppression around the world… We're going to have a very active Women's Office a very active Office on Human Trafficking. We're going to be speaking out consistently and strongly against the discrimination and oppression of women and slavery in particular because I think that is in keeping with not only our American values but American national security interests as well.

Many thanks to Sara Guderyahn at The Sheridan Group for the transcription.

-Mark Wexler

Backyard Abolitionist Tour Kick-off and Radio Interview

The Backyard Abolitionist Tour, an innovative presentation on human trafficking combining music, video, and information by David Batstone and musician/activist Brant Christopher Manswar kicked off this week in San Diego California.

To mark the occasion Maureen Cavanaugh of KPBS interviewed David on her morning radio program. Listen to broadcast by CLICKING HERE.

For more information on the Backyard Abolitionist Tour, or to bring David and Brant to your University, Church, High School or Community, CLICK HERE

Not for Sale Campaign

Human Trafficking Awareness Day

Designated by the US Congress, January 11th, 2009 marks the second annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Without a doubt education is deeply important to building a full fledged abolitionist movement. We at Not For Sale want to encourage you to bridge your awareness to action. Download abolitionist handbooks, toolkits and more.

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Nicholas Kristof continues to shed light upon sexual slavery in Cambodia by looking at the economics of the crime.

-Mark Wexler

Doubting Modern-day Slavery

Responding to skeptical New York Times readers columnist Nicholas Kristof writes some painful, but truthful, words about the reality of modern-day slavery. Read his column, If This Isn’t Slavery, What Is?, about Long Pross a girl who was forcibly held in a brothel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Learn more about what the Not For Sale team in Cambodia, Transitions, does to assist teenage survivors of sex trafficking.

-Mark Wexler

Happy New Year - A Call

If you aren't familiar with Nicholas Kristof, op-ed columnist for the New York Times, I'd recommend that you start by reading his most recent column. Kristof makes a stirring call to our leaders, "I hope that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will recognize slavery as unfinished business on the foreign policy agenda. The abolitionist cause simply hasn’t been completed".

Read our policy asks and sign our petition to make human trafficking a priority in the next administration here.

-Mark Wexler

Slumdog Millionaire

Last night I had the opportunity to watch Slumdog Millionaire, no doubt one of the best films of the year. I was surprised to be confronted with human trafficking as a major theme. It’s funny because, depending on the city you live, the film has been out for nearly two months and usually I receive a slew of emails about ‘this new trafficking film’ or ‘that show about modern-day slavery’. Not once have I been told, “go see Slumdog Millionaire because touches on human trafficking.” Not once.

I truly enjoyed Slumdog. Slumdog didn’t try to package itself as a movie “about human trafficking”. It certainly was. But it didn’t need to make the statement bluntly and it shouldn’t have. It’s our job to learn and understand the context and story for what it is: a story about human trafficking.

Slumdog isn’t perfect, no film about trafficking (or any subject) is. But it comes close. It deftly paints a stinging reality in our world, the trafficking of children for the purpose of exploitation through begging, forced sex and more.

Our job as backyard abolitionists -you and me- is to give name and meaning (visceral understanding) to the crime and work to end it in our neighborhoods and around the world.

-Mark Wexler

Policy Reform Suggestions

To effectively combat human trafficking as a cohesive movement we need to continuously evaluate and urge policy reform so we can better serve and protect human trafficking victims. To do this we have partnered with other leading abolitionist groups across the country; together comprising the Action Group to End Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery. Over the past year the Action Group has endeavored to create a transitions report for the next presidential administration. In this document we outline our specific recommendations for President Elect Obama as well as suggestions for each Governmental agency working to combat this issue.

The United States government has led the global fight against human trafficking and we hope through reform the Obama Administration will continue to develop and define what this leadership role entails.

A few recommendations from the Action Group to End Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery and the Not For Sale Campaign include:

Interagency Coordination and Leadership:
Given the width and complexity of this issue and the United States’ efforts to oppose human trafficking nationally and internationally, a Presidential Directive should be enacted to improve coordinated efforts and establish executive oversight and accountability for the various governmental agencies working to combat it.

Prevention:
To address trafficking within corporate supply chains the next administration should assemble international and domestic sector leaders representing businesses, workers, and advocate organizations to encourage the private sectors’ engagement in this issue.

The State Department’s Tier II Watch List should be reformed to support innovative initiatives for countries within this list. Additionally, a two-year limit should be enforced for countries on this list to either progress to Tier II or regulated to Tier III.

Protection:
Specific measures to protect trafficked minors from being unjustly charged and processed within the juvenile offenders system needs to be established, and the provision requiring victims to cooperate with law enforcement needs to be disassociated with services provided to victims.

Prosecution:
Increased executive branch support for state and local law enforcement training to identify and investigate human trafficking cases.

To read the full Transition document you can download it at our political action center. CLICK HERE


We need you to add your voice to ensure that the Obama Administration understands combating human trafficking should to be a priority. Sign our online petition appealing to the Obama administration to take an active role in combating this issue.
CLICK HERE

Kilian Moote
Program Director