Category — Human Trafficking Initiatives

We’re unleashing a new series on the North Star Blog: Tip Tuesday. Each Tuesday for the next few months, we will write about different types of human trafficking in the United States. We hope that you’ll tune in to learn the signs of these types of trafficking. [Read more →]

The brochure is available in English, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese

The issue of illegal brothels posing as legitimate massage parlors is tied to Polaris Project’s first moments as an organization.  Our founders, Katherine Chon and Derek Ellerman, became passionate about the issue of human trafficking after learning about one of these brothels in Rhode Island, which operated a couple blocks from their college apartments.  Over the past nine years, our organization has focused on combating all forms of human trafficking, but we’ve always maintained an expertise and understanding of this particular network. [Read more →]

When I was in London last April, I walked into a local convenience store for a chocolate fix to help relieve some jet lag.  I browsed through options for chocolate, looking for bars that I wouldn’t necessarily find back home in the United States.  My scanning stopped when my eyes fixed on a Cadbury Dairy Milk bar that looked like this:

Here were my immediate thoughts:  Cadbury?  Fair trade?  When did this happen?  This is so exciting! Oh, but why don’t I see the little Fair Trade logo on the Cadbury eggs?

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Part I of this blog discussed two of the factors that played a significant role in the passing of anti-human trafficking legislation in the Commonwealth of Virginia: the Change makers and a bi-partisan coalition. In this entry, I will go on to discuss two equally important reasons for these monumental changes.

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Dire does not quite describe the situation we faced when we first began trying to pass anti-human trafficking legislation in the Commonwealth of Virginia. For years we worked to establish a strong legal framework for combating human trafficking. Sometimes we were successful, other times we weren’t. My predecessors successfully navigated difficult waters to help criminalize abduction for the purpose of forced labor, as well as extend asset forfeiture to vehicles used to traffic children. These were no minor feats and took countless hours of hard work, dedication, and passion on the part of many. Despite these successes we were still plagued by our inability to pass strong sex trafficking legislation and provide effective assistance to survivors of human trafficking. Another equally pressing problem in the Commonwealth was the revelation in the Crime Commission Report that none of the statutes currently used to arrest and prosecute traffickers had been used. While there is no one magic item that helped us pass paradigm-shifting anti-human trafficking legislation this year, I do think our success can be attributed to several noteworthy factors:

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A few hours before the Polaris Japan Board Meeting on March 11, I received the following email from Shihoko, the Director of our Japan programs:

The biggest earthquake in Japanese history hit today.  No one was in the office and I was able to manage to hold TVs and bookshelves.  Things fell on floor.  Transportation is not function(al) at all in Tokyo, so there are so many people walking on street.  They should stay at office!  It is freezing tonight!… I will stay at office today and some of my friends (will) also use our office as shelter today. [Read more →]

This week, we took a road trip to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for a lobby day to encourage activists to talk to their legislators about important pending legislation. A coalition of anti-trafficking groups based in Pennsylvania and nationally organized the lobby day and it was a great success!  There were with more than 80 activists who met  with their state representatives and state senators. The day culminated with a press conference held in the Rotunda of the Pennsylvania State Capitol, where several legislators and activists, including Polaris’ Senior Policy Specialist and Communications Advisor Julie Janovsky, spoke passionately about the issue. [Read more →]

Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness day in the United States.  Established through a resolution passed by the U.S. Senate two years ago, January 11 is dedicated to raising awareness of and opposition to human trafficking.

Raising awareness is a crucial first step, but alone it is not enough. Knowledge without action is information wasted. It isn’t enough to be merely aware. Armed with information, we should act.

Here are three things that you can do right now to help fight human trafficking: [Read more →]

This past weekend, we heard news that Craigslist removed the “Adult” or “Erotic” section from all of its global sites worldwide.  The action happened quietly, without much mention in mainstream media, perhaps because it’s not viewed as a newsworthy event.  However, for those in the anti-trafficking field, this is a huge change. It’s certainly newsworthy because we know that a major source of free advertising has been cut off for human traffickers worldwide. [Read more →]

Bradley Myles with activists and Bush administration officials at the TVPRA 2008 bill signing

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) was signed on October 28, 2000, making last Thursday its 10-year anniversary.  At the time, this law truly was ground-breaking legislation because it was the first comprehensive federal law that addressed human trafficking in the modern era. One of its most important contributions was the formulation of a victim-centered paradigm for addressing the crime and a three-pronged approach that included: [Read more →]