Last year hundreds of anti-trafficking activists came together for the Stop Child Trafficking Now walk.  In October thousands more are expected to attend this year’s DC Stop Modern Slavery walk on the National Mall. This year’s walk is a place for community members to come together to show their solidarity against human trafficking, raise awareness, and help organizations continue to combat modern day slavery.

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As millions of American families hit the roads for summer vacation and take breaks at truck stops to refuel and grab snacks, they may unknowingly come across human trafficking. Commercial truck stops are locations where pimps compel women and girls to engage in prostitution. We are not talking about state owned or state operated welcome centers or rest stops where there is often law enforcement presence (e.g. state patrol). Pimps are taking advantage of locations where there is a large concentration of male truck drivers who are on the road and may be willing to purchase sex. Moreover, these places allow pimps to move the women and girls with ease to other locations as a way of evading law enforcement. Pimps may advertise or have the women and girls advertise via CB radio, or in many cases have the women and girls solicit by going from truck to truck looking for customers. The pimps are also familiar with “party row” where truck drivers park their rigs in the farthest end of a lot with the intention of purchasing sex.

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The holiday gift season is upon us again.  The propensity of businesses to launch it earlier and earlier is heightened this year by nerves about tough economic times.  In the holiday season, it is said that to give is better than to receive.  An important way to give to the neediest is to we insist corporate actors do not wittingly or unwittingly fuel the abuses of human trafficking, forced labor, and the worst forms of child labor – today’s forms of slavery. [Read more →]

I used to work in the House of Representatives as a leadership aide.  Hortatory and symbolic resolutions abound.  One really stands out, introduced by Congresswoman Laura Richardson of Los Angeles. [Read more →]