Renewal Forum

The Renewal Forum has teamed with Global Centurion (headed by Dr. Laura Lederer) to convene the SSS Network (Stop Sex Slavery). The Triple S Network consists of many of our nation’s most effective victim services organizations, which are typically small and often survivor-lead. We seek to support their vital work by providing access to technical expertise and by advancing their perspectives in policy deliberations. Check out www.triplesnetwork.org.

Tags: SSS Network, Triple S Network, Victim Services

Dr. Robert George, Professor, Princeton University;
Dr. Laura Lederer, Founder of the Protection Project and former Senior State Department Advisor;
Patrick Trueman, Attorney, former Director, Child Obscenity and Exploitation Section, U.S. Department of Justice;
Jeff Trimbath, former Director, Abstinence Education Program, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services;
David Colton, Attorney and Internet Technology Consultant;
Rodger Hunter-Hall, former Deputy Director, Human Trafficking Program, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services;
Steven Wagner, President & Founder, the Renewal Forum, adn former Director, Human Trafficking Program, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

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Comment on Robert George Joining Renewal Forum Board

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Greetings and welcome to the Renewal Forum Blog.   We look forward to collaborating and working with all those who share our commitment to human dignity and ending the modern day slavery of child trafficking.   If you are interested in joining the Renewal Forum Blog please send your email, a username, and a password to wagner@renewalforum.org with the subject line “Renewal Forum Blog”. 

Tags: human dignity, human trafficking, modern day slavery, Renewal Forum

President Wagner testified before the Maryland House of Delegates Judiciary Committee in support of a bill designed to curb human trafficking in Maryland. The main sponsor of the Bill is Delegate Benson, pictured to the far right. 

  For a copy of his testimony, it can be found here:  Wagner Testimony.

Tags: human trafficking, Maryland House of Delegates, President Steve Wagner, Renewal Forum, testimony

We offer today urgent commentary by Renewal Forum Senior Fellow Margaret MacDonnell on the proposed re-authorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 (HR 3887).   In the attached report, we have identified  a number of reasons why we as a Nation are finding so few victims of human trafficking in the Nation.  These reasons are mostly due to the law’s implementation by federal authorities. HR 3387 makes no effort to correct these failings.There is one exception.  HR 3887 does alter how juvenile victims are treated by federal authorities.  Current practice, as explained by Margaret MacDonnell in her report, has a chilling effect on the detention of juvenile victims.  Even here, however, this one step forward is rendered moot by conflicting provisions in the Bill which render it ineffective and undesirable as a successor to the original TVPA. We urge all interested in this issue to share this important analysis.  Please don’t hesitate to contact the Renewal Forum for more information.

TVPA Re-Authorization Analysis - Why It Fails Children 

Tags: child trafficking, children, HR 3887, human dignity, human trafficking, Lantos, re-authorization, trafficking victims protection act

Groundbreaking State Law Analysis Released Today 

 The Renewal Forum today released what we think is an unprecedented analysis of state laws on human trafficking.  The good news is that 36 states have addressed in law the phenomenon of modern-day slavery.  (PDF copy of Report available on “Reports” tab above).

 The bad news is that the best of these state laws (Illinois) received a grade of B-. Only four others received a C- or better. The balance scored a “D” or “F.” The proliferation of state anti-trafficking statutes is an important advancement in the anti-trafficking movement, but a state having an anti-trafficking law is not as important as having a good law.  The major categories of deficiencies in state anti-trafficking laws are: 

• failure to define both labor and commercial sexual exploitation as human trafficking; or failure to recognize the full range of psychological bondage techniques employed by traffickers;
• inadequate support for the restoration of victims, and failure to provide for restitution, civil rights of action, and other support for care provision;
• failure to shield victims of trafficking from acts committed while in the trafficked condition;
• failure to do more than merely criminalize human trafficking.

 

A broader, pro-active community response is needed to abolish this practice. The states with the best laws are:  Illinois (B-); New Jersey (C+);Indiana (C); North Carolina (C); Idaho (C-). The states with the worst laws are:  Colorado (F+);Louisiana (F+); Hawaii (F); South Carolina (F); Virginia (F). Fourteen states and the District of Columbia lack any anti-trafficking law, and received an “F.” Full-text of the Renewal Forum report is linked above, and we encourage you to read it and share with us your feelback.   We are convinced that the abolition of human trafficking will occur as the result of state and community action.  Part of our goal is to start a dialogue about how best to create an enviornment in which human trafficking withers.     Human trafficking is modern-day slavery. The crime of human trafficking is at root the exploitation of the person – compelling them to do something against their will – for the purpose of profiting from their labor or sex acts. The federal government estimates that 14,500 – 17,500 victims are arriving from other countries each year, but the Renewal Forum finds that the number of U.S. citizen victims – mostly juveniles trapped in commercial sexual exploitation – exceeds 200,000 per year.   

Tags: human trafficking, Illinois, model state anti-trafficking law, modern-day slavery, Renewal Forum, state laws, TVPA

Below is the text of the Forum’s formal response to the Washington Post A-1 story, “Human Trafficking Evokes Outrage, Little Evidence.”

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Renewal Forum’s President Steven Wagner DisputesWashington Post Lowball Estimates of Human Trafficking 

Renewal Forum President Steven Wagner, responding to the September 23, 2007 A-1 Washington Post story on human trafficking, “Human Trafficking Evokes Outrage, Little Evidence,” said today “Unfortunately, instead of holding the federal government accountable for results, the Post inappropriately gives it a pass by suggesting the phenomenon is overstated.”The Post article focuses on the disparity between the number of federally certified victims of human trafficking (1,362) and estimates of the annual number of new foreign victims (14,500 – 17,500).

The Post article goes on to suggest the estimates are overblown. At no time does the Post explore why efforts to identify and rescue victims have been ineffective.”This story’s conclusion might be justified if we could say that the federal government has made every effort to find victims of trafficking,” Wagner said, “but this is not the case.”According to Renewal Forum analyses, several factors ignored by the Post explain the lagging pace of victim identification and rescue:The paucity of federal law enforcement resources devoted to enforcement;The routine deportation of victims, contrary to their status as victims of crime under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA);The lack of systematic intelligence-gathering, targeting foreign criminal trafficking syndicates;A de facto cooperation standard for minor victims, insisted upon by the U.S. Department of Justice in defiance of the TVPA; andVictims not being made known to federal authorities by NGO service organizations, out of concern for their clients’ potential deportation, among other factors.  

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Tags: human dignity, human trafficking, Renewal Forum, TVPA