DC Declares "Prostitution Free Zone" for Obama Inauguration

by Amanda Kloer

Published January 19, 2009 @ 02:29PM PT

If you were thinking of celebrating the inauguration of the 44th President Barack Obama with a little commercial sex, think again.  The DC government has declared some part of the city a "prostitution free zone." The locals are excited about it.

John Thompson lives in the neighborhood, and he said prostitution is a major problem. He hopes the signs make a difference, but what will visitors think?  'I'm not concerned with what visitors think. I'm concerned about the problem that exists,' Thompson said.

While I certainly support taking extra measures to prevent prostitution around large events (which are a major destination for trafficking victims in prostitution), the DC government could have done a whole lot more.  The most audacious part of these signs is that they have an expiration date.  Basically, DC is admitting that there is prostitution in this area and will be after the inauguration, they're just trying to keep things in check while all the important people are in town.

DC government, prostitution is illegal in the District, so shouldn't everywhere be a "prostitution free zone"?

Interview: Cesar Chavez on Human Trafficking

by Amanda Kloer

Published January 19, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT

Each week, I will be bringing you a new interview with a formerly-active activist or abolitionist, that is, someone now deceased.  I'll be talking to the men and women who paved the way for the abolitionists of today and getting their thoughts on the problems and solutions of modern-day slavery.  How do I contact not just the dead, but the famous and dead?  Every good blogger must have her secrets! 

This week..... Cesar Chavez

How's the afterlife treating you?

Muy bueno. 

For those non-biography readers out there, how about you tell me a little about yourself.

I was a champion of Mexican-Americans and migrant workers during the 1960s and 70s, and worked for fair labor standards and pay for thousands of agricultural workers.  I formed what eventually became the United Farm Workers (UFW) union.  

What do you think is the biggest problem in the modern-day abolitionist movement?

Aye de mi!  I'd say combating the rampant labor trafficking and exploitation which still takes place in agricultural industries around the world.  The regulations are difficult to enforce, and labor trafficking victims who are in the country without proper documentation are often arrested and deported. 

If you were alive, what would you do to fight slavery?

I'd work to improve and enforce labor standards in agriculture in the U.S. and around the world, especially for vulnerable migrant workers.  I'd make it a lot harder for traffickers to get away with exploiting the labor of hard-working migrants. 

Any last thoughts for our readers?

Buena suerte.

10 Improvements to The New Trafficking Victims Protection Act

by Amanda Kloer

Published January 18, 2009 @ 05:00AM PT

So Dr. Janet Shaw Crouse of Concerned Women of America (who, quite frankly, spends most of her time being a  willfully ignorant homophobic bigot) took a break from her full gay-bashing schedule to write a handy little memo laying out in plain language some of the changes of the 2007 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (which was passed at the end of 2008).  This just goes to show that human traffifcking is a true bipartisan issue, if Dr. Jan and I agree on it.

Here is her memo, which I've provided below.  It's really a useful guide, just try not to think too hard about where it comes from.

"1. Because of this bill, it will be much harder for clever pimps to be set free because of a minor technicality. Prosecutors don't have to PROVE that a trafficker knew that a victim was a minor. All the prosecution has to prove is that the trafficker had a "reasonable opportunity to observe" a victim who is a minor. Also, those people who help the traffickers can be accessories to the crime if they showed "reckless disregard" for a victim's circumstances -- including whether they were illegal aliens -- when they came into contact with the victim who was forced into commercial sex acts.

2. Now those countries that heretofore have safely remained categorized on the "Tier 2 Watch List" can only remain there 2 years before falling into Tier 3 -- the worst countries in terms of protecting citizens from traffickers. The President can make exceptions, of course, but nations will no longer be able to slide by doing a minimum to protect the vulnerable. And, all countries will be evaluated, not just those that had 100 or more documented victims in the past. All countries will be evaluated on their "serious and sustained" efforts, too, -- not on their last minute showy public relations events that sometimes previously saved them just in the nick of time.

3. The State Department's Trafficking in Persons Office will be responsible for coordinating and unifying all anti-trafficking efforts. TIP will have complete responsibility for policy, funding and programming decisions related to its grantees. Further, the TIP office must be consulted regarding all anti-trafficking efforts and all anti-trafficking programs in the State Department and USAID must also coordinate with the TIP office. Finally, the Senior Policy Operating Group (called SPOG and chaired by the TIP Office Director) must review all trafficking grants.

4. Several language changes now make it easier to prosecute trafficking criminals. Instead of a trafficker "knowing" a victim's circumstances -- including drug addiction, the trafficker can be held accountable for "reckless disregard" of those factors. Also, the act expands coverage to include those who help the traffickers as well as those who financially benefit from the trafficker's activities -- whether federal slavery, forced labor or sex trafficking.

5. It is far easier now for the victim to receive restitution through the trafficker's forfeited assets or the civil damages that are awarded.

6. The Department of Justice must create a new "model law" that incorporates the new provisions and includes reference to the D.C. Criminal Code section that all acts of pimping and pandering are per se crimes - regardless of proof of force, fraud or coercion, or knowledge of the victim's minor age.

7. The Department of Justice must report to Congress within 90 days specifying the date when they will complete a study of the illegal commercial sex industry. It will also have to report on its enforcement of Mann Act crimes from 2001-2009 and report on what we call, "look back crimes" - those criminals who are arrested for crimes against victims who are now over 18 years of age, but were minors when the criminal started exploiting them in commercial sex acts.

8. The Health and Human Services Department and the Department of Justice must submit a report to Congress on the extent of any "service gap" between domestic and foreign national survivors of trafficking. And, the Act authorizes funding for a new program to provide services to U.S. citizen survivors of human trafficking.

9. The Act requires the Department of Labor to provide a list of goods it has reason to believe have been made with forced labor or child labor.

10. I am particularly pleased to report on the last provision that I will mention. This provision came from Concerned Women for America and is the brain child of Brenda Zurita, the research fellow of The Beverly LaHaye Institute. Our coalition refers to it as the Zurita Amendment. Arrests will no longer be lumped together; they must be broken down to show how many prostitutes, johns, and pimps/traffickers were arrested. This mean that the arrests will be categorized in the Uniform Crime Reports and a new term "Human Trafficking" will appear in the serious crimes category. This new provision will give us hard data about the extent of the domestic human trafficking problem."

Roadtrip to DC Freedom Mix

by Amanda Kloer

Published January 17, 2009 @ 04:00AM PT

Are you one of the estimated millions of people who are road tripping to DC this weekend to see Barack Obama sworn in as the next President?  If so, you might need some driving tunes to keep you alert and pumped up along the way.  This is just a fun little mix I put together of freedom-themed songs to help ring in a new abolitionist era of Obama.  It's an eclectic collection, including rock, punk, gospel and hip-hop, but it will keep you interested!

Road Trip to DC Freedom Mix

Redemption Song: Bob Marley

I'm Set Free: The Velvet Underground

Philadelphia Freedom: Elton John

Everybody Loves Me: Don McLean

Young Hearts Run Free: Kim Mazelle

Slow Down Gandhi: Sage Francis

Go West: Pet Shop Boys

Mind Set on Freedom: Sweet Honey in the Rock

Think: Aretha Franklin

Oh Freedom: Joan Baez

One Road to Freedom: Ben Harper

Freedom Hangs Like Heaven: Iron and Wine

Young Turks: Rod Stewart

People Have the Power: Patti Smith

None of Us Are Free: The Blind Boys of Alabama

Anyone have additional songs to suggest that I missed?

Freedom For the Weekend: Free the Slaves

by Amanda Kloer

Published January 16, 2009 @ 12:00PM PT

Well, it's Friday afternoon, and that means the weekend is almost here!  W00t! Perhaps you're reading this blog because you're bored at work or school and you're thinking about what you want to do this weekend.  How about spending part of your weekend fighting slavery?  Each week I'll profile a different anti-trafficking nonprofit who you can connect with to help free slaves and prevent slavery around the world.  So, spend a couple hours this weekend getting to know this nonprofit through their website, and then get involved!

This Week's Profile: Free the Slaves

The Bottom Line: Free the Slaves is a not for profit organization made up of people who don't want to live in a world with slavery. And they're willing to do something about it.  They believe slavery is a dark slash across the heart of all humanity.

What They Do: They work on the frontlines with liberators around the world, do research on human trafficking, and advocate for policy changes, among other things.

What Can I Do?: Free the Slaves has a portion of their website decicated to ways you can get involved and "be the change".  They need volunteers in their DC office, but if you don't live in the area you can still make a difference and educate yourself, spread awareness, or give freedom.  There are lots of great ideas for action available.

Why They Rock: They have a really user-friendly website and a lot of useful features, like this sheet which shows the cost of freeing different slaves and a store where you can buy great stuff.

So now that you've got some basic information on Free the Slaves, visit their website this weekend and get involved.  And on Monday morning when everyone else is talking about sleeping in and watching tv over the weekend, you can say, "What did I do this weekend?  Oh, just the usual- abolition of slavery."

Do you have a favorite nonprofit you'd like to see featured here?  If so, let me know!

The Veiled Commodity

by Amanda Kloer

Published January 16, 2009 @ 04:36AM PT

Just a quick one this morning- this is an AMAZING video I found on Youtube during a bout of insomnia.  The graphics are fully stylized and the whole thing has an aesthetic somewhere between Richard Gorey and the Smashing Pumpkins Tonight, Tonight video.  Art meets activism in a very cool way.

I have to admit, I have no idea who the guy who made this is, but if you're out there reading this, I'd love to know!

Bishops vs. Lawyers: Part Deux

by Amanda Kloer

Published January 15, 2009 @ 10:23AM PT

A couple days ago, I mentioned the lawsuit the ACLU filed against the Department of Health and Human Services(HHS).  Here's the synopsis: HHS funds USCCB to provide services to trafficking victims who have been rescued. The ACLU is claiming that by denying trafficking victims access to certain reproductive health care (including contraception and abortion), the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is violating the separation of church and state and violating these womens' rights. 

Well, USCCB bit back today calling the ACLU lawsuit "without merit and an affront to religious liberty."  To their credit, USCCB has been very forthcoming; they never tried to hide the fact that they weren't using taxpayer money to provide abortion services or referrals to trafficking victims, and they claim they don't legally have to.  They claim the ACLU is violating their religious freedom with the lawsuit.  The issues are complex, but a lot of the argument centers around whether or not HHS or USCCB have violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

This clash of bishops and lawyers reproductive rights and freedom of religion is certainly not a new one.  It has happened before and will certainly happen again.  From the looks of things right now, this one might just be pretty long and bloody.  And the thing which really upsets me is that at the end of the day, it's the trafficking victims who will end up losing, no matter who wins the lawsuit. 

But if we are allowing wardrobe as weaponry, my money is on the bishop.