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Advocacy
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Protest Against Village Voice Media in New York, November 16, 2011
New York, New York
November 16, 2011
The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) in partnership with Prostitution Research and Education (PRE) held a successful protest in front of the Village Voice building in New York City last Wednesday, November 16. The protest held at the New York City office of Backpage.com (owned by Village Voice Media) brought attention to Backpage's facilitation of and profiting from sex trafficking. This protest was co-sponsored by more than 120 national and international anti-trafficking organizations and prominent individuals. These included Equality Now, Soroptimist International of the Americas, Apne Aap, Alicia Keys, Gloria Steinem, Aboriginal Women's Action Network, Breaking Free, Buglisi Dance Theatre, Ambassador Mark Lagon, Frederick Douglass Family Foundation, Temple Committee Against Human Trafficking, and A Call to Men.
View entire article and slide show
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Demand Change Project of Breaking Free, St. Paul Minnesota, May 13, 2011
St. Paul, Minnesota
May 13, 2011
Breaking Free, a leading anti-human trafficking advocacy organization and Men Against Trafficking of Others hosted the Demand Change Project in St Paul Minnesota on May 13-14, 2011.
Pioneer Press writer Ruben Rosario wrote that Breaking Free examines prostitution as a slave-based system of sexual exploitation. The program is a by-product of a gradual law enforcement and societal shift that looks at prostituted females as more victims of sexual violence than willing participants. Public awareness about prostitution has grown in recent years, along with an understanding of the psychological trauma resulting from sexual exploitation as commercial enterprise, regardless of its legal status. Recent research on sex buyers shows that they are often sexually aggressive, and frequently use pornography.
See Rosario's article http://www.twincities.com/news/ci_18045945?source=rss&nclick_check=1 for more info.
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Statement of Asia-Pacific Meeting of Sex Trafficking and Prostitution Survivors
New Delhi, India
April 3, 2011
We unite with our sisters in the feminist movement and the labor movement who call for real jobs, not prostitution; for economic programs that create local, sustainable employment, and not push women out of the country; for the socialization of the care economy while recognizing that domestic work is work; for greater budget for women and away from military expenditures.
Social movements have to carry out prevention and public information campaigns alongside us, and help in shifting the stigma away from the victims and onto the perpetrators - the buyers and the business.
We call on the application of citizenship rights to all, especially the women in prostitution, as a fundamental human right. Victims of cross-border trafficking should not be forcibly removed from a country of destination but be accorded services consistent with the Palermo Protocol principles.
"Nobody is our owner", as one of our leaders, Fatima, stated. Not the husband, not the father, not the pimp, not the buyer, not the sex industry. We reiterate that we stand for our bodily integrity and autonomy. Download 2-page statement
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Turn off the Red Light Campaign in Ireland
March 1, 2011
We know full well the pain of children whose lives were blighted by sexual abuse. Physical abuse hurts, but the abuse of another's sexuality impacts even more deeply on the personality. Our sexuality is deeply personal; when it is broken into it can destroy a person's entire sense of worth.
It's time for us to grow up and change how we may think about prostitution. There is a challenge now to respond to the sickening exploitation that these women and children are being subjected to everyday. Click the link below to read more about the struggle in Ireland to support women's exit from prostitution and a campaign to arrest sex buyers, but not the women who sell sex.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/
2011/0301/1224291075375.html
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Superbowl Anti-Trafficking Campaign
Traffick 911 PSA 10 from Nate Bernard on Vimeo.
Jan 25, 2011
Dear Super Bowl Host Committee & National Football League,
My name is A.H. and I'm a survivor of sex trafficking. I'm not a big football fan, but I'll never forget my first trip to Dallas/Fort Worth several years ago. It was 2006 when I was dragged there against my will by a pimp. I was forced to dance, strip and sell sex (along with five other young girls) for over a month while he pocketed the cash ($1,000-$3,000/night from each girl) and planned our next gig. I was trapped in a life I never wanted without any hope of escape.
You might be shocked to know that I come from an upstanding, supportive and loving family. I've been an excellent student my whole life, earning a scholarship to college. I had dreams, ambitions and the courage to make them happen. Everything changed the day I met the man who would later become my pimp. He was intelligent, attractive and seemed to genuinely care about me. When I lost my scholarship due to an injury, he offered to help me and I believed he would. As soon as I realized what he had in mind, I tried to leave. He grabbed me by the neck, threw me down and almost choked the life out of me. When he threatened to hurt my family if I didn't cooperate, I knew I was trapped.
This nightmare was my life for over a year. During that time, we traveled to several states where I was sold at nightclubs, bars, and parties -- fulfilling a demand for sex nationwide. He was always there, always watching. If I refused to work, I was beaten and tortured.
We spent an entire month in Dallas/Fort Worth, where my pimp said the "real money" was. We were all young (some as young as 14-years-old) and that's what the men wanted. No one asked if we were being forced to work, or if we enjoyed it. No one cared. While we were being sold for sex every night, our pimp was recruiting other local girls - from the Galleria, the clubs, concerts, and even McDonald's.
I lived in fear every day, hoping I'd survive to see the next. It wasn't until I heard him loading his gun to kill me that I finally mustered the courage to escape. Today, I'm a survivor. I share my story with you in the hopes that you'll realize sex trafficking is real. It happens to young girls across America every day - girls as young as 13. With the Super Bowl quickly approaching, you have a choice to help stop it. Dallas/Fort Worth will soon become the nation's biggest party - and every pimp's center for business.
Please join me, Dallas Cowboy Jay Ratliff, and 65,000+ fans who've signed the Change.org petition in taking a stand against the exploitation of women and children during the Super Bowl. Every victim deserves the chance to become a survivor. And every young girl deserves to be protected and live a life free from slavery and exploitation.
I'm asking you to endorse the I'm Not Buying It campaign. By placing posters and billboards in and around the stadium you can deter men from engaging in the commercial sex market and save the lives of countless victims. You can make a difference - please, what would you do if it was your daughter?
Thank you,
A.H., Survivor of Sex Trafficking
http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/a_trafficking_survivors_plea...
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PRE Congratulates the Center for Young Women's Development
PRE congratulates the Center for Young Women's Development, San Francisco, for their principled and courageous refusal to accept $100,000 of blood money from Craigslist.
A San Francisco non-profit that helps previously incarcerated women burned a $100,000 check from Craigslist this week in a ritual ceremony, saying accepting the money would be profiting "from a place of exploitation of girls."
The Center for Young Women's Development received the unsolicited check last Friday at their Folsom Street office, said executive director Marlene Sanchez. After much discussion and a phone conversation with Craigslist, the staff burned the check on Monday. Craigslist couldn't be immediately contacted for comment Thursday about their donation going up in flames.
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Washington Post Rejects Massage Prostitution Advertising
As of September 29, 2010 the Washington Post newspaper, following a national trend to stop advertising prostitution - is now rejecting advertising that previously ran in the Post as "massage."
In a blog last year, the Polaris Project, which combats international trafficking in women, wrote:
"Ever wonder where traffickers advertise their victims? Turns out it's in one of the nation's most prestigious newspapers -- The Washington Post. Advertisements for massage parlors that are often front for brothels selling trafficked women are run in The Post every day, despite the fact that the publication has reported on human trafficking in massage parlors."
link to article
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Craigslist Facts
My first introduction to prostitution was arranged through Craigslist. I answered an ad for online modeling which turned out to be an agency recruiting for "escorts". Escort is a word they use instead of prostitute. First model, then escort and eventually prostitute. After I was eased into prostitution, many of the pimps, massage parlor owners and girls themselves would use Craigslist to post adds for prostitution. They used words like "sensual massage" and "full body massage" to attract johns.
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Protest at Craigslist San Francisco Headquarters
The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) in partnership with Prostitution Research and Education (PRE) and other co-sponsors held a protest in front of Craigslist Headquarters in San Francisco on July 8th to bring attention to Craigslist's facilitation of and profiting from sex trafficking. "Craigslist continues to cynically profit by functioning as an online pimp," says Norma Ramos, Executive Director of CATW. "Craigslist is the new stroll where pimps traffic, johns buy and Craigslist profits," says Melissa Farley, Executive Director, PRE.
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Filipinos Protest Craigslist for Adult Services
By Henni Espinosa, ABS-CBN North America News Bureau
Posted at 07/10/2010 12:17 PM | Updated as of 07/10/2010 12:17 PM
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/07/10/10/filipinos-protest-craigslist-adult-services
SAN FRANCISCO - Filipino community leaders joined dozens of people who protested in front of the Craigslist headquarters, calling on the popular website to close its "Adult Services" section and set a sex industry-free standard which would eliminate human trafficking on the Internet.
The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Prostitution Research and Education and over 75 Co-Sponsors said technology should never be used to prostitute women and girls.
Protesters said a large portion of Craigslist profits come from the sale of commercial sexual exploitation, much of it trafficked, all of prostituted.
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Protest on Craiglist Doorsteps in San Francisco to End "Adult Services" Section
Conchita Sarnoff, Huffington Post
July 12, 2010
On July 8, 2010, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), Prostitution Research and Education (PRE) plus more than 75 Co-Sponsors including Innocents at Risk, protested Craigslist's "Adult Services Section" at the company's headquarters in San Francisco, California. "When we arrived, Craigslist was literally whitewashing their cyber trafficking by painting over their corporate logo. The two painters quickly ran off", said Dr. Melissa Farley, Executive Director of Prostitution, Research and Education (PRE) organization. Protest organizers argue that Craigslist's online business facilitates the sex trafficking industry.
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PRE Supports Federal Legal Response to Domestic as Well as International Trafficking Victims
The United States government cannot reduce international trafficking without also combating trafficking inside our own borders. The US House of Representatives in 2007 overwhelmingly passed HR 3887, the Wilberforce Act which would expand the provisions of the original Trafficking Victims Protection Act (2000) to include domestic trafficking victims as well.
Since most of those trafficked for prostitution are tricked, induced or enticed into it, the current Trafficking Victims Protection Act sets the bar way too high with its requirement that victims testify that they were physically coerced or kidnapped by traffickers.
To read a letter that 23 California agencies wrote to California Senator Dianne Feinstein, urging her to support HR 3887 click here Download file
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Message About Virginia Tech Tragedy
What about addressing the physical and sexual abuse of children as a national emergency?
Andrew Vachss wrote in Mask Market, pages 103-104:
"Producers spun their Rolodexes, and the lucky winners got to be on television, “analyzing” what happened. None of them went near the truth. I knew that truth. The kid was a member of a bigger tribe than you could ever find on a reservation. My tribe. The Children of the Secret. We know.
The experts droned on about “communication” and “reaching out” and “peer rejection.” But this kid hadn’t flown under the radar. Everyone around him knew he was buried in despair. They probably figured they knew the outcome, too—the suicide rate on reservations is right up there with the alcoholism level.
That kid was just another of the invisible ones—bullied, beaten, and belittled every day of his marginalized life. If anyone had the slightest idea that he might be a danger to someone other than himself, they would have unleashed a snowstorm of “services.” Suicide, well, kids do that kind of thing. Homicide—now, that’s serious.
Every high school in America has them, the invisible ones. They all silent-scream the same warning: If you won’t see us, you’ll never see us coming.
But nobody ever starts the analysis until after the autopsy.
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Boycott of "Pimp 'n 'Ho Rave" in Vancouver
 Pimp 'N Ho Protest
Raves which trivialize prostitution as "pimp 'n 'ho night - sexual attire desired" - are teaching men to sell, abuse and rape women (which is what pimps do) and they are teaching young women that it is fun to be sexually exploited. People from around the world joined together to boycott one such event.
Click on this image for a description of a 2001 Pimp 'N Ho protest in Vancouver, including details of how we organized the protest, a fact sheet, press release, and what happened. Photograph © Melissa Farley (2001)
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