A phenomenon known as "modern day slavery," sex trafficking has become increasingly pervasive. A panel of experts in the field discuss their efforts to promote awareness of this horrific issue and combat human trafficking.
They provide an overview of the problem on the international level, and examine the steps being taken to address the problem and bring the trafficked victims to safety.
Bio
Michael Cohen
Michael Cohen (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is Director of the International Affairs Program. He also works as Advisor to the Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Design, and Urban Planning of the University of Buenos Aires.
Before coming to the New School in 2001, he was a Visiting Fellow of the International Center for Advanced Studies at New York University.
Shamiso Mbizvo
Shamiso Mbizvo from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Olivia Quinto
Olivia Quinto is the National Education Director of
GABRIELA Network.
GABRIELA Network (GABNet) is the largest and oldest US-Philippine multi-racial feminist, anti-imperialist women's mass organization. GABNet organizes and advocates around sex trafficking, globalization, militarism and labor export. GABNet has chapters in Irvine, Los Angeles, New York/New Jersey, the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego.
Cortney Rhoads Stapleton
Cortney Rhoads Stapleton is the PR marketer for the RedLight Children Campaign.
Rights that belong to an individual as a consequence of being human. The term came into wide use after World War II, replacing the earlier phrase “natural rights,” which had been associated with the Greco-Roman concept of natural law since the end of the Middle Ages. As understood today, human rights refer to a wide variety of values and capabilities reflecting the diversity of human circumstances and history. They are conceived of as universal, applying to all human beings everywhere, and as fundamental, referring to essential or basic human needs. Human rights have been classified historically in terms of the notion of three “generations” of human rights. The first generation of civil and political rights, associated with the Enlightenment and the English, American, and French revolutions, includes the rights to life and liberty and the rights to freedom of speech and worship. The second generation of economic, social, and cultural rights, associated with revolts against the predations of unregulated capitalism from the mid-19th century, includes the right to work and the right to an education. Finally, the third generation of solidarity rights, associated with the political and economic aspirations of developing and newly decolonized countries after World War II, includes the collective rights to political self-determination and economic development. Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, many treaties and agreements for the protection of human rights have been concluded through the auspices of the United Nations, and several regional systems of human rights law have been established. In the late 20th century ad hoc international criminal tribunals were convened to prosecute serious human rights violations and other crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The International Criminal Court, which came into existence in 2002, is empowered to prosecute crimes against humanity, crimes of genocide, and war crimes.
You cannot have "sex" with a child or a slave since it is impossible for either to consent, let alone a damn child slave. This is why it must be called what it is: (child) rape. "Sex" is not a clinical term like "intercourse," but one that directly means consent and is loaded with universally strong, positive associations (e.g., natural, intensely desirable), to the point that is on par with "joy." To equate the commercialization of rape, let alone child rape, with consent and all these positive associations is beyond disturbing. All it does is sanitize or, even worse, sexualize the hellish reality that is rape.
Please call it by name: (child) rape trafficking or slavery.
member. 
