After creating the first human trafficking risk assessment and prevalence estimation model for minors in the United States, Dr. Durgana applies the same theoretical and statistical modeling insights to the issue of human trafficking in Caribbean sexual tourism in this lecture. She deconstructs vulnerability to human trafficking by appealing to the UN human security theoretical framework. She also provides context on how to best inform potential interventions for human trafficking prevention in the Caribbean and the United States from the perspectives of both regions. Survivor Advocates, Academics, Community Members, and others will find this lecture to be a unique perspective into the state of human trafficking in nearby Caribbean and abroad, with an engaging open discussion on the many potential ways to combat this issue moving forward.
Read MoreSex Work, Human Trafficking, and Social Justice is a panel of three sex workers - One who is trans, one African American, one who was raped, beaten and abducted, one who was assaulted by several clients, who talk about their own experiences and how anti-trafficking trends affected them. Topics discussed are transmisogyny (structural violence against trans women) misogyny and anti-trans violence, survival sex and exploitation, gaps in services and the need for trauma-informed care, and health and harm reduction in our communities. The panel will explain and examine the difference between sex work and sex trafficking, from sex workers’ perspectives. Kristen DiAngelo, Pearl Callahan, and Delphine Brody have over 80 years’ combined experience in the sex industry and sex trades.
Objectives:
1) Understand the impacts of structural violence on trans sex workers and trans people who trade sex.
2) Discuss anti-trafficking techniques and their adverse consequences (end-demand, street stings, massage parlor code enforcement, etc).
3) Understand and discuss the ideas surrounding survival sex/sex trades.
4) Grasp the idea of complex trauma in sex work and sex trades, and how it occurs.
5) Have a working knowledge of what you can do to interrupt the cycle.
6) Obtain a set of resources who are experts on sex work and sex trades for use in your organization.
7) Evaluate the content of the anti-trafficking information you are being given.
8) Draw informed conclusions that reflect an understanding of multiple (and sometimes conflicting) sources of information.
Many disabled victims of human trafficking are ignored, both by disability organizations and by human trafficking organizations. This presentation will give many examples of disabled victims of human trafficking and will challenge advocates to be more aware of these victims. It will examine a wide range of impairments - people who are blind, amputees, people with physical impairments, cognitive impairments, psychiatric impairments, explaining how all of these groups are exploited in various ways in the sex industry and in forced labor. Finally, the presentation will provide many strategies and suggestions on how to respond more appropriately to disabled victims of trafficking.
Read MoreWhile people in the sex trade are often treated as vectors of disease, people are often put at higher risk because of the way sex work and HIV are treated in the United States. Over the last year, the Sex Workers Project and the Global Health Justice Partnership at Yale University have embarked on a research project to explore the intersections of criminalization of sex work and HIV. This presentation will explore the ways in which HIV, sex work and criminalization overlap to create the conditions which increase transmission, disincentive HIV testing and safer sex tools, and increase criminalization of those in the sex trade. As each of these issues has a unique set of factors, we will look at specific case studies of how these major issues interact in New York, Georgia, Tennessee, and California, and highlight the unique perspectives that each location brings. In each of these locations we will also dig into ways in which communities are coming together and building coalitions to push back and create real change on the ground. Participants will walk away with a better understanding of the issue, as well as opportunities to investigate these issues in their home state.
Read MoreSex og Samfunn (Medical Center of Adolescent Sexuality) is the biggest clinic for sexual health in Norway and it has approximately 25.000 patients annually. Sex og Samfunn works mainly with testing and treatment for STI`s and contraceptives for adolescents up to 25 years.
Currently they have a project at the clinic that focuses on prevention with people who buy sex. The service offers testing of STI`s and therapeutic treatment for those who want to quit buying sex or just want to talk about their experiences with buying sex. The service is open for all sexes, ages and for partners to people who buy sex.
In addition, the clinic offers an interactive chat on their website where people who buy sex anonymously can write questions and get answers. This service is funded by the Department of Justice in Norway and is an action to prevent prostitution, human trafficking and the spread of STI`s. In Norway, it is legal to sell sex, but illegal to buy sex. The service aims to help the ones who want to quit buying sex to find alternatives to buying.
The clinic believes in meeting the sex buyers free of judgment. This opens a rare opportunity to talk about difficult subjects and enables the sex buyers to reflect upon their own practice and behavior. The clinic works systematically to obtain knowledge about people who buy sex and try to provide for their physical and mental health, with the aim to reduce the amount of people who buy sex in Norway and reduce the spread of STI`s. To achieve these goals Sex og Samfunn collects data from their patients so that we obtain more knowledge and information about this group. The idea is that this data will give a better foundation for knowing how to provide the best service, to address prevention.
There are cases where survivors have had children with their traffickers. While these case are low in numbers there is every reason to believe they will increase in the future. This is an issue as traffickers may attempt to use family court as a means of intimidating survivors for a variety of reasons. Traffickers fear her testifying or providing information to law enforcement regarding being trafficked. Traffickers may threaten women with seeking custody and/or parenting time in their state.
In Michigan, Family Court primarily deals with custody and parenting time issues. If the trafficker is the biological father in unmarried cases or if they were married and/or divorced, he has the right to seek contact with their common child.
This workshop will focus on the trafficking context as it relates to Custody and Parenting Time laws of Michigan with the focus on the power, control, manipulation and fear factor. Survivors would naturally be fearful of their trafficker having any form of contact with their child, especially related to the fear of similar acts being forced unto their child and/or the use of the child as a means of continuing to have control over the woman’s life.
Objectives:
1) Attendees will gain understanding of the legal system related to custody and parenting time.
2) Attendees will be able to recognize the role of power and control as it relates to potential court cases.
3) Attendees will be able to formulate concepts of how to address these issues in future court cases.
Attendees will have a greater understanding of examining their state’s custody and parenting time laws related to HT survivors.
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