Fighting Modern Slavery in Cambodia

On September 25, 2012, President Obama gave a historic speech committing the United States to lead the fight against modern day slavery. Making good on those words, the President during his trip to Southeast Asia urged the foreign leaders to take actions to combat the issues of modern-day slavery. During the trip, the President secured new commitments from the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to strengthen and harmonize their anti-trafficking laws, and established a landmark joint plan with the government of Burma to help eliminate that country's use of forced labor, including child soldiers.

Earlier this week, on the President's request Valerie Jarrett and Samantha Power travelled to Cambodia to meet with the U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia William Todd, trafficking survivors, as well as different organizations working to combat the crime. Cambodia has a significant amount of internal and cross-border trafficking, and is a country of origin, transit and destination. To combat this crime, the Cambodian government has taken some steps but they continue to lag because many victims continue to be labeled as 'criminals' and very few criminals tend to be prosecuted. President Obama during his meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, urged the Cambodian government to prioritize "fighting corruption, strengthening the rule of law, and protecting the rights of all Cambodians, including the vulnerable," to fully combat this issue. In the meantime, the U.S. will continue to assist Cambodia to create prevention awarwness campaigns, train law enforcement, and the rehabilitate the survivals of this horrible crime.

One successful prevention campaign is the U.S. funded MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) campaign. It is creating awareness in the country by providing Cambodian youth with training and mentorship using art, drama, and technology as tools to communicate messages about safe migration and dangers posed to at-risk communities-especially Cambodia's rural people. To create grass root awareness, the art created by the youth in this program will be displayed in villages all around the country to create as majority of the victims tend to be recruited and exploited from there.

Cambodian government has a tough road ahead to fully eradicate modern-day slavery as many factors contribute to the increase and continuation of this problem. However, as President Obama stated, decreasing corruption, strengthening rule of law, and providing protection to its citizens will definitely decrease this phenomena.

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Nefarious Screening Raises Complex Questions

This past Monday the historic Byrd Theater in Richmond hosted a screening of Nefarious: Merchant of Souls, put on by the Richmond Justice Initiative.  The movie traveled across the world while exploring the underworld of prostitution, ingrained with sex trafficking:  From the borders of Eastern Europe, to the heart of Southeast Asia, ending in Las Vegas, director Benjamin Nolot raises the difficult, and much debated, question: can commercial sex trafficking really end if prostitution still exists?  It is probably one of the most controversial, and complicated, questions in regards to human trafficking, but what Nefarious explored was how different countries approached this question.

Amsterdam is, of course, one of the most famous examples as prostitution has been legalized.  This decision was partly based on the idea that this would create a safer environment for girls in the lifestyle.  Nefarious raises doubts on the claim through interviews with former prostitutes and even a brothel owner.  Although prostitution was legalized, the owner still had a "panic button" within easy reach for a girl and one witness testified to most girls still having pimps.  Are these indicators of a truly safer environment?

Nolot brings stark contrast to his film by also focusing on Sweden, a country that has made the buying of sex illegal through the Law that Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual Services.  While this seems on track with many other parts of the world, Sweden broke ground with this law by not punishing the girl at all; they are offered assistance and services while the johns are given sentences that are the equivalent to a US felony.  While prostitution has not been eradicated in Sweden, it's government can say with confidence that after being in affect for over ten years, there has been no new recruitment into the commercial sex trade.

While there are many debates over how to "solve" prostitution, what is statistics, and movies like Nefarious, have made clear is that one can never assume a women in the commercial sex trade is not a victim of modern slavery.  These contrasts made by Nolot in his film raises the logical question of how the United States is working to identify and aid victims caught trapped in sex trafficking.

The most shocking finding?  The range in policy across the the country.  Washington State has been praised as one of the ground breakers in prostitution reform with revised laws that have increased the penalty for patronizing a prostitute, where a buyer could even have to register as a sex offender after multiple convictions. On the other hand, North Carolina's policy is identical across the board: from prostitute to pimp, everyone receives a misdemeanor.  In a world where domestic minor sex trafficking has been reported in all 50 states, the US cannot take the risk of ignoring these concerns.   Whether prostitutes are in the trade by choice should not be the main concern.  The reality is that human trafficking victims are held in slavery under the guise of prostitution and legislation must be reviewed in order to free them.

Do your part today and write your congressman or congresswomen and ask what your state is doing to protect those forced, coerced and tricked into commercial sex trafficking.

Interested in Nefarious? Buy the DVD here.