To Report a Victim of
Trafficking or Possible Trafficking Activities Please Call Our 24/7 Telephone
Line Immediately at
1-800-789-9847.
If you are a victim
we will come get you and secure a safe place for you.
+++ Mission Statement +++
"To Defend the Defenseless and those Lost in
Darkness;
to
Combat Human Trafficking and Resulting Addictions that Enslave the Mind, Body and
Spirit"
Human trafficking has developed
into the 2nd largest criminal enterprise in the world, with an estimated 27
million people currently enslaved worldwide. Victims include men,
women and children in labor servitude, private ownership and in sexual services.
The majority, approximately 80%, of the victims are women and children bought,
sold and imprisoned in the underground sexual service industry. This industry
targets and exploits under represented classes of people and markets their
bodies to the desires of a growing demand class. The average age of the victims
is 14-18 and the average "shelf life" is 3 years, so by 17-21 years of age these
women and youths are either found dead from attack, abuse, HIV or other sexually
transmitted dieses, mal-nutrition and/or over dose, or from taking their
own lives. This 3 year span of time of which to act and rescue within, is
consistent with all reporting worldwide. It is a narrow sliver of
opportunity from which to identify, rescue and rehabilitate a victim, but it is
not impossible. When people are informed, trained and guided on warning
signals of trafficking it makes the traffickers' conquests all the more
difficult. Here lies the importance of the peoples' response to this
injustice-the victims need your attention, they need your support and they most
importantly need your informed action! Do more then just donate! Our
organization has chosen to make it our mission to help guide you in your
understanding of this important global issue by providing you with educational
materials and resources, which you will find throughout the tabs on this site,
and by offering you the opportunity to join us and give the victims your action.
Please explore the information
provided here, and if possible attend one of our meetings either at our local
chapter, Jacksonville, FL, or at one of our other mission sites, schedules will
be constantly updated on the site so keep checking for activity in your area.
Prelude: About Human Trafficking
"...trafficking isn't just a problem of human bondage; it fuels the
epidemic of gender-based violence in so many places-here in our country
and around the world." - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her
address of the annual Trafficking in Persons Report 2011.
“[E]nding this crime so monstrous is not a political issue; it is an
American imperative, and a human responsibility. This is why there are
still modern-day abolitionists. And this is why the rest of us should
join them.” – Richard Holbrooke, 2008.
"I
can't tell you what a problem [trafficking] is in this State," said Tony
Attanasio, a retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who
created a human trafficking course for law enforcement. "It's just an
unbelievable problem."
There are sex and forced labor
victims being transported on U.S. highways in secrecy.
This was not a choice for them. They were either kidnapped here in the
U.S. or abroad, or had applied to have jobs as waitresses,
singers, models, etc., but instead, they had their means of escape, sense of
self and history stolen from them. Most of these victims are
repeatedly
drugged, broken in... and sold.
In The United States of America
President Abraham Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached
its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that
all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and
henceforward shall be free."Despite this expansive wording,
the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only
to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in
the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the
Confederacy that had already come under Northern control. Most
important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory.
It was not until 1865 in the 13th Amendment, that an effective legal
tool was promulgated to destroy slavery in the United States.
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution
declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,
shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their
jurisdiction." Formally abolishing slavery in the United States, the
13th Amendment was passed by the Congress on January 31, 1865, and
ratified by the states on December 6, 1865. Yet, this was not the
end of slavery in America.
Human Trafficking is the newest, most profuse and fasting growing
form of slavery that the nations of this world has had to combat in
nearly a decade.
In
2000, confronted with the unique nature of human trafficking slavery in
the U.S., Congress promulgated a new Federal law, The Trafficking
Victims Protection Act ("TVPA") that criminalizes human trafficking. The
TVPA has since been reauthorized in 2003, 2005 and 2008 and continues to
be a guide stone for several State's enacting their own legislature to
prosecute human trafficking. The TVPA defines human trafficking
as"...the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or
obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force,
fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary
servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery” and highlights trafficking
for the purpose of sexual exploitation as when "...a commercial sex act
is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced
to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age." The TVPA
does not just provide legal tools for prosecution of traffickers and
those who would aid traffickers, it also provides valuable protection
for victims of trafficking. The Act proclaims, "...an alien who is a
victim of a severe form of trafficking in persons shall be eligible for
benefits and services under any Federal or State program or activity
funded or administered by any official or agency described in
subparagraph (B) to the same extent as an alien who is admitted to the
United States as a refugee under section 207 of the Immigration and
Nationality Act."
In Florida
Florida State has taken the
initiative to enact its own State
laws that criminalize
different forms of trafficking.
Namely, §787.06, Florida Statutes,
generally criminalizes human
trafficking in the state. The
Statute defines human trafficking as
the “transporting, soliciting,
recruiting, harboring, providing, or
obtaining another person for
transport.” The Statute provides
for the prosecution of any person
who intentionally or knowingly
participates or attempts to
participate or whose participation
in anyway amounts to financial gain,
in the human trafficking of a victim
into forced labor and/or sexual
services. Sex trafficking of adults
is categorized as a second degree
felony at §796.045, Florida Statues.
However, sex trafficking of minors
is categorized as a first degree
felony at §796.035, Florida
Statutes. Adult trafficking victims
must prove force, fraud, or
coercion. However, minor sex
trafficking victims are exempt from
this requirement. Labor trafficking
is categorized as second degree
felony at §787.05, Florida Statutes.
Also, §895.02, Florida Statutes,
allows for the prosecution of all
human trafficking offenses as
Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt
Organization ("RICO") offenses.
Prosecution under the RICO statute
allows for greater criminal
penalties.
The Protocol is the first global, legally binding
instrument on trafficking and the only internationally
recognized agreed definition of trafficking in
persons, that definition is:
"... the recruitment, transportation, transfer,
harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the
threat or use of force or other forms of coercion,
of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse
of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the
giving or receiving of payments or benefits to
achieve the consent of a person having control over
another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the
exploitation of the prostitution of others or other
forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or
services, slavery or practices similar to slavery,
servitude or the removal of organs;"
The purpose of the Protocol is to facilitate convergence
of national cooperation with the investigation and
prosecution of human traffickers. An additional objective of
the Protocol is to protect and assist the victims of
trafficking in persons with full respect for their human
rights. The Protocol entered into force on 25 December 2003.
By June 2010, the Trafficking Protocol had been ratified by
117 countries and 137 parties.
The Defender Foundation brings both Activism and Action to
this fight. Our members distinguish themselves not just with their contributions
to Defender, by also by their service to other
organizations involved in this fight. From spreading Awareness and
Prevention to helping the emerging Human Trafficking Shelters, our members
are on the front lines.
The Defender Foundation also distinguishes itself as being one
of the only known NGO organizations in the U.S. that has, and actively trains,
Teams to retrieve the victims.
he
Defender Foundation Shield Teams are composed primarily of current and ex-law
enforcement and military. These teams are trained to physically retrieve the
victims.
Click
this link for letters from the Shield Team Director.
Please explore our website
and get to know more about us and our fight against Human Trafficking.
The Defender Foundation is about doing. There are many things that you
can do to make others aware of Human Trafficking, to help the current
victims and to prevent the occurrence of more victims being taken. This
is not something that you can sit back and watch happen. Our
organization seeks to alert you of the problem and to engage you
to join our fight against it.
There are many volunteer
activities, awareness campaigns and advocacy opportunities to
those interested in joining in this fight.
