Today, we are at a crucial moment in the fight against human trafficking: the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies is about to decide whether or not to provide $15 million for services for survivors of human trafficking. Please, write to Committee Chairman Mollohan and Ranking Member Wolf to urge them to fund services for victims of human trafficking today!  The upwards of 17,500 people who are trafficked into the United States, plus the tens of thousands of Americans trafficked internally each year, are in desperate need of services like medical care, counseling, legal assistance, shelter, education, and employment in order to recover from horrific abuses and rebuild their lives. Without adequate funds those services in the U.S. will be underfunded and inaccessible for many survivors.  For many trafficking survivors, these services are the key to a new life after the horrible ordeal of slavery.

The Senate Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee has already agreed to fund trafficking victims’ services at $15 million. Now, we are asking the House to support the highest possible funding level to provide trafficking survivors the resources they desperately need.  Specifically, we are asking the House conferees to commit to the following:

Sign the Petition HERE!

The United States Department of Labor  has released a list of products imported into the United States that are likely tainted by forced labor or child labor.  Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2005 the Bureau of International Labor Affairs was required to compile the report to educate consumers and inform the general public about what products are tainted by slavery.  The list consists of 122 goods from 58 countries.

Top industries sited:

• Rubber from Liberia;
• Cocoa from Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea and Nigeria;
• Cotton from Uzbekistan;
• Tobacco from Malawi;
• Cottonseed from India;
• Cobalt, Coltan, Copper, Diamonds and Gold from the DRC;
• Sugarcane from Brazil, DR, Guatemala (and many others)

The countries listed as top offenders were: India ( 19),  Burma (14),  Bangladesh (13),  Brazil (13), China ( 12), and Philippines (12).

To read more visit the Department of Labor website

Earlier this month over 50 young kids, ages 11-17 were rescued out of slavery on chocolate farms in the Ivory Coast, an area continuously effected by forced labor and slavery.  As reported on Interpol’s website:

“The children had been bought by plantation owners needing cheap labour to harvest the cocoa and palm plantations. They were discovered working under extreme conditions, forced to carry massive loads seriously jeopardizing their health.  Aged between 11 and 16, children told investigators they would regularly work 12 hours a day and receive no salary or education. Girls were usually purchased as house maids and would work a seven-day week all year round, often in addition to their duties in the plantations.”

As a consumer we need to do our part to help end forced labor within the chocolate industry!  As a consumer there are three things Not For Sale Campaign will engage you to do:

Free2work.org

Use your power of choice to change demand by joining a community of consumers engaged in this fight on Free2work.org.

Proof of Non-Purchase

Order or download “proof of non-purchases” to encourage your favorite retailer to stock freely made chocolate

Use Chocolate for YOUR next fundraiser:

Not For Sale Campaign has partnered with Sweet Earth Chocolate to create a fundraiser that will support you in your fundraising goal while also supporting NFS Ghana, and the best part is all the chocolate is produced using fair labor practices!  For more info email freechocolate hailing from notforsalecampaign from the TLD of org

David Batstone joined Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Ambassador-at-Large to Combat Human Trafficking Lou DeBaca in Washington D.C. for the public release of the 2009 G/TIP Report.

Batstone represented the Not For Sale Campaign as a national partner for the creation of effective legislation to combat the global slave trade.

NFSC is thankful for the work that both Clinton and DeBaca are doing within the US State Department to tackle modern slavery, and the extensive information made available through this effective report.  Secretary Clinton stated during the press conference, “The ninth annual Trafficking in Persons Report sheds light on the faces of modern-day slavery and on new facets of this global problem. The human trafficking phenomenon affects virtually every country, including the United States. In acknowledging America’s own struggle with modern-day slavery and slavery-related practices, we offer partnership. We call on every government to join us in working to build consensus and leverage resources to eliminate all forms of human trafficking.”

Read the full report here

New York Times humanitarian reporter Nicholas Kristof reports on girls being sold into forced prostitution on our own streets.  Kristof has often reported firsthand on the horrors suffered by trafficking victims all around the world; however, his new article exposes human trafficking inside the United States. Read the article here.

President Obama has nominated Lou De baca as the next “anti-human trafficking Czar” and we are doing what we can to help ensure he is confirmed.

Throughout his service to the U.S. Government, Mr. de Baca has played a valuable role advising, directing, and enforcing the federal anti-trafficking policies.  During his tenure as lead prosecutor, Mr. de Baca saw the conviction of more than 100 traffickers and liberated more than 600 victims, records unchallenged in a post-reconstruction era.

As one of the first governmental anti-slavery and anti-trafficking advocates, Mr. de Baca began working on the issue of human trafficking in the mid-1990s, first pioneering the use of servitude statutes to prosecute exploitative pimps for violating their victims’ rights.  During the Clinton Administration he helped convene the first national interagency working group on human trafficking and spearheaded the Justice Department’s efforts to update slavery statutes, which resulted in the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.

The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons requires a leader who has an extensive background and knowledge of this issue, along with the ability to cooperate with a diverse constituency, multiple government agencies, and direct a variety of programs.  Mr. de Baca’s experience securing traffickers’ convictions, liberating victims, and directing policy has had a substantial impact on the United States success in confronting trafficking.

Mr. de Baca needs your suppor!  Sign our online petition to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to support his confirmation!

A bill introduced by Canadian MP Joy Smith, which increases minimum sentences for offences involving trafficking of minors, needs your support.  Tell your MP to vote in favor of bill C-268 to amend the Criminal Code by calling your Parliament Office at 1 (866) 599-4999.

Mrs. Smith is one of the leading advocates in the Canadian Parliament focusing on human trafficking, and a close friend of the campaign.  On his recent trip to Canada David Batstone, President of the Not For Sale Campaign, had the pleasure to meet with Mrs. Smith shortly after she had introduced this needed legislation.  On March 25th, the 202nd anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Canada, Mrs. Smith  hailed the work of the Not For Sale Campaign, our Canadian partners, and creation of slaverymap.ca, in Parliament stating:
Dr. David Batstone, co-founder of the Not For Sale Campaign, has led modern day abolitionists’ to combat human trafficking. I am pleased to commend Dr. David Batstone, Professor Benjamin Perrin and the students of the University of British Columbia “Human Trafficking Working Group” as well as the Canadian Religious Conference for launching the website, slaverymap.ca last week, a tool to track human trafficking cases in Canada.

I would invite honourable members and all Canadians to visit the website, and help end slavery once and for all in Canada.

We are asking that you, our Canadian constituent, support Mrs. Smith and bill C-268 by calling your MP in Parliament and urging them to support this legislation.