New laws in Penna: Pensions, gambling, domestic violence, DUI, human trafficking, animal abuse, and more

HUMAN TRAFFICKING Child victims of human trafficking cannot be prosecuted for crimes they are compelled to commit under a new law that also requires police to contact the state Department of Human Services whenever they encounter a child who has been sexually exploited. The Department of Human Services also must establish ways to provide victims with homes, schooling, training and counseling.

Real Slavery Is Clear, And It Is Also Our Fault As Consumers

apple.news/AKDfreXliTfmWZvYmrIzQVw You buy a purse at Walmart. There’s a note inside from a “Chinese prisoner.” Now what? By Rosalyn A. Warren Tracing a mysterious message across the world to understand how what we buy is made. When Christel Wallace found a piece of paper folded up at the bottom of her purse in March 2017, … Continue reading Real Slavery Is Clear, And It Is Also Our Fault As Consumers

Donate Your Bras For Survivors Empowerment

This October, Rigby & Peller is proud to support Free the Girls, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides job opportunities for survivors of sex trafficking in developing countries. Gently used bras are collected* and donated to these women as starting inventory for their own business selling bras. Through the collection of bras in Western countries, Free the Girls is able to educate people and organizations about human trafficking issues globally. *Boutique exclusive event, store credit earned can be used in boutiques only.

2018 Women’s March Rhode Island Includes Sex Workers

2018Women March Rhode Island Includes Sex Workers. COYOTE had a 60 people sign up for our email list, and over 100 people stopped at our table.  Bella shared that, "We had strippers from Westerly, and we had students from 3 universities and several communities members asking how they can volunteer with Coyote RI. Most importantly we got to educate our community and explain how Uncle Sam is the biggest pimp in the USA."

The International Union of Sex Workers’ statement on the Centre For Women’s Justice challenge to convictions for street sex work

We seek to remove the barriers to leaving the sex industry imposed by criminal law. Women selling sex onstreet may be arrested for loitering or soliciting[iii]; indoors, any way of working with or for another person creates a risk of prosecution[iv]. Clients are entirely criminalised onstreet and extensively indoors[v]. This means that almost anyone who encounters victims of trafficking in the sex industry has reason to fear arrest if they contact the authorities to report concerns.
This complex and confusing mess of legislation endangers everyone in the sex industry. Only complete decriminalisation offers the wholesale reform necessary to create a legal framework that offers us the same human rights accorded to others.[vi]

Re/Visiting The Invisible John Interview About Jane

The Invisible John Interview About Jane ORIGINAL POST ON SWOP PHL SEPTEMBER 30, 2015 Journalists ask the darndest questions then don’t publish the answers sex workers give them or purposely don’t share all viewpoints if the views don’t fit in with the desired angle of an expose. So – we’ve decided to publish an unpublished and unquoted requested dialog by a journalist who interviewed SWOP Philly’s M. Dante.

Open Letter To Open Society Foundation

The Open Society Public Health Program invites concept forms from civil society organizations and networks that seek to advance the health and human rights of sex workers in Europe. Marginalized by stigma and criminalization, sex workers face enormous obstacles to realizing their human rights, and oppression has led to extreme levels of violence, disease, and exploitation. Justice and health systems routinely fail sex workers, and at times compound their marginalization through harmful law enforcement practices and insurmountable barriers to health care. Sex worker organizing is sometimes vilified, further exacerbating problems related to workplace health and safety. The myriad of health challenges sex workers face cannot be addressed squarely within the health system, and the structural—and often political—determinants of sex worker health extend far beyond health care.

UUPLAN: Victims of Human Trafficking are not Criminals

UUPLAN's Anti-Mass Incarceration Team has agreed to support SB 554 - Safe Harbor in Human Trafficking.  This bill would send minors who are victims of sex trafficking to treatment rather than prosecuting them. The bill was introduced by Senator Greenleaf and has passed the Senate (50-0). It has been referred to House Judiciary Committee which has not yet scheduled a hearing.