January 25, 2010

President Obama Declares January 2010 as
National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month

The January 4, 2010 Presidential Proclamation reminds us that the United States, founded on the principle of freedom and justice for all, has nonetheless known “moments of great darkness and greater light and dim years of chattel slavery illuminated and brought to an end by President Lincoln’s actions and a painful Civil War.” In proclaiming January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, the President reminds us that “even today, the darkness and inhumanity of enslavement exists” throughout the world and in our own Nation. Click here to read the Presidential Proclamation.

The Center is proud and honored to share with you our decade of work on international trafficking of women and girls as a violation of women’s most basic human rights. We encourage all of our colleagues worldwide to join us in heeding President Obama’s call to “recommit ourselves to stopping the human traffickers who ply this horrific trade” and to protecting trafficked persons, who are “denied basic human dignity and freedom.”

For more than a decade, the Center has taken the lead in working with state legislators throughout our Nation to help them create new laws that enable state agencies to protect persons trafficked into their states and to prosecute and punish traffickers. State legislators have enacted anti-trafficking laws in 41 states to date [click here for our 2010 State Anti-Trafficking Laws Fact Sheet.]

Our GlobalPOWER® [Partnership Of Women Elected/Appointed Representatives] creates new sustainable partnerships of women leaders –across borders and over time -- to confront international trafficking of women and girls as a global women's human rights crisis. Participants in GlobalPOWER® since 2006 include women Members of Parliament and Ministry Officials from 21 countries as well as nine US state legislators. Click here to learn more about GlobalPOWER®.

PLEASE JOIN US in answering the President’s call for all “Americans to educate themselves about all forms of modern slavery and the signs and consequences of human trafficking.” To learn more, please visit the Center’s US PACT (Policy Advocacy to Combat Trafficking) website and to become involved, please email us at: cwps@centerwomenpolicy.org.

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