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January 14, 2013
NEW YORK STATE BAR ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT CREATES
SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO ADDRESS HUMAN TRAFFICKING
State Bar Association President Seymour W. James, Jr., calling human
trafficking “one of America’s dark secrets,” has
appointed a committee to study how to prevent children and adults from
being forced into prostitution and hard labor against their
will.
Some 27 million people worldwide are victims of human
trafficking. Here in New York, the confluence of immigrants, runaway
children and domestic violence has brought heightened interest in
eradicating trafficking, yet the problem persists.
The Special Committee on Human Trafficking, headed by
former State Bar President Bernice K. Leber of New York (Arent Fox) and
Sandra D. Rivera of Albany (Manatt, Phelps & Phillips), is reviewing
the current statute in New York that criminalizes sex trafficking and
labor trafficking, as well as related criminal, civil and international
laws. The goal of the committee’s review is to identify reasons
why the trafficking business persists and to propose additional
reforms.
“Each day, innocent victims are taken off the streets or removed
from their families and cast into modern-day slavery. Often they are
subjected to threats, intimidation and physical, psychological and
sexual abuse at the hands of their captors,” said James (The Legal
Aid Society in New York City). “Whether the victims live here or
abroad, human trafficking is slavery and cannot be tolerated
anywhere.”
Human traffickers often use force, make threats,
withhold victims’ identification or immigration documents, compel
victims to pay off debt by engaging in prostitution or forced labor,
provide the victim with drugs, or otherwise use trickery to entice the
victim into forced sex or labor.
The New York State Bar Association, with 76,000 members,
is the largest voluntary state bar association in the country. It was
founded in 1876.
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