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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.”
Read
the full news release here.
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