Human Rights and Sex Trafficking: A Film Forum (Cambridge, MA)

December 2 – 5
Brattle Theatre
Cambridge, MA

Red Light Trailer:

The Boston Initiative to Advance Human Rights (BITAHR) board members Kate Nace Day and executive director Alicia Foley Winn have launched Human Rights and Sex Trafficking: A Film Forum to explore the use of film as an effective way to raise awareness and trigger action in combating commercial sexual exploitation of girls and women.

The forum will consider the role of film in advancing women’s human rights and the many governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) efforts to combat sex trafficking. Preliminary research indicates that this forum will be the first of its kind, merging filmmakers and academics in order to understand the phenomenon on all levels, from theory to practical solutions and law.

Sex trafficking involves a particularly perverse dimension: the use of the victim in perpetrating a fiction necessary to avoid police detection and legal sanctions. The victim becomes a coerced accomplice because she is proffered to the general public, johns, and law enforcement as a prostitute. Film and documentary offer an otherwise unavailable view into the process of trafficking, the accompanying torture, and the mindset of the victim.

Recognizing the need for greater public and academic awareness of sex trafficking, this forum will investigate the power of film in effectuating a movement to combat commercial sexual exploitation and modern-day slavery.

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Film Festival in Boston

From the Boston Initiative to Advance Human Rights:

BITAHR Human Rights and Sex Trafficking Film Forum

December 2 - 5, 2010
Brattle Theater, Cambridge, Massachusettes

The Boston Initiative to Advance Human Rights (BITAHR) board members Kate Nace Day and executive director Alicia Foley Winn have launched Human Rights and Sex Trafficking: A Film Forum to explore the use of film as an effective way to raise awareness and trigger action in combating commercial sexual exploitation of girls and women.

The forum will consider the role of film in advancing women’s human rights and the many governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) efforts to combat sex trafficking. Preliminary research indicates that this forum will be the first of its kind, merging filmmakers and academics in order to understand the phenomenon on all levels, from theory to practical solutions and law.

Sex trafficking involves a particularly perverse dimension: the use of the victim in perpetrating a fiction necessary to avoid police detection and legal sanctions. The victim becomes a coerced accomplice because she is proffered to the general public, johns, and law enforcement as a prostitute. Film and documentary offer an otherwise unavailable view into the process of trafficking, the accompanying torture, and the mindset of the victim.

Recognizing the need for greater public and academic awareness of sex trafficking, this forum will investigate the power of film in effectuating a movement to combat commercial sexual exploitation and modern-day slavery.

Films include The Day My God Died, Fatal Promises, Holy Ghetto, Red Light and many others. There will also be panels and a performance by Sarah Jones. For a complete schedule and ticket information, please go to the forum's website here.

Florida Modern-Day Slavery Museum Northeast Tour

Press Release:

The Florida Modern-Day Slavery Museum consists of a cargo truck outfitted as a replica of the trucks involved in a recent slavery operation (U.S. v. Navarrete, 2008), accompanied by displays on the history and evolution of slavery in Florida agriculture. The museum's central focus is on the phenomenon of modern-day slavery – its roots, the reasons it persists, and its solutions.

The exhibits were developed in consultation with workers who have escaped from forced labor operations as well as leading academic authorities on slavery and labor history in Florida. The museum is endorsed by many leading human rights and anti-slavery organizations, including Amnesty International and Anti-Slavery International, respectively the largest human rights organization and the oldest human rights organization in the world. . .

The museum was conceived of by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the human rights award-winning farmworker organization that has aided in the prosecution by the Department of Justice of seven farm slavery operations and the liberation of well over 1,000 workers since 1997. A federal indictment for the most recent forced labor case in Florida agriculture was unsealed just last week.

The tour will also raise awareness about labor conditions in the tomato supply chains of Ahold's USA supermarket brands, including Giant, Stop & Shop, and Martin's.“

Slavery in Florida agriculture today is not separate from the past – indeed, its roots extend deep within our state’s history. Farmworkers have always been, and remain today, the state’s poorest, least powerful workers,” explains Gerardo Reyes of the CIW. “If we are to abolish slavery once and for all in Florida agriculture, we must pull it up by the roots by addressing farmworker poverty and powerlessness.”

Th exhibit will be touring the northeast, starting in Virgina on July 25th before traveling to DC, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Baltimore, and other cities. For a full touring schedule, click here.

Student and Producer Scholarships for the 2010 Fair Trade Futures Conference

From September 10-12, 2010, the Fair Trade Resource Network (FTRN) and ten partner organizations will bring together 751+ entrepreneurs, producers, students, academics, non- governmental organizations, media representatives, consumers, and activists in Boston, MA for the 2010 Fair Trade Futures Conference.

The conference organizers are offering a limited number of scholarships for North American students and for Fair Trade producers/artisans/farmers from outside of Canada and the United States. Each scholarship will pay for one person’s conference registration fees (which include meals). Support is not available at this time for costs associated with travel, accommodations, or other expenses.

The scholarship program seeks to assist Fair Trade artisans and farmers from around the world, as well as North American students, defray some of the costs of attending the conference. Person must be a high school-, university- or graduate-level student enrolled as of March 15, 2010, at an educational institution in Canada or the United States.

July 15, 2010 - scholarship applications due for Round 2.

For more information about the conference schedule click here. For more information about how to register click here.