Early Saturday morning, June 22nd, the New York legislature passed a bill extending Safe Harbor to 16- and 17- year olds!
The Safe Harbor laws make it so minors arrested for prostitution are treated as victims of sex trafficking and provided with the services they need to rebuild their lives, instead of jail time and a criminal record that keep them vulnerable to exploitation.
This is a tremendous victory in the fight to end child sex trafficking and to help trafficked girls and boys.
Thank you for being part of the voice that made this happen!
Click here to read our blog post on the victory, including coverage by the Wall Street Journal: http://www.groundswell-movement.org/victory-in-new-york-in-the-fight-to-end-sex-trafficking/
Stand up for trafficked children in New York State by ensuring that all provisions of the Trafficking Victims Protection and Justice Act (TVPJA, A.2240B) are included in the Women’s Equality Act.
Why is this important?
It is a basic fact of the moral universe that girls and boys should not be sold for sex. But in our state of New York, thousands of children are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation each year. New York, we have a responsibility to do better.
This week, our legislators in Albany have one last opportunity to help fight this unconscionable practice before the legislative session ends next Thursday. It's now or never to pass the "Trafficking Victims Protection and Justice Act," which it the result of years of collaboration among defense attorneys, prosecutors, service providers, and survivors to identify gaps in New York State’s anti-trafficking laws.
Right now we can add our faith-based voices to put urgent pressure on Sheldon Silver to protect our children.
Girls like Ruth. After being raped by her mother's boyfriend at age 12, Ruth turned to an "older boyfriend" for love and protection. This "boyfriend" turned out to be a pimp, who prostituted and beat her if she didn’t make nightly quotas. Ruth was eventually arrested, but because of deficiencies in New York State’s anti-trafficking law, Ruth was treated like a criminal while her trafficker and buyers were not held accountable.
Today, with great grace and support, Ruth is in school and rebuilding the life that was stolen from her.
To make sure victims like Ruth can get their lives back, and to hold criminals like her pimp accountable, here are the key provisions in the Trafficking Victims Protection and Justice Act that our leaders need to support:
New York State MUST
• make the penalties for sex and labor trafficking fit the severity of these brutal crimes. Sex traffickers are serial offenders who profit from the repeated rapes of their victims.
• provide 16- and 17-year-olds accused of prostitution with the services they need to rebuild their lives, instead of a criminal record that keeps them vulnerable to exploitation.
• eliminate the requirement to prove coercion in prosecutions of pimps for the sex trafficking of children under eighteen.
As New Yorkers of faith and conscience, we can each do our part to ensure that young girls and boys aren't being abused in the commercial sex industry in our backyard.
Right now, please sign and share the petition before our legislators in Albany meet this week to decide how to prevent and protect victims of sex-trafficking.
How it will be delivered
On Friday morning, in a meeting with legislators in Albany, our friends at the New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition will deliver the petitions.
