Author Siddharth Kara, a former business executive who turned in his suit and tie to write about the growth of global human trafficking, is speaking at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center on November 2.

Kara is the first Fellow on Trafficking at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the author of Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery, which was published in 2009 and had received worldwide acclaim for its penetrating analysis of the scope, causes and possible solutions for human trafficking – especially the trafficking of women and girls into sex slavery.

His appearance, which is free and open to the public, is at 6:30 p.m. in the Freedom Center’s Harriet Tubman Theater.  It is part of a series of public events the Freedom Center is hosting in conjunction with the opening of Invisible: Slavery Today, the world’s first, permanent installation on modern forms of slavery and human trafficking.

Kara’s interest in trafficking began in 1994 while he was a junior at Duke University.  He has lived in refugee camps and investigated brothels in South Asia, documenting the horrors of sex trafficking as told to him by shattered survivors. He will present a case study of a sex trafficking survivor and answer audience questions.

With limited seats available, interested parties are asked to RSVP their attendance by calling 513-333-7705.

How Men and Boys Can Help Fight Sex Trafficking

Ms. Magazine has a helpful checklist of actions men and boys can take to help stop human trafficking, especially as it involves the exploitation of women and girls.

Sex trafficking of women/girls is one of the fastest growing phenomena of modern-day slavery.  Increasingly, anti-slavery and womens rights advocates are looking at reforms that would attempt to limit or end demand for sex.  Traditionally, in most nations, laws governing sex-related offenses such as prostitution and soliciting for sex fall heaviest on the women themselves.  Penalties for those who operate brothels and work as “pimps” are often less severe. Customers (“johns”) often receive — if anything — a light fine.  The unintended consequence is that demand for sex remains high, since the risk of prosecution of customers is low.

This imbalance is increasingly the focus of anti-trafficking experts.  One place they are looking for data and experience is Sweden, which enacted legislation in 2008 that prescribes harsh penalties for sex customers, while treating the prostitutes more as victims.  Results to date are encouraging; Swedish law enforcement say trafficking into the country has declined sharply as demand has dropped.  Other nations, and several states in America, are evaluating the Swedish model.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING NOTEBOOK

In one small Mexican town, sex trafficking appears to be a sort of family business, handed down from one generation to another, but with untold numbers of young Mexican women traumatized — perhaps for life.

According to an investigative report by the Associated Press, the impoverished town of Tenancingo, in central Mexico, is the home to a prostitution ring that has operated for at least three generations luring young women into sex trafficking in Mexico City and in the U.S.

One anthropologist who has studied the ring says that, in the town of just over 10,000, there may be as many as 3,000 people directly involved the (prostitution) trade. Prosecutors say the network includes female relatives of the pimps, who often serve as go-betweens or supervisors, or who care for the children of women working as prostitutes.

One of the uglier sides of human trafficking is the procurement and sale of human organs.  Here’s a report from the Jerusalem Post about a group of Israelis who purchased kidneys from “donors” in the Ukraine, promising payments of up to $100,000 — but in some instances, actually stealing the organs.