SPEAKERS: (for bios, download festival program)
Rachel Lloyd, Founder of Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS)
Sharmin Bock, Deputy District Attorney (Alameda County) & Human Trafficking Prosecutor
Kenneth Franzblau, Trafficking Campaign Director of Equality Now
Girl Fest is honored to have three distinguished experts on Human Trafficking who have been successfully fighting against Traffickers and helping victims in their respective areas of aid. The voices of survivors,
law enforcement and other experts come together
to discuss the aspects of this modern
day slavery in Hawaii and around the country.
(This conference is sponsored by: the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, Imago Dei Christian Community, Bluewater Mission, the Soroptimist International of Waikiki Foundation, and the Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery)
ABOUT
HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN HAWAII
According to the U.S. State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report, Hawaii remains 1 of 8 states in the nation that has not passed legislation making Human Trafficking a felony offense while protecting victims of this horrible crime.
• According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 200,000 U.S. children are at high risk for being forced or manipulated into the sex-trafficking trade.
• Existing local Hawaii laws do not adequately address the problem of Human Trafficking.
• In Hawaii, most times, only promoting prostitution in the 3rd degree is applied to pimps/traffickers - a misdemeanor.
• Current prostitution statutes place both victim and patron in the same criminal category making it virtually impossible for HPD to recognize prostitutes as victims. These are hardly victim centered laws.
• These laws are not preventative so authorities need to “wait” until something severe like sex assault, murder, extortion, or kidnapping occur to pin the trafficker with anything worthwhile, of course to the detriment of the victim trafficked.
Sign the “Hawaii Needs a State Law petition at www.traffickjamming.org/petition.html
For info about publicized Trafficking related cases in Hawaii, visit: www.traffickjamming.org/press.html
FACTS