FREEDOM WEEK!

Join a rising tide of
modern-day abolitionists.

If you are reading this, you are free. Cherish, embrace, and be thankful for your freedom. Millions of people across the globe are not. Instead, they are living in the hell of modern-day slavery, which is hidden, ignored, and growing exponentially. Only the free can rescue the enslaved.

Freedom Week was born from the belief that in order to fight the massive industry of human trafficking, today’s abolitionists must be equally coordinated and sophisticated. By uniting our efforts and consolidating resources, we can amplify attention on the issue, creating a broader voting base to push forward necessary legislation, regulation and funding, as well as educate, empower and inspire a rising tide of activists.

Freedom Week is the launching point for these goals with an annual week of cultural and academic events. We believe human trafficking and slavery can be eradicated, but it begins with shining a light on this dark industry and galvanizing the public to take action.

Join us in this battle by participating in several of the following activities and events, and celebrating Freedom Week 2010.

Brick by Brick

Date/Time/Location: Online and on-going through September 30th at RestoreNYC.org.

Presented by: Restore

Restore provides aftercare services to international survivors of sex trafficking in New York City. Currently, Restore is running a campaign called “Brick by Brick” to fund the first year of operation for their newly leased safe house for survivors. The exciting news: if they raise $50,000 from NEW donors by the end of September, there is an anonymous donor that will match the $50,000 goal! Visit http://my.restorenyc.org to make your donation today. Any amount has the impact to be truly transformative.

Be A Bio.Grapher

Date/Time/Location: Online and on-going through October 7th at BeABiographer.com
Presented by: The Blind Project
Price: *free*

The Blind Project invites you to be inspired and turn it into art. Be a Bio.Grapher brings together an inspirational story of survival with artists' portrayals of these amazing stories. The competition accepted entries through September 15th, and is soliciting votes through October 7th. Go on! Check out the amazing work! Vote! The submissions are beautiful, creative, moving, and inspiring. Please take a few moments to be touched by this artwork, to make your voice heard, and to make a difference. Winners will be announced on October 15th, 2010.


SOLD: based on the novel by Patricia McCormick

Location: Sweet Carolines, 322 W 45th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues.

Dates/Times [click on the date to purchase tickets]:

• Saturday, September 25, 7:30pm
• Sunday, September 26, 7:30pm
• Wednesday, September 29, 7:30pm

Presented by: The Not For Sale Campaign
Price: $10

Don't miss the stage production of SOLD. Based on the award-winning novel by Patricia McCormick and adapted for the stage by writer Tessa Hauptman and director Jennifer Mulligan, SOLD highlights the realities of human trafficking in today's society. Set inside the walls of a brothel, the play portrays the universal elements of the experiences of sex trafficking victims while retaining the intensely personal perspective of one young girl. Following each performance will be an opportunity to learn about a wide variety ways to fight human trafficking, and to purchase products from the Freedom Store, including David Batstone's popular book! Sales support prevention and aftercare projects, as well as the efforts of Not For Sale here in New York. ** Please come early ** to ALL performances, as the staging of the play does not allow latecomers to enter! Please also be advised, for those with perfume/olfactory sensitivities, that artificial smells may be used in the staging of this play.

The Center for the Women of New York Walkathon

Date/Time/Location: Saturday, September 25th, 10am, Fort Totten Park, Queens
Presented by: The Center for the Women of New York
Price: A minimum of $15 in donations is required to participate as a Registered Walker ($10 for students).

The Center for the Women of New York is part of a coalition against sex- and human trafficking in the New York area. Women and men of New York will be walking at Fort Totten Park in Queens to raise funds for the Center's new home-to-be at Fort Totten. Please join us and support our mission to assist women in need.

For Men Only

Date/Time/Location: Wednesday, September 29th, at the NYU Kimmel Center, room 914, 60 Washington Square South.
Presented by: The Not For Sale Campaign, in partnership with the NYU (Gamma) chapter of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity.

Price: *free*

An opportunity for men to openly and honestly discuss the interactions of sex trafficking and society: How does our culture support or inhibit sex trafficking? In what ways can it or should it change? How much ability and responsibility does each of us have to make a difference? The conversation will be moderated by Jonathan Walton of the New York City Urban Project.

Supersexxxed: Porn and Pop Culture

Date/Time/Location: Wednesday, September 29, 6:30 PM, 434 West 33rd Street, Penthouse Conference Hall & Terrace
Presented by: NOW-NYC

Suggested donation: $5 for NOW-NYC members & students | $15 for non-members

NOW-NYC hosts internationally acclaimed activist, scholar and social critic Gail Dines, author of Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality. Whether it’s film, television, music videos or magazine ads – you name it – our visual landscape has been “pornified.” Gail’s perspective on the industrialization of porn, now a $96 billion dollar industry, is not to be missed. Join us for what promises to be an eye-opening conversation on how porn is changing our culture, relationships and sexuality. Please note: this presentation will contain graphic images. Reserve your seat with an advance online donation or RSVP to 212.627.9895 or contact@nownyc.org .

Art Gala

Date/Time/Location: Thursday, September 30th, 7-9 pm, at Tela Design Studio, 31 Little West 12th Street

Presented by: History Starts Now

Price: $15

History Starts Now, which fights domestic trafficking of children and helps to empower women who have been victims of trafficking and domestic abuse, will host a silent art auction, curated by artist Asya Geisberg, at Tela Design Studio in the Meatpacking District. Featured speakers include HSN founder Kristina Grandstaff.


Increased Rights, Decreased Trafficking: Connections between Worker's Rights and Human Trafficking

Date/Time/Location: Thursday, September 30th, 8-9 pm, Columbia School of Social Work, 122nd & Amsterdam, northeast corner, Classroom C 09

Presented by: Nomi Network with special guests: Safe Horizons, Damayan Migrant Worker's Association, and others.
Price: *free*

This lively panel discussion will delve into the complex topic of worker's rights and the direct and indirect impact they have on human trafficking, and particularly labor trafficking. Panelists include: Safe Horizon, the largest victims' services agency in the US and NY; DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association, Inc., an independent non-profit grassroots organization based in New York and New Jersey that upholds and promotes the rights and welfare of Filipino migrant workers; and others. Moderated by Nomi Network, a non-profit dedicated to empowering survivors of trafficking internationally through product productions and slave free supply chains. We look forward to hearing your voice as we discuss the reality of human rights.

Shadowlands and Hold Sway Dance Performances

Date/Time/Location: Friday, October 1st, 8pm, at the 14th Street Y, 344 E. 14th St between First and Second Avenues.
Presented by: Love146, featuring the works of Sarah Council Dance Projects, with special guest speaker Faith Huckel of Restore.

Price: $15 [Purchase tickets here.]

Join us for an evening of provocative modern dance, compelling speakers and an interactive expert panel as we explore the lives of women trapped in a life of sex slavery, and then begin to address the ways in which we can fight against it and make a lasting change. Also, we will be collecting gently used t-shirts at the door to donate to the efforts of Hello Rewind. Don't miss a great opportunity to clean out your closet for a worthy cause.


Film Shorts and Panel on Child Labor Slavery

Date/Time/Location: Saturday, October 2nd, 4-6 pm, at the NYU Kimmel Center, 4th Floor Auditorium, 60 Washington Square South.
Presented by: Against Child Trafficking (ACT)

Price: *free*

New York University's Against Child Trafficking is proud to present two short films on child labor slavery: this year's Oscar-nominated Kavi, a fictional film about a child slave working the brick kilns in India, and Restaveks: Haiti's Child Slaves, a documentary brief focusing on the centuries-old tradition of child trafficking in Haiti and the U.S. Following the screening will be a Q&A panel with featured speakers: Carmen Russell, the director of Restaveks, and Jean-Robert Cadet, a former restavek turned activist.


An Evening of Poetry

Date/Time/Location: Sunday, October 3rd, 4-6pm, at Verlaine Bar, 110 Rivington Street (between Essex and Ludlow Streets)
Presented by: The Freedom Week Planning Committee

Price: $5

Please join us for a night of art and poetry inspired by the plight of trafficked victims. Published poet Tamiko Beyer and award-winning spoken word artist Kelly Tsai will explore themes of entrapment, deception and exploitation, as well as liberation, healing and transcendence. Featured speaker Alissa Moore of Nomi Network will talk about her organization's unique strategy to combat sex trafficking as well as respond to questions from the audience. Nomi's beautiful slave-free products, whose sale benefits women at risk and survivors of trafficking, will also be available. This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc. with public funds from New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

Free2Work Workshop

Date/Time/Location: Monday, October 4th, 7pm, at 74 Trinity Place (between Rector and Thames Streets)
Presented by: The Not For Sale Campaign

Price: *free*

Imagine: you wake up in the morning, shuffle to the kitchen in your soft cotton pajamas, and set the coffee, adding sugar and a dash of cocoa to your cup to make it a mocha. Unless you've gone out of your way in purchasing these products, it is highly likely that your cotton, your coffee, your sugar and your cocoa were grown, picked or processed by slaves. How do we move toward an economy that is free of slavery? By examining supply chains and empowering consumers. Come to this workshop to learn how to use and expand the Free2Work.org platform to eliminate labor slavery in our supply-chains.

Awareness to Abolition

Date/Time/Location: Friday, October 8th, 8pm, at Calvary Baptist Church, 123 West 57th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues.
Presented by: Calvary Baptist Church, featuring Deirdre Mars of the Not For Sale Campaign and Jonathan Walton of New York City Urban Project

Price: *free*

Join us, along with select NYC poets and artists, as we gather to move from apathy to awareness into focused action in fighting human trafficking. Not For Sale NY State Director Deirdre Mars will lay out a comprehensive definition on the types of modern-day slavery and how to get involved in the abolition movement through the Not For Sale Campaign. Jonathan Walton will perform and lay out a framework for staying involved in this work for the long-term as we seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly after God. Light refreshments will be served and representatives from other organizations will be on-hand to answer questions and offer further opportunities to convert awareness into action.

The Stop Child Trafficking Now Awareness and Fundraising Walk

Date/Time/Location: Saturday, October 9th, Lincoln Center. Check in from 9:00 a.m., walk begins at 10:00 a.m.

Presented by: Stop Child Trafficking Now

Price: *free*

An extension of Freedom Week, we are pleased to announce the annual walk sponsored by a partner from last year's Freedom Week - Stop Child Trafficking Now. Please join us! Start raising funds now and recruit friends and family members to be part of something exciting and inspiring. The link below provides all the necessary details. See you at the walk!

http://sctnow.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.eventDetails&eventID=631&destination=E

Rwanda Human Rights Delegation for Young Leaders

Rwanda Human Rights Delegation for Young Leaders
Dec 28, 2010 - Jan 16, 2011

Program Location: Rwanda
Program Tuition: $2,200
Application Deadline: September 27, 2010 @ 5PM

Global Youth Connect, an international human rights organization, is
pleased to announce that we are accepting applications from young
leaders (ages 18-35) for our Winter international human rights
delegation to Rwanda.

Human rights delegations are a unique, first-hand opportunity to cross
cultural boundaries, learn about the daily reality of human rights as
experienced in a complex and increasingly globalized world, and to
contribute to progressive action. The delegates to Rwanda will join a
2=2E5 week-long Learning and Action Community (LAC) comprised of Rwandan
youth activists and grassroots NGOs, and centered on three core
activities: a human rights education and training workshop, site
visits within Rwanda to organizations and institutions, and volunteer
service projects with grassroots NGOs.

This January's Learning and Action Community (LAC) with Rwandan peers
will explore the human rights situation in Rwanda today and take
concrete action steps together to support current and future efforts
for human rights protection and promotion, both in Rwanda and abroad.
We will focus on the relationship between human rights and
development, the relationship between the arts and human rights, and
the role of grassroots organizations in the realization of human
rights. In advance of and during the delegation, we will study the
roots of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and see how its legacy has
impacted the country and its people, particularly Rwandan youth, and
also how the country is attempting to rebuild today. We will examine
how local institutions and programs are promoting a culture of respect
for human rights in this country and beyond, including but not limited
to several key issues: children's rights, LGBTI rights, public health, juvenile justice, and rights of historically marginalized groups.

How to Apply:

We invite interested young leaders to apply. We
are looking for participants who are between the ages of 18-35 and who
possess U.S. or Canadian citizenship or residency as well as
international students studying full-time at a U.S. or Canadian
college or university. Most importantly, applicants should wish to
expand their knowledge and understanding of human rights and social
justice and to offer hard work, skills, connections, etc. to the work
already underway in Rwanda and elsewhere. Participants will become
part of a growing global movement of youth acting together for
compassion, human rights and responsibility.

For detailed information on program activities, costs, fundraising
guide, and application information, please visit:
www.globalyouthconnect.org/participate=20

For additional info, contact GYC at contact@globalyouthconnect.org.

HUMANUS CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: FALL 2010!!!

Humanus, the one and only journal of Human Rights at NYU, is now accepting submissions for its Fall 2010 print issue. We are looking for submissions in writing (including but not limited to academic essays, creative non-fiction, reportage, interviews, reviews, short stories, poetry, and other unclassifiable prose creations) and art of all sorts (such as photography, drawings, paintings, film stills, posters, prints, etc.) ... that you have done, regarding a human rights issue that you are passionate about advocating.

The submission deadline is September 25th.

Send anything you've got to tatsiana@nyu.edu. Please include a cover page with your name, departmental affiliation, expected degree and email address.

Modern Day Slavery Panel

Modern Day Slavery: The Social, Legal and Economic Implications
August 23, 2010 6:30pm-8:30pm
City Bar Justice Center
42 W. 44th Street, New York, NY

Click Here to Purchase Tickets
UNA / YPIC members - $15
Non-members - $20
At the door - $25


The Partnership for the Eradication of Human Trafficking (PEHT) presents a panel discussion on the occasion of the International Day for the Remembrance of Slavery and its Abolition.

Featuring panelists:

Ms. Rachel Yousey
Deputy Senior Coordinator of Reports and Political Affairs in the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TiP) at the US Department of State

Ms. Allison Arbib
Research Program Manager at Verite - Fair Labor Worldwide

Dr. Vernon Murray
Social Marketing Professor at Marist University; member of a UNICEF working group to stop violence against children (VOC); and member of the VOC task force to stop child trafficking and sexual exploitation

Dr. Sherry Dingman
Associate Professor of Psychology at Marist University; Advisor to Doctors at War; head of UNICEF working group to stop violence against children (VOC); and head of the VOC task force to stop child trafficking and sexual exploitation

Ms. Noy Thrupkaew
Open Society Fellow and investigative journalist

Ms. Sundy Goodnight
National Campaign Director at Stop Child Trafficking Now

Ms. Amy Muedin
Programme Specialist in the Office of the Permanent Observer for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to the United Nations

Women's Rights and the UN

Exactly one month ago, on July 2, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly voted to create a new body dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls worldwide.


This organization will, according to the UN Secretary General, "significantly boost UN efforts to promote gender equality, expand opportunity, and tackle discrimination around the globe. Equality for women and girls is not only a basic human right, it is a social and economic imperative. Where women are educated and empowered, economies are more productive and strong. Where women are fully represented, societies are more peaceful and stable."

The UN Women body states that it will be working to end:
-scourge of violence against women
-appointing more women to senior positions
-reduce maternal mortality rates

in addition to:
-elimination of discrimination against women and girls
-achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of -development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Visit the Official Website: UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

Honor Killings

Honors killings are on the rise and they are growing at a fast rate in the United States. Finding their roots in the practices of Middle East and Asian tribes, an honor killing is when a woman or man has "disgraced" the family's honor and is allowed to be killed to preserve or return honor to the family name. Mainly targeted at women, honor killings are usually overlooked by government officials and accepted in areas where tribal culture and rule dominates that of the state.

Human Rights Watch today released a call for India to prosecute those responsible in a sudden rise of honor killings throughout several provinces. There are no actual figures for honor killings in these provinces because often, the family will make it look like a suicide or a natural death. However, on June 21 2010, "in Haryana, after the bodies of a young couple whose relationship had been condemned for violating kinship rules were found hanging from a tree, six family members were arrested for murder." (read the full article here)

Marie Claire August 2010 has an excellent piece about honor killings here in the United States. Many often think that these crimes occur on the opposite side of the world, in backward communities that don't know better. But the truth is that this horrible action occurs in our country, in our states and in our own backyards. Just read this excerpt from "An American Honor Killing":

"But honor killings in America are a chilling new trend. In Texas, teen sisters Amina and Sarah Said were shot dead in 2008, allegedly by their father, because they had boyfriends. That same year in Georgia, 25-year-old Sandeela Kanwal was allegedly strangled by her father for wanting to leave an arranged marriage. Last year in New York, Aasiya Hassan, 37, was murdered in perhaps the most gruesome way imaginable: She was beheaded, allegedly by her husband, for reportedly seeking a divorce. And this past spring, 19-year-old Tawana Thompson's husband gunned her down in Illinois, reportedly following arguments about her American-style clothing." (Marie Claire)

Doctors Without Borders Session

Want to combine your medical knowledge with humanitarian aid?
Looking to contribute to an organization providing assistance in nearly 60 countries?
Ever consider Doctors Without Borders?

Doctors without Borders/MSF USA is an organization providing aid in nearly 60 countries to people who are threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe. They bring assistance to communities that have been primarily effected by "armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters. MSF provides independent, impartial assistance to those most in need." (MSF USA website)

Doctors Without Borders will be holding a recruitment and information session this week in their new york office.

Doctors Without Borders
7PM Recruitment Session
333 7th Avenue 2nd Floor
New York, New York

Nichols Kristof's latest op-ed column talks about the dangerous mineral market that is funding the war in the congo. Read about how our tech gadgets could actually be spurring one of Africa's most heinous civil wars.

Nicholas Kristof "Death By Gadget"

Starved For Attention

If you were not able to make it to the Starved for Attention exhibit in Brooklyn this week, check out the Starved For Attention website for great videos bringing light to malnutrition from different countries. Not only will the videos captivate you, but check out the Starved for Attention Blog which brings news about what Doctors Without Borders/MSF is doing in different countries.

Here is just one of the videos that Doctors Without Borders/MSF has on their site. Take a look.

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

Looking for a good book to read this summer?

Check out "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.




The two New York Times journalists argue the case for investing in the health and autonomy of women worldwide. According to them, more girls have been killed in the last fifty years than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century.

Killed mainly due to their gender, Kristof and WuDunn detail a gendercide in the developing world, focused mainly on India and Pakistan. Their argument is that countries like Pakistan can not climb out of poverty if only 9% of women are part of the labor force. Local women are declared the most effective in bringing change to these countries and to improving the standards of living to their families and their communities.

"While the title might suggest a kind of call to feminists... the book is anything but. The book emphasizes international human rights atrocities that are often overlooked while also offering an in depth analysis on how you, the reader, can evoke change."
- Tatsiana Kulakevich, Humanus President.