It’s like a perfect storm. Events are converging from every direction. If you’re eager to learn about modern slavery and how it can be eradicated, now’s the time.
Tuesday features a special 30-min webcast premiere and live chat event to address a critical question: How do we hold businesses accountable for slave labor used in their supply-chains? FTS Programs Director Karen Stauss will join other experts to examine ways to get slavery out of products we buy everyday. The webcast is made possible by the ATEST anti-slavery coalition. Join us online at 1 p.m. ET. https://live.newmediamill.com/webcasts/ATEST/20120717/.
Earlier on Tuesday there’s an important hearing at the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee: “The Next Ten Years in the Fight Against Human Trafficking: Attacking the Problem with the Right Tools.” ATEST coalition members are scheduled to testify, as is Jada Pinkett Smith, who recently formed a new anti-trafficking organization. 9:30 a.m., Hart Building room 216.
Wednesday brings a bipartisan presentation at the U.S. Capitol featuring FTS Freedom Award winner Tina Frundt: “Strengthening the Child Welfare Response to Trafficking.” This event will highlight the experiences of young trafficking survivors and policy recommendations to strengthen the child welfare agencies that serve them. It’s organized by the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth and the Victims’ Rights Caucus. 2:00 p.m., Congressional Visitor’s Center Meeting Room North (CVC 268).
Then there’s Thursday! There are events for both the U.S. House and Senate.
The House event is first. The ATEST coalition is presenting a briefing called “The Role of Business in Eradicating Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery: A Transparency Approach.”
In 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor identified 130 goods from 71 countries that were made by forced and child labor. The disclosure requirements in the Business Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act (H.R. 2759) would recognize companies that are trying to eliminate such abuses from their supply chains by establishing disclosure requirements focused on improving practices to end human trafficking and slavery. Transparency laws can be good for business, informative for consumers, and ultimately have a real impact on ending human trafficking and slavery worldwide. The bill’s disclosure requirements build on those already required by the 2010 California Transparency in Supply Chains Act. The briefing will explain how H.R. 2759 will assist investors and consumers in making choices about which companies they want to do business with in order to help eliminate human trafficking, forced labor, slavery and the worst forms of child labor throughout the world. 8:30 a.m., Rayburn Building Room B340. Breakfast will be served at 8:30 – Speakers begin at 9.
The Senate event is in the afternoon, also organized by ATEST. The Business Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act has not yet been introduced on the Senate side of the Capitol, so this briefing can help build awareness that transparency is the future. 2 p.m., Capitol Visitors Center, room SVC 202.
What a week! Who says nothing happens in Washington in the summer?
