By Stephanie Lovelle
A coalition of New York State leaders from government, industry, arts, media, and human rights groups joined with two survivors of sex trade on Tuesday to launch a campaign to end sex trafficking, marking the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.
Hosted by Sanctuary for Families, a service provider and advocacy group for survivors of domestic violence, sex trafficking and other forms of gender violence, and the New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom in Midtown, advocates outlined the heightened crackdown on sex trafficking.
“We need a paradigm shift in how society, the criminal justice system and the media stigmatizes women brought into prostitution,” said Sanctuary for Families’ Executive Director Judy Kluger.
Having served as a judge for the New York City Criminal Court system, Kluger joined Sanctuary for Families in 2013.
“One trafficking victim is too many and it’s time that we start criminalizing the buyers, pimps and johns and decriminalizing these women,” she added.
Organizers said that every night in the state more than 4,000 underage youth are brought, sold and trafficked for sex. The average pimp has four to six girls at an average age of 12 to 14 years old recruited into prostitution.
“It’s impossible to describe the experience of being owned by someone else,” said a former prostitute named Kenya.
A survivor of domestic sex trafficking, Kenya works as an advocate for others who are brought into a ‘business’ that is estimated to reap $9.5 billion in the United States alone.
As she pursues a college degree in social work, Kenya seeks to apply her education to see that others are kept from experiencing what she has.
Along with announcement of the campaign, a book of compelling photos by Lynn Savarese was released, depicting 120 portraits of declared New Abolitionists. Among the 120 were names like comedian Tina Fey, feminist leader Gloria Steinem, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and fashion designer b. Michael.
For survivor Iryna Makaruk, knowing is merely what she wants for society and safety us what she wants for her daughters. She describes that her experience has left a mark on her memory and will never be erased.
“Terms like prostitute, sex worker, hooker are completely degrading and it destroys the identity of these women,” said Iryna. “I’m proud to stand as a New Abolitionist today so that my daughters and their daughters don’t have to experience what I did.”
Survivors of sex trafficking like Kenya and Iryna, unlike other survivors, are able to show their faces to the public. Among Savarese’s photos are those who do not feel safe enough to show who they are.
The idea of knowing has been the primary focus for New Abolitionists. They desire to change the way society views victims of trafficking and create a shift to where those individuals are no longer treated as defendants.
“It is said that human trafficking is modern-day slavery but there’s nothing modern about slavery,” said senior pastor at the Bronx a Christian Fellowship Church, Reverend Que English.
He concluded: “It still smells of the lingering stench of past days. Yet, the deeper stench is society turning a blind eye to this atrocity.”
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