For Immediate Release
Contact: Michael Taylor-Judd, Public Relations Specialist, External Affairs, City of Seattle Human Services Department, 206-256-5225, michael.taylor-judd@seattle.gov
Seattle – (January 2, 2020) – Mayor Jenny A. Durkan proclaimed the month of January as “Human Trafficking Awareness Month,” and January 10, 2020 to be “Human Trafficking Awareness Day” to proclaim the equality and freedom inherent to all people, to advocate for legislation and protection for survivors, to educate leaders, and to encourage public awareness and action against various forms of human trafficking.
U.S. law defines human trafficking as the use of force, fraud, or coercion to compel a person into commercial sex acts or labor or services against his or her will. The one exception involves minors and commercial sex. Inducing a minor into commercial sex is considered human trafficking regardless of the presence of force, fraud or coercion.
Seattle strives to become a place where human trafficking does not exist, where people have opportunities available to them so as not to fall into financial vulnerability, and where all people are treated as fully human and worthy of fair pay, safe working conditions, and freedom.
Washington State has a proud history of tireless anti-trafficking activism pioneered by women such as former State Representative Velma Veloria, Dr. Sutapa Basu, Executive Director of the UW Women’s Center, and Emma Catague, Community Organizing Program Manager at Asian & Pacific Islander (API) CHAYA (formerly Women and Family Safety Center).
To learn more about local efforts to disrupt human trafficking and ways to get involved, the Seattle Human Services Department’s Mayor’s Office on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (MODVSA) is partnering with the Washington Advisory Committee on Trafficking (WashACT) to host a program honoring these women and others who have led the way in this work and featuring a panel discussion including survivors, activists, and representatives from our criminal justice response to help expand the conversation around human trafficking in the City of Seattle.
This event will be hosted on Friday, January 10, 2020 from 8:30am-11:00am in the Bertha Knight Landes room in Seattle City Hall. FREE registration can be accessed here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KH9G5VY
To report concerns that human trafficking might be taking place, please call
the Washington Anti-Trafficking Response Network Victim Assistance Line at 206.245.0782 or the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888.3737.888.
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