Bending the Arc

 On Wednesday, a group of advocates representing the Alliance to End Human Trafficking and the National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd met in Washington, D.C. to highlight the importance of passing anti-human trafficking legislation.

Advocates came to the nation’s capital from across the country to call attention to three bills pending before this Congress: 

• Reauthorization of the landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.  H.R. 2961 would reauthorize the TVPA’s domestic provisions, reauthorize International Megan’s Law that protects children from sex offenders travelling internationally, support education and prevention programs for children, and support survivors of trafficking with wrap-around social services and the expungement of non-violent criminal records.
• Criminal Record Relief for Survivors. H.R. 1379 would provide for criminal record relief as it would allow for the vacating of certain convictions and the expungement of particular arrests for those who are victims of human trafficking.
• Online Safety for Children. S. 1748, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), would take the foundational step of requiring technology companies to take action to keep kids safe online. This bill would establish a “duty of care” (i.e., a legal concept that sets a standard for a person or an entity to act with reasonable care), provide parents and kids with tools for safeguards, and sets out requirements for notices and algorithms - “behind the scenes” programming methods that help a platform or application decide what content to display and direct to a user and in what order.

To join these advocates in protecting men, women and children against trafficking, contact your members of Congress and ask them to support the passage of these bills CLICK HERE.