Goal:
To petition the United States Senate to pass the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), a law critical to America’s efforts to fight modern slavery.
Summary:
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) is a federal statute passed into law in 2000 by the U.S. Congress by President Clinton to assist in the coordination of anti-trafficking efforts domestically and abroad. However, that law must be reauthorized every three years in the face of opposition, particularly regarding the debate on immigration, which presents a difficult challenge.
Unfortunately, the last U.S. Congress had failed to renew the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), a terrible oversight in the fight against modern slavery in America. For example, prior to this campaign, detectives rescued two teenage girls trapped in the nightmare of modern slavery in Atlanta, Georgia. They had suffered physical abuse, were raped, starved, and forced to have sex with strangers while drugged. Many runaway girls are forced into commercial sexual exploitation. Farmworkers live in isolated labor camps, forced to work long hours, and unable to get away.
There are thousands of people currently living in modern slavery here in America. We partnered with ATEST to support their efforts to secure reauthorization as the TVPA came before the U.S. Senate for renewal in 2013.
Outcome:
A total of 27,733 advocates signed the petition to ask our senators to pass this critical anti-trafficking initiative. In 24 hours, those signatures called on the U.S. Senate to fight modern slavery by passing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). And we won! TVPA was passed by the U.S Senate by a vote of 93-5.
