"Lost Voices: Human Trafficking Around the World" to be topic of Amnesty International symposium Nov. 16-20
MIDDLEBURY, Vt.-The Middlebury College Amnesty International chapter will hold a symposium titled “Lost Voices: Human Trafficking Around the World,” from Tuesday, Nov. 16, through Saturday, Nov. 20, that will focus on the topic of human trafficking in the United States and across the globe. According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Web site, human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery whose victims, predominantly poor women and children, are lured with false promises of better lives and jobs, but are then forced to work under brutal conditions. Many are moved against their will by means of force for the purpose of sexual exploitation. According to the U.S. State Department’s Web site, approximately 50,000 men, women and children are trafficked into the U.S. each year.
The symposium will feature lectures by experts in the field of human trafficking as well as a benefit concert. On the symposium’s final day, Ruchira Gupta, producer of the Emmy Award-winning documentary “The Selling of Innocents,” will lead a discussion after the screening of her film, which documents the trafficking of women from Nepal to the brothels of Mumbai. She will also deliver the keynote lecture. After making her film, Gupta was moved by the plight of the many prostitutes she had met and, in 1998, founded India-based Apne Aap Women Worldwide, a nonprofit organization that works to end sex trafficking of women and children. All symposium events are free and open to the public.
On Tuesday, Nov. 16, Janice Raymond, co-executive director of the Massachusetts-based Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, will give a lecture titled “Reconnecting Trafficking and Prostitution” at 7 p.m. in Gifford Lecture Hall on Hepburn Road off College Street (Route 125). On Wednesday, Nov. 17, Suzanne Tomatore, program director of the Immigrant Women and Children Project, an initiative of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York Fund, will give a talk, “Legal Options for Victims of Human Trafficking,” at 7 p.m. in the Conference Room of the Robert A. Jones ‘59 House on Hillcrest Road off College Street.
Dorotea Mendoza, secretary general of the New York City-based GABRIELA Network, a Philippine-U.S. women’s solidarity organization that focuses on trafficking issues, will speak about “Sex Trafficking: Globalization’s War on Women” at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 18, in the Conference Room in the Robert A. Jones ‘59 House.
Stephen Kiernan, a 1982 Middlebury alumnus and freelance reporter, will speak on Friday, Nov. 19, at 12:30 p.m. about his experiences reporting for the Burlington Free Press on a case of sex trafficking in Essex Junction in July 2004. His talk, titled “It Can Happen Here,” will take place in the Robert A. Jones ‘59 Conference Room. and lunch will be provided at 12:15 p.m. Lunch is free but does require an R.S.V.P. no later than Monday, Nov. 15, to Martha Baldwin, of the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs, at baldwin@middlebury.edu or 802-443-5324.
Friday evening at 9 p.m. in the basement of Forest Hall on College Street, there will be a concert that features student bands. A donation of $2 is suggested and all proceeds will benefit Shared Hope International, a nonprofit organization based in Washington State that works to free and rehabilitate trafficked women and children.
A screening of the documentary “The Selling of Innocents” will take place on Saturday, Nov. 20, at 3 p.m. in Room 216 of Bicentennial Hall on Bicentennial Way off College Street followed by a discussion with Gupta. The Canadian Broadcasting Company commissioned her to produce the film, which won an Emmy for investigative journalism in 1997.
Events will conclude on Saturday with a keynote address “Prostitution, Exploitation, Trafficking, Slavery: Linkages in the Modern World” by Gupta at 6 p.m. and a closing dinner at 7 p.m., both in Redfield Proctor Hall on Hepburn Road off College Street.
All events are free and open to the public but reservations are required for the dinner. For more information or to make dinner reservations, contact event organizer Julia Davidson, co-president of Middlebury College Amnesty International, at jedavids@middlebury.edu or 802-443-6545.
To follow is events calendar listing information:
Middlebury College Amnesty International Symposium on “Lost Voices: Human Trafficking Around the World”
Nov. 16-20
Tuesday, Nov. 16
7 p.m.
Lecture: “Reconnecting Trafficking and Prostitution” by Janice Raymond, co-executive director of the Massachusetts-based Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
Free
Gifford Lecture Hall on Hepburn Road off College Street (Route 125)
Wednesday, Nov. 17
7 p.m.
Lecture: “Legal Options for Victims of Human Trafficking” by Suzanne Tomatore, program director of the Immigrant Women and Children Project, an initiative of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York Fund
Free
Conference Room, Robert A. Jones ‘59 House, Hillcrest Road off College Street (Route 125)
Thursday, Nov. 18
7 p.m.
Lecture: “Sex Trafficking: Globalization’s War on Women” by Dorotea Mendoza, secretary general of the New York City-based GABRIELA Network, a Philippine-U.S. women’s solidarity organization that focuses on trafficking issues
Free
Conference Room, Robert A. Jones ‘59 House, Hillcrest Road off College Street (Route 125)
Friday, Nov. 19
12:30 p.m.
Lunch/Lecture: “It Can Happen Here” by Stephen Kiernan, a 1982 Middlebury alumnus and freelance reporter, who will speak about his experiences reporting for the Burlington Free Press on a case of sex trafficking in Essex Junction in July 2004. Lunch will be available at 12:15 p.m. Lunch is free but does require an R.S.V.P. no later than Monday, Nov. 15, to Martha Baldwin, of the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs, at baldwin@middlebury.edu or 802-443-5324.
Free
Conference Room, Robert A. Jones ‘59 House, Hillcrest Road off College Street (Route 125)
9 p.m.
Benefit concert featuring Middlebury College student bands
Donation of $2 is suggested. All proceeds benefit Shared Hope International, a nonprofit organization based in Washington State that works to free and rehabilitate trafficked women and children.
Basement, Forest Hall on College Street (Route 125)
Saturday, Nov. 20
3 p.m.
Film screening and discussion with producer: Screening of the Emmy Award-winning documentary “The Selling of Innocents” followed by a discussion with the film’s producer, Ruchira Gupta. The film documents the trafficking of women from Nepal to the brothels of Mumbai.
Free
Room 216, Bicentennial Hall, Bicentennial Way off College Street (Route 125)
6 p.m.
Keynote lecture followed by dinner: “Prostitution, Exploitation, Trafficking, Slavery: Linkages in the Modern World” by Ruchira Gupta, producer of the Emmy Award-winning documentary “The Selling of Innocents.” Gupta is also the founder of India-based Apne Aap Women Worldwide, a nonprofit organization that works to end sex trafficking of women and children. Dinner will follow the lecture at 7 p.m.
Lecture and dinner are free and open to the public, but dinner reservations are required. To make dinner reservations, contact event organizer Julia Davidson, co-president of Middlebury College Amnesty International, at jedavids@middlebury.edu or 802-443-6545.
Redfield Proctor Hall on Hepburn Road off College Street (Route 125)
For more information about the symposium or to make dinner reservations, contact event organizer Julia Davidson, co-president of Middlebury College Amnesty International, at jedavids@middlebury.edu or 802-443-6545.
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