Advocate for Survivors: Celebrate Denim Day April 28th
Sign and share a petition to end child marriage in the US
Good evening Activists,
As Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) comes to an end, we want to thank you for your relentless activism and encourage you to speak up about these issues year round. The fight against exploitation is far from over but we are hopeful that countries around the world are pushing for meaningful legislative, economic, and cultural changes that will create safe spaces for survivors.
We appreciate your collective efforts to end exploitation and as always, your feedback is appreciated!
If you or anyone you know is a survivor of sexual assault please check out these resources the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN) or call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
Let’s take action together
In the United States, more than 200,000 minors were married between 2000 and 2015. Child marriage is currently legal in 46 states (only Delaware, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania have set the minimum age at 18 and eliminated all exceptions), and 20 U.S. states do not require any minimum age for marriage, with a parental or judicial waiver. Most of them were girls and more than 80% of them were married to an adult.
👉 Please share and sign a petition to end child marriage here.
Click here to learn more about our “why”.
As always, thanks for being part of our growing community of activists and as a reminder, we love hearing from you! All feedback is welcome!
This Week..
ACTIVISTS OF THE WEEK:
Biram Dah Abeid
Photo credit to: End Slavery Now
A descendant of slaves himself, Biram Dah Abeid began to formally fight slavery and discrimination in Mauritania through an organization he formed at age 19: the National African Movement. Hiram has dedicated his activism to combatting forced labor and bonded prison labor. He openly addressed former Secretary of State, Colonel Mohamed Khouna Ould Haïdalla, about the poor conditions of black Mauritanians.
In 2002, Abeid did research for SOS Esclaves (SOS Slaves) and became its formal member in 2005. Abeid founded Initiative pour la Résurgence du mouvement Abolitionniste (Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement or IRA-Mauritania) and in 2007, worked with Zeine Ould Zeïdane, a former presidential candidate, to advocate for the abolition of slavery and to fight against discrimination. IRA-Mauritania was instrumental to the passage of a new piece of legislation in Mauritania that required victims to press charges against their alleged enslavers. To this day, Abeid and his organization try to hold the courts accountable and put pressure on them to put slave owners on trial.
Abeid’s active role in the fight against slavery has exposed him to denunciation and threats. In 2010, he was stripped of his position as Senior Adviser to the President of the National Commission for Human Rights for unceasingly voicing Mauritania’s slavery issues. That same year he was arrested, detained and tortured after protesting against the enslavement of a young girl. Thankfully, he was released in 2019 and continues to lead to the fight against slavery.
👉 Read more about Biram Dah Abeid here.
FOR YOUR EYES:
Manhattan to Stop Prosecuting Prostitution, Part of Nationwide Shift
EXCLUSIVE Biden Will Push Allies to Act on China Forced Labor at G7 -Adviser
Military Panel Urges Taking Sexual Assault Cases Out Of Commanders' Control
FOR YOUR EARS:
👉 If you enjoy staying informed about the stories, initiatives, and people within the counter human trafficking movement, share to tell others about it:
FOR YOUR EYES
Photo credit to: New York Times
Manhattan to Stop Prosecuting Prostitution, Part of Nationwide Shift: Last Wednesday, Manhattan’s district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., moved to dismiss thousands of cases dating back decades, amid a growing movement to decriminalize prostitution. However, the office will continue to prosecute pimps and sex traffickers, as well as people who pay for sex in order to fight those who exploit or otherwise profit from prostitution without further punishing survivors!
Photo credit to: INTERPOL
195 Arrested in Vast International Human Trafficking Sweep: Interpol says police in Africa and Europe arrested 195 people and rescued nearly 500 victims of human trafficking in a vast crackdown on criminal networks led by the France-based international law enforcement agency
Photo credit to: Reuters
EXCLUSIVE Biden Will Push Allies to Act on China Forced Labor at G7 -Adviser: A top White House Official revealed that Joe Biden will urge the United States’ Group of Seven allies to increase pressure on China over the use of forced labor in its northwestern Xinjiang province, home to the Muslim Uighur community.
Photo credit to: NPR
Military Panel Urges Taking Sexual Assault Cases Out Of Commanders' Control: While the the Pentagon has long resisted the idea of taking sexual assault cases outside of the normal chain of command, a special Pentagon panel is recommending a seismic shift in how the U.S. military handles sexual assault cases, saying independent judge advocates, not commanding officers, should decide whether to pursue legal charges in such cases. This would entail a great victory for survivors of sexual assault in the military!
FOR YOUR EARS:
Photo credit to: Apple podcasts
The Economist-Unpicking the thread, forced labour in Xinjiang: (Podcast, 24 minutes) International sanctions are pilling up for the Chinese province of Xinjiang amid suspicions of forced labour in cotton and solar panel supply chains. Western firms that are reliant on the region’s commodities will need to prioritize human rights in order to comply with new legislation.
Photo credit to: Apple Podcasts
248 – Preventing and Addressing Child Trafficking – Sex and Labor: (podcast, 32 minutes) Dr. Sandie Morgan and Melissa Gomez, Project Director of PACT, discuss many of the different facets of child trafficking and how to prevent exploitation. Melissa Gomez explains the goals and purpose of the organization PACT and their role in the fight against human trafficking.
COMING UP:
SAAM: Participate in Denim Day
Stand in solidarity with survivors of sexual assault
When: April 28, 2021
For the past 22 years, Peace Over Violence has run an inspiring and powerful opportunity to practice solidarity and support survivors by renewing our commitment to exposing harmful behaviors and attitudes surrounding sexual violence. Denim Day is a campaign on a Wednesday in April in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The campaign began after a ruling by the Italian Supreme Court where a rape conviction was overturned because the justices felt that since the victim was wearing tight jeans she must have helped the person who raped her remove her jeans, thereby implying consent. The following day, the women in the Italian Parliament came to work wearing jeans in solidarity with the victim. Peace Over Violence developed the Denim Day campaign in response to this case and the activism surrounding it. Since then, what started as a local campaign to bring awareness to victim blaming and destructive myths that surround sexual violence has grown into a movement. As the longest running sexual violence prevention and education campaign in history, Denim Day asks community members, elected officials, businesses and students to make a social statement with their fashion statement by wearing jeans on this day as a visible means of protest against the misconceptions that surround sexual violence.
👉 Learn more about Denim Day here.