“Confronting Global Sex Slavery in the 21^st Century”

The Women’s Studies Committee of South Texas College is hosting its third annual conference to address the horrifying realities of the Human Sex Trafficking trade. Almost one million people are trafficked across international borders each year and countless thousands more are kidnapped or sold within their own countries. Worldwide, sex trafficking is a 12-billion-dollar-a-year business. Women and children are the third most valuable black-market commodity, after weapons and drugs. Most of these women and children are forced to work as prostitutes and are often sold multiple times, required to pay off their debt, while their owner takes in tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. To control them, pimps and traffickers physically and psychologically brutalize sex workers, threatening to kill family members of the unwilling.

The conference will address both the supply and demand side of the sex trafficking industry. We will question what cultural, social, economic, and psychological conditions have led to the tragic explosion of demand for trafficked persons and the marketing of sex tours to the third world. We will explore whether legalized prostitution and the growing social acceptance of pornography create tolerance for the sexual exploitation of women. We will also focus on the increasingly globalized and privatized economic conditions that perhaps foster the growing market in human flesh worldwide, displacing millions of people and leaving them vulnerable to the wealthy and the powerful.

Our goals are to raise awareness about the pervasiveness of the sex-trafficking business, to explore the deeper causes of sex trafficking, and ultimately to take part in the larger international conversation about how to stop this insidious crime. We hope to address these questions and to consider forms of resistance to this deplorable exploitation of millions, which undermines basic respect for human rights and dignity.

Main Location:

Cooper Center, Pecan Campus

South Texas College

McAllen, Texas

Agenda

Tuesday, March 31^st

6:30 – 7:30 pm Opening reception.

7:30 – 9:00 pm Film “Svetlana’s Journey” Introduction by Michael Cory-Davis, Director/Producer.

Wednesday, April 1^st

9:00 – 9:15 Opening Remarks,

Victor Castillo, News Anchor, Channel 4.

9:15 – 9:45 “I Stop Traffic” - Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign Film Clips

Michael Cory-Davis, Actor, Director and Activist

9:45 – 10:00 Break

10:00 –11:30 Keynote Speaker: “The Johns-Sex for Sale and the Men who Buy It”

Victor Malarek, Senior Reporter, Canadian Television (CTV) and author of The Natashas and The Johns: Sex for sale and the Men who Buy It

11:30 –12:00 Book signing

12:00 – 1:00 Lunch

1:00 – 2:20 “End Demand, Illinois: A Statewide Campaign to Reform Illinois Prostitution and Sex Trafficking Laws”

Rachel Durchslag, Director, Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation

Samir Goswami, Policy Director, Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation

2:20– 2:30 Break

2:30 – 3:30 "An Overview of Types of Major Sex Trafficking Networks in the United States"

Bradley Myles, Deputy Director, Polaris Project

3:30 – 4:45 "From Hope to Despair: Human Trafficking from the Former Soviet Union"

Kate S. Transchel, PhD, Lantis Professor of History, California State University, Chico, California

4:45 – 5:15 Panel: Human Slavery – Creative Writing

Moderator: Marisa Taylor, South Texas College

Katherine Hoerth, MFA Scholar, University of Texas Pan-American

Dalel Serda, MFA Scholar, University of Texas Pan American

5:15 – 6:30 Break (on your own)

6:30 – 7:30 Featured Speaker: “The Price of Sex: Women Speak”

Mimi Chakarova, Photojournalist, UC Berkeley and Stanford University

7:30 – 9:00 Art Reception

Thursday, April 2^nd

9:00 – 10:00 “Human Trafficking 101 & Domestic Trafficking”

Anna Rodriguez, Founder and Director, Florida Coalition against Human Trafficking

10:00 – 11:00 “Border Issues: Recommendations on Sex Trafficking”

Marisa Ugarte, Director, Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition, San Diego, CA

11:00 – 11:15 Break

11:15 – 12:30 “The Experience of Sex Trafficking Victims in the U.S. Legal System”

Terry Coonan, Executive Director of the FSU Center for the Advancement of Human Rights,

Law and Criminology Professor, Florida State University

12:30 – 1:30 Lunch

1:30 – 2:45 Regional Studies Panel:

Moderator: Denese McArthur, South Texas College

“Feminization of Migration and Trafficking of Women in Mexico: The Case of Monterrey Metropolitan Zone”

Arun Kumar Acharya, PhD,Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Monterrey, MéxicoArun Acherya, PhD

"Politics and Economy of Sex Trade in Indonesia".

Olga Turner, MA Scholar, Women’s Studies, Florida Atlantic University

2:45 –3:00 Break

3:00 – 4:00 “Community Awareness: The First Step in Rescuing Victims”

Maria Trujillo, Executive Director, Houston Rescue and Restore Coalition

4:00 – 5:30 Panel: Human Trafficking – A Presentation and Panel on State /Local Issues and Challenges

Moderator: Corinna Spencer-Scheurich, Attorney, South Texas Civil Rights Project

Panelists: Diana Velardo, (University of Houston Law Center, Clinical Supervisor, Crime Victims Coordinator; Chair of Coalition against Human Trafficking)

Erica Schommer (Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, Attorney/Human Trafficking Team Manager)

Bill Bernstein (Mosaic Family Services, Dallas, Deputy Director)

Olga Delarosa (United States Attorneys’ Office)

5:30 – 6:30 Dinner

6:30 – 7:30 Featured Speaker: “The Price of Pleasure"

Robert Jensen, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Journalism, University of Texas, Austin

Friday, April 3^rd

9:00 – 9:45 “The Commoditization of Human Beings: Globalization and the Legal Mechanisms to Combat Human Trafficking”

Luz Nagle, Professor of Law, Stetson University, Florida

9:45 – 10:15 “The Role of Female Legislators in Passing Trafficking Legislation on the State Level”

Vanessa Bouche, Ph.D Scholar, Political Science, Ohio State University

10:15 – 10:30 Break

10:30 – 11:00 “Federal Sentencing Issues Involving Sex Trafficking”

Alan Dorhoffer, Deputy Director, Officer of Education and Sentencing Practice, United States Sentencing Commission

11:00 – 12:00 “Inter-agency Collaboration on Human Trafficking: Drawing on Experience from Past Cases”

Christopher Burchell, Bexar County Sheriff, Human Trafficking Task Force Leader

12:00 – 1:00 Lunch

1:00 – 2:00 “Immigration Remedies and Other Benefits for Human Trafficking Victims: Law Enforcement and Legal Options Available to Foreign National Victims of Human Trafficking”

Erica Schrommer, Attorney, Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid

2:00 – 3:30 “Finding Human Trafficking Victims in Your Community: Investigative Techniques to Identify and Rescue Victims”

Christopher Burchell, Bexar County Sheriff, Human Trafficking Task Force Leader.

This agenda is tentative and subject to change.