It has been a very busy day in the anti-human trafficking world!

Most notably, President Obama used his time at the Clinton Global Initiative to deliver remarks about human trafficking, including new initiatives to engage the fight. As the President rightly stated, this issue is important to all of us:

It ought to concern every person, because it is a debasement of our common humanity.  It ought to concern every community, because it tears at our social fabric.  It ought to concern every business, because it distorts markets.  It ought to concern every nation, because it endangers public health and fuels violence and organized crime.  I’m talking about the injustice, the outrage, of human trafficking, which must be called by its true name — modern slavery. […]

It’s a really good speech, worth your time to read in full. The President includes many stories of modern-day slavery and introduced a few survivors present at CGI today. UPDATE: I haven’t yet found a video of the full remarks, but here’s a snippet finally found video of the whole thing (h/t Holly Boardman):

Our friends at IJM responded with pleasure…and a reminder that our work continues.

Then I got a message from the good folks at CAASE. An opinion piece in Sunday’s New York Times by Noy Thrupkaew called into question the validity of the end demand movements. So CAASE responded:

Last year, Ms. Thrupakew [sic] spent time with us, and we shared with her End Demand Illinois’ multi-dimensional, survivor-informed approach to the issue. By omitting this information from her piece, Ms. Thrupakew [sic] has left readers with a distorted view of demand-suppression efforts. […]

As you may know, CAASE does great work here in IL and I’m proud to support them.

As if all that weren’t enough for one day, I’ve also discovered some push back against the anti-trafficking movement. Over at her blog, Rogue Reverend, I’ve had some enlightening conversation with Lia Scholl. I encourage you to read her stuff too. I look forward to learning more from her as our dialogue continues.

Learn more about human trafficking (aka modern-day slavery) through any of my Abolitionists links.