The Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination’s Project on Gender in the Global Community convened a workshop on human trafficking March 30-31 on the Princeton University campus. The two day event brought together policy makers, practitioners, activists, and academics to address the politics and economics of trafficking, the successes and limitations of on-the-ground interventions by NGOs, and ways to address the global problem of trafficking in the United States and abroad.

All workshop events were open to the public and the press. Additional workshop co-sponsors included Princeton Against Sex Trafficking, the University Center for Human Values, Program in Law and Public Affairs, Office of Religious Life, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Gender and Policy Network, and the Department of Anthropology.

Workshop Participants:

Alison Boden is Dean of Religious Life and of the Chapel at Princeton University, a position she has held since August 2007. Previously, she served for twelve years at the University of Chicago as Dean of Rockefeller Memorial Chapel and Senior Lecturer in the Divinity School, and as co-chair of the Board of the University’s Human Rights Program. She also served as University Chaplain at Bucknell University (1992-95) and as the Protestant Chaplain at Union College (1991-92). She has received degrees from Vassar College (AB), Union Theological Seminary (MDiv), and the University of Bradford (PhD). Boden is the author of numerous articles and chapters on religion and social justice in addition to a book, Women’s Rights and Religious Practice (Palgrave, 2007). At Princeton and Chicago her course offerings have included such topics as religion and human rights, the rights of women, the history and phenomenology of prayer, and religion and violence. She has served in an advisory capacity to a variety of non-governmental organizations. Boden is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.

Mariana Candido is an assistant professor of history at Princeton University. She specializes in the history of Angola during the era of the transatlantic slave trade. Her current research examines the social and political effects of the transatlantic slave trade in Benguela and its hinterland. More broadly her interests include the history of slavery; forced migration and slave trade; the South Atlantic world; and the African diaspora. A network professor of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples, she earned her BA from the University Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, her MA in African Studies from El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico, and her PhD in African History from York University in Toronto. Mariana Candido began teaching at Princeton in the fall of 2008. She is the author of Fronteras de Esclavización: Esclavitud, Comercio e Identidad en Benguela, 1780-1850 (Mexico: Colegio de Mexico Press, 2011) and the co-author of Crossing Memories: Slavery and African Diaspora with Ana Lucia Araújo and Paul Lovejoy (Africa World Press, 2011).

Michele Clark is an internationally recognized expert in combating human trafficking. She became involved in this issue in 1997 when, as a professor at the University of Haifa, she began meeting women who had been trafficked to Israel from the former Soviet Union. She returned to the US where she became Co-Director of the Protection Project. Together with Dr. Mohamed Mattar, she developed a methodology for identifying trafficked persons in countries where little evidence had previously existed. In 2005 she was appointed as the first Director of the Anti-Trafficking Assistance Unit at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe where she was responsible for assisting member states to fulfill their anti-trafficking commitments. Clark is now a consultant to diverse organizations on developing comprehensive anti-trafficking policies and interventions. She is also adjunct professor in the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University where she has been recognized for outstanding teaching and curriculum development in the areas of human rights and human trafficking. Combining her passion for human rights with her deep love of and commitment to education, Clark is now the CEO and co-founder of Third Space Creative, an organization designed to assist institutions and organizations with the development of web-based human rights instructional and training programs.

Martha Newton is the Director of Strategic Partnerships for International Justice Mission. IJM is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation, and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators, and aftercare professionals work with local governments to ensure victim rescue, to prosecute perpetrators and to strengthen the community and civic factors that promote functioning public justice systems. In her role as IJM’s Director of Director of Strategic Partnerships, Newton works with foundations and similar institutional entities that partner with and support IJM’s advocacy for the vulnerable poor. Prior to joining International Justice Mission, Newton founded Heath Strategies LLC, and advised individuals, companies, and non-profits in the areas of philanthropy, corporate social responsibility and strategic partnership development. A seasoned policy and program expert who has served at the highest levels of state and federal government, Newton has held positions as the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and as the Associate Deputy Under Secretary Associate for International Affairs at the United States Department of Labor (DOL), where she led the formation of international economic, trade and labor policies on behalf of DOL and directed technical assistance programming focused on international forced labor and anti-trafficking initiatives. She was also the US government voting representative to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the UN specialized agency which seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognized human and labor rights. On the domestic front, Newton worked for the state of Illinois as the Chief of the Violent Crime Victims Services Division for the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. Committed to service, Newton has served on the Board of the Junior League of Chicago and as the Executive Director of the Touch A Life Foundation, an organization that elevates children out of poverty and provides leadership skills to better their communities and the world. She is a graduate of Western Kentucky University, where she received both her Bachelor and Master of Arts.

Brittany Partridge is co-founder of the Red Thread Movement, an organization dedicated to combating human trafficking. Working with 180 musicians, students on 75 university campuses, and high school and youth groups, the Red Thread Movement raises awareness and funds through the sale of $3 bracelets handmade by women and girls at risk for trafficking in Nepal. Partridge has worked with anti-trafficking organizations around the world, appeared on CNN International for CNN’s Freedom Project, and was a fellow at Polaris Project in 2011. She is currently a junior at Abilene Christian University.

Sarah Symons is the co-founder and Executive Director of Made By Survivors, a social purpose non-profit fighting human trafficking and slavery with empowerment, education and employment. Made by Survivors trains and employs hundreds of slavery survivors in India, Nepal, Cambodia, Thailand, Uganda, and Fiji, importing and selling handicraft products made by the survivors, and using the profits to fund education sponsorships, shelter builds, and aftercare programs. Made By Survivors sells the products online, and through partner retailers, raising awareness about human trafficking while offering economic empowerment, and the hope of a future to survivors. Symons and her husband John Berger, the CEO of Made By Survivors, started the organization in 2005 with their own money and the contributions of a few concerned friends. Prior to starting Made By Survivors, Symons worked both in the nonprofit and business worlds. From 1990-94, she served as Program Director and Artist in Residence for Creative Arts Workshops, a program serving homeless kids in New York City. From 1994-2006, Symons worked as a composer of TV music, and as a recording artist. She was the founder and President of Endurance Music, a source music company and recording studio. Symons graduated in 1990 from the University of Pennsylvania, with a magna cum laude degree in Communications.

Rachel Lloyd is Executive Director and Founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS). A leading anti-sex trafficking advocate, Lloyd established GEMS in 1998 to support American girls and young women survivors of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. Lloyd has a profoundly personal understanding of her work. A survivor of commercial sexual exploitation as a teen, Lloyd knows all too well the hidden, emotional scars such exploitation can leave on children and youth. Now the nation’s largest organization offering direct services to American victims of child sex trafficking, GEMS empowers girls and young women, ages 12–24, who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking to exit the sex industry and develop to their full potential. Lloyd is a nationally recognized expert on the issue of child sex trafficking in the United States and played a key role in the successful passage of New York State’s groundbreaking Safe Harbor Act for Sexually Exploited Youth, the first law in the country to end the prosecution of child victims of sex trafficking. Her trailblazing advocacy is the subject of the critically acclaimed documentary Very Young Girls (Showtime, 2007) and her memoir, Girls Like Us (Harper Collins, 2011). Lloyd’s passion and achievements have made her a popular focus of national and international news coverage, with profiles and interviews on CNN Anderson Cooper 360, ABC News, NBC News, NPR, National Geographic Channel, Access Hollywood, and in the New York Times, New York Post, Washington Post, Variety, Essence Magazine, Glamour Magazine, New York Magazine, Village Voice, Marie Claire, and other leading outlets. Lloyd was named one of the “50 Women Who Change the World” by Ms Magazine, one of the “100 Women Who Shape New York” by the New York Daily News, “New Yorker of the Week” by NY1, and a “Notable New Yorker” by CBS TV. In addition to being awarded a 2009 Ashoka Fellowship, Lloyd has been honored and recognized with a Reebok Human Rights Award, Child Advocacy Award–The Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), the Community Service Award from the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, Frederick Douglass Award from the North Star Fund, Susan B. Anthony Award from the National Organization for Women, the Community Service Award from Soroptimist International NY, Prime Movers Fellowship, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Award, Change.org’s Changemakers Network, Heroes for Youth Award–National Safe Place, and the Social Entrepreneurship Award from the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. Lloyd received her Bachelors degree in Psychology from Marymount Manhattan College and her Masters in Applied Urban Anthropology from the City College of New York.