Charities, Religious Groups, and Advocacy Orgs to Push for Historic Legislation to Human Trafficking
Alexandria, VA – Today, United Way Worldwide joins Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) in an effort to combat modern day slavery. The End Modern Slavery Initiative Act of 2015, being introduced today, would authorize an historic increase in support for anti-human trafficking efforts. United Way is taking a leadership role to galvanize support from faith-based, nonprofit and advocacy groups to join the campaign.
This legislation, which would authorize $250 million in U.S. government funding to leverage a $1.5 billion international fund, calls for support from foreign nations, philanthropic organizations as well as the public and private sectors to focus resources toward combating this rampant global issue.
“With more than 21 million victims around the world, human trafficking is one of the greatest human rights atrocities of our time,” said Brian A. Gallagher, President and CEO, United Way Worldwide. “With forced labor, domestic servitude and commercial sexual exploitation around the world, this is an issue that requires a local, national and global response, and that is why United Way is working with Sen. Corker and Menendez on this legislation to scale sustainable solutions to tackle this problem.”
Due to the pandemic of human trafficking and modern slavery disrupting the well-being of communities, United Way Worldwide has made combatting human trafficking a top public policy priority for the 114th Congress and the passage of this bill a major focus this year.
The bill has bi-partisan support, and Sen. Corker aims to mark it up in the Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday.
“We have to dramatically increase both public and private investments to scale all aspects of our response to human trafficking from increases in victim identification, to comprehensive services for survivors, examining supply chains and prevention strategies. We are proud to endorse the End Modern Slavery Initiative Act, a bold step toward breaking the back of modern slavery in our generation” said Gallagher.
