About a hundred athletes and concerned citizens gathered Saturday morning at Alton Baker Park for the “Freedom for All 5k” run/walk, an event that raised money and awareness to combat human trafficking.
University junior Will Downey@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Will+Downey@@ was inspired to organize the benefit after noticing the subject of human trafficking in the news had been increasing frequency.
“This is such a dark part of society that we don’t want to think about — but it exists, so we need to help these people out,” Downey said, who has created several similar events for various causes.
All revenue will be transferred to the charity group STOP (Special Trafficking Operations Program), an international humanitarian organization dedicated to fighting the trafficking of human beings for use as involuntary sex workers.
“I want to help end slavery any way I can,” said runner and University alumna Sierra Corbin, who works at Looking Glass, a local family services organization. Corbin hopes that small events like the Freedom for All 5k, in greater context, will make a serious impact.@@http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=19712860@@
Human trafficking is a $39 billion industry, based on estimates by the International Labor Organization, a specialized body of the United Nations@@http://www.fastcompany.com/1787349/lulan-artisans-ceo-eve-blossom-oct-2011-whos-next@@. According to STOP, 27 million people are still victims to slavery around the world, and the countries most prominent in slavery include the United Kingdom, China, Ukraine, Ireland, Jordan, Russia and the United States.@@http://www.hrea.org/index.php?doc_id=430@@
The U.S. State Department and the FBI both have dedicated programs aimed at eliminating this threat to basic human rights. They also work closely with INTERPOL and other key bodies such as the International Organization for Migration@@http://www.iom.int/jahia/jsp/index.jsp@@, which manages internally displaced persons.
Though sexual exploitation is STOP’s area of emphasis, they acknowledge that human trafficking goes beyond sex. Systemic human rights violations are also prevalent in the mining and timber industries worldwide and in any form of labor or commerce.
Organizations combating human trafficking base their efforts on the “4P model,” @@http://tinyurl.com/6sehsfx@@which stands for the prevention of initial capture, protection of freed victims, prosecution of perpetrators, and promoting partnerships between legal bodies and volunteers.
STOP focuses special attention on assisting victims of trafficking from the moment of their rescue by providing comprehensive psychological and social support services, helping them to reintegrate into their native countries.
The organization recently appointed James Bond star Daniel Craig as chairman of their honorary board. Craig’s wife, Rachel Weisz,@@http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/movies/rachel-weisz-in-the-whistleblower-on-sex-trafficking.html@@ became involved in advocacy against sexual exploitation after her 2010 role in “The Whistleblower,” which tells the story of an American policewoman who takes a United Nations security contractor job in postwar Bosnia to investigate the sex trafficking of young women.