Are you tried of seeing the ballot initiative process taken over by big money, big businesses, and for-profit signature gatherers pushing measures that aren't really in the best interests of Californians? Join Californians Against Slavery, California NOW, and other groups throughout the state in gathering signatures to put an anti-trafficking initiative on the ballot.
What is trafficking? Modern day slavery still exists in our time and in our country. About 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. annually (US State Department “Trafficking in Persons Report 2006”) and 100,000 to 300,000 U.S. children are victimized by domestic sex trafficking (The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: America’s Prostituted Children, Shared Hope International, May 2009).
Under California state law, human trafficking is punishable by a sentence of only 3-5 years (4-8 for minors). Please help us get 1 million signatures for a state-wide ballot initiative to strengthen human trafficking laws and increase victims' rights. The proposed initiative would expand the definition of trafficking, increase penalties, require confiscated property to be used to benefit trafficking victims, and prohibit evidence of sexual activity from being used against trafficking victims.
Download a signature collection packet and flyer that you can use to gather signatures in your workplace, school, church, from friends and strangers.
We don't have the millions of dollars to spend that other ballot initiatives do. What we have is you, our caring and dedicated activists throughout the state. please take part in this campaign and help make a real difference for the women and girls who are trafficked into sexual slavery within California.
Do you have a summary of the how the proposed ballot initiative would expand the definition trafficking?
I support the move to remove all criminal penalties against those who are trafficked -- be that domestic labor, agricultural labor, garment labor, or sexual labor -- but I am hesitant to further involve law enforcement in efforts to protect people from abuse. Would this law center the leadership of community-based organizations, or would it be an instrument for police to perform raids?
Posted by: Melissa Grant | February 23, 2010 at 11:40 AM
The full text is available as part of the download with the signature collection packet. The full text is six pages long, so we cannot include it all here.
It would expand the definition of trafficking to include violating a person's liberty with intent to distribute obscene material, and taking travel documents to restrict a victim's movement. As we read it, it does not expand the police right to perform raids, but does insist that confiscated property from raids be used for victims' benefit, and that a trafficked person's participation in an illegal sexual activity cannot be used to prosecute them.
Posted by: CA NOW | February 23, 2010 at 02:06 PM