U.S. Attorney, Other Experts to Discuss Human Trafficking/Exploitation

Note to Reporters: Registration for this event, free to the public, is closed. Speakers are available for media interviews. To schedule interviews, call 317-274-8959.

INDIANAPOLIS - Commonly referred to as modern-day slavery, human trafficking will be the focus of a conference from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday, March 2, 2007, at the Marten House Hotel and Conference Center, 1801 W. 86th St.

U.S. Attorney Susan Brooks and Dr. Celia Williamson, a University of Toledo professor who has researched street prostitution, are among the guest speakers for the daylong event "Vulnerable Persons in a Global Society: Responding to Human Trafficking and the Exploitation of Persons in the Heartland."

"Human trafficking is simply the modern nomenclature for an insidious historical crime banned in the 1800s called slavery," says Brooks, who represents the Southern District of Indiana.

As awareness about the issue has increased, several laws have been implemented to address human trafficking, including labor trafficking and commercial sex human trafficking. The Federal Trafficking Victim Protection Act passed in 2000 and was reauthorized in 2003 and 2005, broadening the scope of laws already on the books.

The state of Indiana recently passed a similar human trafficking statute. The law, effective July 2006, protects victims from those offenders who would force them to work by physically beating them or psychologically threatening to harm them or their families.

During her presentation at 9:15 a.m., Brooks will talk about some of the nation's recent convictions related to human trafficking and how it affects the victims.

The conference is sponsored by Indiana University School of Social Work Alumni Association, The Julian Center, the Indianapolis Police Department, IPATH (Indiana Protection of Abused and Trafficked Humans - A Task Force of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Indiana).