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JOINT RESOLUTION TO RECOGNIZE JANUARY 24 TO JANUARY 30, 2016 AS HUMAN TRAFFICKING AWARENESS WEEK
WHEREAS, human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery that violates basic human rights, denies victims personal freedom and knows no geographical boundaries; and
WHEREAS,  human trafficking is the crime of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sexual exploitation through the use of force, fraud or coercion, including but not limited to involuntary servitude, sex trafficking, debt bondage, domestic servitude and forced child labor, and can, but does not necessarily, include the physical transportation of a victim from one location to another; and
WHEREAS,  human trafficking is recognized as the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the world and the International Labour Organization estimates annual profits of $150,000,000,000 from forced labor internationally; and
WHEREAS,  the International Labour Organization estimated in 2012 that 26% of persons trafficked were children and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimated in 2014 that one out of every 6 endangered runaways in the United States reported to them were likely child sex-trafficking victims; and
WHEREAS,  victims of human trafficking suffer severe emotional, psychological and physical damage at the hands of their traffickers, who instill fear in their victims in order to keep them enslaved, resulting in complex post-traumatic stress disorder and increased rates of disease, drug addiction and other lifelong effects of trauma, and these experiences require years of trauma-informed health care and mental health services as part of a victim's recovery upon intervention; and
WHEREAS,  human trafficking exists in the State and many state, federal and local agencies and organizations are working to prevent human trafficking, to intervene when human trafficking is discovered and to provide restorative care to victims; and
WHEREAS,  no one person, organization, agency or community can eliminate human trafficking, but we can work together to educate our entire population about how we can all prevent human trafficking and support survivors of human trafficking and their communities; and
WHEREAS,  the State is committed to protecting the vulnerable and ending human trafficking through prevention, prosecution, education and awareness; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED: That We, the Members of the One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Legislature now assembled in the Second Regular Session, on behalf of the people we represent, take this opportunity to recognize January 24 to January 30, 2016 as Human Trafficking Awareness Week.