Centre to Empower All Survivors of Exploitation and Trafficking

Last updated
Centre to Empower All Survivors of Exploitation and Trafficking
AbbreviationC.E.A.S.E.
Formation1997 (P.A.A.F.E.)
2011 (Renamed)
Type Not-for-profit, charitable organization
Location
Website www.ceasenow.org

The Centre to Empower All Survivors of Exploitation and Trafficking is a non-profit organization in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

History

The Centre to Empower All Survivors of Exploitation (CEASE) and Trafficking was formerly named the Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation and before that the Prostitution Awareness and Action Foundation of Edmonton (PAAFE). In April 2011, CEASE replaced PAAFE. Kate Quinn has been the executive director of CEASE since 2011. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

In the early 1990s, the City of Edmonton formed an organization named Communities for Controlled Prostitution, which was later renamed Communities for Changing Prostitution. [9] Because of widespread prostitution in the Edmonton neighborhoods of Boyle Street and McCauley, the police chief of the City of Edmonton declared 1992 "The Year of The John." Mayor Jan Reimer and Police Chief Doug McNally subsequently launched the Action Group on Prostitution and the Mayor's Safer Cities Advisory Committee expanded to include Communities for Changing Prostitution. At this time, several Edmonton streets were converted to one-way travel in an attempt to restrict circling vehicles. [10] [11]

Programs

In 1996, the City of Edmonton launched its Prostitution Offender Program (“John School”) which is now called STOP: Sex Trade Offender Program. CEASE continues to coordinate the Sex Trade Offender Program and manage the funds generated by the program. [12]

Activity

CEASE follows three strategies: heal the harm; build for the future; and champion social equality. The organization offers trauma recovery counselling sessions, peer support, education, ensuring survivors' income stability, and testification in court against offenders. [13]

Events

Each year, the Centre to Empower All Survivors of Exploitation and Trafficking hosts the Men of Honour ceremony, which recognizes men in society who show exemplary leadership to end gender discrimination and violence. For example: Mark Huyser-Wierenga and Amarjeet Sohi received the award in 2014 and 2015 respectively. [14] [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex worker</span> Person who works in the sex industry

A sex worker is a person who provides sex work, either on a regular or occasional basis. The term is used in reference to those who work in all areas of the sex industry.

Child sex tourism (CST) is tourism for the purpose of engaging in the prostitution of children, which is commercially facilitated child sexual abuse. The definition of child in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is "every human being below the age of 18 years". Child sex tourism results in both mental and physical consequences for the exploited children, which may include sexually transmitted infections, "drug addiction, pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and death", according to the State Department of the United States. Child sex tourism, part of the multibillion-dollar global sex tourism industry, is a form of child prostitution within the wider issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children. Child sex tourism victimizes approximately 2 million children around the world. The children who perform as prostitutes in the child sex tourism trade often have been lured or abducted into sexual slavery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child prostitution</span> Prostitution involving a child

Child prostitution is prostitution involving a child, and it is a form of commercial sexual exploitation of children. The term normally refers to prostitution of a minor, or person under the legal age of consent. In most jurisdictions, child prostitution is illegal as part of general prohibition on prostitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prostitution in Thailand</span>

Prostitution in Thailand is not itself illegal, but public solicitation for prostitution is prohibited if it is carried out "openly and shamelessly" or "causes nuisance to the public". Due to police corruption and an economic reliance on prostitution dating back to the Vietnam War, it remains a significant presence in the country. It results from poverty, low levels of education and a lack of employment in rural areas. Prostitutes mostly come from the northeastern (Isan) region of Thailand, from ethnic minorities or from neighbouring countries, especially Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos. In 2019, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimated the total population of sex workers in Thailand to be 43,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking</span> Trade of sexual slaves

Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has been called a form of modern slavery because of the way victims are forced into sexual acts non-consensually, in a form of sexual slavery. Perpetrators of the crime are called sex traffickers or pimps—people who manipulate victims to engage in various forms of commercial sex with paying customers. Sex traffickers use force, fraud, and coercion as they recruit, transport, and provide their victims as prostitutes. Sometimes victims are brought into a situation of dependency on their trafficker(s), financially or emotionally. Every aspect of sex trafficking is considered a crime, from acquisition to transportation and exploitation of victims. This includes any sexual exploitation of adults or minors, including child sex tourism (CST) and domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST).

Rachel Elizabeth Lloyd is a British anti-trafficking advocate, author and the founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services. She is known for her work on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking and has been a leader in helping shift the perception of trafficked girls from criminals to victims and now to survivors and leaders. She immigrated to the US in 1997 and began working to end domestic sex trafficking, primarily focusing on addressing the commercial sexual exploitation of children and young women. In 1998, she established the Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, which is based in Harlem, New York.

John school is a form of educational intervention that caters to the clients of prostitutes, who are colloquially known as "johns" in North America. Societal norms deemed the behavior of clients and their engagement in sex work as atypical, so john schools worked to address this. John schools originated in San Francisco due to community frustrations about the great occurrence of street prostitution in their areas and the lack of effective policies to combat the sex industry. Schools similar to the San Francisco one were established throughout the country and in multiple nations. John schools are usually a diversion program for people - almost exclusively men - arrested for soliciting the services of a prostitute, or another related offense. This often acts as an alternative to criminal prosecutions. However, in some jurisdictions, courts may sentence men to attend a john school program as a condition of probation. John schools often last a few months and usually have weekly sessions. Their focus is often on the experiences and harms of prostitution, such as the violence associated with prostitution, the sexually transmitted disease risks of prostitution, and the effects of prostitution on families and communities. Whether the john school is a diversion program or a sentencing condition, the client will often pay a fee to enroll. The fee frequently covers the cost of the program and sometimes contributes to programs to aid prostitutes, or community projects within red light districts. Generally speaking, there is no definitive answer as to if john schools have been able to reduce the number of people who hire prostitutes.

Current laws passed by the Parliament of Canada in 2014 make it illegal to purchase or advertise sexual services and illegal to live on the material benefits from sex work. The law officially enacted criminal penalties for "Purchasing sexual services and communicating in any place for that purpose."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex workers' rights</span> Human, health, and labor rights of sex workers and their clients

Sex workers' rights encompass a variety of aims being pursued globally by individuals and organizations that specifically involve the human, health, and labor rights of sex workers and their clients. The goals of these movements are diverse, but generally aim to legalize or decriminalize sex work, as well as to destigmatize it, regulate it and ensure fair treatment before legal and cultural forces on a local and international level for all persons in the sex industry.

Melissa Farley is an American clinical psychologist, researcher and radical feminist anti-pornography and anti-prostitution activist. Farley is best known for her studies of the effects of prostitution, trafficking and sexual violence. She is the founder and director of the San Francisco-based organization, Prostitution Research and Education.

Human trafficking in Canada is prohibited by law, and is considered a criminal offence whether it occurs entirely within Canada or involves the "transporting of persons across Canadian borders. Public Safety Canada (PSC) defines human trafficking as "the recruitment, transportation, harbouring and/or exercising control, direction or influence over the movements of a person in order to exploit that person, typically through sexual exploitation or forced labour. It is often described as a modern form of slavery."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in the United States</span>

In the United States, human trafficking tends to occur around international travel hubs with large immigrant populations, notably in California, Texas, and Georgia. Those trafficked include young children, teenagers, men, and women; victims can be domestic citizens or foreign nationals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prostitution law</span> Legality of prostitution

Prostitution laws varies widely from country to country, and between jurisdictions within a country. At one extreme, prostitution or sex work is legal in some places and regarded as a profession, while at the other extreme, it is considered a severe crime punishable by death in some other places. A variety of different legal models exist around the world, including total bans, bans that only target the customer, and laws permitting prostitution but prohibiting organized groups, an example being brothels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in Papua New Guinea</span>

Papua New Guinea is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced prostitution and forced labor. Women and children are subjected to commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary domestic servitude; trafficked men are forced to provide labor in logging and mining camps. Children, especially young girls from tribal areas, are most vulnerable to being pushed into commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor by members of their immediate family or tribe. Families traditionally sell girls into forced marriages to settle their debts, leaving them vulnerable to involuntary domestic servitude, and tribal leaders trade the exploitative labor and service of girls and women for guns and political advantage. Young girls sold into marriage are often forced into domestic servitude for the husband's extended family. In more urban areas, some children from poorer families are prostituted by their parents or sold to brothels. Migrant women and teenage girls from Malaysia, Thailand, China, and the Philippines are subjected to forced prostitution, and men from China are transported to the country for forced labor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in California</span> Overview of the situation of human trafficking in the U.S. state of California

Human trafficking in California is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced labor as it occurs in the state of California. Human trafficking, widely recognized as a modern-day form of slavery, includes

"the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power, or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natasha Falle</span> Canadian academic

Natasha Falle is a Canadian professor at Humber College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, who was forcibly prostituted from the ages of 15 to 27 and now opposes prostitution in Canada. Falle grew up in a middle-class home and, when her parents divorced, her new single-parent home became unsafe, and Falle ran away from home. At the age of 15, Falle became involved in the sex industry in Calgary, Alberta.

Timea Nagy is a Canadian activist who has spoken on behalf of victims of human trafficking. She founded Walk With Me, a Toronto-based organization that aids survivors of trafficking. Nagy was featured in an anti-trafficking campaign by the Salvation Army in 2009. Her activism has drawn upon her own experience of forced prostitution in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking in the United States</span>

Sex trafficking in the United States is a form of human trafficking which involves reproductive slavery or commercial sexual exploitation as it occurs in the United States. Sex trafficking includes the transportation of persons by means of coercion, deception and/or force into exploitative and slavery-like conditions. It is commonly associated with organized crime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nordic model approach to prostitution</span> Approach to prostitution law first instituted in Sweden in 1999

The Nordic Criminal Model approach to sex work, also marketed as the end demand, equality model, neo-abolitionism, Nordic and Swedish model, is an approach to sex work that criminalises clients, third parties and many ways sex workers operate. This approach to criminalising sex work was developed in Sweden in 1999 on the debated radical feminist position that all sex work is sexual servitude and no person can consent to engage in commercial sexual services. The main objective of the model is to abolish the sex industry by punishing the purchase of sexual services. The model was also originally developed to make working in the sex industry more difficult.

References

  1. Berlatsky, Noah (2014). "Organizations to Contact". Sexual Violence. New York City: Greenhaven Press. p. 189. ISBN   978-0737769159.
  2. Cowan, Pamela (February 13, 2012). "Breaking Cycle of Pain". The Regina Leader-Post. p. A1.
  3. "Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation | Edmonton Examiner". 2015-05-20. Archived from the original on 2015-05-20. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  4. Kent, Gordon (September 22, 2011). "Edmonton Weighs Rules For Escorts". The Calgary Herald. p. A8.
  5. "Sex consumers fuel human trafficking | Canada | News | London Free Press". 2011-03-12. Archived from the original on 2011-03-12. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  6. "Massage Regulations Approved by Council Committee". CBC News. September 21, 2011.
  7. "Sex offender on the loose | Canada | News | London Free Press". 2012-08-27. Archived from the original on 2012-08-27. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  8. "About". www.ceasenow.org. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
  9. Cowan, Pamela (February 19, 2012). "Working Together For Positive Change". The Regina Sun. p. 21.
  10. "Our History". C.E.A.S.E. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
  11. Cook, Dustin (January 30, 2020). "Coucillors Hold Off On Adopting Task Force For Human Trafficking". The Calgary Herald. p. A14.
  12. Browne, Rachel (March 21, 2014). "Unprotected Text". The National Post. p. A3.
  13. "CEASE | Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation" . Retrieved 2023-11-18.
  14. "2014 Men of Honour Recipients". www.ceasenow.org. 2014. Archived from the original on 2020-08-03. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
  15. "2015 Cease Men of Honour".