Katherine Chon

Last updated
Katherine Chon
CitizenshipUnited States
EducationSc.B. in Psychology
Alma materBrown University, Harvard Kennedy School
Occupation(s)social activist, entrepreneur
Known forCo-founder of Polaris Project, anti-slavery activism
TitleSenior Advisor in Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Katherine Chon is the co-founder of Polaris Project in the United States. [1] She started the organization immediately upon graduation with fellow Brown University student Derek Ellerman in 2002 after learning about the problem of human trafficking during her undergraduate studies. She has testified before Congress concerning the scope of human trafficking[ citation needed ]and has won numerous awards for her work in the field. [2] She is currently a Senior Advisor in Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Contents

Founding of Polaris Project

Polaris Project is a leading organization in the United States combating all forms of human trafficking and serving both U.S. citizens and foreign national victims, men, women, and children, combatting both labor and sex trafficking. The organization uses a holistic strategy, using experience gained through working with survivors to guide the creation of long-term solutions. The organization supports stronger laws, operates the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline (1-888-373-7888), provides trainings on recognizing and combatting human trafficking and provides direct services to survivors of human trafficking in Washington, D.C. and Newark, New Jersey. [3] They provide services to clients who have survived human trafficking in the Washington, DC and Newark, NJ areas. [4]

Educational background

Awards

Related Research Articles

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Hela Yungst Hochman, also known as Hela Young, was an American television entertainer and beauty pageant winner. She was a promoter of Holocaust awareness and a former president of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prajwala</span> Organization against prostitution and sex trafficking.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derek Ellerman</span> American social entrepreneur

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in Austria</span> Overview of the observance of human rights in Austria

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum</span> Holocaust / human rights museum in Dallas, TX

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking</span> Trade of humans for exploitation

Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation. Human trafficking can occur within a country or trans-nationally. It is distinct from people smuggling, which is characterized by the consent of the person being smuggled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons</span> USA government agency

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Polaris is a nonprofit non-governmental organization that works to combat and prevent sex and labor trafficking in North America. The organization's 10-year strategy is built around the understanding that human trafficking does not happen in vacuum but rather is the predictable end result of a range of other persistent injustices and inequities in our society and our economy. Knowing that, and leveraging data available from more than a dozen years operating the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline, Polaris is focused on three major areas of work: building power for migrant workers who are at risk of trafficking in U.S. agricultural and other industries; leveraging the reach and expertise of financial systems to disrupt trafficking, creating accountability for perpetrators of violence against people in the sex trade and expanding services and supports to vulnerable people to prevent trafficking before it happens.

Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children, previously known as DNA Foundation, is an international anti-human trafficking organization that works to address the sexual exploitation of children. The primary programming efforts of the organization focus on Internet technology and the role it plays in facilitating child pornography and sexual slavery of children on a global scale. The organization was founded by American actors Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher.

<i>Not My Life</i> 2011 film by Robert Bilheimer

Not My Life is a 2011 American independent documentary film about human trafficking and contemporary slavery. The film was written, produced, and directed by Robert Bilheimer, who had been asked to make the film by Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Bilheimer planned Not My Life as the second installment in a trilogy, the first being A Closer Walk and the third being the unproduced Take Me Home. The title Not My Life came from a June 2009 interview with Molly Melching, founder of Tostan, who said that many people deny the reality of contemporary slavery because it is an uncomfortable truth, saying, "No, this is not my life."

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

Slavery is a system which requires workers to work against their will for little to no compensation. In modern-day terms, this practice is more widely referred to as human trafficking. Human trafficking is defined by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the 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”. The practices of slavery and human trafficking are still prevalent in modern America with estimated 17,500 foreign nationals and 400,000 Americans being trafficked into and within the United States every year with 80% of those being women and children. Human trafficking in the United States can be divided into the two major categories of labor and sex trafficking, with sex trafficking accounting for a majority of cases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015</span> United States law

The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 is an Act of Congress introduced in the Senate on January 13, 2015, and signed into law by United States President Barack Obama on May 29, 2015. It is also known as the JVTA. Broadly speaking, it aimed to increase services for survivors of human trafficking as well as to strengthen and empower law enforcement and first responders.

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

Human trafficking in New York is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced labor. It occurs in the state of New York and is widely recognized as a modern-day form of slavery. It 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 the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."

Over time, there has been an increase in sex trafficking in Central America. Because of the lack of financials, work opportunities and studies, women and men see sex work as the solution to their problems. In addition, the living conditions, poverty, and gang violence are the reason as to why a lot of people have been coerced into sex trafficking. These countries are working with their government and other countries in order to create laws to fight against sex trafficking.

References

  1. America.gov Katherine Chon and Derek Ellerman: Fighting Human Trafficking Archived 2012-10-20 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 2010–06–14
  2. "Against Their Will" Brown Alumni Magazine
  3. ""Polaris Project's What We Do Page"". Archived from the original on 2013-04-05. Retrieved 2013-03-05.
  4. Harvard Gazette Accessed 2013–03–05
  5. Do Something Archived 2013-03-08 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 2013–03–05
  6. Harlequin More Than Words Accessed 2013–03–05
  7. ABCNews: People's Voice Award
  8. Woman's Day Magazine Accessed 2013–03–05
  9. Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center Archived 2013-01-10 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 2013–03–05