Redlight Children Campaign

Last updated
The Redlight Children Campaign
Type Non-profit organization
Founded2002
Headquarters New York, New York
Key people
Guy Jacobson, Adi Ezroni
Website

The Redlight Children Campaign is a non-profit organization created by New York lawyer and president of Priority Films Guy Jacobson and Israeli actress Adi Ezroni in 2002, to combat worldwide child sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Its mission is to decrease the demand side of the international sex trade through legislation and enforcement while raising awareness utilizing mass media and grassroots outreach. [1]

Contents

Through its partnership with Priority Films, Redlight Children has recently launched the K11 Project—three films which attempt to expose real life experiences of the underage sex trade. K11 consists of two documentaries and a feature-length narrative, Holly, which were all filmed on locations in Cambodia.

History

The Redlight Children Campaign was inspired by Guy Jacobson's personal experiences backpacking in Cambodia in 2002. While traveling in Phnom Penh, a group of young girls, some only five years old, began to aggressively solicit him for prostitution. Although he refused several times, they revealed to him that they would be beaten by the brothel owners if they returned empty-handed. After Jacobson gave them some money and left, he was motivated to create Redlight Children.

Shortly thereafter, Jacobson decided to utilize mass media as a vehicle for social change through his film production company, Priority Films. He teamed up with Israeli actress Adi Ezroni to create the first phase of the Redlight Children Campaign, the K11 Project. They went undercover in Cambodian brothels using espionage equipment and secret cameras to research the plight of child trafficking victims.

At one point, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) contacted Jacobson to warn him to flee the country because the Chinese, Vietnamese, and Cambodian mafia had hits taken out on his life.[ citation needed ] Jacobson, Ezroni, and their team of filmmakers were also blackmailed and extorted for money, one of the producers was held hostage for two weeks when the rest of the team had left, and they had to hire bodyguards to protect themselves and their research.[ citation needed ]

Jacobson's and Ezroni's work on the ground level provided the education and foundation for them to address the issue on a larger scale. After they established RedLight Children, they created a comprehensive legal manifesto of action items to decrease the demand of child sexual exploitation with the aid of a team of international lawyers.

Jacobson and Ezroni have also been honored as Global Heroes by Condoleezza Rice in the Trafficking in Persons Report 2008. [2]

Manifesto

The Redlight Children Campaign ultimately aims to globally decrease demand for child sex trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children by pressuring governments to enact or amend legislation to address the issue more effectively and allocate more resources towards enforcement of laws.

The Redlight Children Campaign's main goals are to make it more difficult and costly for perpetrators to sexually abuse children, increase the likelihood of catching perpetrators, and make prosecution faster, easier, and more efficient. The Redlight Children Campaign Manifesto focuses on laws and enforcement efforts relating to Internet chat rooms, child pornography, sex tourism, and extraterritorial enforcement that it believes should be passed in every country in the world. [3]

Currently, Redlight Children is partnering with LexisNexis to create an international case law database for trafficking and a trafficking offenders database to assist lawmakers and prosecutors. Amongst Board members of Redlight Children is Robert Rigby-Hall who was the recipient of the 2010 Business Leaders Award Against Human Trafficking (United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking)

The K11 Project

The K11 Project consists of three films—Holly, The Virgin Harvest, and the K11 Journey—created by Priority Films and Redlight Children to expose the underage sex trade in Cambodia.

Holly is a feature-length narrative film written by Guy Jacobson. Filmed in Cambodia, it is based on the true stories of abducted children. It stars Ron Livingston, Virginie Ledoyan, Udo Kier, Chris Penn and Thuy Nguyen.

The Virgin Harvest, directed by Charles Kiselyak, is an undercover documentary taking place in Cambodian brothels. It follows three young girls—Reena, Sokha, and Sereum—as they are sold into brothels, abused, and finally rescued.

The K11 Journey is a documentary that follows the dangerous journey of the filmmakers as they make Holly. It exposes the corruption of the Cambodian government and police.

Holly was launched at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and later shown with the US State Department in Washington, D.C., in order to establish a political presence for the Redlight Children Campaign. With the nationwide release of Holly on November 9, 2007, Jacobson conducted television, radio, magazine, and print coverage, including articles/interviews in Glamour, The New York Times , the LA Times, and CNN. [4]

In addition to creating awareness, the film projects have helped local communities address trafficking. For example, AFISEP is featured as the shelter in Holly, and the Somaly Mam Foundation was featured at the UN. Jacobson organized the UN event/fundraiser for the Somaly Mam Foundation.

Related Research Articles

Sex tourism Travel to engage in sexual activity

Sex tourism refers to the practice of traveling to foreign countries, often on a different continent, with the intention of engaging in sexual activity or relationships in exchange for money. This practice predominantly operates in countries where sex work is legal but there are countries where laws prohibit sex work. The World Tourism Organization of the United Nations has acknowledged this industry is organised both within and outside the structured laws and networks created by them.

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.

Child prostitution 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.

Commercial sexual exploitation of children Commercial transaction that involves the sexual exploitation of a child

Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is a commercial transaction that involves the sexual exploitation of a child, or person under the age of consent. CSEC involves a range of abuses, including but not limited to: the prostitution of children, child pornography, stripping, erotic massage, phone sex lines, internet-based exploitation, and early forced marriage.

Somaly Mam Cambodian writer and activist

Somaly Mam is a Cambodian anti-trafficking advocate who focuses primarily on sex trafficking. From 1996 to 2014, Mam was involved in campaigns against sex trafficking. She set up the Somaly Mam Foundation, raised money, appeared on major television programs, and spoke at many international events.

International Justice Mission Non-profit organisation in the US

International Justice Mission is an international, non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization focused on human rights, law and law enforcement. Founded in 1997 by lawyer Gary Haugen of the United States, it is based in Washington, D.C. All IJM employees are required to be practicing Christians; 94% are nationals of the countries they work in.

Forced prostitution, also known as involuntary prostitution or compulsory prostitution, is prostitution or sexual slavery that takes place as a result of coercion by a third party. The terms "forced prostitution" or "enforced prostitution" appear in international and humanitarian conventions, such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, but have been inconsistently applied. "Forced prostitution" refers to conditions of control over a person who is coerced by another to engage in sexual activity.

Prostitution in Paraguay is legal for persons over the age of 18, but related activities such as brothel keeping are prohibited. Prostitution is common in the country. Brothels are also common, even some rural villages have a small bar/brothel on the outskirts.

Human trafficking in Cambodia

Cambodia is a source, transit, and destination country for human trafficking. The traffickers are reportedly organized crime syndicates, parents, relatives, friends, intimate partners, and neighbors. Despite human trafficking being a crime in Cambodia, the country has a significant child sex tourism problem; some children are sold by their parents, while others are lured by what they think are legitimate job offers like waitressing, but then are forced into prostitution. Children are often held captive, beaten, and starved to force them into prostitution.

Prostitution in Suriname is illegal but widespread and the laws are rarely enforced. Human trafficking and Child prostitution are problems in the country. Prostitutes are known locally as "motyo". UNAIDS estimate there to be 2,228 prostitutes in the country.

Human trafficking in the United States Trade of people in the US

Human trafficking is a modern form of slavery, with illegal smuggling and trading of people, for forced labor or sexual exploitation.

Prostitution in Cambodia is illegal, but prevalent. A 2008 Cambodian Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation has proven controversial, with international concerns regarding human rights abuses resulting from it, such as outlined in the 2010 Human Rights Watch report.

Human trafficking in popular culture refers to depictions of human trafficking, the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery. It has been featured in a variety of popular culture forms and on numerous occasions. This topic has been discussed more and more around the world within the past several years.

<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."

<i>Redlight</i> (film) 2009 film by Adi Ezroni

Redlight is a documentary film about human trafficking in Cambodia that premiered on October 4, 2009 at the Woodstock Film Festival. Lucy Liu was the film's executive producer and narrator. The film is produced by Kerry Girvin and directed by Guy Jacobson and Adi Ezroni. Redlight documents four years of the lives of several Cambodian children who are kidnapped for the purpose of child prostitution. These children are both boys and girls, and some are only 3 or 4 years old. Some of the film's footage was recorded secretly in brothels and then smuggled out. Liu promoted the film at the 2009 Cairo International Film Festival. Showtime televised the film as part of Human Trafficking Awareness Month in 2010. The first screening in Connecticut took place in Westport that November.

Human trafficking in Nevada

Human trafficking in Nevada 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 Nevada, and it 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 prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."

Sex trafficking in the United States Overview of sex trafficking in the United States

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, and is commonly associated with organized crime.

Sex trafficking in Cambodia

Sex trafficking in Cambodia is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Kingdom of Cambodia. Cambodia is a country of origin, destination and transit for sex trafficked persons.

References

  1. RedLight Children Campaign – Child Sexploitation: Expose It. Fight It. End It. | Changemakers
  2. Trafficking in Persons Report | U.S. Department of State Video and Audio
  3. http://www.redlightchildren.org/Redlight%20Manifesto.pdf [ dead link ]
  4. Holly – Movie – Review – The New York Times