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.
Rajesh Touchriver is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer known for his works in English, Malayalam, Telugu, and Hindi language films. He received various National and International honors for his works. In 2002 he directed In the Name of Buddha which was later screened in the Spotlight on India section at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. In 2013, he scripted, and directed the social problem film Naa Bangaaru Talli which won five International honors, the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu, and four state Nandi awards including Second Best Feature Film.
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).
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.
Siddhayatan, is a Jain-Hindu Tirth in North America founded in 2008 by Acharya Shree Yogeesh. It is located on a 250-acre (1.0 km2) site at Windom near Dallas, Texas, United States. Siddhayatan currently has miniatured versions of pilgrimage sites from India, including Kailash-Mansarovar, Lake Rakshastal, Ashtapad, Sammedshikhar, Bahubali, and thus is considered as a pilgrimage rather than a temple or place of worship or prayer. According to India Abroad, it is a “Spiritual Disneyland”. The tour of the entire pilgrimage is estimated to be 4 hours.
Sunitha Krishnan is an Indian social activist and chief functionary and co-founder of Prajwala, a non-governmental organization that rescues, rehabilitates and reintegrates sex-trafficked victims into society. She was awarded India's fourth highest civilian award the Padma Shri in 2016.
Kathryn Bolkovac is a human rights advocate, consultant, former police investigator with the Lincoln Police Department, and former monitor with United Nations International Police Task Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She came to prominence when she sued her employers for unfair dismissal after she lost her job following her attempts to expose sex trafficking in Bosnia. Her story was shown in the film The Whistleblower and told in the nonfiction book, The Whistleblower.
Nefarious: Merchant of Souls is a 2011 American documentary film about modern human trafficking, specifically sexual slavery. Presented from a Christian worldview, Nefarious covers human trafficking in the United States, Western and Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia, alternating interviews with re-enactments. Victims of trafficking talk about having been the objects of physical abuse and attempted murder. Several former prostitutes talk about their conversion to Christianity, escape from sexual oppression, and subsequent education or marriage. The film ends with the assertion that only Jesus can completely heal people from the horrors of sexual slavery.
Benjamin Nolot is an American filmmaker and the CEO and founder of Exodus Cry, a Christian social activist group focused on the issue of human trafficking which has expressed opposition to the "entire global sex industry, including prostitution, pornography, and stripping". Nolot has also been involved with an International House of Prayer ministry which is based in Sacramento, California.
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."
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.
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.
I am Jane Doe is a documentary chronicling the legal battle that several American mothers are waging on behalf of their middle-school daughters who were trafficked for commercial sex on Backpage.com, the classified advertising website formerly owned by the Village Voice. The film is narrated by Jessica Chastain, directed by filmmaker Mary Mazzio, and produced by Mazzio along with Alec Sokolow. Fifty percent of the film's profits will go to non-profit organizations which serve children affected by human trafficking.
Chelo Alvarez-Stehle is a Spanish and American journalist and documentary filmmaker. In Japan, she worked as managing editor for International Press En Español weekly and as Tokyo correspondent for El Mundo daily. As a documentary filmmaker she is best known for Sands of Silence [es], winner of the 59th Southern California Journalism Awards by the Los Angeles Press Club for Best Feature Documentary.
California's Forgotten Children is an American feature documentary directed by Melody C. Miller. Winning Best Documentary at the 2018 Soho International Film Festival, the film follows a diverse group of resilient survivors who have overcome commercial sexual exploitation of children and are changing the world by ensuring no child is left behind. The film features stories from Time 100 Most Influential People Withelma "T" Ortiz Walker Pettigrew, attorney Carissa Phelps, academic scholar Minh Dang, activist Leah Albright-Byrd, therapist Nikolaos Al-Khadra, and educator Rachel Thomas, M. Ed.
Sands of Silence: Waves of Courage is a 2016 documentary film that addresses the spectrum of sexual violence, from child sexual abuse and clergy abuse to rape and sex trafficking. It was directed, written and produced by filmmaker Chelo Alvarez-Stehle.
Sadhvi Siddhali Shree is a US based Jain monk, film director, author, TEDx speaker, Iraq War veteran and activist. She is mostly known for her two documentaries Stopping Traffic (2017) and Surviving Sex Trafficking (2022) which are based on the global problem of human and sex trafficking.
Surviving Sex Trafficking is a 2022 American documentary film directed by Sadhvi Siddhali Shree and produced by the team of monks at Siddhayatan Tirth.
Sadhvi Anubhuti is a Jain monk, film producer, director and activist.
