This guest post is from author Renee Knudsen, Regent Law 3L and current Family Law student:
In the past several years, the issue of human trafficking has gained much attention. At both the state and federal level, there are new task forces all around the nation dedicated to fighting this crime. Yet, even with all of the effort exerted to fight this crime, many studies indicate that more people are enslaved today than ever before in the course of human history. As recently as 2012, President Obama stated that “[the] fight against human trafficking is one of the great human rights causes of our time . . .”[1] While this fight is being fought from the White House, this fight should also be fought in every house.
The woe of human trafficking destroys families. It destroys both the home of the trafficked as well as the trafficker. In the worst of cases, studies reveal situations where a trafficker enslaves his or her own family members. While the fight against human trafficking is far more than a family law wrong, there are remedies that family law attorneys can help to provide. For more information on the fight against human trafficking and the legal landscape for combating this crime, please see my article entitled “From Second Class To Certified Class: Using Class-Action Lawsuits To Combat Human Trafficking,” which is available at http://www.regent.edu/acad/schlaw/student_life/studentorgs/lawreview/onlineissues/v28n1.cfm.
[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/foreign-policy/end-human-trafficking.
I agree with your post that human trafficking is a problem that destroys families which are the foundations of our society. As long as there are demands for human servitude, combating this criminal trade will remain a life-long battle between people who love there neighbor has themselves, and those who delight and profit from the misery of others. I hope that as family law attorneys, we may be able to lay cornerstone bricks in our practice that will encourage clients to avoid fractured homes that exposes children to these human trafficking predators.
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