Governor to speak at KU on 'Ending Human Trafficking'


Wed, 02/01/2012

author

Mary Jane Dunlap

LAWRENCE – Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback will speak on “Ending Human Trafficking” at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2, in the Kansas Union Ballroom at the University of Kansas.

Brownback will speak about how human trafficking — a modern form of slavery involving women, men and children — affects Kansas and what the state is doing to end it. His talk will be followed by a question-and-answer period.

Kansas serves as a major route for traffickers. As a U.S. senator from Kansas, Brownback co-sponsored the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, the federal legislation that serves to protect victims of human trafficking and to punish offenders.

Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have described human trafficking as the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world. Human trafficking and the illegal arms industry are tied as the world’s second-largest criminal industry today.

The governor’s talk comes at the conclusion of National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month observed each January. KU’s Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center is sponsoring Brownback’s talk.

Laura Dean, a KU doctoral student researching human trafficking, has worked with the Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center to develop this program on human trafficking. She will make a presentation at the Feb. 16 Capitol Research Summit in Topeka on human trafficking in Kansas. Her research is through the departments of political science and of women, gender and sexuality studies.

Wed, 02/01/2012

author

Mary Jane Dunlap

Media Contacts

Erin Curtis Dierks