Heritage Foundation Leadership for America

As America’s own national experience illustrates, democracy does not guarantee the absence of slavery.  Similarly, there are seemingly vital democracies struggling in their efforts to combat modern day slavery, or trafficking in persons.  But, they have the institutions, if not the political will, in place to move toward the emancipation of those ensnared in slave labor and sex trafficking.  In contrast, autocracies and weak or ‘emerging’ democracies appear less equipped to tackle this issue.  Government ambivalence or even hostility to NGOs and other civil society actors hinders victim identification; corrupt or complicit government officials stand in the way of those seeking protection under ‘the law’; women, children and foreign migrant workers lack protections of their basic liberties.  President Bush has helped raise the moral international bar against this outrage, and has increased the tools that the U.S. government and others around the world can use to combat it and assist its victims.  But as recent primetime exposés and the State Department’s annual report on trafficking in persons make clear, much more must be done to interrupt the demand and overcome deeply-engrained institutional impediments. 

Join us for a discussion of the nexus between healthy, vital democratic pluralism and effective anti-trafficking efforts.