Miami, FL– On July 27th- 31st, St. Thomas University School of Law hosts its online Summer 2020 Human Trafficking Academy on the state of labor trafficking domestically and abroad. This year’s theme focuses on a critical assessment of the 20th Anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Despite tremendous progress against human trafficking, there is presently an estimated 24.9 million people trapped in forced labor in industries including agriculture, construction, domestic work, and manufacturing around the world.
The Academy offers specialized training and technical assistance to countries, government entities, academic institutions, the private sector, faith-based organizations, and the community at large on issues related to the crime of trafficking in persons. To date, The John J. Brunetti Human Trafficking Academy of St. Thomas University School of Law has provided specialized training and technical assistance to over 10,000 leaders and community members domestically and abroad. This year’s Academy will take place in an online format and offer its curriculum and intensive certification with 15 advanced courses taught by leading experts in the field.
“I have been present at many world-class conferences and events all over the world, including the United Nations, fortune 100 corporate, and governmental events. The Human Trafficking Academy event was definitely up to the caliber of a world-class conference. The leadership of the Academy, St. Thomas University, a who’s who list of invited speakers, and the informed attendees of varied professional backgrounds all made for a truly auspicious occasion.” said Shawn Rae, Human Trafficking Alumnus (’19).
This year’s Academy instructors include one of the most influential legal scholars alive: Professor Dr. Catharine A. MacKinnon, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School. Prof. Dr. MacKinnon is among the most widely-cited legal scholars in the English language and over time the most widely-cited woman. She is a forerunner on issues of equality “predicated on eliminating dominance and subordination … MacKinnon [is] an influential legal theorist, helping to transform legal education by calling attention to issues affecting women and transforming the law for women globally by opening the legal system to their injuries and exposing the gendered basis of sex crimes.” (Encyclopedia Britannica).
MacKinnon’s Distinguished Lecture focuses on The Intersections of Sex and Labor Trafficking through which she explores the intersection of poverty with sexual abuse through a detailed look at the purposes for which people are trafficked within and to the United States, ranging from the most masculinized to the most feminized purposes of their exploitation, engaging the law of sex and labor trafficking, and the development of cases, in these terms. She will focus on issues of sex, gender, economic class, racism, age, and immigration status.
Professor Dr. Roza Pati, Founder, and Director of the Human Trafficking Academy, an international expert with 25 years of experience in the anti-trafficking law, policy and academia, and a prolific scholar published in multiple languages states: “Year after year, what makes our Academy so appealing is the fact that in the Catholic intellectual tradition of higher education we deliver the highest value in education through a rock-solid array of front-line courses taught by remarkable experts of international acclaim. We are extremely honored to host so many trailblazers in this year’s Academy.”
In addition to Professor Dr. Catharine MacKinnon, the Academy features Martha Mendoza, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and 2019 finalist, whose investigations into slavery in the seafood sector and using cutting edge technology led to the freedom of more than 2,000 men; Martina E. Vandenberg, who spent two decades fighting human trafficking, forced labor, rape as a war crime, and violence against women and who led novel pursuits of civil litigation against diplomats who exploited women in domestic servitude; Susan French, a former federal human trafficking prosecutor with the Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, who has successfully brought high impact landmark labor trafficking cases, such as U.S. v. Calimlim and U.S. v. Kil Soo Lee; Professor Kathleen C. Kim of Loyola Law School, LMU in Los Angeles, the co-author of “Human Trafficking Law and Policy,” the leading casebook on human trafficking; Professor Dr. Mohamed Y. Mattar, the founding Executive Director at The Protection Project of the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins University, and an international expert on anti-trafficking legislation with over 15 years of experience in more than 75 countries. Our Miami powerhouse attorneys Barbara Martinez, Ana Vallejo and Alicia Priovolos complement the Academy’s team of instructors.
Naturally, our work is well-grounded on the life, experience, perseverance, courage and wisdom of survivors of human trafficking. The Honorable Suleman Masood, a Council Member on the United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking and The Honorable Evelyn Chumbow, a survivor of child labor trafficking turned anti-trafficking activist and public speaker who has focused her life’s work on ending modern-day slavery, honor us with their presence and they guide us in the path to empowerment toward an effective fight for human dignity.
Registration for the Summer 2020 Human Trafficking Academy ends Friday, July 17, 2020. Certificate awarded by St. Thomas University School of Law. CLEs pending with The Florida Bar. Learn more about the Summer 2020 Human Trafficking Academy here: https://www.humantraffickingacademy.org/event/summer2020/
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About The John J. Brunetti Human Trafficking Academy:
Founded and directed by Prof. Dr. Roza Pati, The John J. Brunetti Human Trafficking Academy upholds and advances the inherent value, worth and dignity of each human being. To this end, it develops education programs, conducts research, and instructs law and policy to fight human trafficking throughout the world and to empower survivor leadership in our global community. Since 2003, the LL.M./J.S.D. Program in Intercultural Human Rights and its Academy have offered specialized training and technical assistance to countries, government entities, academic institutions, the private sector, faith-based organizations, and the community at large on issues related to human trafficking as a crime and social phenomenon. The Academy addresses human trafficking from the perspective of human rights law, and the integral human development of every person and the whole person. To learn more, visit www.humantraffickingacademy.org.
About St. Thomas University School of Law:
St. Thomas University School of Law through its LL.M./J.S.D. Program in Intercultural Human Rights is the first academic institution in South Florida to shed light on the magnitude and scope of human trafficking. It is also one of the pioneer institutions in the field of human trafficking nationwide, and the first law school to offer a doctrinal course on human trafficking law in its J.D. curriculum. To learn more, visit www.stu.edu/law.
About St. Thomas University:
The only Catholic Archdiocesan-sponsored University in Florida, St. Thomas University (www.stu.edu) places an institutional emphasis on social justice and ethical behavior, and provides its globally diverse student body with low student/teacher ratios. The private, nonprofit university offers more than 45 undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees at its 144-acre campus in Miami Gardens, FL.
Press Contacts:
Yamile Rodriguez, Marketing and Communications Manager
St. Thomas University School of Law
YamileRodriguez@stu.edu
786.774.9799
Liza E. Smoker, Esq., Managing Director
The John J. Brunetti Human Trafficking
lsmoker@stu.edu
305.623.2320
