In Jacksonville, like in the rest of our nation, there are many individuals who were or are victims of human trafficking.
This problem is bigger than it would initially appear, as human trafficking normally does not make the evening news unless there is a sizable operation involved or some other strange or unusual circumstance.
Human trafficking is not something that affects a specific ethnicity or age group. It has many faces and hides in plain sight, making it hard to identify and report the problem to the authorities when it is finally discovered.
This is modern-day slavery and it comes in two major types: forced labor and sex slavery. These categories are present within our community, often found in the most innocuous and normal places.
On the forced labor side, cases have been reported where companies use subcontractors who use trafficked individuals for cleaning and other services, as well as other forms of forced strenuous manual labor involving agriculture, construction, etc.
On the sex trafficking side, predators target at-risk youth as well as undocumented immigrants. These victims of sex trafficking are especially vulnerable when our city hosts large sporting or cultural events, as the demand for prostitution rises with the influx of people who have no ties to the area increases.
However, not all is lost.
There are many individuals and organizations that are working hard to foster awareness and fight this abominable practice.
The Jacksonville Women Lawyers Association and The Jacksonville Bar Association partnered to bring a CLE to Jacksonville that will not only inform our legal community of the plights of people that are being trafficked, but will also teach our attorneys about legal remedies that can be used to help these victims.
This Human Trafficking CLE will be Jan. 8 at the Hyatt Downtown, immediately after the JBA luncheon. This CLE will be presented by Martina E. Vandenberg, a nationally renowned civil rights attorney.
Vandenberg has spent nearly two decades fighting human trafficking, forced labor, rape as a war crime and violence against women.
She has also spent a number of years educating the legal community on how to bring legal action against corporations, large and small, which take advantage of the plight of trafficked individuals by looking the other way and taking the lowest bid when they are looking to enter into service agreements with contractors.
Vandenberg is widely regarded as a human rights expert and has represented hundreds of victims of human trafficking in criminal, immigration and civil matters.
She has testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, the Helsinki Commission, the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Armed Services Committee.
Vandenberg is the author of two Human Rights Watch Reports and has received numerous awards for her outstanding pro bono work.
Before she established The Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center in 2012, Vandenberg was a partner at Jenner & Block LLP, where she focused on complex commercial litigation and internal investigations under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
This CLE will be a great resource to attorneys regardless of their practice area. I say this because once a victim of human trafficking is identified, there is generally an array of legal issues that this person might have.
These issues could range from criminal charges to family and dependency cases to immigration.
Consequently, this CLE will provide guidance to attorneys who practice in any of these areas, offering information that will be able to be used to counsel a client, allowing that client to enjoy the full legal representation of a well informed attorney.
If you have any suggestions regarding Human Rights CLEs that you would like to have or any comments regarding this particular CLE, you can email me at [email protected].
Yaima Coto is a civil litigation attorney practicing primarily in the areas of personal injury and family law at Harris, Guidi, Rosner, Dunlap, Rudolph, P.A. She also serves on the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission.