Actress Mira Sorvino and Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., attempted to bring awareness to global human trafficking Thursday at George Washington University. The two were invited to the school to speak on a panel hosted by CNN and the Alliance to End Slavery & Trafficking. They discussed the countries where human trafficking takes place (U.S. included), what enables it and how it can be prevented. “It’s the same terrible degradation of humanity being treated like a thing, a commodity with no regard for their feelings whatsoever,” Sorvino said, recalling the stories she has heard from human trafficking victims. “It’s as though they were worse than an object or a dog to be kicked.”
Vice President of CNN International Tony Maddox, who also spoke on the panel, said media have a responsibility to shine a light on slavery that still takes place around the world. “In the media we often get criticized for our skittish nature,” he said. “I think what we need to do with certain projects like this is to discipline ourselves to say we’re staying with these stories, so we’re going to follow up and follow up.”
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When talks turned to the government’s role in funding projects to combat human trafficking, Smith suggested the U.S. may have its priorities out of line. He said it’s unfortunate that certain matters like the “war on terror” are taken up and “things like human trafficking fall by the wayside.”
The forum also featured a preview of a new documentary, “Nepal’s Stolen Children,” created by the CNN Freedom Project. In the film, actress Demi Moore travels to Nepal to hear stories from victims of human trafficking and learns about the efforts native women are taking to prevent it.
