Canada's Anti-Human Trafficking Newsletter Special Edition

Canada's Anti-Human Trafficking Newsletter Special Edition PDF Version (438 KB)

Public-Private Partnerships are …

Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are joint ventures between the public sector (i.e., different levels of government) and the private sector (i.e., businesses, charitable foundations, corporations, industries, etc.,) to advance an issue, in this instance the anti-human trafficking agenda.

This special edition of the newsletter focuses on a number of examples of successful PPPs from Canada and internationally to combat human trafficking. In order to highlight and promote the role of business and the private sector in addressing this crime, this issue also provides examples of various anti-trafficking initiatives undertaken by the private sector.

PPPs in Action – At Home

SMART:  A Public-Private Partnership in Action

As part of its ongoing national commitment to end the human trafficking of women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation in Canada, the Canadian Women's Foundation, which is supported by numerous Canadian corporate partners, is currently funding a ground-breaking program in Surrey, British Columbia (BC). The Surrey Mobile Assault Response Team (SMART) is an interdisciplinary team of medical, legal and social service providers that supports trafficked women and girls with short term support and urgent medical care for injuries resulting from a physical or sexual assault. SMART is the only one of its kind in Canada.

Funded in partnership with the Federal Department of Justice and the BC Ministry of Justice Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons (OCTIP), SMART is the only 24-hour emergency mobile response team in the region. Since April 2013, it has helped 31 trafficked women and girls (all under the age of 24), seven of whom suffered extreme violence at the hands of traffickers.

In collaboration with Surrey Memorial Hospital, SMART is also developing a “Help Don't Hinder” toolkit to help emergency department personnel respond to signs of trafficking in 13 hospitals across the region.

SMART is delivered through a partnership between Surrey Women's Centre Society and Fraser Health Authority.

This funding is part of a broader $2 million strategy the Canadian Women's Foundation is rolling out over the next year. The money will be used to fund programs that help women and girls escape sexual exploitation and rebuild their lives, conduct research, and bring together experts, survivors and community leaders in a Task Force on Trafficking of Women and Girls in Canada.

To learn more about how the Canadian Women's Foundation is working to end trafficking, please visit, www.canadianwomen.org/trafficking.

Human Trafficking on the MAP – Addressing Human Trafficking with the Business Sector in Prince George

In Prince George, BC, the issue of human trafficking has been put on the MAP through partnerships with key business sector stakeholders, including the Prince George Chamber of Commerce and Canfor Products Ltd., among others, to raise awareness of the issue and to support the identification of intervention and prevention strategies.

As a result of this initiative, businesses and other organizations in the area have a better understanding of the issue. Staff/employees not only have the tools to be able to identify potential victims of human trafficking, but also know who to contact should they come across a victim of this crime.

This work was undertaken by the Prince George and District Elizabeth Fry Society in partnership with the Ministry of Justice and BC OCTIP. For more information, please contact Bally Bassi at bally@pgefry.bc.ca.

TruckSTOP Awareness Campaign

Initially developed with funding support from Public Safety Canada, PACT-Ottawa's TruckSTOP campaign continues to find new ways to educate, empower and mobilize the trucking industry and the general public in the fight against human trafficking. The TruckSTOP campaign is an awareness initiative that provides frequent travelers with the knowledge they need to identify suspected cases of human trafficking and alert law enforcement. As the 'eyes of the road,' truck drivers and frequent travelers can be the first line of defense against this crime.

Private industry partners and supporters for the TruckSTOP campaign include, but are not limited to, the Yanke Group of Companies, Fifth Wheel Truck Stops and Drive Logistics.

For more information on the TruckSTOP campaign, visit PACT Ottawa's website at www.pact-truckstop.org/ or follow them on Facebook.

Human Trafficking Awareness Raising with Hotels in Montreal, Quebec

Since 2012, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has worked in partnership with the Mouvement anti-traite de Montreal (MAMT) to raise awareness about the issue of human trafficking with various hotels in the Montreal area. Over 50 hotels have received the 'I'm Not for Sale' human trafficking awareness toolkit developed by the RCMP Human Trafficking National Coordination Centre and at least 12 hotels have received RCMP- led training sessions, which educate hotel staff on the laws and issues surrounding human trafficking and its victims.

Additionally, since 2012 and in partnership with the Service de police de la Ville de Montreal, the RCMP has also raised awareness amongst massage parlours in the area. Massage parlours have been sometimes identified as possible fronts for human trafficking.

PPPs in Action - Around the World

Improving the Supply Chain: H&M & UNICEF

Global retailer H&M and UNICEF have been working together since 2004 to respect, support and advocate for children's rights. H&M believes that investing in children is essential towards building a sustainable future while leading to a productive business environment. Through their due diligence and working closely with UNICEF, H&M continues to identify ways to improve their supply chain focusing on child labour in the cotton industry in Tamil Nadu, India and child poverty in Dhaka, Bangladesh where the garment industry is prominent.

In 2009, H&M created the “All for Children” campaign, a multi-year project implemented by UNICEF to strengthen communities to protect children from harmful practices such as child labour and human trafficking while working to improve access to quality education. The program is also supporting the roll out of government policies and reaches more than 2 million children and adults.   

For more information, please go to: http://about.hm.com/AboutSection/en/About/Sustainability/Commitments/Communities/Community-Projects/All-for-Children.html.

In 2010, H&M successfully advocated to the government of Bangladesh to increase minimum wages. This is an important step to improving the lives of the adult workforce and the millions of children dependant on them. For more information, please go to: http://about.hm.com/AboutSection/en/About/Sustainability/Reporting-and-Resources/Case-Studies/Wages-Bangladesh.html.

These efforts also fall under H&M's incorporation of the Child Rights and Business Principles (launched in 2012 and developed by UNICEF, Save the Children, and the UN Global Compact) into their policies and operations. For more information, go to: http://www.unicef.org/csr/12.htm.

US DHS, DOT and Amtrak Partnership to Combat Human Trafficking

On October 4, 2012, a partnership was announced between the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Transportation (DOT) and Amtrak to combat human trafficking. Under this partnership, DHS and DOT worked with Amtrak to train over 8,000 frontline transportation employees and Amtrak Police Department officers to identify and recognize indicators of human trafficking, as well as how to report suspected cases of human trafficking (using training and awareness materials developed by DHS/DOT as part of the DHS Blue Campaign).

Partnership for Freedom: Innovation Award to Stop Human Trafficking

Launched on September 17, 2013, and led by Humanity United, the US Department of Justice and other federal agencies, and with support from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative, the Steven Spielberg's Righteous Persons Foundation and a growing number of other supporters, the Partnership for Freedom created a $6 million challenge fund to support innovative solutions to improve care for survivors of human trafficking and modern-day slavery.

Communities are being challenged to develop collaborative and comprehensive solutions to human trafficking survivor care that can be evaluated and expanded nationally and internationally through federal policies and programs.

For more information on the Partnership for Freedom initiative, please go to: http://www.partnershipforfreedom.org/.

UN.GIFT, Microsoft and End Human Trafficking Now – E-Training for Businesses on Human Trafficking

The e-learning course was created by UN.GIFT and the 'End Human Trafficking Now!' campaign, with the support of private partners. Designed as an interactive, web-based resource, the tool, which was technically developed and sponsored by Microsoft, assists in the identification of potential risks for human trafficking for businesses as well as actions that can be taken to address these risks.

For more information or to access this training, please go to: http://www.endhumantraffickingnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/E-Tool.pdf.

Human Trafficking, the Private Sector & Responsible Business

Global Business Coalition Against Human Trafficking

Businesses have an integral role to play in advancing the fight against human trafficking in all its forms around the world. The Global Business Coalition Against Human Trafficking (gBCAT) is a worldwide coalition of corporations that seeks to share information and best practices to address the potential vulnerability of businesses and their operations to human trafficking.

gBCAT focuses on four key areas.

1. Training and education (employee, vendor and sub-contractor training).
2. Raising awareness of company policies to combat sex trafficking.
3. Identifying and preventing human trafficking in supply chain operations.
4. Communication and outreach through leadership and the transfer of best practices.

Corporations that have joined gBCAT include, among others: Delta Airlines, Microsoft, Ford, Carlson, LexusNexus and the Coca Cola Company. For more information, please go to: http://www.gbcat.org/.

Travel & Tourism Industry

d3h Hotels Partners with ACT Alberta

d3h Hotels is a hotel management company with properties in Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 2012, d3H Hotel head office staff and hotel general managers attended the Days Inn General Conference in Las Vegas. After attending a session hosted by ECPAT International and the Polaris Project, the attendees were inspired to take action against human trafficking. Bringing this passion home, a training program was developed, which includes a Code of Conduct, policies and procedures regarding human trafficking and sexual exploitation, training manuals, and a two hour training session for the staff. Partnerships were also established with local police services and ACT Alberta, one of the leading anti-human trafficking organizations in Canada.

ACT Alberta provided d3h Hotels with resources, information and brochures for the training that took place at its 11 hotel properties in Alberta and Saskatchewan and conducted half hour sessions at the d3h Hotel training seminars in Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta.

To learn more, please go to: http://www.actalberta.org/ (ACT Alberta) or http://www.d3h.ca/ (d3h Hotels).

Do Meeting Planners Have a Role in Combatting Human Trafficking? Yes!

In January 2012, Nix Conference and Meeting Management (St. Louis, Missouri) became the first ever meeting planning company in the US to sign the End Child Prostitution, Child Pornograpy and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT)-USA Meeting Planners Code of Conduct. Nix hopes to encourage the meeting planning industry nationwide to address the issue at every hotel where they do business.

For more information, please go to: http://www.nixassoc.com/more-about-nix/.

Sabre's 'Passport to Freedom' Initiative

In late 2012, Sabre Holdings, the travel technology company that owns Travelocity, launched the 'Passport to Freedom' initiative to train its 10,000 employees in 60 countries on how to identify and report potential cases of human trafficking. Sabre plans to expand its outreach to businesses, travel agents and travelers who use its software and would like to eventually include informational links in all its itineraries to raise awareness of this crime. Sabre is also developing a long-term scholarship and employment program to provide job training to survivors of human trafficking for careers in travel and tourism.

Sabre was the first global travel technology company to sign the Tourism Child Protection Code of Conduct, a set of six guidelines that travel and tourism companies can implement to protect children from sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

For more information on the 'Passport to Freedom' initiative, please go to: http://www.sabre.com/images/uploads/PassporttoFreedomAnnouncementFactSheetFINAL.9_.26_.12_.pdf or http://www.sabre.com/home/about/corporate_responsibility/fighting_human_trafficking/.

For more information on the Tourism Child Protection Code of Conduct, please go to: http://www.thecode.org/.

Carlson, Hilton and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Promote Responsible Business Practices to Combat Human Trafficking

Carlson, Hilton and Starwood Hotels and Resorts, three global hospitality and travel companies with locations in multiple countries, including Canada, have adopted and promoted business practices that seek to protect victims of human trafficking, as well as developing proactive measures to train employees and encourage their partners and the broader business community to take a stand against human trafficking. All three companies are members of the International Tourism Partnership, which brings together the world's leading global hotel corporations to speak out for social responsibility in the travel and hospitality industry – including against human trafficking.

For more information on the work being done by these hotels to address human trafficking, please visit their main corporate websites.

Youth Career Initiative Pilots Human Trafficking Awareness Training Program

The Youth Career Initiative (YCI) is a six-month education program of the International Business Leaders Forum (headquartered in the United Kingdom) that provides disadvantaged young people with life and work skills in leading hotels. The YCI has started incorporating rehabilitated survivors of human trafficking as part of the target group in selected locations, including Mexico City, Mexico and Hanoi, Vietnam. By 2015, YCI hopes to expand the work with trafficking survivors to cover additional new locations.

For more information on the YCI, please go to: http://www.youthcareerinitiative.org/.

Technology & Communications Industry

Microsoft Human Trafficking Research Grants

In June 2012, Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit and Microsoft Research collaborated on an initiative to support researchers who have creative ideas for clarifying the role of technology in facilitating child sex trafficking. Six teams were awarded funding to study various aspects of this issue, including the online behaviors of johns, the impact of technology on the demand for child sex trafficking victims, and the ways in which judges and law enforcement officers understand the role of technology in sex trafficking cases.

One of the grant recipients is Dr. Sue McIntyre from Calgary, Alberta. The research being conducted by Dr. McIntyre and her associates focuses on demand and how technology has changed the recruiting, buying and selling process in trafficking.

When the research concludes, Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit and Microsoft Research intend to make the findings available to help develop tools for disrupting technology facilitated sex trafficking.

To learn more go to: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/2012/jul12/07-18childsextraffickingresearch.aspx.

Google Helps Fight Human Trafficking

In April 2013, Google awarded a $3 million Global Impact Award to Polaris Project, Liberty Asia and La Strada International to connect anti-trafficking helplines in a global data sharing collaboration, which could help identify trafficking patterns and provide victims anywhere with enhanced support. The Global Human Trafficking Hotline Network will collect local hotline data, share promising practices and develop strategies that focus on combatting human trafficking and victim protection.

For more information, please go to: http://googleblog.blogspot.ca/2013/04/fighting-human-trafficking.html.

Other Sectors

Servus Credit Union Partners with ACT Alberta to Raise Awareness of Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is a predicate offence to money laundering that generates billions of dollars annually. The rise in human trafficking cases in rural (and some urban) parts of Alberta is a growing trend that has generated concern. To better equip the Servus Credit Union team to identify predicate offences, and assist in the prevention, detection and deterrence of money laundering and terrorism financing, Servus searched out an opportunity to connect with organizations that could provide education on crimes such as human trafficking. Servus initiated collaboration with ACT Alberta to raise awareness about this global phenomenon and to provide its analysts with a better understanding of human trafficking in hopes of detecting it though investigative analysis. It is through these important partnerships that Servus Credit Union gains the insight needed to identify and report suspected cases of human trafficking.

Coca Cola Company – Addressing Forced Labour and Human Trafficking in the Supply Chain

Coca Cola's Workplace Rights Policy and Supplier Guiding Principles prohibit the use of all forms of forced labor (i.e., prison labor, indentured labor, bonded labor, military labor, and slave labor) and human trafficking within the company, as well as by any companies that directly supplies or provides services to the company. Each year it conducts compliance audits of the company, its franchises, bottlers and supply chain to ensure that its human rights (including anti-human trafficking) policies are being followed.

For more information on the efforts of the Coca Cola Company to combat human trafficking, please go to: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/transparency-in-supply-chains-addressing-forced-labor-human-trafficking.

The Body Shop's 'Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People' Campaign.

In 2009 together with ECPAT International and NGO partners, the Body Shop International launched a 3 year global awareness campaign, 'Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People'. At its close, twenty countries and over 7 million people had participated in the campaign.

For more information, please go to: http://www.thebodyshop.ca/en/values/trafficking.aspx.

Resources & Publications

Human Trafficking and Business: Good Practices to Combat Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT, 2010)

This report presents an introduction to human trafficking and the role that business can play in addressing this crime. It explains in practical terms what human trafficking is, why it is an issue for business and what companies, both large and small, can do to take action against it.

Employers and businesses are well placed to provide effective and sustained anti-human trafficking action in the community, at the workplace and in the global economy. Business engagement, alongside that of key stakeholders such as public policy actors and civil society, is essential in the global fight to rid the world of this modern scourge.

To access this report, please go to: http://www.ungift.org/docs/ungift/Private_Sector_Web.pdf.

The Private Sector's Pivotal Role in Combatting Human Trafficking (Jonathan Tordes, 2012)

Human trafficking is big business, with industry estimates running in the billions of dollars annually. Much of that profit accrues to traffickers, illegal profiteers, and organized crime groups. However, the private sector also reaps economic benefits, directly and indirectly, from human trafficking. Despite these economic realities, the dominant approach to combating human trafficking has been to rely almost exclusively on governments and social services organizations to do the job. Little has been asked of the private sector. This essay explores the role the private sector can play in combating human trafficking. It examines the rationale for private sector involvement in anti-trafficking efforts and discusses ways in which policy makers can utilize law to spur private sector engagement in the fight against human trafficking.

To access this article, please go to (English only): http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2002957.

Investing in the Business against Human Trafficking – Embracing the Fourth “P” – Partnerships (Maudisa McSween, 2011)

This article focuses on multi-sector partnerships, particularly public-private partnerships, in the global fight against human trafficking. It examines legal constructs and highlights the dynamic of this type of partnership as it pertains to human trafficking. Moreover, it explores the laws and provisions advocating for collaborative efforts to eradicate this crime.

To purchase/download this article (English only), please go to: https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&doctype=cite&docid=6+Intercultural+Hum.+Rts.+L.+Rev.+283&srctype=smi&srcid=3B15&key=5bb8c56f8aaa00f1e4c33ff0f61217c6.

An Innovative Approach to Combat Transatlantic Human Trafficking (Teresa Cantero and Rachel Molomut, Brussels Forum, 2013)

This article examines potential role of the private sector and business in anti-human trafficking efforts around the world. Over the last few decades there has been increasing interest in the private sector's connection to human rights and development. Governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), foundations, and institutions have been working to develop strategies to engage the private sector in development and human rights agendas. It is time for the private sector to take a leading role in the fight against human trafficking as well.

To access this article (English only), please go to: http://brussels.gmfus.org/files/2013/03/BF2013Views_YWA.pdf.

List of Goods Produced by Child Labour or Forced Labour (US Department of Labour, 2012)

The primary purpose of this yearly report, entitled the 'List of Goods Produced by Child Labour and Forced Labour' (the List), is to raise awareness about forced labour and child labour in the production of goods, from bricks, carpets, footwear, furniture and soap to clothing, glass, electronics and toys among others, and to promote efforts to address these issues. Not intended to be punitive, the List provides a starting point for dialogue and action. It can also serve as a valuable resource for businesses and companies in carrying out risk assessments and due diligence on labour rights within their own supply chains.

To access the report, please go to: http://www.dol.gov/ilab.

Free2Work – the Story Behind the Barcode

The Free2Work website and mobile app allows consumers to see how favorite brands are working to address human trafficking and child forced labour. Industry pages provide additional in-depth information on industry-specific issues and there is also information available on human trafficking in the supply chain.

Please go to: http://www.free2work.org/ for more information.

Note to Our Readers

Since its launch, requests have been received from across Canada and from other countries to be added to the ever-growing distribution list for Canada's Anti-Human Trafficking Newsletter. As such, and due to the volume of submissions received, it has been decided to increase the publication of the newsletter to four times yearly (quarterly).

Thank you to those who have submitted items for consideration for each issue! Items submitted that are not included in the Special Edition on Public-Private Partnerships to Combat Human Trafficking will be considered for the next issue, which will be coming out in January 2014.  

Thank you for making the newsletter possible!

Date modified:

2022-08-09