‘Feeling Sorry Changes Nothing’ – Student Group Works To End Human Trafficking
ALBANY, N.Y. (Sept. 12, 2023) — Human trafficking — using force, fraud, deception or coercion as a way to induce people to provide labor or services — is a global problem. The U.S. Department of State calls trafficking both a crime and a human rights abuse, and estimates there are more than 27 million victims worldwide at any given time. Victims can be of any age, gender, ethnicity or background, and the most common forms of exploitation are forced or unpaid labor and sex trafficking.
UAlbany Students Stopping Trafficking of People (SSTOP) is an organization committed to raising awareness and sharing tools to end human trafficking and aid survivors of the crime. The group, founded in 2017, is holding its first general interest meeting at 7:30 p.m. today in room 108 of the Humanities Building. President Gillian Dirr and the group’s E-Board will share information on human trafficking, Fair Trade and upcoming SSTOP events designed to bring awareness to the problem.
Dirr, a psychology major and criminal justice minor from Middletown, Orange County, became aware of the human trafficking in high school while doing research for an essay on human rights violations directed at Falun Gong practitioners detained in China. “This essay began my passion for learning about human trafficking and making others aware of it,” she said. “This is not something far away from us: Trafficking happens in our own cities and does not receive the attention it should.”
SSTOP’s faculty advisor, Dennis McCarty, notes that sympathy for the plight of trafficked individuals is not enough. “We all feel sorry for the women who are forced to work in brothels and the boys who are kidnapped to grow our cocoa in Africa, but feeling sorry for them changes nothing,” he said. Learning what actions we can take is central to the goal of SSTOP – and McCarty, whose book The Quest to End Human Trafficking: An Educational and Practical Guide for Everyone Who Wants to Help Break the Bonds and Assist Survivors, offers some concrete ideas.
The book is available as a free download through the UAlbany Scholars Archive.
McCarty. a lecturer, teaches classes in human trafficking at the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity and the Honors College, and said his students both inspired the book and contributed ideas for it. The book gives an overview of human trafficking and offers practical suggestions for people who want to fight the abuse and assist survivors, including tips for political advocacy, care for survivors and reducing demand by shopping wisely – avoiding sweatshop-made products and concentrating on fair trade products.
McCarty says it’s important to realize we can all play a part in fighting human trafficking, whether by raising awareness by wearing a T-shirt with a message or learning to recognize and report trafficking.
“My best single suggestion, however, might be to shop wisely and adopt a slave-free lifestyle including buying fair trade products and ethically sourced goods from organizations that employ trafficked survivors,” he said. “A simple internet search for ‘goods made by trafficking survivors’ will identify several excellent organizations that offer a wide variety of useful and decorative products.”
In 2021, UAlbany was designated a Fair Trade University, the result of a two-year campaign by SSTOP. UAlbany was the first SUNY school to gain the official designation, through the organization Fair Trade Campaigns. The designation indicates the University’s commitment to incorporating ethically produced products into institutional purchasing, and to educating students and the campus community about fair trade practices.
SSTOP’s first event is planned for Sept. 29, when members and interested students will make fleece blankets to be donated to a local domestic violence shelter. Information on time and location will be forthcoming.
For more information on SSTOP, email [email protected] or follow @ualbanysstop on Instagram. You can hear more about McCarty’s research on a podcast from Emancipation Nation. McCarty also was featured in an episode on the public radio broadcast The Academic Minute.