The public hearing meeting was on the topic of human trafficking and slavery, held on the 15th February 2017 at the Dirksen Office Building. This was the third year that a meeting on human victim trafficking was held. The major discussion in the meeting was to highlight the horrific nature of modern slavery and also discuss its progress as the United States prepared to make significant changes on the issue of humanity. The topic in question is connected to the bill on Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 is clearly evident in the agenda that was discussed during the meeting (United States, 2000). Senator Bob Corker from Tennessee chaired the meeting as the Foreign Relation Committee Chair who introduced the holding and presented the main agendas and the significant witnesses who included Mr. Ashton Kutcher, Ms. Elisa Massimino, and Jenny Brown among others.
Senator Bob Corker opened up the meeting by welcoming and thanking everyone who showed up for the meeting sharing that there could be a few destructions in between the meeting due to some uninformed activities that would take place. He introduced the agenda for the session based on the topic of human trafficking and slavery where he mentioned what would be discussed. The programme included highlight on the horrific nature of modern slavery and also highlighted on the progress of the same as the United States of America makes changes on humanity ("Ashton Kutcher Testifies", 2017). He also mentioned another agenda to be discussed was on the trafficking victims protection act that was receiving attention on awareness growth increasing effect on the anti-human trafficking all over the country.
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Testimony Discussion
The speaker testimonies were presented by two main witnesses of human trafficking present in the meeting. The first one was Ashton Kutcher who is the co-founder of Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children and also an actor and a father of two. He represented his corporation that fights for human rights especially the children and defending them. The second witness was Elisa Massimoni who has served the Human Right First President and also the CEO. The organization ensures safety for the people of the United States giving her testimony on why human trafficking and slavery should be a concern in the current world.
Mr. Ashton Kutcher talked about his mission that day which was entailed safeguarding people from elements that would deprive them of pursuance of happiness. He included that it is the responsibility of every individual, the society and the government to impact happiness upon other people. However, he explained that these rights are being abused and taken by corruption and false fraud ("Ashton Kutcher Testifies", 2017). In his career, he has met many victims of trafficking from Mexico, Russia, India, and New-Jersey among others who have suffered slavery and trafficking that include labor and sex trafficking, especially for children.
Ashton gave an example of a devastating clip he saw online of a girl in Cambodia being sexually assaulted by an American man. More so, Kutcher explained that he also received a call in the daily routine of his job to help a girl aged seven years who was also being sexually abused (“Ashton Kutcher”, 2016). Inclusively, he told a story of a fifteen-year-old girl in Oakland named Amy who met a man online, and they started conversing when they later met in person. In a matter of hours, she was abused; raped and later she was forced to trafficking and sold for sex in isolation (“Ashton Kutcher's powerful testimony”, 2017). Using a software tool being recommended by Kutcher, Amy was found within three days of investigation and returned to her family.
On the other hand, Elisa talks about slavery which is devastating world-wide where the most vulnerable individuals are mostly refugees. The matter is spread so much that it involves chains that include criminal enterprises and terrorists which the country has vowed to work on it tirelessly. She testified that the nation had become both the source and destination where trafficking takes place whereby those people involved in the criminal act earn money amounting to 150 billion dollars in a year as a profit ("Ashton Kutcher Testifies", 2017). On the contrary, the government and other organizations such as the one Elisa represents spend up to 124 million dollars to combat the issue which represents an imbalance of the strength of the fight.
Massimoni also includes that the easy target is the refugees from nations such as Syria and Iraq fleeing from violence and plagues such as terrorism and political instability. She defends this by testifying that the congress and administration have increased their commitment in the fight against these crimes because it is a matter of national security which is essential to everyone ("Ashton Kutcher Testifies," 2017). She and the organization believe in standing up for the rights of the citizens as a moral obligation and have been working on the human rights aspects to make the United States the number one ambassador for rights against trafficking for over forty years. Their arguments find support in the various US legal efforts, civil movements and campaigns to institute total equality in the society.
The testimonies given by the two witness individuals had compelling points at the tone of conviction. They presented with utmost facts of their experiences in their field of work which shows that the pieces of evidence were accurate and their fight for human rights and against human trafficking is working (“ Ashton Kutcher Testifies”, 2017 ). These facts strengthened their discussion. Both testifiers agreed on that slavery is a significant problem and need to be addressed in whatever ways available and put on the resources to ensure that trafficking is reduced and to the best of their performance, wiped out (United States, 2000). They have also given recommendations on how better they know to curb the problem such as Ashton giving the option of technology as a tool that promotes and also can be used to disable slavery. He testified that currently, about 40 agencies are using the technology tool to solve the slavery issue and human trafficking ( “ Ashton Kutcher”, 2016 ). This number is too small compared to the magnitude of the problem of human trafficking.
The issue of using technology as a tool could have been strengthened on how to the devices could be used efficiently. The sharing could have given more inspiration to the listeners in helping prevent the problem in query. The situation would arise since technology could have been essential in portraying the various view points of the issue. The presenters should have given more details on how they have been able to handle the problem of trafficking and slavery through technology and also help plan for the training session on the use of technology tool (“ Ashton Kutcher Testifies”, 2017 ). This would make things easier and faster, and the perpetrators would be found easier with collaborations from the government, the society, and non-governmental organizations.
There were also questions asked and answered during the meeting by the committee members. The type of questions lay in the dimension of the types of regulations, the resources used in the defense against human slavery and trafficking and on future legislation on anti-trafficking that could assist the government and private sectors solve the challenge in the country (“Ashton Kutcher's powerful testimony”, 2017). More so, the answers were meant to help the international counterparts to curb slavery and criminal networks. Additionally, the senators focused on the legislation on anti-trafficking they were pursuing asking the witnesses, Elisa Massimoni and Ashton Kutcher, on the best methods to upgrade federal support and the state level efforts and also how to improve like efforts abroad.
The tone the speakers used to present their views and works were very compelling and passionate that carried the audience to feel what they felt as they spoke. At some point, Mr. Ashton was very emotional during his presentation when he gave the story of a girl who was sexually abused being spread all over the internet that he almost cried (“Ashton Kutcher's powerful testimony”, 2017). The audience got emotional, and their faces showed that they felt what the speakers meant. The tone must have come from the painful experiences of others, and a painful witness of the situation and a severe mood drove the audience present. Watching the video makes one feel like they too were present in the experiences and felt the pain they felt.
The experience of this sitting has had a great influence on me such that I realize that we as ordinary citizens have individuals who are concerned about the happiness of everyone and the safety. More so, they are doing what they can to ensure that human trafficking is dealt with so that citizens feel safe while going about their routine. As future maters of social work policy, I can understand that policy development policy takes time to be processed and a lot of financial resources are necessary. When the amount to destroy is more than what mends, the imbalance in the ration does not match the efforts.
References
Ashton Kutcher Testifies on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking. (2017, February 15). Retrieved from https://www.c-span.org/video/?424036-1/ashton-kutcher-testifies-modern-slavery-human-trafficking
Ashton Kutcher: My Organization Helped Find 6,000 Human Trafficking Victims | TODAY [Video file]. (2016, October 7). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6Vw6df2M_w
Ashton Kutcher's powerful testimony on human slavery and human trafficking [Video file]. (2017, February 15). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNnTgHR_B9Q
United States. (2000). Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 . US Government Printing Office.
