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Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) is a Los Angeles-based anti-human trafficking organization. Through legal, social, and advocacy services, CAST helps rehabilitate survivors of human trafficking, raises awareness, and affects legislation and public policy surrounding human trafficking. CAST was founded in 1998 as a response to the landmark El Monte Thai Garment Slavery Case of 1995,〔() 〕 in which 72 Thai immigrants were forced to work in slave-like conditions for 18-hours a day, while locked-up in the Los Angeles suburb of El Monte. The victims were paid about 69 cents an hour, and charged exorbitant amounts for basic necessities, ensuring they would never be able to pay off their original debt to their traffickers, and remain under their control. The case garnered national press coverage, and brought the issue of modern slavery and human trafficking into the mainstream media. In 1997, Dr. Kathryn McMahon, a professor at California State University, Long Beach, started the Trafficked Women Project. This grew into CAST, which officially came into existence in 1998 CAST defines human trafficking as “a modern-day form of slavery,” in which victims are subjected to force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of forced labor or sexual exploitation. Victims of trafficking can work in domestic service, factories, farms, restaurants, construction sites, hotel housekeeping, servile marriage, forced prostitution, child prostitution and child pornography. According to their website, CAST has spearheaded many developments in the anti-trafficking movement. They are the first organization in the United States exclusively dedicated to serving survivors of trafficking, and were instrumental in starting the Los Angeles Slavery and Trafficking Task Force (now called the Los Angeles Metropolitan Task Force on Human Trafficking), the first task force in the U.S. dedicated to combating human trafficking. In 2004, CAST opened the country’s first shelter exclusively housing survivors of human trafficking. ==CAST’s Services== CAST’s stated mission is to “assist persons trafficked for the purpose of forced labor and slavery-like practices and work toward ending all instances of such human rights violations. " The organization favors a survivor-centric approach, and achieves its mission by providing three main services: Advocacy and coalition building, client service programs, and outreach. *Advocacy and Coalition Building – Through advocacy and coalition building, CAST campaigns to affect public policy and legislation surrounding the issue of human trafficking. CAST partners with other NGOs and law enforcement organizations, to foster a co-operative approach to combating trafficking. CAST has influenced anti-trafficking legislation, including the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2008, and the SB 1569 California bill in 2006, which allows for non-citizen victims of trafficking to gain access to state funded social services for up to one year. *Client Services – CAST’s client services are designed to meet the needs of survivors of human trafficking, and include legal representation, social services such as job training, counseling, life skills training, and provision of food and shelter. CAST started the first shelter in the U.S. that exclusively houses survivors of human trafficking. *Outreach – CAST’s outreach programs raise public awareness of the existence of human trafficking—focusing on how to identify victims of trafficking, and “ensure that they will be treated as victims rather than illegal aliens or even criminals.” CAST provides training to law enforcement, health and social service providers, attorneys, government and faith-based organizations. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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