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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
NATIONAL SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING PREVENTION MONTH
WHEREAS, on January 4, 2010, President Barack Obama made the first Presidential Proclamation declaring January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Awareness Month, culminating in the annual celebration of National Freedom Day on February 1; and
WHEREAS, the start of the year holds some of the nation’s most important holidays and anniversaries of freedom including the federal ban on the transatlantic slave trade which went into effect on New Year’s Day 1808, President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation which was delivered 55 years later on New Year’s Day 1863, and the signing of 13th Amendment by President Abraham Lincoln and sent to the States for ratification on February 1, 1865; and
WHEREAS, human trafficking describes the crime of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring or receiving of people through force, fraud, or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit; and
WHEREAS, in the United States, human trafficking includes both forced labor and sex trafficking; and
WHEREAS, under 22 USC § 7102, sex trafficking is defined as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purposes of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age; and
WHEREAS, 22 USC § 7102 additionally defines labor trafficking as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery; and
WHEREAS, on November 15, 2000, The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons was adopted as part of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and became the first legally binding instrument with an internationally recognized definition of human trafficking; and
WHEREAS, grounded in the principles set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Protocol set forth the global framework known as the 3P Paradigm - prevention, protection, and prosecution - that has been used to combat human trafficking ever since; and
WHEREAS, as part of the United States commitment to following approach, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), marking the United States’ first comprehensive anti-human trafficking legislation; and
WHEREAS, the TVPA has been reauthorized seven times to expand the scope of protections and services available to survivors, increase the funding available to anti-trafficking programs, and enshrine more rights for survivors; and
WHEREAS, however, in 2022 a package of four bills was introduced during the 117th Congress to reauthorize the TVPA’s existing victim services programs and establish new protections for survivors and, unfortunately, Congress failed to pass the full package before the end of the session for the first time, only passing two of the bills and leaving critical provisions out of the law; and
WHEREAS, globally, according to the International Labour Organization, over 27 million people - or 3.5 out of every 1,000 - were victims of human trafficking in 2021, including 77 percent through forced labor and 23 percent through commercial sexual exploitation with the average trafficking situation lasting over 15 months; and
WHEREAS, the National Human Trafficking Hotline reports that, since its inception in 2007, it has received 463,109 signals and identified 112,822 cases of human trafficking, with over 218,500 victims identified in those cases; and
WHEREAS, in 2023 alone, the National Human Trafficking Hotline received a total of 30,162 substantive signals nationwide and received reports of 9,619 potential human trafficking cases referencing 16,999 potential victims; and
WHEREAS, the non-cumulative types of trafficking reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline in 2023 included 5,572 sex trafficking situations, 1,558 labor trafficking situations, and 1,021 situations that included both sex and labor trafficking; and
WHEREAS, non-cumulative case demographic information for 2023 victims included 6,676 adults, 2,535 minors, 6,863 females, 1,480 males, 1,152 foreign nationals, and 934 Lawful Permanent Residents; and
WHEREAS, also in 2023, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received more than 18,400 reports of possible child sex trafficking and reported that 1 in 6 (4,800 cases) of the more than 28,800 cases of children reported missing in 2023 were likely subjected to child sex trafficking; and
WHEREAS, an analysis of trends of calls received in 2021 by the National Human Trafficking Hotline found that the top traffickers were employers (43 percent), family members (26 percent), and intimate partners (22 percent), and that most individuals subjected to human trafficking (65 percent) were recruited online; and
WHEREAS, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, in 2022, 95 percent of defendants charged with federal human trafficking offenses were U.S. citizens, and 71 percent had no prior convictions; and
WHEREAS, according to the International Labour Organization’s 2021 Global Estimates indicated there are 50 million people in situations of modern slavery on any given day, either forced to work against their will or in a marriage that they were forced into, equating to nearly one of every 150 people across the world; and
WHEREAS, today, despite the 178 parties signed onto the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, only 10 of the 188 countries and territories assessed in the Department of State’s 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report have yet to adhere to this international standard to ensure their laws criminalize all forms of human trafficking, take concerted steps to prevent human trafficking, protect all victims, and cooperate internationally to combat this global crime; and
WHEREAS, The United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking was established by the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act (JVTA) on May 29, 2015; and
WHEREAS, The Council is made up of appointees by the President for two-year terms and provides a formal platform for trafficking survivors to advise and make recommendations on federal anti-trafficking policies to the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (PITF); and
WHEREAS, The Advisory Council is tasked with publishing an annual report that contains the findings derived from reviews conducted of federal government policy and programs, with these reports most often being released at the end of the year; and
WHEREAS, however, there has yet to be any release of a 2025 Report of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking; and
WHEREAS, in Illinois, the Human Trafficking Hotline has received 10,458 signals since its inception in 2007, and identified 3,129 cases of human trafficking with over 6,200 victims; and
WHEREAS, on January 1, 2019, The Illinois Trafficking Victims Protection Act went into effect, allowing victims of human trafficking to seek civil damages and remedies from their perpetrators; and
WHEREAS, in 2025, Illinois went from an “F” on the Shared Hope International Just Like Me Report Cards to an “A” due to its recent passage of the Illinois Statewide Trauma-Informed Response to Human Trafficking Act; and
WHEREAS, Illinois is now one of only three states to receive an “A” grade, ranking second in the nation for its policies surrounding human trafficking survivors; and
WHEREAS, following through on Cook County’s dedication to fighting human trafficking and protecting victims, The Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force was established in 2010 as a joint project of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office and the Salvation Army STOP-IT Program, and serves as a multi-disciplinary task force that brings law enforcement and social and legal service agencies together to work on human trafficking cases; and
WHEREAS, now more than ever, victims of human trafficking desperately need us to continue to stand alongside them as we continue to combat human trafficking through collaboration between legislators, law enforcement, social service providers, and community organizations; and
WHEREAS, Cook County remains committed to protecting residents across the county, state, and country from the horrors of human trafficking and taking victim-centered approaches to providing remedies;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Cook County Board of Commissioners of does hereby recognize January 2026 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.
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