Lobbying for Safe Harbor Legislation

In the Capitol building atrium!

I spent Tuesday morning at the capitol lobbying for Safe Harbor legislation which would vacate criminal convictions for victims of human trafficking for crimes committed while they were trafficked. I believe that this a vital component to the human rights approach versus the criminal justice approach to trafficking because it ensures that victims are treated as victims and not prosecuted as criminals! Thirty-four states have passed safe harbor laws so we are hoping Georgia will be next. The legislation is limited in scope and only offers protections to those under 18 years of age that have been commercially sexually exploited and many of those existent laws only offer legal protections to prostitution and prostitution-related crimes when they should likely extend beyond that but still we have to start somewhere!

The introduction of bill on the floor of the Senate!