Trafficking Fund

Equality Now started the Fund for Grassroots Activism to End Sex Trafficking (The Trafficking Fund) in 2007 in order to support grassroots organizations that are working to end the commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls.

The Trafficking Fund supports the decriminalization of women in prostitution and the criminalization of those who patronize prostituted women, as well as pimps and traffickers. Many of the grantees are led by survivors of sex trafficking and prostitution. Grantee organizations work towards empowering women in prostitution by providing them with education and employment, raising awareness of their rights and offering them economic alternatives to allow them to make free choices. The Trafficking Fund facilitates the exchange of ideas and the formation of a collective global strategy.

Trafficking Fund Principles

As the end destination of sex trafficking is prostitution, addressing the demand for prostitution is integral to any effort to end sex trafficking.
Prostitution is a form of sexual exploitation, violence and discrimination.
Women and girls are trafficked into prostitution as a result of sex discrimination, including gender-based poverty and violence, as well as through force, coercion, and deception. Many women are compelled to “consent” to prostitution by these conditions. Addressing sex discrimination and creating economic alternatives for these women is critical to their exercise of free choice.

Why Do We Need the Trafficking Fund?

Around the world, grassroots organizations are working to end the sexual exploitation of women and girls. Faced with overwhelming challenges, including isolation and a lack of resources in addressing the needs of trafficking victims, these small organizations urgently need your help. In addition to financial support, Equality Now’s Trafficking Fund will bring activists together every year to facilitate a global exchange of grassroots strategies and to share successful advocacy models in their work to end sex trafficking and prostitution globally.

The Trafficking Fund is modeled on Equality Now’s Fund for Grassroots Activism to End Female Genital Mutilation (FGM Fund)—a highly effective re-granting program for grassroots groups working to end FGM.

Working to End Sex Trafficking Around the World

Through its Trafficking Program, Equality Now works to end all forms of trafficking in women and girls, most of whom are sold into the commercial sex trade, by educating the public, targeting sex tourism operators, monitoring trafficking that occurs on the internet, and influencing policy makers to pass strong, effective anti-trafficking legislation.

Equality Now Campaigns

Equality Now worked actively in the negotiations that led to the adoption in 2000 of the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (the Trafficking Protocol) , as well as the negotiations that led to the passage of the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in 2000.
Equality Now highlighted the role of the U.S. military in promoting the prostitution of trafficked women in South Korea and campaigned for the establishment of a zero-tolerance policy on prostitution by the U.S. military. As a result, the Manual of Courts Martial was amended to enumerate patronizing prostitution as a crime.
Equality Now worked successfully with law enforcement authorities to secure the first criminal conviction in the U.S. of an international sex tour operator and to shut down three U.S.-based sex tour companies—Big Apple Oriental Tours, Jump-Off Destinations, and Video Travel, which led to the passage, in Hawaii, of the first state law against sex tourism.
Equality Now convened the New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition, whose efforts led to the passage of a strong antitrafficking law in New York after three years of advocacy.

How You Can Help
Taking advantage of action techniques such as letter writing, fax and email campaigns, media events and public information activities, Equality Now mobilizes action on behalf of individual women whose rights are being violated and promotes women’s rights at the local, national and international levels. You can help protect the human rights of women by joining the Women’s Action Network and supporting Equality Now’s Trafficking Fund.

Women and girls around the world need your help.
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