A hidden epidemic quietly devastates the hopes and dreams of women and children across the globe today. Particularly in the developing world, millions find themselves forced into a world where someone else sells their bodies daily in the brutal business of sexual exploitation for profit. They have become victims of human trafficking, trapped in modern slavery.
The Human Trafficking Institute (“HTI”) exists to decimate human trafficking at its source by empowering police and prosecutors to protect victims and stop traffickers. To do this, we partner with developing countries to:
(1) build specialized units of police, prosecutors, and victim specialists responsible for enforcing antitrafficking laws and coordinating care for victims,
(2) conduct capacity-building to equip them with the skills, tactics, and tools
they need to be effective, and
(3) embed experts – experienced human trafficking prosecutors and law enforcement professionals – who join the HTI team and move to our partner countries to work directly with local police and prosecutors to develop their skills and build strong cases against traffickers.
We implement our programs in coordination with our Partner Countries’ governments over an extended period of time until the prevalence of trafficking drops, the model is self-sustaining, and the justice system is fully equipped to stop traffickers going forward. We have deployed this model in Uganda and Belize, and we will be launching a new country partnership with South Africa in late 2023.
HTI has developed and implemented evidence-based specialized programming through government relationships with the countries of Belize and Uganda. HTI has supported the rescue of more than 2,400 victims from exploitation in human trafficking and the arrest of over 1,600 traffickers since 2017. Since HTI embedded our prosecution expert in Uganda in early 2020, the total number of traffickers prosecuted has increased by 417% (1,700 traffickers) year over year. Additionally, we estimate that over the next ten years, an additional 2.2M victims will be protected from traffickers thanks to our 3-part model of work internationally.
HTI's domestic model focuses on the Prosecution arm of the 4 P's in the approach to combat trafficking (Protection, Prevention, Partnership, and advocating for Prosecution). One of the reasons we focus on the prosecution element is that it is our belief that victims of trafficking cannot receive full restoration until they have been afforded justice and their trafficker is held accountable under the rule of law. Victims not only deserve the closure that comes from the arrest and incarceration of their trafficker, but they also deserve access to support services, and restitution that come only through a successful prosecution.
Our domestic work includes the development and implementation of evidence-based specialized training for prosecutors, law enforcement, and front-line first responders. Local law enforcement and prosecutor offices contact HTI to perform this detailed training to provide tools and empowerment to become competent and conduct an intense investigation when a trafficking case arises locally. The training is tailored to fit the audience and comprehensively focuses on victim identification. In our FY 2023, HTI successfully trained over 500 law enforcement officers, prosecutors, first responders, and frontline workers on recognizing the signs of trafficking and best practices for successful prosecutions.
