About Global Centurion

Photo courtesy of Zoriah.net by GMB Akash.

Mission Statement

Global Centurion Foundation is a non-profit organization fighting human trafficking by focusing on the demand side of the equation the perpetrators, exploiters, buyers, and end-users of human beings who fuel the market for forced labor and commercial sex. In this way, we seek to prevent modern slavery at its source, since it is the buyers who create and fuel the market for sex and labor trafficking.

History

More children, women and men are victims of modern slavery today than at any other point in history. Across the world, human traffickers recruit victims using coercion, deceit or force, selling human lives into sexual bondage and slavery, generating more than 30 billion dollars of profit each year. These victims are usually women and children who are exploited through prostitution, slave labor, or who have their organs removed for sale on the black market.

Human trafficking and modern-day slavery operates under a well-established business model: supply (the victims), distribution (the traffickers), and demand (the customers). While there are many organizations that focus on supply (public awareness), distribution and victim services, the key to end modern slavery is to address those who are fueling the market for both labor and sex trafficking.

Founded in 2010, by Laura J. Lederer, J.D., who also founded The Protection Project at Harvard Universitys John F. Kennedy School of Government and who served as a Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons and as a Senior Director of Global Projects in the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. Department of State, Global Centurion is unique in focusing on the demand side of the problem at international, national and local levels.

Three-Pronged Approach to Combat Demand

Just as in any other market, basic economic principles are at work. Supply is a result of demand: when demand goes up, supply grows to meet the demand. Conversely, if demand goes down, so too will the supply. The only effective method for eradicating human trafficking is to target demand. As long as people can buy and sexually exploit human beings, there will continue to be a market for them.

For this reason, Global Centurion developed a three-pronged, preventative approach to combat demand through:

  1. Developing demand-focused research and programs;
  2. Providing cutting-edge education, awareness and advocacy training to communities, civic leaders, NGOs, law enforcement and at-risk populations; and,
  3. Establishing partnership and collaborative networks to respond to modern slavery.

Among its many activities, Global Centurion:

  • Encourages interdisciplinary research, teaching and scholarship regarding demand-focused anti-trafficking efforts.
  • Gathers data about how the United States and foreign countries address the demand problem through laws, criminal justice and educational programs, as well as law enforcement techniques with the goal of identifying and developing best practices that can be tailored to suit the needs of different communities to prevent modern slavery.
  • Analyzes data to identify human trafficking trends (e.g., new techniques used by traffickers to recruit victims and solicit customers) in order to advise policy makers, rescue and restore organizations, and law enforcement officials about how to better utilize existing resources and how to improve victim identification and protection services.
  • Designs training programs for responsible officials going into hot spot areas where trafficking is likely to occur in order to sensitize them to the issue, to enable them to identify victims, intervene, and immediately get them into programs that help them, and to provide information about the victimizers to the authorities.
  • Provides tailored risk assessment and prevention protocols and trainings for government organizations, agencies, corporations and NGOs.