On March 27, the Georgia State Law Review is hosting its 25th annual symposium. This year’s topic is “Prioritizing Prevention in Human Trafficking Research, Innovation and Advocacy.” The event will be held in the College of Law ceremonial courtroom from 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
The symposium will consist of three significant panel discussions—divided by research, innovation and advocacy-- featuring researchers, scholars and child advocates from across the country. Susan Coppedge, who served as the Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons under President Barack Obama, will serve as the keynote speaker.
Symposium editors Michael Foo and Taylor Lin say that law review staff chose human trafficking as the topic for this year’s conference because it is an issue of local, state and national importance. They want more people to understand the many forms that human trafficking takes, including labor trafficking, child trafficking, and sex trafficking.
“Anti-trafficking discourse tends to offer solutions that take place after the harm of human trafficking has already occurred,” Foo said. “Instead, we wanted to focus on what could be done on the front end to keep trafficking from happening in the first place.”
Prevention is the focus of Distinguished University Professor Jonathan Todres’ research, and he has been guiding students as they built the symposium agenda. He co-wrote the book “Preventing Child Trafficking: A Public Health Approach,” published in Dec. 2019 by Johns Hopkins University Press, and has published extensively on human trafficking and other forms of child exploitation.
“The symposium speakers include many of the country’s most innovative and insightful experts on human trafficking,” Todres said. “The symposium editors should be commended for assembling such a remarkable group to focus on prevention which has been largely overlooked.”
Foo and Lin both hope that attendees will ultimately leave the symposium feeling empowered.
“We want our attendees to recognize the importance of pursuing a prevention-focused approach to human trafficking,” Lin said. “We also hope that they might better understand how certain prevention efforts may fit into their personal and professional capacities in the community.”
Symposium registration is open and the event qualifies for CLE credit. A full agenda is available here.