Truckers take on human trafficking

In the debate over how to reduce sexual assault on university campuses, proposing self-defense classes for women is controversial. But, according to new landmark Canadian research, it works.

Domestic abuse of the staff in the households of the 1% is often overlooked or ignored. But foreign missions in the US that abuse their domestic staff are finally being held accountable.

A national survey showed that few college students intervene when witnessing a sexual assault. The school with the highest rate of student intervention was Dartmouth College, where students receive bystander prevention training.

A non-profit in Bangladesh is fighting domestic violence by having female and especially male Bangladeshi volunteers give sexual education and women's rights classes.

Girls in India are sometimes forced into the prospects of child marriage, prostitution, or slave labor; alternatively, families often teach girls to be wives and mothers. To empower girls to make their own choices, Yuwa, an NGO based in India, introduces girls to sports for social development. Yuwa also promotes educational workshops for girls, where girls can discuss women’s rights and their thoughts about their own bodies.

In the Mumbai slum of Dharavi, an NGO called Society for Nutrition, Education & Health Action (SNEHA) is working to make life safer by teaching men the importance of not being violent towards women. Through an app called Eyewatch, community members are able to document acts of domestic violence, which helps SNEHA team members locate victims and their abusers.

For decades, migrant workers in Florida have been employed under dreadful conditions, picking produce without breaks under extreme temperatures and women being sexually harassed. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has demanded that growers increase wages, mandate rest breaks, and prohibit sexual harassment. The Coalition has partnered with big food companies, notably McDonald’s, Yum Brands, and Walmart, which have pledged to buy only from growers who follow these standards.

2014 was a year marked nationwide by activism and unprecedented federal attention to the issue of campus sexual assault. The University of Texas system is putting $1.7 million into a comprehensive, multi-year effort to combat sexual assault on campus.

Human trafficking is a rampant problem throughout the world, but the signs can often be difficult to spot. A collaboration between Catholic churches and police officers to fight the issue together takes shape.

Sexual harassment and assault, and almost non-existent job security, are just some of the problems that plague migrant workers in the United States. A decade-long farm worker-led effort to push corporations to demand farmers submit to “clean labor” audits has yielded, for the first time, the introduction of shade tents, mandated water and bathroom breaks.