ARCHIVED: Anti-Trafficking Fund

NEO Philanthropy’s Anti-Trafficking Fund promotes a human rights response to human trafficking.

We believe that human trafficking is an extreme expression of economic and political disempowerment and must be addressed as a human rights issue by fighting for the freedom, well-being and dignity of all people and holding government accountable for its obligation to respect, protect and fulfill rights. We believe it is important to acknowledge trafficking occurring at the far end of a spectrum of labor exploitation, as a result of the erosion of human rights. We must address this range of exploitation in order to prevent human trafficking.

Why the “Human Rights Approach”

NEO Philanthropy embraces a strategy known as the “human rights approach.” We believe it is important to look at root causes of trafficking, which include limited access to fair work and migration options. Trafficking victims are most often people who suffer from other oppressions or discrimination, work in informal or low income sectors where labor protections are not enforced or are legally excluded from rights because of their status. Unfortunately, even those who escape and survive this horrible experience are not always well-treated or respected.

Our Grantees

Ending human trafficking requires interventions at many points along a continuum, from reducing vulnerabilities in key populations, to improving labor rights frameworks, to promoting safer and more informed migration, to identifying and offering support to victims, to protecting victims’ rights in law enforcement responses, to enabling survivor’s self-determination in their recovery. We fund grassroots organizations providing essential services or platforms for organizing, national initiatives and networks, and international coordination and collaboration.

NEO supports a cadre of innovative and dedicated organizations, some of whom have been working with trafficking survivors for decades.

Our grantees believe that people most affected by human trafficking should lead the movement, that trafficking survivors are entitled to quality legal and social services that center their self-determination, that all workers are entitled to respect and dignity and our grantees reach for systemic solutions to the causes of trafficking.

Donors

Oak Foundation
Humanity United
Foundation for a Just Society
WE Trust
Anonymous

Staff

Gratienne (Sienna) Baskin
Director, NEO Anti-Trafficking Fund

Sienna Baskin brings extensive senior level work in fighting for the rights of sex workers and survivors of trafficking. Baskin was managing director, and, before that, Equal Justice Works Fellow/staff attorney for the Urban Justice Center’s Sex Workers Project. More…