The Minnesota Women's Press recently featured The Advocates' leadership in passing the Safe Harbors law in Minnesota. The public safety law, which passed on July 20, 2011, includes protections for commercially sexually exploited children and clarifies that sexually exploited children are crime victims, not criminals.

The Advocates comments on the case of Ahmay Ya, a Karen woman seeking her father's safety and freedom.

The Advocates’ Women’s Program director Cheryl Thomas speaks out in the Tuesday, August 23 issue of The Daily Beast about the consequences of New York prosecutors’ decision to drop charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

In the Moday, June 13 issue of the Star Tribune, Jim Dorsey writes:

"In the aftermath of the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the issue of whether our nation should use torture has arisen again.  In a recent piece on torture (“Torture is bad – but might work,” Star Tribune, June 5, 2011), Law Professor Gregg Bloche reports that behavioral science indicates that a certain type of torture might produce accurate information..."

To read the full article, click here.

New York law enforcement’s swift arrest of a powerful man on the word of an immigrant hotel housekeeper—acknowledging that rape is real instead of shaming the alleged victim—should make Americans proud, says women’s-rights lawyer Cheryl Thomas.

As far as we know, the immigrant woman who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of rape has not been ignored, harassed, or banished from her community. Nor has she been accused of prostitution or dishonoring her family, as she might be in many parts of the world. Click here to read the original article published in The Daily Beast.

The Advocates for Human Rights and The Family Partnership welcome the recent announcement by Northeast Minnesota county attorneys and law enforcement of a new approach to protecting children from sexual exploitation. St. Louis County Attorney Mark Rubin, joined by Duluth Mayor Don Ness and an array of prosecutors, law enforcement, service providers, and victims of sexual exploitation, announced that children who have been exploited through prostitution would be treated as crime victims rather than as juvenile delinquents under this new approach.

To read press coverage of the announcement, click here. 

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Shirin Ebadi was interviewed last week by both National Public Radio and the Wall Street Journal. Dr. Ebadi will be in Minneapolis on May 19th to receive The Advocates' 2011 Don and Arvonne Fraser Human Rights Award, which will be presented to her at the 2011 Human Rights Awards Dinner. Dr. Ebadi will also speak at the annual event, being held at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

In her interview with Robert Siegel of National Public Radio, she talks about her new book, The Golden Cage, a nonfiction work that follows three brothers through 1979's Islamic Revolution and its aftermath. The Golden Cage will be available for purchase at the 2011 Human Rights Awards Dinner and Dr. Ebadi will sign copies. To hear the interview or read a transcript of it, click here.

In the article in The Wall Street Journal, she reflects on her cautious, gradual approach to reforming the Iranian government as well as her take on the current uprisings throughout the Middle East. To read it, click here.

Both Twin Cities Daily Planet and Minnesota Women's Press recently highlighted the ongoing Women's Human Rights Film Series. At the next screening, The Advocates will partner with The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library on March 31st to present Africa Rising, a film that explores the contexts that lead young girls to endure female genital mutilation.

To view the Daily Planet article, click here. For the Minnesota Women's Press article, click here.

A recent Pioneer Press article highlights a  woman named Heather who was forced into prostitution as a 16 year-old. The article quotes The Advocates' Michele Garnett McKenzie, who talks about her experiences with young women who are coerced into the practice. McKenzie also mentions her work drafting a bill that would clarify that children like Heather are victims, not criminals. 

See the full article here.