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The Advocates noted for work on Minnesota's Safe Harbors legislation
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 9:20 AM
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' Michele Garnett-McKenzie, Beatriz Menanteau, and Cheryl Thomas led The Advocates' work on the law. Menanteau says in the article, "While this is huge, we are by no means close to being done." For example, Minnesota lacks places where law enforcement can bring girls to protect them from pimps. "Now we need to create that system."
The Advocates led a coalition of partners to get the law passed, including ECPAT-USA, The Family Partnership, Breaking Free, Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, the Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force, The Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, and the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office. Many in the law enforcement community provided critical input. The legislation was authored by Representatives Steve Smith, Tony Cornish, and Michael Paymar and Senators Sandra Pappas, John Marty, and Ron Latz.\
To read the article, click here.
To read more about the Safe Harbors law, click here.
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