The 2020 Great Decisions series will start with Kristen Leanderson Abrams on Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking. Almost every nation has enacted laws criminalizing human trafficking, and international organizations, governments, and NGOs sponsor a large variety of projects to curb trafficking and slavery. Billions of dollars have been allocated to these efforts. What is the international community doing to combat slavery and trafficking? What are the experiences like for those being trafficked?
Kristen Leanderson Abrams is the senior director of combatting human trafficking at the McCain Institute. In this capacity, she provides strategic leadership and operational management for the Institute’s program to combat all forms of human trafficking. Abrams is also the director of Buffett-McCain Institute Initiative to Combat Modern Slavery, a multi-disciplinary effort to address forced labor and labor exploitation in the agricultural sector.
Prior to joining the McCain Institute, she ran a consulting practice providing advice to non-profits working to end exploitation and promote human rights. She also served as the acting director of the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST). Earlier in her career, Abrams led international pro bono programs at DLA Piper. In that capacity, she developed and implemented interdisciplinary anti-human trafficking, rule of law, economic development, access to justice, and women’s rights projects in under-resourced regions in the United States and throughout Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. She holds a juris doctor degree from The George Washington University Law School and a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University.
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