Congregation Pushing for Legislation to Regulate
Human Trafficking in Business Practices

February 14, Seattle, Washington – The Adrian Dominican Sisters are part of an effort to pass legislation that would require businesses to be more transparent in their efforts to keep all forms of human trafficking out of their supply chains.

HR 2759 would require companies with a minimum of $100 million in annual worldwide gross receipts to disclose in their annual reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission all of their efforts to identify and address any form of forced labor, slavery, human trafficking and the worst forms of child labor within their supply chains. Introduced into Congress in August 2011, the bill has been stalled in the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises.

Representatives of the Congregation, along with other members of the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), have written to Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), Speaker of the House, urging the House leadership to “ensure that the Financial Services Committee places HR 2759 at the top of its agenda and moves it to the House floor in an expeditious manner.”

Among the co-signers of the letter are Sister Judy Byron, OP, program director of the Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center (IPJC) in Seattle, and Christopher Matthias, program coordinator for Justice and Peace and Corporate Responsibility for the Adrian Dominican Sisters. U.S. members of the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment also signed on to the letter.

“ICCR and the signatories of the letter to Mr. Boehner have been working with individual companies on issues of human trafficking for years, with notable success,” Mr. Matthias said. “This letter is a continuation of our shareholder advocacy work.” Since the 1970s, the Adrian Dominican Sisters have invested in corporations so that, as shareholders, they could influence the corporations’ decisions in matters that affect the welfare of society.

Mr. Matthias noted that Congress has passed other legislation that addresses human trafficking, such as the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, but “to the best of my knowledge, this is the first time the federal government is addressing human trafficking through avenues of business regulation.”

The Adrian Dominican Congregation has long been working to end the scourge of human trafficking. In December 2008, the Sisters approved a corporate stance to “stand in support of human rights by opposing human trafficking (children, women and men) for the purpose of sexual exploitation and any other form of slavery.” The Sisters also resolved to educate themselves and others about “the magnitude, causes and consequences of this abuse, wherever we are missioned and throughout the world,” and to advocate for programs and policies that work to eradicate human trafficking.

At the Motherhouse, Adrian Dominican Sisters, Associates, and co-workers formed a Human Trafficking Task Force, which has recently grown to include members Lenawee County chapter of the international women’s group, Zonta, as well as local law enforcement officials, physicians, representatives of Siena Heights University, social workers, and other concerned citizens.

Most recently, the Adrian Dominican Sisters collaborated with a group of 11 orders of Catholic women religious in Indiana and Michigan and with state and local officials to curb human trafficking during festivities leading up to the Super Bowl, held in Indianapolis on February 5. Incidents of sex trafficking tend to spike alongside major sporting events to meet the high demand for commercial sex.