DEMAND. Reveals the Business of Sex Trafficking and Sex Tourism

Contact: Karrie Delaney, 703-351-8062 ext. 225, Karrie@sharedhope.org

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 /Standard Newswire/ -- DEMAND., a new report and documentary by Shared Hope International (SHI), a non-profit focusing on preventing trafficking, and rescuing and restoring the victims of sexual slavery, examines three critical pieces of the sex tourism and trafficking marketplace – the buyers who bring demand, the traffickers and recruiters who supply victims (like products to market) and the facilitators that sustain and fuel the market.

SHI, with funding from the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, U.S. State Department, undertook a 12 month investigation of commercial sexual exploitation in Jamaica, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States (Washington, DC, Atlanta, and Las Vegas).  Although vastly different culturally, economically, and historically, each country shares a culture of tolerance, allowing major markets for local and international sex tourism and trafficking to flourish.

DEMAND. reveals for the first time that the opportunistic and sophisticated business model for sex trafficking and sex tourism is just like a shopping mall where buyers can choose from a variety of human products of different ages and colors, and how that demand for sexual services feeds an industry that victimizes large numbers of children and women.  These victims are very often local minors, including American children, forced, coerced or manipulated into sexual slavery and psychological bondage. 

When: Thursday, September 13, 2007, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Where: National Press Club, First Amendment Lounge, 529 14th Street, NW, Washington D.C. 20045

Who:
-- Ambassador Mark P. Lagon, Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons, United States Department of State

-- Linda Smith, Founder and President Shared Hope International

-- Cynthia Wright, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Washington, DC

-- Samantha Healy Vardaman, Shared Hope International

Interviews -- Reporters who wish to schedule an interview with Linda Smith may contact Karrie Delaney 703-351-8062. Reporters who wish to schedule an interview with Ambassador Lagon may contact Public Affairs Senior Coordinator Eleanor Gaetan at (202) 312-9645.

Advance Copies of DEMAND. and Electronic Access -- Embargoed copies of DEMAND. can be obtained by contacting Karrie Delaney at 703-351-8062. DEMAND. will be available for download at either www.enddemand.org or www.sharedhope.org following the press conference.