National Center on Sexual Exploitation’s Annual Summit to Tackle Issues of Racism; Preventing Sexual Abuse and Exploitation; Finding Ways to Advocate for Victims, and More
Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and USA Gymnastics Sexual Abuse Scandal to Speak
Washington, DC (July 15, 2020) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation’s (NCOSE) annual Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation Global Summit, which begins on July 18, will expose the connection between racism and sexual exploitation; give voice to two survivors of Jeffrey Epstein; shed light on the USA Gymnastics sexual abuse scandal by of the first victims to speak out publicly; and provide ways that modern day abolitionists can confront these harms in their own communities. The annual summit is being held online from July 18-28, 2020, and registration is free at EndExploitationSummit.com.
“We are standing at a crossroads in our communities globally when issues of sexual abuse and exploitation are pervading our lives. We need to stand together and unite to confront and change cultural messages that normalize harmful attitudes and behaviors that can lead to sexual abuse, violence, and exploitation. Our Summit brings more than 15,000 people from 108 countries together, all with the goal of creating a world free from sexual abuse and exploitation. The Summit provides critical tools for activists to bring change to their own communities,” said Dawn Hawkins, senior vice president and executive director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
The Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation (CESE) is focused on bringing a variety of people together to solve and end the complex social issue of sexual exploitation, including the sex trafficking, prostitution, child exploitation, sexual violence, public health harms of pornography, and more. In order to do this, CESE unites the efforts of like-minded organizations and leaders across the world in a loose coalition irrespective of political or religious persuasions.
With 165 speakers, 2020 CESE Summit highlights will include:
- Keynote speaker Rachael Denhollander is an attorney, author, advocate, and educator who is recognized as a leading voice on the topic of sexual abuse. She was also the first woman to publicly expose Larry Nassar, a then-world-renowned physician for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University, for his crimes of sexual assault. Bridging the gap between survivors and the society and institutions that may have failed them, Rachael forces audiences to ask the question, “What is a girl or boy worth?” while equipping them with the tools to answer, “Everything.”
- Carolyn West is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Washington where she teaches courses on the Psychology of Black Women and Sex Crimes and Sexual Violence. Dr. West also has written extensively on racism in sexualized media and in 2018 she produced the documentary “Let me tell ya’ll ‘bout Black chicks: Images of Black women in pornography,” which is available for attendees to watch during the summit.
- Virginia Giuffre and Teresa J. Helm are trafficking survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and represent Victims Refuse Silence, which Virginia founded to educate the public about sex trafficking, assist in rescuing victims off the streets or from their abusers, and give them a platform to share their stories in a safe place.
- Laila Mickelwait is the founder of the Traffickinghub campaign, a non-religious, non-partisan effort to hold the largest porn website in the world accountable for enabling and profiting off of the mass sex-trafficking and exploitation of women and minors. The campaign’s Change.org petition has garnered over 1 million signatures, and its video exposing Pornhub has received over 30 million views.
- Rachel Moran is the founding member of SPACE International and author of the bestselling “Paid For – My Journey Through Prostitution,” regarded by legal scholar Catharine MacKinnon as “the best work by anyone on prostitution ever.”
- Chinyere Eyoh is the Founder/CEO of Sexual Offences Awareness & Response Initiative (SOAR), a non-profit she started in 2011 in her home country Nigeria. The organization provides prevention and survivor support solutions on child sexual abuse.
- Glenn Miles PhD is an independent consultant and research advisor on child and vulnerable people’s rights based in Wales, UK. He will address The Sexual Exploitation of Boys and Men (The Forgotten Minority).
- Josephine Appelqvist and Anna Sander met in an outreach program aimed at women in prostitution in Stocholm in 1998. A few years later they founded the organization Talita, as a way to help women in prostitution more extensively. Talita is a Sweden based NGO, offering help and support to women who have been exploited in prostitution, pornography and human trafficking for sexual purposes.
- Roella Lieveld is the founder of Share Network. For the past 11 years, she has dedicated her time to assisting victims of sexual abuse and human trafficking. She is an advocate for men and women in the U.S., Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Germany.
Topics to be addressed include:
- Prostitution
- Sex Trafficking
- Sexual Violence
- Sexualized Media
- Child Sexual Abuse
- Sexualization of Children
- Public Health Impacts of Pornography
- Implications of Decriminalizing Prostitution
- Racial Discrimination and Sexual Exploitation
- Technology & Online Exploitation
Each day, 15 presentations will be released and will be available on-demand for 24 hours so that attendees can watch any time. There are at least three live events per day via Zoom for attendees would like to participate in a topic-based discussion. Film screenings are available for the entire conference to watch on-demand. The daily schedule can be viewed here: https://cese2020.heysummit.com/schedule/.
Please visit EndExploitationSummit.com to register. Members of the media can register for free at https://cese2020.heysummit.com/tickets/?coupon=Press2020.
Learn more at: https://vimeo.com/422843549. #CESESummit
