WHEREAS, human trafficking is a crime against an individual that violates their basic human rights and deprives victims of dignity and freedom, regardless of race, religion, gender, age, citizenship, or socioeconomic status; and
WHEREAS, human trafficking involves recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a human being for the purpose of a commercial sex act, labor, or services by means of force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform a sex act has not reached 18 years of age; and
WHEREAS, North Carolina continues to see cases of both sex and labor trafficking and experience increased human trafficking vulnerability in its residents due to the ongoing social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the opioid epidemic and other social factors; and
WHEREAS, the North Carolina Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force reports an increase in cyber tips from 4,930 for the entirety of 2019 to 17,591 in just the first nine months of 2022; and
WHEREAS, sexual assault agencies funded by the NC Department of Administration’s Council for Women and Youth Involvement reported serving 392 human trafficking survivors between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022, which offers only a partial representation of the prevalence of the issue in North Carolina; and
WHEREAS, human trafficking disproportionately impacts American Indians, with one study focused on four areas in the United States and Canada revealing that up to 40 percent of sex trafficking survivors are American Indian or First Nations women, while only representing 10 percent of the overall population; and
WHEREAS, North Carolina will continue to protect its residents from human trafficking through prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnership between the North Carolina Human Trafficking Commission, the Council for Women and Youth Involvement, law enforcement agencies, service providers, and other state organizations; and
WHEREAS, Human Trafficking Awareness Month provides an opportunity to recognize the critical role that all North Carolinians have in preventing and responding to this crime and to serving victims and survivors;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, ROY COOPER, Governor of the State of North Carolina, do hereby proclaim January, 2023, as “HUMAN TRAFFICKING AWARENESS MONTH” and January 11, 2023, as “HUMAN TRAFFICKING AWARENESS DAY” in North Carolina, and commend its observance to all citizens.
