Jean Bruggeman is the Executive Director of Freedom Network USA (FNUSA), the largest coalition of anti-trafficking advocates in the US championing a human rights-based approach to human trafficking. Beyond Trafficking and Slavery caught up with Jean as part of our feature on political fence-sitting on sex workers’ rights. We asked her why organisations hesitate to take a stand on this issue or to call each other out; why her organisation chose to get off the fence and how; and what the political prospects might be for making decriminalisation a reality in the United States. Her comments have been condensed and edited for clarity.
Joel Quirk (BTS): Much of anti-trafficking work focuses on service provision for survivors. How does this emphasis affect the capacity of organisations to speak out on controversial issues such as the decriminalisation of sex work?
Jean Bruggeman (FNUSA): Most of our members are direct service providers of legal and social services to survivors of trafficking in the United States. One tension that exists for them is their relationship to law enforcement. They need to cultivate this relationship in order to help survivors achieve their goals. Some survivors want law enforcement intervention. They want their traffickers to be prosecuted. That’s an important form of justice for them, and they want to ensure that those traffickers cannot harm others.
