Maine Legislature, Session 128, LD 0663
Sponsors: GIDEON

MAINE STATE LEGISLATURE 
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Thursday, January 11, 2018 
Joint Resolution 
(4-3)  On motion by Senator VOLK of Cumberland (Cosponsored by Speaker GIDEON of 
Freeport), the following Joint Resolution: 
S.P. 663 
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IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 
TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHTEEN 
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JOINT RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING THE WEEK OF JANUARY 7, 2018 
AS HUMAN TRAFFICKING AWARENESS WEEK 
WHEREAS, human trafficking is criminal recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining 
a person for compelled labor or commercial sexual exploitation through the use of force, fraud or 
coercion, including but not limited to involuntary servitude, sex trafficking, debt bondage, domestic 
servitude and forced child labor, and can, but does not necessarily, include the physical transportation of a 
victim from one location to another; and 
WHEREAS, human trafficking violates basic human rights, denies victims their personal freedom 
and knows no geographical boundaries; and 
WHEREAS, traffickers target men, women and children, both United States citizens and foreign 
nationals, isolate them from society and exploit them for personal and monetary gain; and 
WHEREAS, human trafficking is recognized as the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the world, 
and the International Labour Organization estimates annual profits of $150,000,000,000 from forced labor 
internationally; and 
WHEREAS, the International Labour Organization estimated in 2012 that 26% of persons trafficked 
were children, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimated in 2014 that one out 
of every 6 endangered runaways in the United States reported to them was likely a child sex-trafficking 
victim; and 
WHEREAS, victims of human trafficking suffer severe emotional, psychological and physical 
damage at the hands of their traffickers, who instill fear in their victims in order to keep them enslaved, 
resulting in complex post-traumatic stress disorder and increased rates of disease, drug addiction and 
other lifelong effects of trauma, and these experiences may require years of specialized health care and 
mental health services as part of a victim's recovery; and 
WHEREAS, human trafficking exists in the State, and many state, federal and local agencies and 
organizations are working to prevent human trafficking, to intervene when human trafficking is 
discovered and to provide restorative care to victims; and 
WHEREAS, no one person, organization, agency or community can eliminate human trafficking, but 
we can work together to educate our entire population about how we can all prevent human trafficking 
and provide support to survivors of human trafficking and to their communities; and 
WHEREAS, the State is committed to protecting the vulnerable and ending human trafficking 
through prevention, prosecution, education and awareness; now, therefore, be it 
RESOLVED: That We, the Members of the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Legislature now 
assembled in the Second Regular Session, on behalf of the people we represent, take this opportunity to 
recognize the week of January 7, 2018 as Human Trafficking Awareness Week. 
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