Posted: July 8th, 2013 | by Yuval Sheer

On the final day of the 2013 legislative session, both the New York State Senate and Assembly passed Safe Harbor legislation. This legislation protects 16- and 17- year-old youth accused of prostitution from criminalization and provides them with specialized services. The Center has had the honor of promoting this important policy change in conjunction with the New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition, consisting of more than 100 statewide children’s rights and women’s rights organizations.

This legislation marks significant progress in the way children are viewed, treated, and judged by our justice system. We intend to continue to do what we can to improve the lives of children victimized by sexual exploitation and to keep fighting for all children to be treated and judged as children.

A special thanks to all of you who made phone calls to the legislature in support of this effort.

To read more about the legislation and the dynamics surrounding its passage, see this article by Mary Gay which appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

 

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Photo by Matt H. Wade (http://goo.gl/KAfvh) license: CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://goo.gl/VFSlU)