March is Women’s History Month and I had planned to participate by telling the story of a group of pioneering women who fought human trafficking…but, alas, our panel at the U.N. Women’s Conference in New York was just cancelled due to concerns over the coronavirus.
As part of a delegation of women to the United Nation’s CSW64, the Commission on the Status of Women. I was planning to take part in a panel to discuss the late 19th and early 20th century efforts to combat human trafficking detailed in my book, The White Devil’s Daughters: The Women Who Fought Against Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown, on March 12 in New York City, as part of the parallel NGO CSW Forum.
Our delegation was being organized by the San Francisco Collaborative Against Human Trafficking, a public-private partnership established more than a decade ago by the National Council of Jewish Women and the Jewish Coalition to End Human Trafficking in collaboration with the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, and the San Francisco Mayor’s Office.
Our delegation of 42 women included California Superior Court Judge Susan Breall, Emily Murase, Executive Director of the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women, Alla Whitney-Johnson, founder of Freedom Forward, Nancy Goldberg, a co-founder of the Collaborative, and many more inspiring leaders from the San Francisco Bay Area.
I was especially looking forward to the convening day on Sunday, March 8th, which was scheduled to take place at the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem. Women from around the world working towards social justice will be gathering to discuss ways to implement the goals of gender equality and women’s empowerment worldwide.
UN Women Executive Director speaks at NGO CSW Forum Consultation Day