International Justice Mission

For the Malaysian company, see IJM Corporation.
International Justice Mission
Established 1997
Type Non-governmental
Legal status 501(c)(3) nonprofit global organization
Location
Endowment US$ 51.56 million (FY 2015)[4]
Staff
CEO and Founder: Gary Haugen; President: Sean Litton; Senior Vice President of Justice System Transformation: Sharon Cohn Wu; SVP Justice Operations: Blair Burns; SVP Global Advancement: Melissa Russell[5]
Website ijm.org

International Justice Mission (IJM) is an international, non-governmental 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit, evangelical organization focused on human rights, laws and law enforcement. It is currently the world's largest anti-slavery organization.[6][7][8]

IJM combats violence including sex trafficking, forced labor slavery, illegal property grabbing, police abuse of power, child sexual assault, and citizenship rights abuse. The bulk of IJM’s work focuses on sex trafficking.[9] The organization’s participation in high-profile raids of brothels and close coordination with third world police agencies have engendered criticism from human rights and sex worker organizations over its mission and tactics.[10] IJM was founded and is headquartered in Washington, DC. It has 18 field offices in Africa, Latin America, and South and Southeast Asia. IJM employs 600+ full-time staff globally.[8][11]

In 2010, U.S. News & World Report[12] named IJM one of the top 10 service groups making a difference in the world, describing IJM as an example of “noteworthy public service programs that are having an impact.”

History

International Justice Mission was founded as a faith-based non-profit human rights group in 1997, although its beginnings stem from founder and CEO Gary Haugen's work during the Rwandan genocide in 1994.[13] Haugen, at the time a lawyer with the United States Department of Justice, was loaned to a United Nations team investigating the Rwandan genocide.[13] On his return to the U.S. from Rwanda, Haugen formed International Justice Mission in the Washington, D.C., area,[13][14] with a budget of $200,000.[15] In a 2009 profile published in The New Yorker, Samantha Power, who would later serve as United States Ambassador to the United Nations, wrote that Haugen sees "an absence of proper law enforcement" as the world's biggest problem, which IJM seeks to improve.[15] The organization works to compile evidence that is handed over to government authorities to prosecute slave owners and pimps.[14] For its first case, the organization helped lead to the arrest of a rape suspect in Manila, Philippines.[15] In 1998, IJM helped rescue more than 700 people;[16] by 2016, the organization had rescued more than 28,000 victims of abuse globally.[17] In addition to helping clients with legal representation, Haugen decided his organization could make a bigger impact by collaborating with governments to help improve legal systems in developing countries.[15]

Since its founding, IJM has assisted law enforcement conduct rescue operations for girls and women trapped in sex trafficking and sexual violence in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Rescue operations with local law enforcement officials in Cambodia in the early 2000s are among IJM's most well known.[15] International Justice Mission investigators went into brothels in the village of Svay Pak in May 2002 with hidden cameras and took four underage girls to a hotel, where the group's lawyers told the girls they would be taken somewhere safe.[15] The organization handed its evidence over to Cambodian authorities, who rescued 14 more girls a week later.[15] About a week after that, Cambodian police arrested those girls for immigration violations.[15] The next year, IJM went undercover with Dateline NBC.[15] The group's investigation helped lead police to arrest pimps and rescue 37 girls from local brothels.[15] While IJM considered these early rescue missions successes, critics questioned the organization's tactics, saying raids on brothels do not focus on the root causes of child prostitution, have led to the arrests of people not in the sex trade and hindered HIV prevention initiatives.[15][18][19]

International Justice Mission expanded its work beyond prevention of sex trafficking and by 2009 its lawyers, social workers and advocates also helped victims whose land had been seized, bonded laborers, and the falsely imprisoned.[15] U.S. News & World Report named International Justice Mission on its 10 Service Groups That Are Making a Difference list in 2010.[20] Under President Barack Obama's administration, the United States Department of State honored Haugen, International Justice Mission's founder and CEO, as a Trafficking in Persons Report Hero Acting to End Modern Slavery in 2012.[21][22] The State Department said IJM helped nearly 4,000 victims and assisted in the prosecution of 220 offenders between 2006 and 2012.[21][22]

In December 2011, Google awarded US$11.5 million in grants to combat modern-day slavery.[23] Google donated US$9.8 million for International Justice Mission to lead a coalition focusing on fighting slavery in India, in addition to running advocacy and education programs in the country, and mobilizing Americans.[23] IJM CEO Gary Haugen and Victor Boutros authored The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence in 2014, for which the authors won the 2016 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.[24] Haugen followed up the book with a 19-minute TED talk in Vancouver, Canada, in 2015.[25]

Within 20 years of its founding, International Justice Mission had grown into an organization with a US$51.6 million budget[4] comprising more than 750 employees[26] in 17 field offices in Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Southeast Asia, and five partner offices in Canada, UK, Netherlands, Germany and Australia.[3][8]

In 2016, Willie Kimani, a Kenyan International Justice Mission lawyer, and two others, including an IJM client, were murdered.[27] Four members of the Kenyan Administrative Police were charged with murder on July 18, 2016; they pleaded not guilty.[28] Haugen denounced the killings as "an intolerable outrage and should serve as an abrupt wake-up call to the blatant injustices committed daily and incessantly against the poor and vulnerable around the world".[27]

Activism

On 12 March 2004, International Women's Day, then President of the United States George W. Bush extolled the work of then Director of Anti-Trafficking Operations for IJM. He went on to state that IJM was working to end sex slavery and the US Government would stand with them.[29]

In 2014, more than 200 advocates from around the United States joined IJM staff in meetings with nearly 250 Congressional offices, urging swift passage of the Human Trafficking Prioritization Act (HR 2283).[30]

In 2014, IJM urged United States Congress And Obama Administration to dedicate Emergency Resources to combat Child Sexual Assault In Guatemala.[31] IJM has also urged Senate leaders to hold firm on protecting the integrity of the 2008 Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which included a provision that provided for additional legal protections for unaccompanied minors from non-border countries.[31]

Activities

International Justice Mission volunteer work at University of Virginia.

IJM itself reports that, since 2006, it has rescued more than 19,000 people from violence and oppression, and secured the convictions of more than 800 violent criminals. It claims that through its work in strengthening local justice systems it helps to protect 21 million people from violence globally.[32] These claims are difficult to verify as they are not audited by outside groups.[8] Nor has there been any accounting of persons who are themselves victimized by IJM tactics.

Philippines

In 2010, IJM's Project Lantern reviewed[33] its programs in Cebu, Philippines, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.[34] An independent audit revealed that there were 79% fewer minors in the sex trade in Cebu than before the program started, more than 200 minors were rescued, more than 700 law enforcement officials were trained, and more than 100 traffickers were charged. The Philippines passed a new and stronger anti-trafficking law after years of concentrated advocacy by IJM and the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (a coalition of government agencies, with IJM serving as the NGO representative).[35]

Cambodia

However, investigations from third party sources present a different picture on IJM’s results. A United States Agency for International Development funded census of sex workers in Cambodia in the year 2003 found the underage prostitution increased in the area the months following a series of brothel raids organized by IJM.[36] Other NGOs have reported serious collateral damage from IJM’s tactics. For example, in the wake of IJM-organized brothel raids, sex workers have faced deportation in Thailand, or arrested and raped by police.[37] Likewise in the Philippines, numerous women allegedly “rescued” from brothels wound up escaping from an IJM funded aftercare center. IJM responded by building higher walls and fences around the building, to prevent further escapes.[38]

India

In India, IJM has been involved in the release of over 10,800 victims of bonded labour and sex trafficking, assisted the rehabilitation of more than 7,600 survivors, and trained nearly 20,000 government officials.[39]

Thailand

The work of IJM began in Thailand in 1998. IJM was responsible for bringing international attention to the plight of the Karen people and influenced the Government of Thailand to grant citizenship to the Karen people, a hill tribe in northern Thailand.[40]

Governance and financials

International Justice Mission’s global headquarters is based out of Washington, D.C. It is governed by a 13-member international board of directors, which includes founder and CEO Gary Haugen.[41] As of 2016, Nicole Bibbins Sedaca chairs the board.[41]

On June 1, 2016, the independent charity watchdog Charity Navigator gave International Justice Mission four stars with an overall score of 92.15 out of 100. The organization scored 88.91 for its finances, and 100 for accountability and transparency.[42]

According to a 2015 independent auditor’s report by RSM US, International Justice Mission generated $51.56 million in total support and revenue in 2015. The organization’s expenses totaled $52.25 million. Year-end net assets were $20.03 million.[4]

International Justice Mission’s 2015 funding came primarily from individuals (71%), in addition to foundations and businesses (12%), IJM partner offices (6%), churches (4%), gifts-in-kind (4%), government grants (1%) and other sources (2%). Programs accounted for 75% of expenses, general and administrative costs for 12%, and expenditures for fundraising for 13%.[43]

Among its grants, the United States Department of Labor awarded International Justice Mission a three-year cooperative agreement on September 30, 2002. The nearly $703,000 grant helped implement the Thailand Sex Trafficking Task Force: Prevention and Placement program.[44] Then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell provided the organization with a $1 million grant to combat sex trafficking in Southeast Asia in 2004.[45] Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded a $5 million grant in 2006.[46] On December 14, 2011, the Google Foundation awarded $11.5 million to organizations fighting modern slavery.[47][48] Among the groups to receive those funds were International Justice Mission, BBC World Service Trust, ActionAid India and Aide et Action.[47]

Criticism

IJM has aroused intense criticism over its tactics and mission. Much of the criticism stems from IJM’s role in organizing brothel raids and subsequent arrests or deportations of sex workers. Others have criticized IJM for hindering HIV prevention efforts and for maligning local organizations which have questioned its tactics. Still others have questioned IJM’s focus on law enforcement tactics and close coordination with police agencies to carry out a human rights mission. IJM has been derisively referred to as “Cops for Christ” or “Human Rights Workers with Handcuffs.”[10]

Thailand brothel raids

IJM began operations in Thailand in the year 2000. Although many forms of sex work are legal in Thailand, IJM sent men undercover to two brothels, used hidden cameras and produced a 25-page document alleging specific violations of Thai law. As a result, Thai police raided the two brothels, and arrested 43 women and girls. IJM characterized the operation as a successful “rescue”. However, many of the women stated that they were working in the brothel voluntarily. The women were held in police custody. About half the group subsequently escaped; some apparently fearing deportation to Burma.[49] In other brothel raids organized in 2000 and 2003, IJM urgently requested other local NGOs to provide translation assistance upon realizing the sex workers were not Thai citizens. The “rescued” sex workers were either deported to the border or detained for months in shelters.

Cambodia televised brothel raid

IJM director Gary Haugen invited the television show Dateline to film a March 29, 2003 raid it organized on a large brothel in the village of Svay Pak.[50] IJM operatives came to the raid equipped with pepper spray and batons. The brothel contained approximately 40 girls and women who were detained in the raid. A noodle vendor, who had no involvement with the brothel, was among those who were arrested in the raid; the noodle vendor subsequently died of a stroke in jail. IJM had contracted with a Cambodian human rights organization, LICADHO, to review its actions in organizing the raid. Peter Sainsbury, the consultant who reviewed the raid, stated that he communicated the medical issues of the noodle vendor to IJM but that his concerns were ignored.[36] At least twelve of the “rescued” victims from the 2003 raid ran away from the safe house they were taken to. In a subsequent brothel raid a year later, a number of girls rescued from the 2003 raid were found to be again involved in sex work.

Maligning indigenous public health efforts

IJM organized brothel raids have been accused of interfering with public health and HIV-prevention efforts, some of which took place at the brothels themselves. In response, IJM has stated that sex workers can instead go to clinics for such information.[51] When Cambodian NGO Empower raised questions about the televised brothel raid in that country, Empower staff say IJM accused their organization of supporting pimps.[37] The International Union of Sex Workers criticizes IJM’s work as being focused on Christianity, and for presenting anyone involved in sex work, coerced or not, in the role of a victim awaiting salvation. It states that crackdowns drive prostitution further underground.[52] Others have criticized brothel raids more generally as an ineffective way to fight human trafficking, likely to cause harm to those allegedly rescued, and disruptive of public health efforts.[53]

IJM response to criticism

After a series of critical articles published in The Nation magazine in 2009, IJM published a document to clarify and explain its mission and tactics.[51] The document states that IJM operations with local police are focused solely on securing for children and trafficked women the right to be free from commercial sexual exploitation and that IJM supports HIV prevention efforts. IJM also states that it has protocols that it introduces to local law enforcement that address the appropriate treatment of non-trafficked adults co-mingled in the brothel with children. However, IJM has refused to share these protocols with reporters.[36] Some of IJM’s responses corroborate the criticism it has received. For example, IJM states that it supports locking up underage sex workers, so that they cannot return to sex work.[51] It also compares brothel owners with pedophiles.

IJM’s Vice President of Government Relations and Advocacy Holly Burkhalter, formerly with Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights, authors the organization’s viewpoints on these issues in an article from the Anti-Trafficking Review, Issue 1, June 2012.[54]

References

  1. ↑ Kapil Summan (18 April 2016). "Walking hand in hand — the work of International Justice Mission". Scottish Legal News. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  2. ↑ Kanani, Rahim (4 February 2014). "Uncover the hidden plague the world has missed". Forbes. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 "Where we work". International Justice Mission. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 "International Justice Mission Financial Report" (PDF). International Justice Mission. 31 December 2015. p. 4. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  5. ↑ "Leadership". International Justice Mission. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  6. ↑ "IJM Applauds Inclusion of Justice in UN Road Map for Tackling Poverty". PR Newswire. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  7. ↑ "Local school's anti-slavery campaign goes global". Zululand Observer. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Hopkins, Jared S. (22 April 2016). "Adam LaRoche, international groups go undercover to stop human trafficking". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  9. ↑ "To Reduce Human Trafficking, Fight Corruption and Improve Economic Freedom". The Heritage Foundation.
  10. 1 2 Pisani, Elizabeth (September 21, 2009). The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Business of AIDS. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 232. ISBN 0393337650.
  11. ↑ "IJM 2015 Fact Sheet" (PDF).
  12. ↑ "10 Service Groups That Are Making a Difference" by Cathie Gandel, an article in U.S. News and World Report, October 27, 2010
  13. 1 2 3 "On a Justice Mission". Christianity Today. 22 February 2007. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  14. 1 2 Hardy, Quentin (12 January 2004). "Hitting slavery where it hurts". Forbes. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Power, Samantha (19 January 2009). "The Enforcer: A Christian lawyer's global crusade". New Yorker. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  16. ↑ Olsen, Ted (1 January 2004). "International Justice Mission gets notice and results". Christianity Today. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  17. ↑ "Financials". International Justice Mission. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  18. ↑ Hoenig, Henry (11 May 2004). "U.S. group battles sex trade in S.E. Asia; Christian organization gets federal funds". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  19. ↑ Thrupkaew, Noy (16 September 2009). "The crusade against sex trafficking". The Nation. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  20. ↑ Gandel, Cathie (27 October 2010). "10 Service Groups That Are Making a Difference". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  21. 1 2 "Trafficking in Persons Report Heroes: Gary Haugen". Trafficking in Persons Report. United States Department of State. 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  22. 1 2 "2012 TIP report heroes". United States Department of State. 2012. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  23. 1 2 Duff-Brown, Beth (14 December 2011). "Google donating $11.5M to fight modern slavery". The Associated Press. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  24. ↑ Kenning, Chris (1 December 2015). "Authors win Grawemeyer for book on violence". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  25. ↑ Kumar, Anugrah (22 April 2015). "IJM Founder Gary Haugen Explains in Ted Talk 'The Locust Effect' Why Poverty Still Exists, How to Fight It". Christian Post. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  26. ↑ "Who We Are". International Justice Mission. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  27. 1 2 Gettleman, Jeffrey (1 July 2016). "3 Kenyans last seen at police station are found dead". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  28. ↑ Buchanan, Elsa (18 July 2016). "Kenya: Four police officers charged with the murder of rights' lawyer Willie Kimani". International Business Times. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  29. ↑ Munro, Vanessa (2007). Sexuality and the Law: Feminist Engagements. Routledge. ISBN 9781135308308.
  30. ↑ "IJM Applauds Inclusion of Justice in UN Road Map for Tackling Poverty". PR Newswire. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  31. 1 2 "International Justice Mission Urges Congress And Obama Administration To Dedicate Emergency Resources To Combat Child Sexual Assault In Guatemala". American City Business Journals. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  32. ↑ http://www.ijm.org
  33. ↑ http://www.slideshare.net/IJMHQ/project-lantern-resultssummary?from=embed
  34. ↑ http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2006/03/International-Justice-Mission-Receives-Grant
  35. ↑ https://www.ijm.org/articles/voice-you-haven%E2%80%99t-heard-brave-survivor-rallies-students-end-trafficking-philippines
  36. 1 2 3 Thrupkaew, Noy (September 16, 2009). "The Crusade Against Sex Trafficking". The Nation.
  37. 1 2 cite web|url=http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/investigations/international/1033/the_crusade_against_sex_trafficking/|title=The Crusade Against Sex Trafficking|website=The Investigative Fund|last=Thrupkaew|first=Noy|date=5 October 2009}}
  38. ↑ "Beyond Rescue" by Noy Thrupkaew, The Nation, October 8, 2009
  39. ↑ "International Justice Mission: India 2014-2015" (PDF). International Justice Mission. 16 April 2016.
  40. ↑ "The Role of NGOs in the International Human Rights System: A Case Study - IJM in Thailand". Pepperdine University. 1 January 2010.
  41. 1 2 "Leadership". International Justice Mission. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  42. ↑ "International Justice Mission". Charity Navigator. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  43. ↑ "2015 Annual Report". International Justice Mission. 2015. p. 16. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  44. ↑ "Independent Final Evaluation of the Thailand Sex Trafficking Task Force - Prevention and Placement Program" (PDF). United States Department of Labor. 23 April 2016.
  45. ↑ Bernat, Frances (2013). Human Sex Trafficking. Routledge. ISBN 9781317986904.
  46. ↑ "Gates Foundation awards $5 million to fight sex trafficking". Philanthropy News Digest. 21 March 2006. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  47. 1 2 Dobuzinskis, Alex (14 December 2011). "Google donates $11.5 million to fight modern slavery". Reuters. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  48. ↑ Molko, David; Cohen, Lisa (14 December 2011). "Google joins fight against slavery with $11.5 million grant". CNN. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  49. ↑ Jones, Maggie (November 2003). "Thailand's Brothel Busters". Mother Jones.
  50. ↑ Hansen, Chris (January 9, 2005). "Dateline". NBC. Retrieved December 26, 2015.
  51. 1 2 3 A False Controversy: Law Enforcement and the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Trafficked Women
  52. ↑ http://www.iusw.org/2012/01/google-and-its-anti-sex-work-stance/
  53. ↑ Busza, Joanna, Sarah Castle, and Aisse Diarra. 328.7452 (2004): 1369–1371. Print. (2004). "Trafficking and Health". BMJ : British Medical Journal. 328(7452): 1369–1371.
  54. ↑ "Sex Trafficking, Law Enforcement and Perpetrator Accountability," an article from Anti-Trafficking Review, Issue 1, June 2012.

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