HEAL Advocacy Webinar: Mandatory Reporting of Human Trafficking

This webinar explored a topic of increasing concern to health care professionals, lawyers, and other advocates. In recent years, increasing numbers of states have been amending their laws to require reporting of human trafficking, especially of children. These laws usually cover sex trafficking and sometimes include labor trafficking. Mandatory reporting requirements raise many clinical, legal, ethical, and implementation issues.

About the Presenters

We were joined by two distinguished presenters with extensive expertise in human trafficking: Tonya Chaffee, MD, MPH, and Jonathan Todres, JD. Both presenters served on the Academy of Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine) Committee on Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States, which issued a landmark report in 2013.

Tonya Chaffee is a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, at the University of California, San Francisco. She is Medical Director of the Child and Adolescent Support, Advocacy and Resource Center (CASARC) the referral center for children and adolescent who are alleged victims of sexual assault for the city and county of San Francisco. Dr. Chaffee also is the Director of the Teen and Young Adult Health Center at San Francisco General Hospital where she provides primary care to teens and young adults, including those who are survivors of trafficking. She is engaged in ongoing research and policy work related to youth violence. Dr. Chaffee has advised numerous organizations on youth violence and is actively involved with several San Francisco Bay Area initiatives and organizations working to address human trafficking.

Jonathan Todres is a Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law. His research focuses on children’s rights and child well-being. Professor Todres has focused, in particular, on child trafficking and related forms of child exploitation, the implementation of children’s rights law, human rights education, and human rights and the social determinants of health. His recent books include: Preventing Child Trafficking: A Public Health Approach (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019) (coauthored with Angela Diaz). Professor Todres serves as a regular advisor to nongovernmental organizations working to address human trafficking and other children’s rights issues. He is a member of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.