Public Service Project: Advocating for the end of human trafficking at Vanderbilt University

Public Service Project posts highlight students at colleges and universities across the country within the IOP’s National Campaign for Political and Civic Engagement who are improving their communities through public service on their campuses.  As there are many different ways in which one can serve the public, the IOP aims to feature a broad collection of Campaign student public service experiences to inspire all of us to make a difference every day.

Authored by National Campaign student from Vanderbilt University Laura Silliman.

When Good Men Do Something

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

This quote is most often attributed to Edmund Burke, an Irish political philosopher during the 18^th century. Though I have been familiar with this quote for a while, my attendance at the Harvard National Campaign Conference in October 2013 and resulting conversations have given these words new meaning.

During the first session of the conference, our speaker Gene Corbin, who serves as Assistant Dean of Harvard College for Public Service, ascribed the greater concept of social change to three essential elements: community service, advocacy, and electoral politics. Discussion soon ensued, as we identified a worrisome contrast between how passionate our generation is about doing community service and how apathetic we often are about politics.

As students offered varying opinions about why this apathy occurs, one reason that really resonated with me was the idea that politics tend to marginalize, while volunteer work builds community. Our generation seems to value the ability to work towards a common goal above the assertion of potentially polarizing opinions.

If we want to change our generation’s attitude toward politics, we need to begin by advocating for political issues around which everyone can rally, regardless of party affiliation. One particularly unifying issue is that of combating human trafficking. One 2012 UN report estimated that 2.4 million people are victims of human trafficking around the world, of which 80% are victims of sexual exploitation. This horrendous abuse not only occurs internationally, but is increasingly being exposed within U.S. borders as well.

Two summers ago, my internship experience with the human rights agency International Justice Mission (IJM) equipped me with a personal story with which to advocate for the end of human trafficking. As an intern with the Field Operations department, I had the opportunity to research and write reports on the prevalence of sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of minors in the countries of Lithuania, Brazil, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic. The stories I read that summer changed the trajectory of my life. Since my experience at IJM, I have worked to advocate for the end of human trafficking on my college campus and beyond.

On November 19, 2013, our Vanderbilt IJM campus chapter promoted the IJM #1step1voice campaign in the two main student centers on campus. For this campaign, we asked students who wanted to help end human trafficking to call U.S. Senator Corker to ask him to support the Human Trafficking Prioritization Act. As we joined with other students in advocating for this issue, we were reminded that doing something that seems small, like a thirty-second phone call to your Senator, can have an enormous impact in changing policy. In this way, the name of IJM’s campaign, #1step1voice, echoes the sentiment of Edmund Burke’s statement. When good men do something instead of nothing, evil can be defeated.

Laura Silliman is a senior at Vanderbilt University, double majoring in Political Science and Latin American Studies and minoring in Spanish. On account of her research on human rights violations in Latin America and her semester studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Laura is deeply invested in the struggle for justice in Latin America and plans to pursue a career in human rights.