Laura Lederer
Encyclopedia
Laura J. Lederer is a legal scholar and former Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons in the Office for Democracy and Global Affairs of the United States Department of State
. She has also been an activist against human trafficking
, prostitution, pornography, and hate speech
. Lederer is founder of The Protection Project, a legal research institute at Johns Hopkins University
devoted to combating trafficking in persons.
and later Detroit Commissioner of Buildings and Safety in the Coleman Young
administration. She was born into a multifaith household, with a Jewish father and Lutheran mother who were practicing Unitarian Universalists, and studied comparative religion
as an undergraduate at University of Michigan
. As part of her undergraduate work, she spent two years studying under and working for David Noel Freedman
, and graduated with a BA magna cum laude in 1975.
. A display at the conference included images from magazine advertising
, softcore pornography, and hardcore pornography
, including child pornography
. Lederer stated in a later interview: "You saw the influence of the really hard-core images, back through the soft-core to the mainstream. Images were repeated. That's how I got involved. It kind of clicked." Several participants in the conference proposed to keep meeting and form an organization devoted to protesting violent images of women. In January 1977, this organization was started, which after several name changes became Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media
(WAVPM). Lederer signed on as the organization's national coordinator and editor of its newsletter.
As coordinator of WAVPM, Lederer helped organize protests and boycotts against companies such as Max Factor
and Finnair
who's advertising the organization felt encouraged violence against women. She also organized educational tours of pornographic businesses in San Francisco's red light districts, a tactic later emulated by Women Against Pornography
. Lederer worked closely with then-Supervisor
Dianne Feinstein
on a San Francisco anti-pornography zoning ordinance targeting sex-related businesses. Lederer was aided in this effort by the fact that her father, in the role of Building Commissioner in Detroit, had worked vigorously for shaping and enforcing a similar zoning ordinance in that city. Lederer traveled to Detroit to research the ordinance there, and passed the results along to Feinstein. Though the zoning ordinance faced stiff opposition (notably from the San Francisco ACLU and from Harvey Milk
), a milder version of this ordinance was passed in 1978.
In the summer of 1978, Lederer brought on Lynn Campbell to help organize WAVPM and together they helped organize Feminist Perspectives on Pornography, the first national anti-pornography feminist conference held in San Francisco on November 17–19, 1978. The conference drew many well known feminist speakers, notably Gloria Steinem
, Robin Morgan
, Phyllis Chesler
, Kathleen Barry, Susan Brownmiller
and Andrea Dworkin
. This conference was significant in that it served as a galvanizing event for the anti-pornography feminist movement in the United States. The final event of the conference was the first Take Back the Night
march, which converged on the Broadway red light district. The talks given during the event were later collected in the anthology
Take Back the Night--a work which was compiled and edited by Lederer and would go on to stand as a key document in the emerging feminist anti-pornography movement.
in 1987. In 1989, she began her legal education at University of San Francisco
before transferring after one year to DePaul University College of Law
, where she earned a Juris Doctor
in 1994.
During the drafting of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, from 1998 to 2000, she served as a witness in Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House International Relations Committee hearings held by Representatives Chris Smith and Sam Gejdenson
and the late Senator Paul Wellstone
and Senator Sam Brownback
, testifying on the global nature and scope of the problem of trafficking in persons. She was instrumental in bringing trafficking victims from over a dozen countries to testify in Congress. In 1998, she also helped bring together a new bi-partisan anti-trafficking coalition of women's groups and faith-based groups. This coalition played a role in the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.
she helped set up the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
at the U.S. Department of State. In From 2002–2009, she served as Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons to Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, Paula J. Dobriansky. In that capacity she advised the Under Secretary on policy formulation and development, program creation and implementation, and long-range planning for the Office for Global Affairs.
Lederer was Senior Advisor on Human Trafficking at the U.S. Department of State during the administration of George W. Bush
. She was responsible for designing specialized anti-trafficking programs, including "TIP and New Technologies," "The Economics of Trafficking," "The Health Implications of Trafficking," and a new program to research the impact of sex selection and gender imbalance on human trafficking. In addition to her duties as Senior Advisor, she was instrumental in creating the Senior Policy Operating Group on Trafficking in Persons, for which she was Executive Director from 2001–2009. This high-level interagency policy group staffs the cabinet-level President's Interagency Task Force on Trafficking in Persons. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center
.
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
. She has also been an activist against human trafficking
Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...
, prostitution, pornography, and hate speech
Hate speech
Hate speech is, outside the law, any communication that disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or other characteristic....
. Lederer is founder of The Protection Project, a legal research institute at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
devoted to combating trafficking in persons.
Early life
Lederer was born in the Detroit area, to parents Natalie and Creighton Lederer, a civil engineerCivil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
and later Detroit Commissioner of Buildings and Safety in the Coleman Young
Coleman Young
Coleman Alexander Young served as mayor of Detroit in the U.S. state of Michigan from 1974 to 1993. Young became the first African-American mayor of Detroit in the same week that Maynard Jackson became the first African-American mayor of Atlanta.-Pre-Mayoral career:Young was born in Tuscaloosa,...
administration. She was born into a multifaith household, with a Jewish father and Lutheran mother who were practicing Unitarian Universalists, and studied comparative religion
Comparative religion
Comparative religion is a field of religious studies that analyzes the similarities and differences of themes, myths, rituals and concepts among the world's religions...
as an undergraduate at University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
. As part of her undergraduate work, she spent two years studying under and working for David Noel Freedman
David Noel Freedman
David Noel Freedman , son of the writer David Freedman, was a biblical scholar, author, editor, archaeologist, and ordained Presbyterian minister ....
, and graduated with a BA magna cum laude in 1975.
Early career and anti-pornography activism
In late 1976, she accompanied a friend to a San Francisco conference on violence against womenViolence against women
Violence against women is a technical term used to collectively refer to violent acts that are primarily or exclusively committed against women...
. A display at the conference included images from magazine advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
, softcore pornography, and hardcore pornography
Hardcore pornography
Hardcore pornography is a form of pornography that features explicit sexual acts. The term was coined in the second half of the 20th century to distinguish it from softcore pornography. It usually takes the form of photographs, often displayed in magazines or on the Internet, or films. It can also...
, including child pornography
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
. Lederer stated in a later interview: "You saw the influence of the really hard-core images, back through the soft-core to the mainstream. Images were repeated. That's how I got involved. It kind of clicked." Several participants in the conference proposed to keep meeting and form an organization devoted to protesting violent images of women. In January 1977, this organization was started, which after several name changes became Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media
Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media
Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media was a radical feminist anti-pornography activist group based in San Francisco and an influential force in the larger feminist anti-pornography movement of the late 1970s and 1980s....
(WAVPM). Lederer signed on as the organization's national coordinator and editor of its newsletter.
As coordinator of WAVPM, Lederer helped organize protests and boycotts against companies such as Max Factor
Max Factor
Max Factor & Company is a cosmetics company, founded during 1909 by Maksymilian Faktorowicz , Max Factor, a Polish-Jewish cosmetician. Max Factor & Company was a related, two-family, multi-generational international cosmetics company before its sale in 1973 for $500 million dollars...
and Finnair
Finnair
Finnair Plc is the flag carrier and largest airline of Finland, with its headquarters on the grounds of Helsinki Airport in Vantaa, Finland, and its main hub at Helsinki Airport. Finnair and its subsidiaries dominate both the domestic and international air travel markets in Finland. The largest...
who's advertising the organization felt encouraged violence against women. She also organized educational tours of pornographic businesses in San Francisco's red light districts, a tactic later emulated by Women Against Pornography
Women Against Pornography
Women Against Pornography was a radical feminist activist group based out of New York City and an influential force in the anti-pornography movement of the late 1970s and the 1980s....
. Lederer worked closely with then-Supervisor
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body within the government of the City and County of San Francisco, California, United States.-Government and politics:...
Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein is the senior U.S. Senator from California. A member of the Democratic Party, she has served in the Senate since 1992. She also served as 38th Mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988....
on a San Francisco anti-pornography zoning ordinance targeting sex-related businesses. Lederer was aided in this effort by the fact that her father, in the role of Building Commissioner in Detroit, had worked vigorously for shaping and enforcing a similar zoning ordinance in that city. Lederer traveled to Detroit to research the ordinance there, and passed the results along to Feinstein. Though the zoning ordinance faced stiff opposition (notably from the San Francisco ACLU and from Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
), a milder version of this ordinance was passed in 1978.
In the summer of 1978, Lederer brought on Lynn Campbell to help organize WAVPM and together they helped organize Feminist Perspectives on Pornography, the first national anti-pornography feminist conference held in San Francisco on November 17–19, 1978. The conference drew many well known feminist speakers, notably Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem
Gloria Marie Steinem is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader of, and media spokeswoman for, the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s...
, Robin Morgan
Robin Morgan
Robin Morgan is a former child actor turned American radical feminist activist, writer, poet, and editor of Sisterhood is Powerful and Ms. Magazine....
, Phyllis Chesler
Phyllis Chesler
Phyllis Chesler is an American writer, psychotherapist, and professor emerita of psychology and women's studies at the College of Staten Island...
, Kathleen Barry, Susan Brownmiller
Susan Brownmiller
Susan Brownmiller is an American feminist, journalist, author, and activist. She is best known for her pioneering work on the politics of rape in her 1975 book Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape, Brownmiller argues that rape had been hitherto defined by men rather than women; and that men use,...
and Andrea Dworkin
Andrea Dworkin
Andrea Rita Dworkin was an American radical feminist and writer best known for her criticism of pornography, which she argued was linked to rape and other forms of violence against women....
. This conference was significant in that it served as a galvanizing event for the anti-pornography feminist movement in the United States. The final event of the conference was the first Take Back the Night
Take Back the Night
Take Back the Night is an internationally held march and rally intended as a protest and direct action against rape and other forms of sexual violence...
march, which converged on the Broadway red light district. The talks given during the event were later collected in the anthology
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
Take Back the Night--a work which was compiled and edited by Lederer and would go on to stand as a key document in the emerging feminist anti-pornography movement.
Lower profile and philanthropic work
Over the next decade, Lederer took a lower profile, designing grant programs for philanthropic organizations. She served as an officer at the Skaggs Foundation beginning in 1979 and was a founding member of the Global Fund for WomenGlobal Fund for Women
The Global Fund for Women is the largest non-profit foundation in the world funding women's human rights. It was founded in 1987 by New Zealander Anne Firth Murray, and co-founded by Frances Kissling and Laura Lederer to fund women's initiatives around the world...
in 1987. In 1989, she began her legal education at University of San Francisco
University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco , is a private, Jesuit/Catholic university located in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1855, USF was established as the first university in San Francisco. It is the second oldest institution for higher learning in California and the tenth-oldest university of...
before transferring after one year to DePaul University College of Law
DePaul University College of Law
DePaul University College of Law is a law school located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Founded in 1897 as the Illinois College of Law, the school became part of DePaul University in 1912 and is one of the academic colleges of DePaul, a Big East Conference university. The College is known for its...
, where she earned a Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
in 1994.
Anti-trafficking work – legal research, education, and advocacy
In 1994, she founded The Protection Project, a legal research institute dedicated to tracking and combating human trafficking. There, she created a database of foreign national law on involuntary servitude, slavery, trafficking in persons and related issues. In 1998 Lederer oversaw the project's transition to the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where she remained for three years (1998 – 2001). A core component of this work centered on the publication of the first Human Rights Report on Trafficking in Persons, a document pre-dating the U.S. government TIP Report that tracked and evaluated in 194 countries the global routes, patterns, and trends in human trafficking as well as laws, law enforcement, and case law addressing it.During the drafting of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, from 1998 to 2000, she served as a witness in Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House International Relations Committee hearings held by Representatives Chris Smith and Sam Gejdenson
Sam Gejdenson
Samuel "Sam" Gejdenson is a former United States Representative for the 2nd Congressional District of Connecticut.Born in a displaced persons camp in Eschwege, Germany, Gejdenson was the child of a Belarussian father and Lithuanian mother. Gejdenson grew up in Bozrah, Connecticut on a dairy farm...
and the late Senator Paul Wellstone
Paul Wellstone
Paul David Wellstone was a two-term U.S. Senator from the state of Minnesota and member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which is affiliated with the national Democratic Party. Before being elected to the Senate in 1990, he was a professor of political science at Carleton College...
and Senator Sam Brownback
Sam Brownback
Samuel Dale "Sam" Brownback is the 46th and current Governor of Kansas. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1996 to 2011, and as a U.S. Representative for Kansas's 2nd congressional district from 1995 to 1996...
, testifying on the global nature and scope of the problem of trafficking in persons. She was instrumental in bringing trafficking victims from over a dozen countries to testify in Congress. In 1998, she also helped bring together a new bi-partisan anti-trafficking coalition of women's groups and faith-based groups. This coalition played a role in the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.
Senior Advisor on Human Trafficking
In 2001, as Deputy Senior Advisor to the Secretary of StateSecretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
she helped set up the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons is an agency within the United States Department of State charged with investigating and creating programs to prevent human trafficking both within the United States and internationally. The office also presents the Trafficking in Persons...
at the U.S. Department of State. In From 2002–2009, she served as Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons to Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, Paula J. Dobriansky. In that capacity she advised the Under Secretary on policy formulation and development, program creation and implementation, and long-range planning for the Office for Global Affairs.
Lederer was Senior Advisor on Human Trafficking at the U.S. Department of State during the administration of George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. She was responsible for designing specialized anti-trafficking programs, including "TIP and New Technologies," "The Economics of Trafficking," "The Health Implications of Trafficking," and a new program to research the impact of sex selection and gender imbalance on human trafficking. In addition to her duties as Senior Advisor, she was instrumental in creating the Senior Policy Operating Group on Trafficking in Persons, for which she was Executive Director from 2001–2009. This high-level interagency policy group staffs the cabinet-level President's Interagency Task Force on Trafficking in Persons. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center is the law school of Georgetown University, located in Washington, D.C.. Established in 1870, the Law Center offers J.D., LL.M., and S.J.D. degrees in law...
.
Later career
As of 2010, Lederer is actively involved in combating human trafficking. Both in her role as President of Global Centurion, a Washington DC based NGO which seeks to eradicate child sex trafficking by focusing on the demand for trafficked children; and as founder and coordinator of Triple S Network, a group of nearly 100 NGOs active against sex trafficking.Media consultant
- "The Day My God Died": Lederer was an expert consultant to this, a feature-length documentary, which casts a spotlight on the devastating impact child sex trafficking has wrecked upon young girls in Bombay, India.
- "Trade": Lederer was an expert consultant to this, a feature length drama, which depicts the real life phenomena of international sex trafficking.
Education, awards, and honors
- She received her B.A. magna cum laude in comparative religions from the University of MichiganUniversity of MichiganThe University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
. - After 10 years in philanthropyPhilanthropyPhilanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...
as director of community and social concerns at a private foundation, she continued her education at the University of San Francisco School of Law and DePaul College of Law and received her Juris Doctorate in June 1994. - She received a scholarship from the USF Law School's Alumni Women's Association in 1991 and was Mansfield Fellow of Law at DePaul College of Law in 1992. In 1997, she received the Gustavus Meyers Center for Study of Human Rights Annual Award for Outstanding Work on Human Rights for book on hate speechHate speechHate speech is, outside the law, any communication that disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or other characteristic....
, The Price We PayThe Price We PayThe Price We Pay is a single from Life Will Kill You, the seventh album of Clawfinger, released in 2007....
. She served on the Peer Review Advisory Committee, U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency PreventionOffice of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency PreventionThe Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is an office of the United States Department of Justice and a component of the Office of Justice Programs....
for the research project, "Sexual Exploitation and Family Violence," 1984-1986, and was the youngest member of the National Task Force on Missing Children Advisory Council (precursor to the National Center for Missing and Exploited ChildrenNational Center for Missing and Exploited ChildrenThe National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is a private, non-profit organization established in 1984 by the United States Congress.-Establishment and overview:...
), U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice, in 1985.. - In September, 2009 she was the recipient of the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts Humanitarian Service Award for her work to abolish human trafficking.
- Recipient of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies Protection Project Human Rights Award for her “invaluable contribution to the global movement to stop human trafficking.”
Publications
- Editor and contributor, Take Back the Night, published in 1980 by William and Morrow.
- Editor, The Price We Pay: The Case Against Racist Speech, Hate Propaganda, and Pornography, published by Farrar, Straus and GirouxFarrar, Straus and GirouxFarrar, Straus and Giroux is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger W. Straus, Jr. and John C. Farrar. Known primarily as Farrar, Straus in its first decade of existence, the company was renamed several times, including Farrar, Straus and Young and Farrar, Straus and Cudahy...
in 1995. - Author, "Where have all the young girls gone? Female Feticide and its Impact on Human Trafficking"
Associations
- ECPAT (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking) USA, Board of Directors, 1997–2001
- Global Fund for WomenGlobal Fund for WomenThe Global Fund for Women is the largest non-profit foundation in the world funding women's human rights. It was founded in 1987 by New Zealander Anne Firth Murray, and co-founded by Frances Kissling and Laura Lederer to fund women's initiatives around the world...
, Founding Member and Board of Directors, 1988–1992 - Council on FoundationsCouncil on FoundationsThe Council on Foundations, formed in 1949, is a nonprofit membership association of grantmaking foundations and corporations. Members of the Council include more than 1,750 independent, operating, community, public, and company-sponsored foundations, and corporate giving programs in the United...
Program Committee, 1988–1989 - Lederer also serves on the Board of Directors of The Nomi Network, Hagar USA, Doctors at War on Trafficking in Persons; and Stop Modern Slavery, Inc.
External links
- "TCW Talks to ... Laura Lederer", interview by Camerin Courtney, Today's Christian Woman, January/February 2008.
- "Trafficking as a Law Enforcement Issue", interview by David Denton and Caroline Vasquez, The Yale GlobalistThe Yale GlobalistThe Yale Globalist is a quarterly undergraduate magazine of international affairs from Yale University. The magazine is written, edited, and published entirely by undergraduate students...
, March 1, 2004. (Archived at State.gov.) - "Alumna Works to Eradicate Sexual Trafficking" by Lawrence Arendt, Dialogue 16(1): 6, Fall/Winter 2002. (scroll down)
- "Enslaved by His Sources" by Jack Shafer, SlateSlate (magazine)Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
, February 3, 2004. - "Trafficking Cops" by Bob Jones, WorldWorld (magazine)WORLD Magazine is a biweekly Christian news magazine, published in the United States of America by God's World Publications, a non-profit 501 organization based in Asheville, North Carolina. WORLD differs from most other news magazines in that its declared perspective is one of conservative...
, June 15, 2002. (Archived at Wayback Machine, 2004-06-14.) - "No Sale" by Mindy Belz, WorldWorld (magazine)WORLD Magazine is a biweekly Christian news magazine, published in the United States of America by God's World Publications, a non-profit 501 organization based in Asheville, North Carolina. WORLD differs from most other news magazines in that its declared perspective is one of conservative...
, March 25, 2000. (Archived at Wayback Machine, 2004-04-27.) - "2007 Frank Church Symposium Delegates: Laura Lederer" (scroll down), International Affairs Council, Idaho State University. (Archived at Wayback Machine, 2007-09-29.) – Further biographical information.