ferrantraite/iStock(NEW YORK) When someone goes missing in Hawaii, local activist Ihilani Lasconia says that many in the island's Native communities first suspect one thing: sex trafficking. "Everybody knows that it's happening, everybody knows that it's a problem," said Lasconia, an advocate for the feminist group AF3IRM. "It's been so normalized with over 100 years of colonization so people feel defeated and don't have the vocabulary to articulate these experiences." A new task force created by the state House aims to gather data on the number of missing Native Hawaiian women, and the impact of sex trafficking on Native populations on the islands. Women and children in Hawaii are facing a widespread epidemic of violence and sex trafficking, according to House documents. The task force is being led by the Hawaii State Commission on the State of Women and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and is backed by state agencies, local authoriti
HONOLULU – Today, Governor David Y. Ige signed into law a comprehensive reform of Hawaii’s criminal sex trafficking laws. The new provisions address the challenges and complexities of sex trafficking, and implement concrete measures to enhance the State’s ability to investigate and prosecute traffickers, while improving outcomes for victims and survivors as they move through the […]