In Washington, D.C, February 15th 2017, Ashton Kutcher attends a hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Seated beside Human Rights First President and CEO Elisa Massimino, Kutcher is making it clear that his passions step outside of the movie screen. Kutcher is a co-founder and chairman of Thorn; a company that builds software to fight the sexual exploitation of children and human trafficking. He opens his testimony with the following statement:
“I’m here today to defend the right to pursue happiness. It’s a simple notion. It’s bestowed upon all of us by our Constitution. Every citizen in this country has the right to pursue it and I believe that is incumbent upon us as citizens of this nation, as Americans, to bestow that right upon others. Upon each other and upon the rest of the world. But the right to pursue happiness, for so many, is stripped away. It’s raped. It’s abused. It’s taken by force, fraud, or coercion. It is sold for the momentary happiness of another.
But the right to pursue happiness, for so many, is stripped away. It’s raped. It’s abused. It’s taken by force, fraud, or coercion. It is sold for the momentary happiness of another.
It also is brought to our attention that the government could play a huge hand in ending these tragic events. Ben Cardin; Maryland U.S senator expresses his concern about Trump’s Immigration/Refugee Executive Order, as it could be impacting sex trafficking victims. He elaborates that victims running away from their rapist come here, to the United States to escape. Overturning the Executive Order could change the lives of people fleeing all types of wars.
During the meeting, Kutcher is clearly emotional as he speaks about seeing disturbing footage of a young child being raped while aboard on his missions to end it. He states, “I’ve seen video content of a child that’s the same age as mine being raped by an American man that was a sex tourist in Cambodia. This child was so conditioned by her environment that she thought she was engaging in play.”
The co-founder of Thorn closes his testimony by discussing their hopes and plans of expanding their Spotlight assisted Investigation tool that aids in saving victims. If you’re interested in contributing to end the fight against human sex trafficking with Thorn, click here. Let’s work on ending modern day slavery.
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