Christine Buchholz and Carla Bury
Recorded
May 10, 2021
27:06 minutes
0:00 / 0:00
Id:
ddv000731
Description
Christine Lee Buchholz (47) interviews her former colleague, Carla Menares Bury (54), about her work in the anti-trafficking field. Carla reflects on her experience from attending the first white house summit on human trafficking in 1999 to negotiating a United Nations trafficking resolution virtually in 2020.Subject Log / Time Code
Carla (C) shares that she is an immigrant to the US. C reflects on how much has changed between the first white house summit on human trafficking in 199 and the most recent summit in 2020.
C thinks back to what it was like in the early days of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking and Persons. She says she started with an office of seven people and hit the ground running.
C describes what it was like being a part of creating the first Trafficking and Persons Report in 2001. She says the first report included 85 countries and now the most recent one has nearly 180 countries. C says the report has become the gold standard for seeing how countries are doing on the fight against human trafficking.
C says that before she started in the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking and Persons, she had already been doing some anti-trafficking work under the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. C says in the early days of the office they had to rely strongly on embassies but now they have a staff and are able to work with the United Nations and other organizations. C describes the challenges she faced last year when she was negotiating a United Nations trafficking resolution virtually.
C says she has stayed in the anti-trafficking field for as long as she has because she enjoys building relationships with her colleagues and working multilaterally with other organizations. C says that anti-trafficking is a bipartisan issue and each administration has put its own stamp on the field.
C reflects on what she is proud of: creating the first Trafficking and Persons report and the first human trafficking brochure for the State. C says she is also proud that having survivor engagement has become such an important part of the United State’s response to human trafficking.
C shares her advice to the next generation of people interested in joining the anti-trafficking field: be patient. C talks about how the United States could be doing better at holding traffickers accountable. C says she is hopeful that one day trafficking will become a high risk, low profit venture for traffickers so that they will not be compelled to partake in human trafficking.
C mentions that while working in the United Nations, a tier 3 country became an unlikely ally. C highlights the importance of forming alliances with groups you wouldn’t expect to partner with.
Participants
- Christine Buchholz
- Carla Bury