Pro bono Partnership between Clayton Utz and Anti-Slavery Australia recognised in 2013 Law & Justice Foundation awards
Monday 28 October 2013 @ 9.02 a.m. | Judiciary, Legal Profession & Procedure
The NSW Law & Justice Foundation's Pro Bono Partnership Award for 2013 has this week recognised the unique pro bono partnership between Clayton Utz and Anti-Slavery Australia (ASA). The partership has helped open up a new path to statutory compensation for the hundreds of women sex-trafficked into Australia each year.
The Pro Bono Partnership Award is presented to a partnership comprising a private law firm, community organisation or community legal centre in NSW which has developed an innovative and outstanding pro bono legal assistance relationship, resulting in improved access to justice for disadvantaged people in the community.
Sex-trafficking remains a serious issue in Australia. The women, many of whom have been trafficked from South-East Asia, are forced to work against their will in oppressive conditions to repay "debts" to their captors, often under threat of violence towards themselves or their families.
The Federal government has made ongoing efforts to help victims of trafficking, through criminal legislation and policy reform, and ASA has been a long-term advocate for those changes. Until the Clayton Utz partnership, however, there had been a serious lack of clear and accessible civil remedies for trafficking victims.
The work of Clayton Utz and ASA has provided a model for obtaining victims compensation, on the basis that the slavery conditions the women experienced meant that consent was absent, and that the women were therefore victims of multiple sexual assaults.
In the 2012-2013 financial year, the partnership obtained over $1 million in compensation for trafficked clients in NSW. Previously, no-one had recognised the possibility of victims compensation for trafficked women, and the award was granted in recognition of this pioneering work.
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