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The Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University has entered into an agreement with the Human Trafficking Center of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City. The partners agree to study, develop networks, and recommend international policies to reduce a growing violation of human rights—human trafficking—that accounts for more than $150 billion a year for criminal enterprises.
The four-year collaboration is led by Mario Luis Fuentes, an economist and scholar who focuses his area of research on social inequality, and Louise Shelley, founding director of TraCCC.
The partnership was initiated by Schar School associate professor Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a specialist in human trafficking and smuggling in and through Mexico.
“This collaboration will be relevant in addressing the global phenomenon of human trafficking and forced labor,” said Correa-Cabrera. “The ultimate bottom line is to assist policymakers in eradicating one of the most pressing issues for countries not only in Latin America but around the world.”
This important effort, according to Shelley, “builds on the complementary strengths of myself in global human trafficking and of Dr. Correa-Cabrera in transnational crime groups in Mexico that undermine human rights.”
The agreement, which took nine months to create and was signed in June, comes at a crucial time when the Schar School is developing a new initiative to combine the expertise of Schar School specialists and those from Central America and Mexico to address abuses of the rule of law by transnational crime groups.
“Through our collaboration with Mexican specialists, we hope to develop strategies to address the human trafficking that results in the abuse of so many individuals” said Shelley, who will deliver an online transnational crime lecture to UNAM students in July. Her first lecture drew more than 200 students.
Mason is one of 115 Research 1 universities in the U.S. and is the largest public research university in Virginia. UNAM is the largest university in Latin America and is home to three Nobel laureates.
ABOUT THE SCHAR SCHOOL
The Schar School of Policy and Government is one of the 10 schools and colleges of George Mason University, with approximately 2,000 students, 90 full-time faculty members, and 23 degree and certificate programs offered on Mason’s campuses in Fairfax and Arlington, Va. Among the degree programs are government and international affairs, public policy, public administration, political science, international security, and international commerce and policy. The Schar School prepares undergraduate and graduate students to be leaders and managers who solve problems and advance the public good in all sectors and levels of government—in the United States and throughout the world.
For more, contact Communications Manager Buzz McClain at bmcclai2@gmu.edu.
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