It's a Penalty

Address: The Leatherhead Institute, 67 The High Street, Leatherhead, Surrey, KT22 8AH, UK
Tel: +441372 375848
Email: hello@itsapenalty.org
facebook www.facebook.com/itsapenaltycampaign twitter twitter.com/its_apenalty linkedin www.linkedin.com/company/it's-a-penalty-campaign/
Specialist areas of work and services:
  • Advocacy
  • Campaigns & Awareness

Description:
It’s a Penalty is a UK-based NGO working to end abuse, exploitation and human trafficking worldwide through global campaigns and advocacy.

Experience, Background and Services:
Since 2014, It’s a Penalty has been working to disrupt the fastest growing and second largest criminal industry in the world: human trafficking and exploitation. We believe that prevention is even better than cure. As well as providing people with the tools to protect those who have been exploited or trafficked, It’s a Penalty strives to prevent people from becoming victims of exploitation and trafficking in the first place. Our awareness-raising Campaigns harness the power of sport to prevent trafficking and exploitation on a global scale. Our Research & Advocacy work ensures that children worldwide are legally protected from sexual exploitation and abuse.

Our Campaigns during major sporting events EDUCATE, EQUIP and ENCOURAGE people to stand up against, and protect potential victims from, abuse, exploitation and trafficking globally. Harnessing the power of sport to reach millions of people both in the hosting cities and worldwide, It’s a Penalty works with each major sporting event to deter and prevent human trafficking. On average, each It’s a Penalty Campaign impacts over 180 million people worldwide. Together with our partners, It’s a Penalty has helped facilitate the protection of 16,891 victims of exploitation during our campaigns.

In July 2020, It’s a Penalty released our latest campaign film in collaboration with actor Liam Neeson entitled ‘What is Human Trafficking?’ online through social media and through a media press release. The purpose of the video is to educate about what exactly human trafficking is in order to enable everyone to identify and report suspected cases, and protect and prevent those at risk from being victimised. Viewable here: https://knowthesignsnow.org/. The campaign video so far has had incredible engagement and impact. In total, the ‘What is Human Trafficking?’ video has had 3.5 million total views across Youtube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, as well as media coverage in 25 news outlets to a potential audience of 135 million people worldwide.

We believe that by providing people with key information about how to identify and report abuse, exploitation and human trafficking, they can be empowered to make a difference to the lives of potential victims. To fulfil this mission, we have made two crucial resources available on the It’s a Penalty website. Our Know the Signs page (www.itsapenalty.org/knowthesigns) provides the public with the signs to look out for in order to identify an adult or child who has been trafficked, exploited or abused. Abuse, exploitation and trafficking are often hidden issues which are difficult to identify. If you #KNOWTHESIGNS, you can help protect people from these forms of violence. Our Interactive World Map (www.itsapenalty.org/makeareport) - the first of its kind - shows the public how they can make a report of abuse, exploitation and trafficking in every country around the globe. Reporting any cases of abuse, exploitation and trafficking you believe may be taking place is one of the most important steps in the fight against these violations of human rights.

Alongside our campaigns, we have launched our advocacy programme entitled CommonProtect which is a legal reform initiative focusing on improving the legal protection of children from sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) across the Commonwealth. Collaborating with a range of partners to influence the improvement of anti-CSEA legislation across target Commonwealth states, our project aims to prevent abuse throughout the Commonwealth and beyond, and provide strong, child-friendly and swift justice for those who have been abused or exploited. For more information, please visit www.itsapenalty.org/advocacy.

We believe that collaboration and partnership are essential in order to achieve our aims. It’s a Penalty is able to have such incredible impact because of our collaboration with strategic stakeholders, such as high profile sporting athletes, the travel and tourism industry – including airlines, hotels, and transportation companies – sporting governing bodies/hosting committees, NGOs, governments, and corporates.

Our ultimate goal is to eradicate abuse, exploitation and trafficking by 2030, contributing to the elimination of modern-day slavery and the achievement of UN SDG Target 16.2 ‘to end abuse, exploitation, trafficking, torture and all forms of violence against children’.