Siddharth Kara
Encyclopedia
Siddharth Kara is an author and one of the world's foremost experts on modern day slavery
and human trafficking
. He is the first Fellow on Human Trafficking with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
. He is best known for his award-winning book, Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery.
(Persian) mother raised in India. He grew up between Memphis, Tennessee, where he attended private school, and Mumbai
, India, where he spent his summers. Kara received a BA in English and Philosophy from Duke University
(including one semester at Queen Mary College
, University of London), as well as an MBA from Columbia University
and a Law degree
from the BPP Law School
, London. Kara worked as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch
in New York
for several years, during which time he was involved in some of the firm's largest M&A and equity financing transactions. Subsequently, he co-founded a media technology company and set up his own finance and M&A firm in Los Angeles
, working and consulting for several corporations and non-profit organizations.
While an undergraduate at Duke University, Kara co-founded the "Duke Refugee Action Project", to enable students to volunteer in Bosnian
refugee camps in the former Yugoslavia. He and a few other students obtained a grant from the University, learned basic Bosnian, and procured placements from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
to volunteer at camps in the region. That summer, he lived as the refugees, in wretched conditions with barely enough food to eat. During this time he heard countless tales of brutish atrocities, including tales of Serbian soldiers who would raid Bosnian villages, execute the men, and round up the women and young girls and traffic them to brothels across Europe. This experience would prove to be a pivotal point in his life. Later, while a postgraduate at Columbia University, Kara continued to be haunted by the tales of sex trafficking from the refugee camp. He became increasingly aware of the need for a more analytical finance and economics approach to understanding this unconscionable crime and eradicating this highly profitable global business. That summer, he embarked on the first of several long self-funded journeys across the world to research human trafficking
and other forms of contemporary slavery
. After a few years working as an investment banker, he decided to leave investment banking, to allow him to continue his research and analysis of contemporary slavery. Later, while working and consulting in Los Angeles, he continued to make research trips around the world, and wrote a screenplay as well as his first non-fiction book based on his accumulating research. Subsequently, Kara obtained a law degree, all the while continuing to work, write, and travel extensively to advise on and advocate against modern day slavery
.
. The books are a culmination of over ten years of self-funded research, during which time Kara traveled to twenty countries across six continents to investigate these vicious crimes. During his travels, Kara witnessed firsthand the sale of human beings into slavery, interviewed over one thousand former and current slaves of all kinds, and confronted some of the individuals who trafficked and exploited them.
His book, Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery won the 2010 Frederick Douglass
Book Prize, a highly prestigious award that is given to the most outstanding nonfiction book on the subject of slavery and/or abolition and antislavery movements. Since the inception of the Award in 1999, numerous books on the subject of modern-day slavery have been submitted, but Kara's book was the first to be awarded the prize. The book has been recommended by the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
and head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
. It has been lauded by academics, policy-makers and the press, with the Financial Times describing it as an "eloquent and campaigning book", and slavery experts heralding it as "groundbreaking" and the "best book yet on the enduring problem of modern-day slavery".
In the book, Kara draws on his background in finance, economics and law to provide what is widely considered to be the first ever comprehensive business, economic and legal analysis of contemporary slavery worldwide, focusing on sex trafficking, its most profitable and barbaric form. He explores sex-trafficking across several regions of the world, providing the moving stories of its victims and revealing the shocking conditions of their exploitation. He describes the local factors and global economic forces that gave rise to the various forms of modern day slavery
across the last two decades and quantifies, for the first time, the size, growth, and profitability of each slave industry. Finally, he recommends the legal, tactical, and policy measures that would target vulnerable sectors in these slave industries, and help to abolish slavery, once and for all. Kara is currently writing the second of his three books on contemporary slavery that focuses on bonded labor. While sex trafficking is the most profitable form of modern-day slavery, bonded labor is the most prevalent form.
Kara has also published several articles in legal and academic journals such as the Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights, Harvard International Review, Solutions journal, and World Politics Review.
(director of I Am Love
starring Tilda Swinton
) and Elizabeth Stanley. The screenplay won the 2003 CineStory Screenwriting Award, and was shortlisted for the Sundance
Screenwriter’s Lab and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting.
Kara is a regular contributer to The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern Day Slavery, CNN's major year-long initiative, launched in 2011, to expose modern-day slavery around the world and highlight the efforts being made to eradicate it. His unique journey across South Asia to research for his second book on bonded labor was covered as a ten-week series in 2010 on the CNN International
primetime news program Connect the World with Becky Anderson
. He also appeared in 2010 as a panelist on the BBC News primetime current affairs program BBC World Debate, held in Luxor, Egypt. He has been a featured contributer on several other primetime programs, including CNN
's Piers Morgan Tonight
and CNBC
's Crime Inc.
at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
. He is also an Affiliate of Harvard's Human Rights and Social Movements program, as well as a founding member of their Advisory Collective and a member of their Working Group on Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery. In the Spring of 2012, Kara will teach the first course on human trafficking at the Harvard Kennedy School.
and human rights around the world. He advises the United Nations, US government and several other governments on antislavery policy and law. He also advises several international and non-governmental organizations, including the Clinton Global Initiative and Humanity United. He has spoken at numerous conferences and institutions and has been interviewed on over fifty radio and television shows in the US, Europe, South Asia and East Asia. Kara serves on the board of several antislavery organizations, and also serves on the committee founded by Kirk Douglas
that is lobbying the US Congress to provide an official apology for pre-bellum slavery. He has testified several times in international forums as an expert on human trafficking, including in 2005, before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus of the United States Congress. In 2009, he was selected as a Fellow for the acclaimed TEDIndia conference.
.
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
and human trafficking
Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...
. He is the first Fellow on Human Trafficking with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. He is best known for his award-winning book, Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery.
Education and career
Kara was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA to an Indian father raised in South Africa and a ParsiParsi
Parsi or Parsee refers to a member of the larger of the two Zoroastrian communities in South Asia, the other being the Irani community....
(Persian) mother raised in India. He grew up between Memphis, Tennessee, where he attended private school, and Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, India, where he spent his summers. Kara received a BA in English and Philosophy from Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
(including one semester at Queen Mary College
Queen Mary, University of London
Queen Mary, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, University of London), as well as an MBA from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and a Law degree
Law degree
A Law degree is an academic degree conferred for studies in law. Such degrees are generally preparation for legal careers; but while their curricula may be reviewed by legal authority, they do not themselves confer a license...
from the BPP Law School
BPP Law School
BPP Law School is a UK-based provider of professional legal education and is one of the largest in the country, with branches in Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Leeds, Liverpool, London , Manchester and Newcastle. In 2007, BPP Law School became the first privately owned, publicly traded firm in the...
, London. Kara worked as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch is the wealth management division of Bank of America. With over 15,000 financial advisors and $2.2 trillion in client assets it is the world's largest brokerage. Formerly known as Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., prior to 2009 the firm was publicly owned and traded on the New York...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
for several years, during which time he was involved in some of the firm's largest M&A and equity financing transactions. Subsequently, he co-founded a media technology company and set up his own finance and M&A firm in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, working and consulting for several corporations and non-profit organizations.
While an undergraduate at Duke University, Kara co-founded the "Duke Refugee Action Project", to enable students to volunteer in Bosnian
Bosnians
Bosnians are people who reside in, or come from, Bosnia and Herzegovina. By the modern state definition a Bosnian can be anyone who holds citizenship of the state. This includes, but is not limited to, members of the constituent ethnic groups of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosniaks, Bosnian Serbs and...
refugee camps in the former Yugoslavia. He and a few other students obtained a grant from the University, learned basic Bosnian, and procured placements from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees , also known as The UN Refugee Agency is a United Nations agency mandated to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself and assists in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to...
to volunteer at camps in the region. That summer, he lived as the refugees, in wretched conditions with barely enough food to eat. During this time he heard countless tales of brutish atrocities, including tales of Serbian soldiers who would raid Bosnian villages, execute the men, and round up the women and young girls and traffic them to brothels across Europe. This experience would prove to be a pivotal point in his life. Later, while a postgraduate at Columbia University, Kara continued to be haunted by the tales of sex trafficking from the refugee camp. He became increasingly aware of the need for a more analytical finance and economics approach to understanding this unconscionable crime and eradicating this highly profitable global business. That summer, he embarked on the first of several long self-funded journeys across the world to research human trafficking
Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...
and other forms of contemporary slavery
Modern day slavery
The number of slaves today remains as high as 12 million to 27 million, though this is probably the smallest proportion of the world's population in the history of civilization, as slavery was unknown prior in paleolithic times. Most are debt slaves, largely in South Asia, who are under debt...
. After a few years working as an investment banker, he decided to leave investment banking, to allow him to continue his research and analysis of contemporary slavery. Later, while working and consulting in Los Angeles, he continued to make research trips around the world, and wrote a screenplay as well as his first non-fiction book based on his accumulating research. Subsequently, Kara obtained a law degree, all the while continuing to work, write, and travel extensively to advise on and advocate against modern day slavery
Modern day slavery
The number of slaves today remains as high as 12 million to 27 million, though this is probably the smallest proportion of the world's population in the history of civilization, as slavery was unknown prior in paleolithic times. Most are debt slaves, largely in South Asia, who are under debt...
.
Writing
In January 2009, Kara published his award-winning book, Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery, published by Columbia University Press. In May 2010, a second edition was published in paperback. This is the first of three non-fiction books that provide his pioneering approach to all forms of contemporary slaveryModern day slavery
The number of slaves today remains as high as 12 million to 27 million, though this is probably the smallest proportion of the world's population in the history of civilization, as slavery was unknown prior in paleolithic times. Most are debt slaves, largely in South Asia, who are under debt...
. The books are a culmination of over ten years of self-funded research, during which time Kara traveled to twenty countries across six continents to investigate these vicious crimes. During his travels, Kara witnessed firsthand the sale of human beings into slavery, interviewed over one thousand former and current slaves of all kinds, and confronted some of the individuals who trafficked and exploited them.
His book, Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery won the 2010 Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
Book Prize, a highly prestigious award that is given to the most outstanding nonfiction book on the subject of slavery and/or abolition and antislavery movements. Since the inception of the Award in 1999, numerous books on the subject of modern-day slavery have been submitted, but Kara's book was the first to be awarded the prize. The book has been recommended by the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime is a United Nations agency that was established in 1997 as the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention by combining the United Nations International Drug Control Program and the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Division in the United Nations...
. It has been lauded by academics, policy-makers and the press, with the Financial Times describing it as an "eloquent and campaigning book", and slavery experts heralding it as "groundbreaking" and the "best book yet on the enduring problem of modern-day slavery".
In the book, Kara draws on his background in finance, economics and law to provide what is widely considered to be the first ever comprehensive business, economic and legal analysis of contemporary slavery worldwide, focusing on sex trafficking, its most profitable and barbaric form. He explores sex-trafficking across several regions of the world, providing the moving stories of its victims and revealing the shocking conditions of their exploitation. He describes the local factors and global economic forces that gave rise to the various forms of modern day slavery
Modern day slavery
The number of slaves today remains as high as 12 million to 27 million, though this is probably the smallest proportion of the world's population in the history of civilization, as slavery was unknown prior in paleolithic times. Most are debt slaves, largely in South Asia, who are under debt...
across the last two decades and quantifies, for the first time, the size, growth, and profitability of each slave industry. Finally, he recommends the legal, tactical, and policy measures that would target vulnerable sectors in these slave industries, and help to abolish slavery, once and for all. Kara is currently writing the second of his three books on contemporary slavery that focuses on bonded labor. While sex trafficking is the most profitable form of modern-day slavery, bonded labor is the most prevalent form.
Kara has also published several articles in legal and academic journals such as the Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights, Harvard International Review, Solutions journal, and World Politics Review.
Film and TV
Kara's award-winning screenplay, Trafficking, based on his research into sex trafficking worldwide, is currently being made into a film, produced by Kara along with Luca GuadgninoLuca Guadagnino
Luca Guadagnino is an Italian film director. He rose to notability with the 2005 film Melissa P., and he is a frequent collaborator with Tilda Swinton, including the 2010 film I Am Love.-Life and career:...
(director of I Am Love
I Am Love (film)
I Am Love is a 2009 Italian film directed by Luca Guadagnino set around 2000 in Milan. The film follows a haute bourgeoisie family through changing times and fortunes, and its disruption by the force of passion. The cast is led by Tilda Swinton as Emma Recchi...
starring Tilda Swinton
Tilda Swinton
Katherine Mathilda "Tilda" Swinton is a British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films. She has appeared in a number of films including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, The Beach, We Need to Talk About Kevin and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her...
) and Elizabeth Stanley. The screenplay won the 2003 CineStory Screenwriting Award, and was shortlisted for the Sundance
Sundance
Sundance Resort is a ski resort located northeast of Provo, Utah, spanning over on the slopes of Mount Timpanogos in Utah's Wasatch Range. Snow skiing began on the site in 1944...
Screenwriter’s Lab and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting.
Kara is a regular contributer to The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern Day Slavery, CNN's major year-long initiative, launched in 2011, to expose modern-day slavery around the world and highlight the efforts being made to eradicate it. His unique journey across South Asia to research for his second book on bonded labor was covered as a ten-week series in 2010 on the CNN International
CNN International
CNN International is an international English language television network that carries news, current affairs, politics, opinions, and business programming worldwide. CNN is one of the world's largest news organizations. It is owned by Time Warner, and is affiliated with CNN, which is mainly...
primetime news program Connect the World with Becky Anderson
Becky Anderson
Rebecca Anderson is a British journalist, and the anchor of CNN International's primetime news program Connect the World...
. He also appeared in 2010 as a panelist on the BBC News primetime current affairs program BBC World Debate, held in Luxor, Egypt. He has been a featured contributer on several other primetime programs, including CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
's Piers Morgan Tonight
Piers Morgan Tonight
Piers Morgan Tonight is a talk show on CNN, hosted by Piers Morgan. The show premiered on January 17, 2011 and filled the former Larry King Live timeslot. The theme music is written by Anthony James, composer and CEO of British company Music Candy, and his writing partner Yiorgos Bellapaisiotis,...
and CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
's Crime Inc.
Academia
In 2009, Kara became the first Fellow on Human Trafficking with the Carr Center for Human Rights PolicyCarr Center for Human Rights Policy
The Carr Center for Human Rights Policy is research center concerned with human rights, and is located at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University....
at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. He is also an Affiliate of Harvard's Human Rights and Social Movements program, as well as a founding member of their Advisory Collective and a member of their Working Group on Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery. In the Spring of 2012, Kara will teach the first course on human trafficking at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Consulting
Kara speaks and consults extensively on contemporary slaveryModern day slavery
The number of slaves today remains as high as 12 million to 27 million, though this is probably the smallest proportion of the world's population in the history of civilization, as slavery was unknown prior in paleolithic times. Most are debt slaves, largely in South Asia, who are under debt...
and human rights around the world. He advises the United Nations, US government and several other governments on antislavery policy and law. He also advises several international and non-governmental organizations, including the Clinton Global Initiative and Humanity United. He has spoken at numerous conferences and institutions and has been interviewed on over fifty radio and television shows in the US, Europe, South Asia and East Asia. Kara serves on the board of several antislavery organizations, and also serves on the committee founded by Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
that is lobbying the US Congress to provide an official apology for pre-bellum slavery. He has testified several times in international forums as an expert on human trafficking, including in 2005, before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus of the United States Congress. In 2009, he was selected as a Fellow for the acclaimed TEDIndia conference.
Personal
Kara spends his time between Los Angeles, Boston and London. He is married to award-winning neuroscientist Aditi ShankardassAditi Shankardass
Aditi Shankardass is an award-winning neuroscientist.Her pioneering clinical work using electroencephalogram recordings of the brain to help diagnose developmental disorders in children has been covered by the press worldwide, including CNN, ABC News, Times of India, and Financial Express, and...
.
External links
- Interview with Siddharth Kara, Business Daily on BBC Radio
- Talk by Siddharth Kara, Columbia University, New York (Video)
- Lecture by Siddharth Kara, Harvard University, Cambridge (Video)
- Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery