We and World Central Kitchen co-hosted an event at the U.S. Capitol with Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch and a bipartisan group of five other U.S. Senators, focused on the grassroots defense of democracy and human rights in Ukraine following another Russian invasion.

Speakers included Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova.

Following these remarks, a panel conversation was moderated by McCain Institute Executive Director Dr. Evelyn Farkas and featured a dialogue with World Central Kitchen CEO Nate Mook, 2022 Ukrainian McCain Global Leader Dr. Mariia Levchenko, World Central Kitchen’s operations lead in Kyiv, Ukraine Kate Serdiuk, and First Secretary at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Kateryna Smagliy, who is also an alumna of the McCain Institute’s leadership programs.

As the illegal invasion of Ukraine continues, atrocity crimes have been reportedly committed by the Russian forces. We hosted two virtual discussions featuring lawyers, reporters, prosecutors, and investigators making sure that the Ukrainians and the international community hold Russian individuals accountable for the atrocity crimes they have committed.

The event featured opening remarks from Ambassador Beth Van Schaack, U.S. ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice (GCJ). The first virtual conversation was between McCain Institute Executive Director Dr. Evelyn Farkas and the Lead Advisor for the EU-UK-US Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group Ambassador Clint Williamson.

The second panel was moderated by McCain Institute Human Rights and Democracy Program Manager Pedro Pizano and featured Truth Hounds Executive Director Roman Avramenko, EU-UK-US Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group Coordinator Andrea Cayley, Global Justice Advisors Founder Scott Martin, and Maidan Monitoring Information Center Chair Nataliya Zubar

The I2P program is rapidly expanding, both in the United States and abroad. Since the program’s launch in the United States in spring 2021, 77 collegiate programs and 27 high school pilot programs have participated in peer-to-peer competitions. To date, this I2P participation has included three HBCUs, 11 universities serving majority Black and brown populations, and 35 total U.S. states as well as the District of Columbia. Three university teams in the U.K. and six university teams in France have also participated in I2P programs adapted to their local context.

Demand for I2P programming at the high school level in the U.S. has skyrocketed, with rapid one-year growth from the initial 10 pilot schools to the current 37 schools participating in the Fall 2022 semester program. Demand remains steady at the collegiate level, with 25 universities in the U.S. and three universities in France competing this fall.

In June 2022, the top three university and top three high school teams in the U.S. gathered in Washington D.C. to compete for cash awards, education scholarships, and invitations to participate in our year-long sustainment program. In September 2022, the top two teams from the U.K.’s and France’s I2P programs convened for a first-ever bilateral summit in which each team presented their projects to a panel of judges.

In September 2022, the McCain Institute launched SCREEN Hate – an online awareness campaign to address teens and young adults’ growing exposure to hate online. The campaign provides caregivers and concerned adults with the knowledge, tools and resources they need to keep youth safe from hateful messaging online that could incite violence. The campaign educates caregivers, concerned adults, friends, and teachers about the platforms and tactics violent extremists use to spread hate online. It also provides tips for discussing these topics with youth as well as resources for prevention and assistance. Finally, SCREEN Hate directs concerned adults to the McCain Institute’s PPN nationwide directory, which allows them to seek help if a teen or young adult is showing concerning behavior.

In the first month of the campaign, we have had 37,000 impressions and 814 unique visitors to the SCREEN Hate site. In addition, two concerned adults reached out directly to the McCain Institute seeking help for youth in their lives after hearing about SCREEN Hate. Brette Steele and Rachel Hunkler co-authored an op-ed piece that was featured at the top of the USA Today opinion page(Open Link in new window) and picked up by Yahoo News. Gray TV’s interview of Brette Steele on the campaign’s launch went out to 113 local news stations.

This year, the McCain Institute increased its advocacy efforts to generate action to address forced labor in global supply chains. Building off prior engagement with G7 Leaders and Trade Ministers, the Combatting Human Trafficking program partnered with fellow anti-trafficking leaders, including the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery, Humanity United, the Freedom Fund, Walk Free and others, to urge the G7 to reaffirm their commitment and take action to end forced labor in global supply chains.

Ahead of the G7 Leaders meeting in June and again before the September Trade Ministers meeting, over 20 organizations, led by the McCain Institute, urged leaders and called for specific actions, including: harmonizing minimum legal and regulatory standards, creating and strengthening mechanisms for robust information and data sharing, identifying new financial resources to address human trafficking, forced and child labor, and drafting specific language for inclusion in all future trade agreements to which a G7 member is a party prohibiting the use of forced and child labor.

The International Labor Organization’s (ILO) newly released Global Estimates of Modern Slavery reiterate the need for a coordinated response to end forced labor, and the McCain Institute remains committed to leading global efforts to generate new commitment and action from the G7 and other mutli-national organizations.

In partnership with the United Way of Southern Cameron County, the McCain Institute has concluded its second year of delivering specialized human trafficking trainings and providing guidance to anti-trafficking stakeholders in Cameron County, Texas.

In coordination with our Rio Grande Valley-based outreach team, the McCain Institute conducted over 610 hours of outreach this year and reached over 2,890 individuals working in agriculture, construction, fishing, and other high-risk industries. As part of this important work, our team delivered 48 Spanish-language “Know Your Rights” trainings, offering vulnerable populations and their family members a safe space to ask questions and learn more about the rights to which they are entitled.

With new figures from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) indicating that Mexico now registers the third highest number of refugees globally (source), the Combatting Human Trafficking team also provided trainings and capacity building opportunities to local shelter staff along the U.S.-Mexico border who work most closely with vulnerable populations and their families.

Training and outreach remain central components of our work in Arizona. This year, we have trained over 925 individuals, provided 1,000 labor trafficking outreach cards to day laborers in Maricopa County as part of Project ALTO, and distributed 1,450 training brochures for parents, teens, educators, and special education professionals.

In addition to providing trainings and technical assistance, the Arizona Program received a second year of STOP funding to identify and serve minor victims of sex trafficking through expansion of the Collaborative model. We have worked with Mercy Care, the Department of Child Safety, and partners in Coconino, Mohave, Yavapai, Yuma, and Santa Cruz Counties to connect multidisciplinary stakeholders, support their anti-trafficking efforts, and gain an understanding of the resources and training needed.

Through our School Prevention project, the McCain Institute works directly with schools and youth-serving organizations to prevent child sex trafficking. Our primary prevention toolkit, created in collaboration with stakeholders from child safety, juvenile courts and probation, community services, and K-12 personnel, provides schools with actionable steps to increase safeguards for their students.

The McCain Institute is deeply committed to standing on the side of democracy and progress and making our voice heard in service of restoring faith in fact-based journalism, countering mis-, dis-, and mal-information (MDM), and, most importantly, defending American democracy. With the support of the Knight Foundation, the McCain Institute has launched a new program, the Defending American Democracy program, which is a series of conversations designed to advance the cause of American democracy by convening key stakeholders, engaging elected officials, and communicating with the public. We highlighted the importance of supporting local journalism to strengthen democracy; we hosted election officials from around the country to draw attention to the pressures they face in running elections and defending democracy; and we have made the case that our national security is strongest when our democracy is protected from international interference.

The conversations and convenings continue alongside We Hold These Truths, a McCain Institute campaign where articles from Knight partners on MDM and defending democracy are regularly featured for the public in an accessible format.

Recently, a conversation with Congresswoman Liz Cheney was the fifth event in the series. Previous events have focused on the decline and disappearance of local journalism endangering our democracy, the implications of physical and verbal threats against election officials, how to protect our electoral systems and infrastructure against cyber-attacks, and how to counter hate in America today.

We are deeply committed to upholding freedom, democracy and universal human rights. Reflecting this commitment, our Human Rights Defenders program provides transitional assistance to human rights defenders who have been forced to flee their homes or to work underground due to harassment, intimidation or violent threats. With the COVID-19 pandemic, human rights defenders faced unprecedented challenges in operations and through magnifications of injustice. Despite travel restrictions and new threats to health and safety, the Human Rights Defenders program succeeded in supporting determined, resilient activists around the world. Since the program’s inauguration, it has proudly supported 62 defenders from 40 places, including its on-going support to Russian and Ukrainian activists involved in the fight for accountability.

The McCain Global Leaders Program supports character-driven leaders from around the world who embody Senator John McCain’s legacy of serving a cause greater than oneself. Structured as a 10-month fellowship and experiential learning experience, the inaugural cohort will feature 26 diverse leaders from around the world who are working “in the arena” to advance democracy, human rights and freedom. The program is designed to advance each Leader’s personal and professional leadership journey and impact by providing training, resources, and access to highly relevant regional and global networks with goal of preparing today’s leaders to meet tomorrow’s challenges. The inaugural cohort will be announced later this spring.

Over the span of 12 weeks, the leaders participated in a virtual curriculum focused on character-driven leadership. The curriculum allowed leaders to engage each other directly as well as parallel their own leadership journey with that of Senator John McCain. Real world case studies were conducted with experts that included Rick Davis, Michelle Bekkering, Djordje Todorovic and Jack McCain.

Each regional cohort of McCain Global Leaders participated in week-long study tour in a host country, focusing on the regional theme and experiences on the frontlines of various regional and global challenges.