The Advocates is committed to adapting international human rights monitoring methods to improve human rights protections for people in the United States and in our local community. The Post-9/11 Project was designed to investigate and document human rights abuses against immigrant and refugee communities in Minnesota. The Advocates has also published reports on the government response to battered refugee and immigrant women as well as the government response to sex trafficking. The publication of these reports led The Advocates to conduct numerous presentations for governmental and non-governmental representatives focused on educating professionals about the need for increased awareness about the challenges facing both battered immigrants and refugees, and trafficked persons in realizing their human rights. The Advocates’ engaged in advocacy following the publication of the Sex Trafficking Needs Assessment for the State of Minnesota in 2009 to strengthen the state law to better protect women and children who are victims of the crime of human trafficking.