ECPAT-USA Decries Continued Increase In Human Trafficking On International Day Against Violence Against Women

In 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution to make November 25th the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. The UN designates specific days to promote international awareness and action on issues of pressing concern to the achievement of the goals of the United Nations.

Five years earlier at the Fourth World Conference on Women, 189 governments had adopted the landmark Platform for Action committing them to this blueprint for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women. “Eliminate trafficking in women and assist victims of violence due to prostitution and trafficking” and “Eradicate violence against the girl-child” were targeted as strategic objectives in accomplishing this ambitious agenda. The urgency in designating the International Day against Violence against Women a mere five years later indicates the difficulties in attaining this goal. Twenty years on, aspirations to end the trafficking of women and girls are not only unfulfilled, but the situation is markedly worse.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that there are 24.9 million people worldwide ensnared in forced labor, but since human trafficking is a hidden crime and often goes undetected, it is held that that number is much higher. Of that ILO statistic, 4.8 million are in forced sexual exploitation, 99% of them women and girls. Moreover, the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports 30% of all forced labor is children.

The pandemic has exacerbated the deeply entrenched economic and social inequalities of our societies which are the root causes of human trafficking, but on which the illicit business of trafficking thrives. It has weakened the capacity of both countries and civil society to identify and provide services to victims of trafficking or to support anti-trafficking initiatives.

ECPAT-USA has been engaged in strengthening child protection and the prevention of child trafficking through its Y-ACT school outreach programs that engage youth in conversations about building healthy relationships and recognizing and countering the manipulations of traffickers. During the COVID-19 pandemic with online learning has vastly increased the risks of trafficking, ECPAT-USA has created guides for teachers, students, and parents to help avoid such threats and use the internet safely.

Through our advocacy work to enhance legal protections and services for children, the expansion of our Y-ACT school initiatives, and our corporate partnerships to address trafficking, ECPAT-USA will be a catalyst in its realm of expertise- child commercial sexual exploitation- for ending violence against women and girls.

By Jackie Shapiro, ECPAT-USA UN ECOSOC Main Representative and former Chairperson of the ECPAT-USA Board of Directors

Cover image courtesy of UN Women

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