Women and men from around the Anglican Communion have met in Hong Kong this month (November 2009) to address responses to the ugly billion-dollar trade in children and forced labour.
Trafficking of human beings, though banned by international and national law, is flourishing, some 40 participants learned at a consultation organised by the Office of the Anglican United Nations Observer, Hellen Grace Akwii-Wangusa, in New York, and funded by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Archbishop Paul Kwong of Hong Kong.
They were told that the seemingly insatiable use of both young women and boys for sex, for labour and for organs - is being fuelled by by greed, ignorance, and unbearable choices made out of desperate need.
Participants faced a barrage of statistics gathered by experts and listened to heart-breaking stories shared by survivors who had become 'wounded healers'.
Delegates to the consultation included Anglicans from 12 provinces – Korea, Japan, Philippines, England, Canada, USA, Mexico, Kenya, North India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Hong Kong.
A significant number were young women who have attended the New York meetings of the annual UN Commission on the Status of Women, through AUNO, AWE (Anglican Women's Empowerment), and the Episcopal Church in North America.
Along with others, they delivered country reports utilising research from the US State Department's TIP (Trafficking in Persons) reports and other recognised international sources.
According to the June 2009 TIP report, the UN International Labour Organisation "estimates that there are at least 12.3 million adults and children in forced labour, bonded labour and commercial sexual servitude at any given time."
Of these victims, at least 1.39 million are victims of commercial sexual servitude, both transnational and within countries and 56 percent of all forced labour victims are women and girls.
Various UN. agencies document human trafficking as one of the three largest international crimes (along with illegal trading in arms and drugs. It is one of the fastest growing, earning billions of dollars each year for its perpetrators.
International experts at the consultation warned that the current economic crisis is fuelling an increase in trafficking.
Documents from the consultation, including country reports, theological reflections, examples of churches' best practices and UN and ECPAT experts' presentations, are available at: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/41685_116371_ENG_HTM.htm
With thanks to the Episcopal News Service
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