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Human trafficking awareness training available to presbyteries
People attending awareness training. Photo by Sandy Randolph, concordance editor for the Presbytery of Charlotte. The gentle morning light streamed through the arched windows of Mulberry Presbyterian Church, warming the wooden pews of the sanctuary, where more than 150 FBI agents, Presbyterian clergy, social workers, law enforcement, human services college students and medical professionals gathered for a day-long training on human trafficking in early September. [Read more]
Human Trafficking = Modern-Day Slavery
Human trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining, by any means, any person for forced labor, slavery or servitude in any industry or site such as agriculture, construction, prostitution, manufacturing, begging, domestic service or marriage. Learn more.
An estimated 800,000 people, of which approximately 80 percent are women and up to 50 percent are minors, are trafficked across national borders. This number does not include the millions of people who are trafficked within their countries of origin. (Trafficking in Persons Report, U.S. Department of State, 2008).
Some 2.5 million people throughout the world are at any given time recruited, entrapped, transported and exploited — a process called human trafficking (U.N. Office on Crime and Drugs, cited in U.N. Human Trafficking Rapporteur’s report of March 2009)
The International Labor Organization (ILO) — the United Nations agency charged with addressing labor standards, employment and social protection issues — estimates that there are 12.3 million people in forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor and sexual servitude at any given time; other estimates range from 4 million to 27 million. (Trafficking in Persons Report, U.S. Department of State, 2008).
Affirming that Jesus Christ came that “they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10b), the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has convened a roundtable from among its ministries to address human trafficking together with synods, presbyteries and local congregations. The roundtable includes representatives from Child Advocacy, Immigration, World Mission, Presbyterian Hunger Program, Mission Responsibility through Investment, Presbyterian Women, Jinishian Memorial Program and Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare.
To lift up the issue of modern-day slavery, provide resources and advocate for further action to eradicate human trafficking, the roundtable is:
- Creating a matrix of reliable organizations involved in combating human trafficking
- Developing this Web site to connect congregations and groups
- Producing a human trafficking packet of resources including, sermons, Bible studies, book suggestions, DVDs and more.
- Providing take action opportunities to address human trafficking through corporate campaigns, legislative action, shareholder initiatives
- Linking with the Freedom Network USA to provide human trafficking awareness trainings among interested presbyteries. Contact Noelle Damico to learn more about this opportunity.
Download a bulletin insert on human trafficking. 
A Violation of Human Rights
Violations of human rights are both a cause and a consequence of human trafficking. Trafficking is a grave violation of human rights, the right to liberty and human dignity and the right not to be held in slavery or involuntary servitude. But trafficking is related to a wide range of other human rights violations as traffickers prey on those who are poor, under- or unemployed or who face discrimination. The PC(USA) promotes the integration of a human rights perspective into all anti-trafficking laws, policies and procedures, domestic and international, so as to ensure the rights and well-being of children, women and men who have been trafficked. To learn more about how human trafficking is a violation of human rights, download the March 2009 report from the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.
A Global Phenomenon in Our Backyard
Modern-day slavery is a global phenomenon that manifests itself in the United States as well. From the fishing industry in Ghana, the brothels of Thailand, to domestic workers enslaved by a husband and wife in their Long Island home or farmworkers harvesting tomatoes in Florida fields, slavery is alive and well in a new form in the 21st century. Indeed, some of the products we wear or consume were produced using slave labor. Our whole society, from corporations to law enforcement, from the U.S. Justice Department to the church, must be involved if we are to put an end to human trafficking once and for all.
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