Human Trafficking – Global Trafficking in Women (2000)

Women’s League for Conservative Judaism is appalled at the growth of commerce in human beings, particularly women and young girls in many areas of the world. Poverty and lack of education have led to approximately two million women and girls being trafficked yearly, establishing a power dynamic in which they are reduced to chattel. Fathers, husbands and other family members in need of money will offer them for sale. Some go willingly, lured by promises of a better life for themselves and their families. Fourteen is the average age at which the process begins. These women are forced into a life of slavery and torture in a sex industry often related to organized crime.

In the former Soviet Union and other West European countries, many women are recruited through seemingly legitimate, registered businesses with advertising, visas, international travel and co-conspirators in the regional and foreign governments which play upon their desires to find good work, travel abroad and help their families. Once recruited, they are often moved over the border, their passports are confiscated and they are forced into sexual slavery.

Women’s League for Conservative Judaism:

• Urges nations worldwide to enact legislation and to adopt and enforce strong penalties against those who traffic in women;
• Supports the creation of worldwide web sites disseminating information and resources;
• Supports the formation of coalitions to fight this trafficking;
• Encourages the United Nations to act to combat the practice through agencies such as the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM);
• Encourages the media (television, radio, newspapers, etc.) to devote public service time to expose this reality and provide information to at-risk young women and their families.