ABUSE OF IMMIGRANT WOMEN AND CHILDREN

A Resolution passed by Common Council on July 30, 2004

WHEREAS trafficking in persons, also known as human trafficking, is a form of modern day slavery and, in many countries, provides a major source of income to organized crime syndicates;

WHEREAS the United States Government estimates that approximately 20,000 individuals are trafficked into the United States annually for all purposes, including sexual exploitation, agricultural and domestic labor and sweatshops;

WHEREAS traffickers often prey on individuals who are poor, frequently unemployed or lacking access to social safety nets, especially women and children, and hold them against their wills in order to pay off debts;

WHEREAS trafficked persons are subject to abuses such as beatings, severe mental stress, starvation and death threats, and often cannot escape bondage because of their fear of being deported or of leaving young children behind;

WHEREAS the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution outlaws slavery and involuntary servitude and, most recently the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-386) supplements existing laws that apply to human trafficking; and

WHEREAS Church Women United in 1989 policy statement on pornography addressed the gruesome relationship between pornography and the poverty of women and children; in a 1999 resolution on “Trafficking in Women and Girls” called for stronger national and international policies to protect victims, and in a 2000 policy statement on violence examined the violence inherent in human trafficking;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Church Women United members will continue

to address the plight of trafficked persons by: