A Seventh-day Adventist women's leader has welcomed the recent increase in international discussion about human trafficking, an increase prompted by the July release of the U.S. State Department's "Trafficking in Persons Report."
A Seventh-day Adventist women’s leader has welcomed the recent increase in international discussion about human trafficking, an increase prompted by the July release of the U.S. State Department’s “Trafficking in Persons Report.”
Women and children are disproportionately impacted by the ongoing trade in human beings—a global market that ensnares at least 700,000 people each year, says Ardis Stenbakken, Women’s Ministries director for the Adventist world church.
“The sheer scale of the trade in human beings that exists today is an international scandal,” says Stenbakken. She believes the efforts of nongovernmental organizations and religious groups are not enough; rather, the situation requires a collective push by governments around the world to close international borders to human trafficking.
Victims are overwhelmingly “women and children who have been lured, coerced or abducted by criminals who trade in human misery and treat human beings like chattel,” said United States Secretary of State Colin Powell at the July 20 press conference, releasing the results of the study.
According to the report, victims are most often attracted by promises of better economic opportunities in another country. Instead, some are sold into enforced labor and many others are forced into the sex trade in places such as the United States and Israel, and in countries throughout Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.
Using data from more than 180 embassies around the world, the State Department identified 23 countries, including Israel, Greece, South Korea and Saudi Arabia, that have not taken adequate measures to combat human trafficking that exists within their borders.
“Every woman, every person, is imbued with God-given dignity and worth,” says Stenbakken. “The exploitation of human beings for monetary gain is a moral travesty that no country should tolerate.”
“Christians should not wait for others to speak out on these issues,” she adds. “This is a matter we know our Lord would have addressed.”
The Women’s Ministries department of the Adventist Church world headquarters, based in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, has worked to raise international awareness about the systematic abuse of women and children through human trafficking.
One of the core goals of the church’s Women’s Ministries department, says Stenbakken, is to expose all conditions that denigrate the value and role of women in society. She lists illiteracy, poverty, lack of access to health care, employment exploitation, and abuse as some of the critical challenges facing women today.
