Trafficking
Human trafficking - the modern form of slavery - is a barbaric crime whose victims are overwhelmingly female.
Eighty per cent of those trafficked are women and children, with the majority sold into the sex industry.
It is a crime which cannot be seen in isolation. Trafficking feeds on the disadvantages and prejudices women face across the world.
When women and girls are viewed as inferior, as commodities rather than equals, where there is poverty and despair, we see the conditions where trafficking is able to flourish.
Every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims.
Two hundred years after the world took the first steps to end the transatlantic slave trade, human trafficking continues on a huge scale. Today more people, including children, are enslaved than ever before.
The International Labour Organisation estimates that a staggering 2.4 million people are victims of human trafficking at any one time. It is the fastest growing organised crime, affecting every country and generating 9.5 billion dollars in annual revenue. Only the illegal drugs and arms trades are more profitable.
The majority of trafficked victims are women and children who are tricked, coerced or sold, most often by people they know, into domestic service, forced labour in fields and factories and the sex trade - a life sentence of degradation, violence and high risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted disease.
Poverty and discrimination are the root causes of trafficking. Left unaddressed they ensure a steady supply of victims. Because women and girls face barriers to education, economic opportunity and basic human rights they are vulnerable to exploitation and the false promises of traffickers.
Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, is the largest source of women and girls trafficked for sex in Europe. In Africa, girls are exploited as sex slaves in armies that also forcibly recruit boys. Huge numbers of women are trafficked from Asia to the Gulf States as domestic labour.
Despite these enormous numbers, the response of the global community to the trafficking of women and girls is woefully inadequate. Ending human trafficking requires persistent and coordinated efforts, from individuals, international organisations, and government authorities.
In particular, men who buy sex from women or children held hostage must be held accountable. Effective methods are also needed to freeze the assets of traffickers, to protect witnesses and provide health and social support to victims of trafficking.
We must not ignore this terrible crime in our midst. Allowing it to flourish diminishes all our humanity.