Human Trafficking: A Global Challenge in Our Own Backyard
Human trafficking—the recruitment or transport within a country or across borders of persons by use of force, coercion, fraud, or outright abduction—affects between 600,000 and 800,000 victims, mostly women and children, globally each year according to the U.S. State Department. Trafficking includes forced prostitution, forced labor, child soldiers, forced marriage, trafficking of people to sell organs, and child sex tourism.
Approximately 14,500–17,500 people are trafficked into the United States each year, with New York, California, and Florida being the top domestic destinations for this sordid trade.
On Thursday, November 30, 2006, New York University's Center for Global Affairs co-sponsored an event at NYU to raise awareness about the local dimensions of this modern resumption of the global slave trade. 'Human Trafficking: A Global Challenge in Our Own Backyard' was also sponsored by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Vital Voices Global Partnership. Scheduled to coincide with the UN International Day for the Abolition of Slavery on December 2, the organizers aimed to create a community of global citizens committed to ending human trafficking and rally New Yorkers to tackle this issue in their own city.
The centerpiece of the event was a conversation among activists, industry leaders, and government officials moderated by Nicholas Kristof, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist of the New York Times who has covered and written extensively on the topic.
