Chapter 28: Women's Leadership in the Fight Against Human Trafficking

Theresa Loar & Laura Ardito

Women's leadership in the fight against human trafficking Human trafficking, or modern-day slavery, is the 21st-century trade in human beings for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor. This egregious human rights abuse has proliferated rapidly in today's environment of increasingly connected networks and ease of travel. It exists in virtually every country around the world and is estimated to be an annual $32 billion criminal enterprise (Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, 2008). People are trafficked internationally and also internally within their own countries. Although accurate numbers are difficult to determine because of the hidden nature of this crime, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that, at any give time, there are at least 12.3 million people in modern-day slavery (Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, 2009, p. 8). Other estimates put this number as high as 27 million people (Office to Monitor and ...

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