Church Discusses Responses to Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is a contemporary form of slavery that typically involves victims who have been forced, defrauded, or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation. In 2000, the United Nations issued the "Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children" (also referred to as the Trafficking Protocol or the Palermo Protocol), as an international agreement to address the issue. Since then, the General conventions of the Episcopal church have

• recognized the problem of and support efforts to stop trafficking of women, girls, and boys (2000-A057),

• condemned sex trafficking (2003-D034),

• asked for the development of educational resources for congregations (2003 D034, 2000 A057),

• supported efforts to address trafficking (2009 A167),

• asked each province to begin a dialogue to recognize how domestic and international trafficking affects the people in our province (2012 D042),

• and protect human trafficking victims on native american reservations in MT and ND (2015-A029).

Our dialogue is ongoing in Province I. Please join the conversation