This meeting addressed the troublesome indication that, while gender equity is critical for the successful implementation of many Sustainable Development Goals, little has been done to address global trafficking of women and girls.

Trafficking of human bodies is a complex form of organized crime driven by extreme profit potential. A majority of trafficked women and girls are sold into sex slavery. Unlike illicit drugs, which have a one-time use, a human body can be sold to complete a task repeatedly. The only way to take down traffickers is to follow the transference of money in both legal and illegal markets.

The speakers collectively emphasized the importance of the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, which was adopted by the General Assembly on 30 July 2010. The Plan is currently under review, and the panelists ask member states to issue political declarations to guide future U.N. actions to combat trafficking of women and girls.

Regulation of trafficked women and girls is complicated by geographic location and systems of inequality that vary among the countries of the world. Still, inter-institutional bodies must cooperate to combat this issue. The question that we must now ask is: what are developing countries doing to combat demand for cheap sex labor, and how can developed countries help stop the trafficking tide?

Meeting: Trafficking in Persons and the Sustainable Development Goals to End the Scourge of Trafficking in Women and Girls

Date/Time: 21 June 2017; 13:15-14:30; Conference Room 12, UNHQ, New York, NY

Co-organized by the Permanent Missions of Panama and Sweden, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Equality Now and Coalition Against Trafficking in Women

Speakers: Christine Lahti, member of Equality Now advisory board; Simone Monasebian, Director of ODC in New York; H.E. Laura Flores, Ambassador to permanent mission to the United Nations, Panama; H.E. Olof Skoog, Ambasador, Sweden; Ruchira Gupta, Founder Apne Aap Women Worldwide

Written by: WIT Representative Mariel Brunman