UN launches Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking

Yesterday, we were given the amazing opportunity to be present at the launch of the UNODC‘s Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon kicking off the celebratory event. Alongside him were President of the General Assembly Joseph Deiss, Executive Director of UNODC Yury Fedotov, actors and activists Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, New York Times journalist-author and Pulitzer Prize-winner Nicholas Kristof, and extraordinary women such as Rachel Lloyd (Gems), Rani Hong (Tronie Foundation), and Ruchira Gupta (Apne Aap).

According to the UNODC,

“The Trust Fund is one of the most important elements of the new United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons adopted by the General Assembly in July 2010. It will provide humanitarian, legal and financial aid to victims of human trafficking with the aim of increasing the number of victims who are rescued and supported, and broadening the extent of assistance they receive.”

The meeting began with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressing the issue as one that is of utmost importance, stating at one point in his opening remarks, “When you enslave a girl, you also hold her future hostage.”

The podium was then passed to Yury Fedotov who encouraged member states to give to the fund and imploring everyone to join in combating the “ugly faces” of human trafficking. “Working together is the only way we will bring an end to human trafficking,” he emphasized.

The United Nations estimates that more than 2.4 million people are currently being exploited as trafficking victims. Specifically, the UNODC reports that victims from 127 countries countries are exploited in at least 137 nations.

“This is an issue that is of epidemic proportions,” Demi Moore agreed, “but it’s not a disease to which we don’t have a cure for.” She added that people needed to hear the stories of the victims around the world; it was those testimonies that broke her heart and led her to fight slavery. “And I use the word slavery because that’s really what it is. ‘Trafficking’ is a policy word that can be distancing a lot of times. The reality is that these victims are facing slavery.”

Ashton Kutcher also had much to say about the issue at hand, his passion really coming out at moments. One of his biggest emphases was on fighting the demand side of the battle. “We can teach men that buying sex, buying girls, is not cool,” he adamantly stated. “Maybe if we stopped calling it ‘the oldest profession in the world’,” he said as his hands quoted the air and his voice dripped with angry sarcasm, “– yeah, like it’s some kind of job. That someone would actually want to do. If we stopped calling it that, then maybe we can tackle that demand.”

His points were intriguing, shedding a different light on the topic. At one point he discussed national security, stating that the same routes being used for trafficking drugs and weapons into and out of countries were the same routes that young girls, women, and men were being trafficked through. “Weapons can’t talk. Drugs can’t talk. But people can.” He referred to victims as our greatest allies in bringing down different illegal activities and fighting a gamut of issues. All that is needed is to pour out some love and encouragement to the victims. He reiterated stories of girls who had such care poured upon them and who were given hope; it is through loving people that healing and justice will come, he strongly felt.

Towards the end if his time on the panel, he reminded the audience that “62 years ago, we all agreed to end slavery. Yet today there are more slaves than ever before.” He pushed for those in the room and those tuning in on the live stream to ask their nation to enforce the law to which we signed decades ago, an agreement that slavery will not be tolerated.

Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher have shown their commitment to fighting against human trafficking by not only giving talks around the world but also in the creation of their Foundation — the Demi and Ashton Foundation (DNA). It aims to raise awareness about child sex slavery worldwide, change cultural stereotypes about the issue, and rehabilitate victims.

“We will do everything we can to eliminate slavery and rescue the victims,” Demi Moore said. “Only one in every 100 victims is rescued. Even when they are rescued, often they are criminalized and rarely provided rehabilitation and treatment they needed.” This topic of the lack of aftercare seeped its way in and out of the conversation throughout the meeting. Founder of Apne Aap, Ruchira Gupta, added too the need for women and girls to have safe housing in order to leave brothels, and to have some form of job training in order to have options outside of prostitution. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, sitting in the audience, highlighted the fact that there are only 50 beds available nationwide in the United States to house survivors of domestic trafficking.

After the panelists spoke, the first pledges to the Trust Fund were made by the governments of Qatar, Luxembourg, Egypt, Thailand, and Malaysia.

At the end, survivor and advocate Rani Hong, co-founder of the Tronie Foundation, gave the closing remarks. She ended with her personal testimony joined with the testimony of her husband, a child soldier in the Vietcong. Her message was filled with empowerment of survivors and hope in their futures. “We are all agents of hope,” she reminded the audience. “Remember this quote: no one is free until everyone is free. Please help in breaking this cycle of trafficking.”