Human Trafficking

A sixteen year old Cambodian girl hiding behind shutters, cautiously peers out into the streets of Phnom Penh, after being rescued from a brothel were she was forced to work. © AFP/Getty Images.

Human trade, slave markets, the buying and selling of people – these are words and phrases that, to many people, echo a brutal and distant time in our past. But to the countless women, men, and children trafficked every year, these words coldly define the horror of their lives. Trafficking is a global phenomenon where victims are sexually exploited, forced into labor and subjected to abuse. Trafficking is a crime under international law that requires international cooperation to address.

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Trafficking of Persons: A Worldwide Epidemic

Human trafficking is a human rights violation of epidemic proportion. Trafficking places individuals in extremely vulnerable circumstances where their basic human rights are violated, including the rights to life, liberty, personal security, privacy, mental and physical integrity, freedom from slavery, and freedom from torture and other forms of inhumane or degrading treatment.
Read more | Trafficking Q & A. »

Ask Amnesty: Human Trafficking in Montenegro with Ljiljana Raicevic

Read the transcript of the online discussion with the 2006 Amnesty International USA Ginetta Sagan Fund award-winner, Ljiljana Raicevic of Montenegro. Raicevic is the founder and Executive Director of the Women's Safe House in Podgorica, where she has worked to end all forms of trafficking in women and girls in Montenegro and to ensure that political officials accused of supporting trafficking were removed from office. Read the transcript. »

Ask Amnesty: Mira Sorvino and Human Trafficking

Read the transcript of the online discussion with Academy Award winner and Amnesty International USA Stop Violence Against Women campaign spokesperson Mira Sorvino, and find out more about her upcoming mini-series, Human Trafficking, and ongoing work to stop violence against women.
Read the transcript | Learn more. »

Hold a House Party

Human Trafficking House Party Organizing Kit

Amnesty International has created a new downloadable organizing kit – based on the mini-series, Human Trafficking – that you can use to bring human rights education to your community. The kit includes guidelines for planning and hosting a house party, discussion guides, fact sheets and more.
Download the kit (PDF) | Watch the clip. »

Campaign Events

Congressional Testimony

Statement of Maureen Greenwood-Basken, AIUSA´s Advocacy Director for Europe and Central Asia, regarding human trafficking in Germany presented on May 4, 2006. This testimony approaches the issue from a human rights framework, including the legal definition, a brief overview of trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced labor in Germany, root causes of trafficking, and the need to support trafficking victims. Read more. »

Congressional Briefings on Trafficking

On October 18, 2005, Amnesty International USA co-sponsored a Congressional briefing on trafficking and the international marriage broker industry. AIUSA's Stop Violence Against Women Campaign Ambassador and Academy Award-winner Mira Sorvino spoke out against the international trade in women and girls, calling for regulation of the marriage broker industry through passage of the International Marriage Brokers Regulation Act (IMBRA), and for an end to human trafficking.