Crime of the century

Ruth Dearnley, CEO of Stop the Traffik, continues the 200 year old protest against the buying and selling of people. Now we can join the fight to stop it.

A 200-year-old protest

According to the United Nations, over two million people are in forced labour at any given time as a result of trafficking. Around half are used for sexual exploitation. Others are forced into labour on farms, in factories, domestic servitude, for the removal of organs … and the list goes on.

‘Human trafficking now ranks as one of the biggest challenges to human rights that our world faces and is the fastest growing source of organised crime,’ says Steve Chalke, founder of Stop the Traffik.

This illegal ‘modern day slave trade’ was the catalyst for a petition that became a protest, and grew into the worldwide movement known as Stop the Traffik. In 2007, celebrations were held in the UK to commemorate 200 years since the abolition of Trans-Atlantic slavery. ‘But we thought, if Wilberforce was here today, he’d be driving a campaign, not having a party,’ says Ruth, CEO of Stop the Traffik. So they began a petition to raise awareness of modern-day slavery, calling for ‘governments and the United Nations to work towards common goals, to:

• prevent the sale of people
• protect the victims
• prosecute the traffickers.’

Ruth laughs, ‘I remember saying at the start, “Do you know where the UN is?” But we began an extraordinary journey of making friends and finding our way around the United Nations.’ By 2008, they were invited to the first ever meeting of UN.GIFT (the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking), which brought together the world’s NGOs and representatives of all 192 member states of the UN, in a united effort to combat trafficking. Steve was asked to give an opening address, and they presented their petition with a massive 1.5 million signatures.

Today the ‘three Ps’ of prevention, protection and prosecution have become the rallying cry in the movement against human trafficking. Steve was invited to join UN.GIFT as a special advisor, forging an ongoing collaboration between Stop the Traffik and the United Nations.

‘We never planned for this,’ says Ruth, who still seems bemused by the extraordinary growth of Stop the Traffik from its UK home, to over 1000 member organisations in 50 countries across all continents, and tens of thousands of activists around the world. ‘We just thought we’d do it for a year and see how much noise we can make.’

Now New Zealand will gets to join in with the global movement, when Ruth visits New Zealand as the keynote speaker of The Salvation Army’s  Pacific Trafficking in Persons Forum, from 2-3 December. ‘The Salvation Army has been a key player from the very beginning and active across the world, and I’m very excited to see what that can look like in New Zealand,’ says Ruth.

Making noise

‘Making a louder noise’ sums up the work of Stop the Traffik, which stands in the gap between the underground world of traffickers, and the many NGOs working on the frontline to rescue victims. Stop the Traffik gathers information from the frontline and raises awareness so ordinary people in ordinary communities can join the fight. ‘Trafficking won’t be stopped by new laws, although they are necessary. It will be stopped by people in communities,’ says Ruth

Stop the Traffik exists to answer the question: what can I do? A variety of creative campaigns—aimed at everyone from young people, to communities, to the finance and hospitality industries—equip people with knowledge and resources so they can take action in their own community, place of work or backyard.

‘There are so many stories to tell of people that have got involved in our campaigns, who have then become the most significant person in rescuing someone from trafficking—from a 97-year-old lady to a group of students,’ says Ruth.

She recalls one student who belonged to an ACT group, a Stop the Traffik campaign ‘Active Communities Against Trafficking’. She asked her local laundrette owner if she could put some material in his shop. Soon after, the owner went with his family to their local Eastern-European restaurant: ‘There was a young woman in there who looked distinctly uncomfortable. He went over to her, and very slowly she started to explain that she had escaped, and she didn’t know what city or what country she was in. She had gone into the restaurant because she recognised the language on the sign.

‘He and his wife took the girl home, and he said, “Look, I don’t really know what this is, but I’ve got some brochures in my laundrette and it sounds like what has happened to you”. So he rang our office, and by the end of the day that girl was in a safe house.’

It’s a breathtaking tale of what can happen when people have just enough knowledge, and the courage to take action. ‘Imagine if that happened just once in every single community, in New Zealand, how many people’s lives could be changed,’ Ruth challenges.

Food for the soul

One of Stop the Traffik’s most significant campaigns has focused on our favourite treat chocolate, which may not always be so good for the soul. ‘Chocolate is a campaign that is really changing the world,’ says Ruth. ‘We may not think it has anything to do with us, but we all have links to a trafficked child by what we put in our shopping trolley.’

The world’s chocolate giants source much of their cocoa from the Ivory Coast, where there is widespread trafficking of children into forced labour on cocoa farms.

Stop the Traffik launched a campaign challenging Nestlé, Cadbury and other chocolate giants to make their products traffick-free. ‘It was David and Goliath,’ says Ruth. ‘People said, “You’re not seriously thinking that the global industry is going to bend to your demands?” Now the global industry has turned around and delivered a traffick-free chocolate bar.’

After years of campaigning from Stop the Traffik, Nestlé introduced a traffick-free four-finger Kit Kat, and Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate bar is now certified Fairtrade. It may be a baby step for the Goliath-sized industry, but has been a giant leap in exposing the trafficking that taints it—putting the spotlight on the 50 or so other Nestlé products that aren’t traffick free, as just one example. ‘We’ve got a long way to go, but it’s now only a matter of time before the industry really has to change,’ says Ruth.

She acknowledges that the hard work has really just begun, but says that Stop the Traffik will not give up. ‘I believe that every human being is born in God’s image,’ says Ruth. ‘It’s about bringing God’s Kingdom on earth, and there is no greater gift we can give others than freeing the bonds of evil and bringing his freedom.’