• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Skip to footer navigation

  • Calendar of events
  • 687 Larch Av, Teaneck NJ
  • 201-836-5187
  • Contact Us
  • DONATE
Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County NJ

Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County NJ

  • Home
  • About
    • Platform
    • From our Society’s President, Susan Lesh
    • FAQ
      • How does Ethical Culture make a difference in society?
      • What social life is there in Ethical Culture?
      • How is Ethical Culture religious?
    • Ethical Brew
    • Ceremonies
    • Philosophy
    • Constitution & Bylaws
    • Our Building Calendar
    • Contact Us
  • Ethical Kids
    • Sunday School
      • Primary Class
      • Elementary Class
      • Junior Class
      • Senior Class
      • Sunday school FAQ
    • Youth Group
  • Leader
    • Wedding Officiant
    • Speaking of Ethics: Living a Humanist Life
    • Leader’s Talks
  • Social Action
    • All Social Action Articles
    • Battling Racism
    • Environmental Action
    • Healthcare
  • Adult Ed
    • Job Club
    • Socrates Cafe
    • Do Tell!
    • Ethical Culture Review of Books
  • News
    • President Column
    • UN Report
    • Platform Addresses
  • Events

Human trafficking, a major moral challenge

December 25, 2017

By Drs. Sylvain Ehrenfeld and Reba Goodman

More than 40 million people were victims of modern slavery in 2016. This amazing figure comes from the UN’s International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation. This includes 25 million trapped in forced labor, many of them in debt bondage, working in farming, fishing and construction. About 15 million are in forced marriage and 5 million in sexual exploitation. Human trafficking earns profits of roughly $150 billion a year for traffickers. The most profitable is $100 billion from commercial sexual exploitation. We are talking big business.

In the year 2000, the US Congress mandated the State Department to put out an annual trafficking report. This report reviews world trafficking activity and includes victims’ stories, which show the ugly reality behind the numbers. The stories are shocking, heartbreaking and infuriating. Some examples:

• Maria Elena was 13 when a family acquaintance told her she could make 10 times as much money waiting tables in the US than she could in her Mexican village. She and several other girls were driven across the border. They continued the rest of the way on foot, traveling four days and nights through the desert into Texas, then to Florida. Finally, they arrived at a rundown trailer, where they were forced into prostitution.

• At a carpet factory in Nepal, Nayantara met a labor broker who promised a good job as a domestic worker in Lebanon. The broker persuaded her to take the job. Instead he took her to India, confiscated her passport and sold her to a brothel, where she was forced to have sex with at least 35 men each day.

Forced labor in a brothel

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof tells a poignant story of Poonam Thapa, a teenage girl he met in Nepal. A woman offered a well-paying job to Poonam, who was poor and uneducated, telling her, “You can have a better life.” So Poonam, then age 12, ran off with the woman, who eventually deposited her in a brothel in Mumbai, India. The brothel owner, a woman, dressed her up in a skimpy dress, equipped her with falsies and gave her heels, Kristof reported. The owner sold Poonam’s virginity to an older man. Poonam thus became one of about 40 million people worldwide—a quarter of them children—subjected to forced labor. In the US, tens of thousands of children are trafficked into the sex trade each year. Some of the victims manage to escape and are traumatized and need serious rehabilitation.

Kristof and his wife, Sheryl Wundun, wrote a powerful book “Half the Sky,” promoting awareness of this shocking reality. The title comes from a Chinese proverb “women hold up half the sky.” The book also has a list of organizations where one can help. In our view, this problem is under-reported.

According to the 2017 trafficking report, the number of convictions is very low. In 2016, 15,000 were prosecuted and only 9,000 convicted. Recently, more attention has been paid to forced marriages resulting from abductions. Around the world, some 15 million people are living in marriages into which they were forced, including some who were abducted, according to the International Labor Organization.

Acute problem in China

In China, trafficking of women is particularly acute, in part because a preference for sons has left the country with a severely skewed sex ratio. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has estimated that by 2020, 30 million to 40 million Chinese men who will be unable to find wives in their own country. This is clearly a temptation for criminal activity.

Human trafficking is a global human-rights problem and a multi-billion-dollar industry trapping millions. It is a major moral challenge.

Dr. Sylvain Ehrenfeld, IHEU representative to the UN, and Dr. Reba Goodman are members of the Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County. Special thanks to Charlene Nicole Fulmore, assistant to Dr. Goodman.

Primary Sidebar

Sign up for our newsletter.

Upcoming Events

Mon 25

Socrates Cafe

January 25 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Fri 29

Mindfulness at Midday: Meditation, Movement, and Discussion Group

January 29 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Sun 31

Platform: Replace Magical Thinking with Rational Discourse

January 31 @ 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Sun 31

Job Club Workshop

January 31 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Feb 05

Mindfulness at Midday: Meditation, Movement, and Discussion Group

February 5 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

View More…

Being White

Society asks Teaneck to Make BLM Mural Permanent

About Us

Ethical Culture was founded to focus on community and good works, rather than personal salvation. Read more…

We believe in ethics. We believe in people.

Please believe in us.

Ethical Brew

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo
  • YouTube

Archives

Footer

Connect with Us

Address: 687 Larch Ave, Teaneck, NJ 07666
Phone: 201-836-5187
Email: admin@ethicalfocus.org

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

  • JOAN & JONI Sat., Feb 20 at Ethical Brew January 24, 2021
  • Task Force Considers Phased Approach to Gathering Again in Meetinghouse January 21, 2021
  • Society asks Teaneck to Make BLM Mural Permanent January 16, 2021
  • Committee Nearly Ready to Recommend Interim Leader Candidates December 25, 2020
  • Visualizing 2021 December 20, 2020

We believe in ethics. We believe in people.

Please believe in us.

Topics

atheism atheist church book review children civil rights climate change community compassion death democracy Doris Friedensohn Elizabeth Warren environment Ethical Brew Ethical Culture ethical dilemmas ethical education ethics everyday ethics Felix Adler global warming happiness healthcare humanism humanist humanists human rights Israel Joseph Chuman meetinghouse Middle East politics racism religion Robert Gulack Secular Humanism social action Socrates Cafe Sunday School Susan Golden technology Trump unemployment winter solstice world health

What We Do For Fun….

There's always time for play: celebrations, discussions (some in Spanish -- find Conversemos on our calendar on the fourth Tuesday of the month), hikes, picnics, cultural outings, and affinity groups like our monthly Men's Dinners and Women's Dinners.
Kids get into the act
Diane running the show

Important Links

  • Member of the American Ethical Union
  • Ethical Brew
  • Sanctuary Committee
  • BC Gun Violence Prevention
  • NJ Website Designer

NJ Web Designer

© The Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County NJ

  • Calendar of events
  • 687 Larch Av, Teaneck NJ
  • 201-836-5187
  • Contact Us
  • DONATE