Avaaz to take on the Rape Traders

The UN estimates that millions of women and girls are traded for systematic rape every year. This has to be the worst of fates. With the traffickers well protected by violence, big money and corruption, their helpless victims are almost beyond hope of rescue.

But things are about to change, as in January Avaaz members voted to make this a top priority in 2010, so we’re beginning work across the world with expert teams, local campaigners, sex workers and investigators to shut down these brutal and shadowy businesses.

The best way to tackle it is to expose the rape traders and kill their profits. Here are the actions we are developing:

♦ Investigating and publicly shaming complicit officials and politicians in countries where official corruption is part of the rape trade. Ads would name and shame individuals and campaign for their removal and reform.
♦ Running a global day of action outside slave houses — exposing locations across the world where trade victims are being sold and raped. This shocking violence is often going on just down the road from our homes and schools.
♦ Partnering with sex work activists, who have deep understanding of the business, to expose the violence and take on the traffickers.
♦ Tracking key trade routes and blocking ships carrying kidnapped girls and women in key transit ports.
♦ Lobbying elected leaders to make this issue a priority and use the full resources of our governments to stop it, including passing better legislation to protect and provide for the women caught in the rape trade.
♦ Going after rape traders directly by publicly exposing them with WANTED billboards in their communities.

To help Avaaz fund this important and life-saving campaign, follow this link— in the first two days of their appeal they raised $400,000!

Also in: Campaigns