Sister Joan Burke, NGO representative at the United Nations

A worldwide industry, human trafficking generates billions of dollars in profits at the expense of millions of victims. The global economic crisis is making the problem worse as jobs and food get scarcer and rising social exclusion makes minorities and women especially vulnerable.

At the event, four survivors bore witness with accounts of their own horrific plight, including a girl who was abducted at age 14 by Ugandan rebels and kept as a sex slave for eight years.