Hoping to bring an end to human trafficking
By Carmen Fowler LaBerge, The Layman, September 23, 2011
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Courtney Hoekstra, as the staff member for the Advisory Committee on Women’s Concerns (ACWC) and Racial Ethnic Concerns (ACREC), has a seat at the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s round table on human trafficking. Hoekstra reported to the Justice Committee of the General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC) that the group will be ready to bring recommendations that are much more significant in scope than first anticipated to the February meeting. If approved then, it would be forwarded to next summer’s General Assembly.
That hope is fostered by the experience of working collaboratively at the round table with representatives from PCUSA efforts in the areas of child advocacy, immigration, world mission, hunger, Mission Responsible Through Investment (MRTI), Presbyterian Women (PW), Presbyterian Health and Welfare (PHEWA) and the Presbyterian office at the United Nations. Hoekstra shared that “the members of the round table meet once a month and we bring what we’re working on in our particular area to the table. It helps all of us in our own work and then together we pool resources.”
Through this process others became aware that PW is focused on the global issue while PHEWA is focused on the intersection of domestic violence and human trafficking here in the United States.
The goal is to penetrate down to the congregational and individual level, as well as to raise the awareness of Presbyterians that human trafficking is happening in their communities and then to mobilize them to engage the issue.
The GAMC website features the story of StreetGRACE, a ministry to end child sexual exploitation spearheaded by North Avenue Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. Although that model was not expressly mentioned in the report to the GAMC Justice Committee, the awareness of human trafficking happening literally on your corner and then bringing the collective resources of the faith community to bear in confronting it, is the model being broadly touted.
Human trafficking is an issue that affects men, women, children, people of every ethnicity and every social circumstance. It is universally opposed by Christians of every theological stripe and it has the potential to galvanize otherwise disconnected Presbyterians at the 2012 General Assembly.
The Justice Committee will receive the full report of the human trafficking round table at the February 2012 meeting of the GAMC but early indications suggest that the report and its recommendations will be comprehensive, covering everything from domestic violence and immigrant workers to child prostitution and international free trade agreements.