UNITED NATIONS: END SLAVERY IN CONFLICT

Walk Free

Protest in Brussels against attacks of Islamic State in Iraq © Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

UPDATE: The UN Security Council has said slavery during conflict may be a war crime, calling on the Secretary-General to report back on better implementing programs to counter trafficking in Iraq by ISIS.¹

Over three thousand women and girls have been forced into sexual slavery by ISIS during the conflict in Iraq and Syria.² But the horror doesn’t end there —men, women, boys and girls all over the world have been forced into slavery during conflict.

Randa, a 16 year old girl was abducted by ISIS along with her heavily-pregnant mother from northern Iraq. Forced into slavery Randa was taken and raped by a man twice her age.³

Esther Ruth Atim was kidnapped from Uganda when she was 9 years old by the Lord’s Resistance Army, a Christian militia. “Rape was on a daily basis. I was raped so I couldn’t even move … like a normal (person) … I could only move like a jumping frog.”⁴

Last December the UN Security Council took the first steps towards ending slavery in conflict as some members acknowledged ISIS’s use of slavery as a war crime.

We must continue to push the Security Council to protect survivors of slavery and prosecute those responsible for war crimes.

Swift action could prevent human trafficking and sexual slavery in conflicts all over the world now and forever.