WEA Responds to President Obama’s Speech on Human Trafficking

New York, NY – September 25, 2012

The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) welcomes the speech given by President Obama at the Clinton Global Initiative indicating that the US government will significantly increase its commitment to combat human trafficking.

President Obama drew attention to the plight of 20 million annual victims of human trafficking and proposed an all-encompassing strategy based on the contributive factors that feed this enslavement of people.

"The WEA acknowledges along with President Obama that it will take multiple players to end the scourge of human trafficking," says Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe, Secretary General of the WEA. "While President Obama acknowledged the work of evangelical Christians in combatting human trafficking, we know that much more needs to be done.”

With a worldwide constituency of more than 600 million Christians, millions of local churches, and hundreds of thousands of business people, the WEA is committed to building upon the existing work of its members to help eradicate all forms of human trafficking.

WEA’s Global Human Trafficking Task Force equips church congregations through raising awareness in their local neighborhoods by developing both prevention and intervention strategies. In addition, the WEA will continue to be a strong advocate with national governments and international institutions such as the United Nations.

The WEA looks forward to working with the US administration and other governments around the world to end modern day slavery.

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The WEA is the largest global evangelical body with a network of churches in 129 nations and an alliance of 100 international organizations representing over 600 million Christians worldwide. It representatively speaks as a trusted voice on behalf of global evangelicalism, connects diverse Evangelical church networks and ministries for effective collaborative action, and actively equips their needs with valuable resources to optimize their impact. For more info e-mail at [email protected] or go to Worldea.org.