The new global slave trade: anti-trafficking author Victor Malarek in Australia this month

There are some books which chill you to the core.

The Natashas: Inside the new global sex trade (Arcade, NY, 2003) by award-winning Canadian journalist Victor Malarek is one such book.  A brutal expose of the lucrative trade in the flesh of women and girls from Eastern Europe, The Natashas is a testament to human cruelty in its most extreme forms. This scathing indictment demonstrates how the 21^st century version of slavery is alive and well, thanks to the demand of men and institutionalised corruption. Young girls plucked from overflowing orphanages and sold into the trade; young women lured with promises of jobs or kidnapped and ‘broken in’ in slave camps in Kosovo and Serbia, killed if they refuse to comply; systemic complicity by police, local officials and governments.

Senior investigative reporter on CTV’s award winning investigative current affairs show W5, Victor Malarek has written a follow-up, titled The Johns: Sex for Sale and the men who buy it (Arcade, NY, 2009) which goes to the heart of the problem: demand. The insatiable demand of men for the bodies of women; men who care nothing for these women’s rights or dignity, for where they have come from and where they might end up. He describes this exploitation as “one of the most overlooked human rights abuses on the planet today”.

The Salvos and Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation, are hosting the following events with Victor Malarek as guest speaker. Salvos Social Justice Director Danielle Strikland will also speak and I’ll be MC.

Thursday May 20, 2010

Jubilee Room, Parliament House NSW

4.45 for 5pm-6pm

rsvp ph (03) 88784838, email: amanda.hart@aus.salvationarmy.org

Monday May 24, 2010

Parliament House Theatrette, Canberra

4.15 for 4.30pm-5.30pm

rsvp: ph: (03) 88784838, email: amanda.hart@aus.salvationarmy.org

Check here for events elsewhere.

Please show your concern for this horrendous violation of human rights with your attendance, and let your friends know too.

Listen to Victor Malarek:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6Mj2haletE[/youtube]

Hear the stories of trafficked Eastern European women here: 

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/11606751[/vimeo]Somaly Mam to visit Australia in June

Former Cambodian victim of sexual slavery, co-founder of a foundation to combat trafficking in women and children for sexual slavery and author of The road of lost innocence, Somaly Mam will be speaking in Australia next month.

For more information contact Project Futures or visit their website.

Learn more about Project Futures here  [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSpy-_cChrY[/youtube]