Actress Julia Ormond leads fight against human trafficking

Dec 2, 2005, 22:35 GMT

New York - British actress Julia Ormond was appointed Friday as U.N. good will ambassador to fight human trafficking, which the U.N. said enslaves at least 27 million people around the world, mostly in the sex industry.

Ormond will lead the campaign on behalf of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, which said human trafficking has become one of the most profitable activities for criminals.

'I hope the appointment will be action-oriented,' Ormond said at U.N. headquarters. She said she accepted the role because she has devoted time to study and fight the enslavement of women and girls in the sex industry.

Ormond and Bianca Jagger, a human rights advocate and former wife of rock group Rolling Stones leader Mick Jagger, appeared at news conference to discuss human trafficking.

They urged countries that have signed the convention banning human trafficking to implement it by having their legislatures ratify it. They pointed particularly to some countries like Russia, where women and girls have been forced into the sex trade, to take more effective measures to curb human trafficking.

'Human trafficking would not have occurred if governments did what they were supposed to,' said Jagger.

The U.N. said Ormond has a proven record as a human rights fighter. She co-founded FilmAid International, using the power of the film industry to campaign on behalf of vulnerable people uprooted by conflicts, living with AIDS and victims of human trafficking.

Osmond's appointment took place at U.N. headquarters on International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. Under the U.N. definition, slavery includes forced and bonded labour, child labour and slavery for ritual or religious purposes.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement that the world now faces a new form of slavery 'in which many vulnerable people are virtually abandoned by legal and social systems into a sordid realm of exploitation and abuse.'

He asked governments to hold people involved in human trafficking accountable for the crime.