In November 2004, The Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement (SMWIPM) held the ”Women Defending Peace” conference, which identified human trafficking as one of the issues requiring urgent attention and action. This marked the beginning of the Movement’s fight against human trafficking.

Discussions with key players against human trafficking, namely UNODC, ILO and IOM revealed that the missing component of the anti-trafficking efforts is the business sector. While it has a pivotal role to play in fighting human trafficking, business community was not involved in this endeavour.

Consequently the Movement organized together with partners the “Roundtable of the Business Community against Human Trafficking” on January 23rd, 2006 in Athens, Greece. The roundtable launched the business campaign “End Human Trafficking Now!” and business leaders adopted a set of ethical principles – the “Athens Ethical Principles” - to ensure their stand against human trafficking.

The campaign “End Human Trafficking Now!”, whilst striding to put an end to human trafficking, all together, emphasizes the role of the business community and puts business companies in the front and centre of the anti-trafficking fight. The initiative hopes to integrate the business sector into the solution of ending this illicit trade, because with the global reach and connections enjoyed by most business corporations and enterprises today, the assistance they can provide is vast. Moreover, if a business takes a stance against human trafficking, and utilizes its available resources and alliances, whilst also spreading awareness to its employees, partners and supporters, it creates a multiplier effect which promotes further cooperation and increases anti trafficking efforts overall since the message is distributed widely.