Forced Criminality2005
Togo TG
The practice of ritual or customary servitude was outlawed in Ghana in 1998, but the practical implementation of the law has fallen largely to NGO's who have facilitated the shrines in ending the practice. The NGO Every Child Ministries Ghana and negotiated with the Sovigbenor shrine and educated them as to the issues over a span of over a year, finally winning the approval of the shrine for the liberation of all 126 of its trokosi slaves on December 9, 2005. The liberation was a public event in which the shrine freed the slaves and agreed to end the practice of ritual servitude in that place. In this case a 37 year old woman was liberated who had been born in bondage to a trokosi. The practice of replacement demands that if a trokosi slave dies or runs away, she must be replaced by another girl from her family, so this child replaced her mother upon her death. Her story came out in the course of the liberation process. She was one of 126 women liberated from the Sovigbenor shrine.
Sex Trafficking2008
Togo TG
The practice of ritual or customary servitude was outlawed in Ghana in 1998, but no one has ever been prosecuted under the law. Rather, the practical implementation of the law has fallen largely to NGO's who have facilitated the shrines in ending the practice. The NGO Every Child Ministries Ghana negotiated with the Sovigbenor shrine community and educated them as to the issues over a span of over a year, finally winning the approval of the shrine for the liberation of all 126 of its trokosi slaves on December 9, 2005. The liberation was a public event in which the shrine freed the slaves and agreed to end the practice of ritual servitude in that place. In this case a 79 year old woman was liberated who had been enslaved there since she was about one year old.
Forced Criminality2010
Togo TG
The priest volunteered to free his shrine servants with the collaboration of Every Child Ministries after he became a Christian. The victim in this case was a 55 year old woman who was taken into the shrine "very young" by her father, but never knew the reason. Because of this she was never able to attend school.