By Peter Biggs

SOMETIMES Christians can feel powerless in dealing with the shameful, disturbing issues of exploitation and abuse of the weak and young in some parts of the world. These abuses involve sweatshops, child prostitution, slavery and unprosecuted rapes.

Missionary aid personnel, who frequently witness such atrocities, are often not able to challenge governments – lest their ability to deliver aid be threatened. Enter International Justice Mission (IJM) – which provides an independent voice of effective advocacy in such situations.

The work of IJM has been featured on Dateline NBC, and in Forbes, New York Times Magazine and the Wall Street Journal.  IJM was founded in the U.S. by Gary Haugen, who served as Officer in Charge of the UN investigation into the Rwandan genocide.

With field offices in 12 countries and home bases in Canada, U.S. and the U.K., they employ some 280 staff worldwide – including social workers, lawyers, criminal investigators and counsellors.

ITW spoke to Jamie McIntosh, executive director of IJM Canada, based in London, Ontario, with a staff of five. Because of the range of issues IJM engages, he said, it is hard to briefly describe their ministry.

“We take on individual cases of abuse, sexual exploitation, slavery [and] property grabbing, that are referred to us by missionary agencies and other non-governmental organizations,” he said.  

“We are working in common cause with such agencies as Amnesty International and Human RIghts Watch.”

IJM Canada was started in 2002. McIntosh describes the ministry as representing a “third generation of human rights advocacy.” The first, he said, was in the 1940s, with the UN Declaration of Human Rights giving the issues shape and voice.

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In the 60s and 70s, there was a growth of agencies which monitored suspect countries and documented human rights abuses.

These groups, said McIntosh, “are still effective. But today we are about ‘enforcement’ of existing national laws – by gathering incontrovertible evidence (for example, hidden video footage) and presenting it to the police or authorities.”

Asked how they achieve action, McIntosh responded: “We try and find trusted law enforcers or an influential person of good will, and work with them. Sometimes we have to deal with non-caring people; we then move up to their superiors.”

IJM is well respected by Canada’s government, and can also bring some political influence to bear.

McIntosh frequently speaks in churches and colleges, and to the media. He is passionate about the scriptural mandate undergirding all that IJM does.

“Justice is no longer about personal piety;  but it has public dimensions. It’s not simply passive and negative – ‘I won’t sin’ – but positive!” He quotes Isaiah 1:17: “Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”

He is also fond of  James 1:27:  “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

IJM Canada’s ministry budget has grown 40 percent over the last year, with opportunities for students interested in social justice issues to intern.

Winter/Spring 2008