-
If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.
-
You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!
| |
Human Trafficking
Page history
last edited
by PBworks 16 years, 1 month ago
Human Trafficking
I. Definitions
United Nations Definition: Sexual exploitation, other forms of forced labor, slaver, servitude, or for the removal of human organs. Trafficking takes place by criminal means through the treat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse, of positions of power or abuse of positions of vulnerability. It relates to all stages of the trafficking process recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons.
Child Trafficking Definition: The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction of deception of the abuse of power or of position of vulnerability or of the giving receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
Image: Child sex slaves
II. Key Actors
The United Nations, nongovernmental organizations, and the governments of countries of high risk of human trafficking, all create and enforce many ways to prevent and eliminate the roots of human trafficking. Intervention can include law enforcement, awareness campaigns, and the creation of new laws.
State Governments
How state actors work on the promotion and protection of human rights is important. Law enforcers such as the police, the military and the judiciary are critical. The development and enforcement of appropriate laws is essential for setting appropriate norms for international human rights. However, some countries have problems with corruption. Law enforcement agents in whom victims should place their trust do not help them out. Sometimes, law enforcement officers become part of the syndicate and play a role in violations of human rights. Corruption in the agencies is directly related to organized crime.
Moreover, governments are also a key actor. In the United States, the country which is a both a transit and destination country for trafficked persons, human trafficking issue has been gaining attention since the late 1990s since Clinton Administration and the 106th Congress addressed the problem as a priority. However, for many governments, human trafficking is issue of crime and border control, not human rights.
Most of the time, to combat the serious problem of human trafficking, state governments and local nongovernmental organizations themselves actively participate. For example, in China, the State Council, the police, media, schools, the courts, and many other nongovernmental organizations aid in spreading awareness about human trafficking. For example, the women’s organizations in the country hold seminars and provide courses to educate people and spread awareness. The All China Women’s Federation and the Ministry of Justice hand out pamphlets and newspapers to educate people as well. Also in Chian Rai Thailand, a nongovernmental organization called Development and Education Program for Daughters and Communities uses the power of education to spread awareness of illegal human trafficking. It tries to prevent women and children from being sucked into the world of illegal trafficking by depicting the legal consequences and the inevitable dangers.
The United Nations
The United Nations is an “intergovernmental organization, established by a multilateral treaty (The UN Charter) among sovereign states. Its members are sovereign states, and delegates to the UN represent states, not the international community”(Donnelly, 8). It has many different departments, campaigns and coalitions to prevent and eliminate human trafficking.
The UN DPKO (Department of Peacekeeping Operations) specifically deals with human trafficking. Peacekeeping operations are generally not intended for use against human trafficking, however since human trafficking has become such a grave problem, the DPKO has committed itself fully to this cause. The main goal of the UN DPKO is to ensure that human trafficking is given due attention, so it will not seem as though the United Nations turned a blind eye to this serious international crisis.
The department’s two objectives are to make sure that peacekeeping personnel do not engage in activities that support human trafficking an other sexual exploitation and abuse, and to provide for the countries within UN membership with tools to establish and support nationwide efforts to prevent and counter human trafficking
The DPKO has three programs of activity. The first program includes awareness and training, and aims to educate the peacekeeping personnel about human trafficking. The second program involves developing specific tools and resources to properly monitor and discipline, if necessary, the peacekeeping personnel. The third program involves supporting all anti-trafficking activities.
The UN also has many different programs and departments that aid in combating human trafficking. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) aids states by providing appropriate resources to create strategies in eliminating human trafficking as well as in drafting and implementing laws. States can receive other assistance such as receiving tactics for international cooperation in prosecuting and investigating human traffickers. The UNODC attempts to prevent human trafficking by spreading awareness through public service announcements in all forms of media, with the assistance of nongovernmental organizations. To protect vulnerable people, the UNODC created the Toolkit to Combat Trafficking in Persons, to suggest more effective tactics to stop human traffickers. The UNODC helps governments create appropriate laws to properly prosecute those involved in illegal human trafficking. For example in Vietnam, the UNODC helped the government to prosecute more than 110 criminals involved in human trafficking activities.
To further assist the world in stopping human trafficking the UNODC launched the Global Initiative to fight Human Trafficking (UN. GIFT) in March of 2007. This programs aims to raise awareness and spread knowledge, to offer proper resources to countries in need, to create programs to eliminate human trafficking on a local as well as international level, to aid in the creation of laws, and to strengthen the relationship and commitment between governments, NGOs, the media, the international realm, as well as other organizations that support the fight against human trafficking.
The UN General Assembly of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking In Persons, Especially Women and Children was created in 2000, and so far, 110 member countries have signed the protocol.
To combat human trafficking, which is significantly popular in Asian countries, the UN created the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (UNIAP) in June of 2000. By Mekong, the UN means Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. To focus specifically on these Asian nations, the UN created this appropriate program with four key goals in mind: to build the knowledge of the nations, to raise and support action on high priority human trafficking problems, to support human trafficking interventions, and to respond and aid these Asian countries.
The UNODC joins forces with the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) to fight human trafficking. UNICRI was established by the UN in 1967 to aid countries in the international realm in preventing crime and bringing out justice. UNICRI assists intergovernmental organizations as well as nongovernmental ones in making effective strategies to combat human trafficking. It spreads awareness, supports fair judicial systems of countries, and helps enforce international law as well as cooperation amongst countries in the international community for judicial purposes.
Nongovernmental Organizations
In addition to the United Nations, international nongovernmental organizations play a significant role in combating human trafficking. A nongovernmental organization is a “private association that engages in political activity. Such groups act as advocates for victims of human rights violations by publicizing violations and lobbying to alter the practices of states and international organizations”(Donnelly, 10).
There are over 2,000 nongovernmental organizations and thousands of non-profit organizations, assisting in the fight against human trafficking. Some examples are Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The Salvation Army, and Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW).
The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women is a nongovernmental organization that promotes specifically women’s human rights. The CATW has networks and affiliates all over the world. It spreads awareness of human trafficking in all forms such as prostitution, mail order brides, and pornography. CATW educates the international public about the harms of human trafficking and works with other organizations and the UN to promote the human rights of the victims. CATW holds a Category II Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council, and works with the UN to create new legislation against human trafficking. It also testifies in criminal courts, congresses of different nations, parliaments, and UN commissions as well, to promote and aid in the fight against trafficking. It also researches the situation of victims to better educate the international community as well as spread awareness.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is also a nongovernmental organization that works with thousands of other organizations to lobby all governments in the international community to create a world that has a universal justice system that protects human rights as. Amnesty International has a special program called Stop Violence Against Women, which focuses specifically on all forms of violence against women, especially on stopping the violence against women that results from illegal human trafficking. The campaign spreads awareness of violence against women and calls on governments all over the world to protect the basic human rights of women. It also works for nations to sign and ratify the Treaty for the Rights of Women (CEDAW), as a written commitment to women’s rights. Amnesty International also works to create and enact legislation to protect women all over the world.
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is another nongovernmental organization that is considered to be the leading pioneer in the fight against human trafficking. The Salvation Army has “rescue homes”, which act as shelters for the victims of human trafficking, regardless of age, sexual orientation, and country of origin. There are currently 117 “rescue homes” all over the world to provide refuge for victims of human trafficking. The Salvation Army created the Trafficking Victims Protection act, which became law in the U.S. in 2000. It also attempts to shift U.S. policies on sexual human trafficking by making the link between sexual trafficking and prostitution and between sexual trafficking and HIV/AIDS. To further change U.S. policies and legislation, the Salvation Army opposes legalized prostition, supports a “report and rescue” program to aid women and child victims of human trafficking, and it supports the passage of the End Demand for Sex trafficking Act of 2005.
To spread awareness and create an international coalition against human trafficking, the Salvation Army has been a member and leader of the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking, which is a coalition of human rights organizations all over the world against trafficking. This program educates the public about the evils of human trafficking and attempts to garner support from all over the world.
The Salvation Army joined forces with the Department of Justice in 2003, to spread awareness, increase cooperation and coordination, and to provide more assistance to victims of trafficking. Through this conjoining, the National Consultant for Trafficking Survivor Services was born to provide more trafficking victim services. Also sprouting from this joining of forces is the U.S. National Anti-Trafficking Council, which aims at spreading awareness, preventing trafficking, and gaining health and freedom for survivors.
This organization also created a program called the PROMISE Initiative (Partnership to Rescue Our Minors from Sexual Exploitation), which attempts to fix the faults in society that allow child trafficking. The Salvation Army not only plays a big role in the U.S. but also internationally as well. The international headquarters of TSA formed the International Anti-Trafficking Task Force, to provide resources and refuge for victims, spread awareness, and to combat and prevent human trafficking with any means necessary. The Salvation Army World Service Office cooperates with the F.A.I.T.H. Consortium, which is a coalition of Source:
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch, another nongovernmental organization, composed of more than 240 professionals such as journalists, lawyers, and academics, is a human rights organization that does just what it name states. It “watches” nations all over the world for human rights abuses, and exposes them to the world. Human Rights Watch digs into these human rights violations, and then publishes written documents for the public eyes. These works by the Human Rights Watch are spread throughout the local and worldwide media, and intimidates a nation into stopping their violations against human rights. The members of this organization also meet with governments, the United Nations, the European Union, and nongovernmental organizations, to stop human rights violations through the changing of policies and creation of laws to protect individuals. By using these tactics, Human Rights Watch has “publicized” the problem of human trafficking all over the world, which spreads awareness and educates the international public about the grave problem of human trafficking.
Transnational Criminal Organizations
Organized crime is the major players in the sex industry and organized crime is involved at various levels. Connection between trafficking in women for the purpose of prostitution and organized crime points to a very close association. For example, there are a number of Asian women working in the sex trade in Canada and it is considered this issue is linked with organized crime. There are three types of networks responsible for trafficking in women: large scale networks with political and financial contacts that enable them to establish links between countries of origin and destination countries; medium-sized networks that concentrate on trafficking in women from one country only; and small networks that place one or two women at the need to distinguish between criminal activities and organized crime.
III. History
500 BC
Slaves in Ancient Greece were either kidnapped from neighboring conquered nations or spoils of war. Many were used as house hold slaves while others were used as sex slaves. This occurrence was widely exploitive during the Roman conquest of Ancient Greece in which millions of women were coerced into sexual slavery. Female slaves in Ancient Greece were subjected to the worst forms of sexual exploitation. Female slaves were stripped of any rights and they were to submit to their masters wills (http://www.crystalinks.com/greekslavery.html). Many female slaves were sexually abused and raped and were unable to get any help. Females in general were considered secondary citizens and female slaves were considered the lowest in class hierarchy. This has consequently lead to deeply rooted forms of female poverty where their exploitation is grounded on their low and disempowered societal status.
1000 AD
Little is known about human trafficking during ancient history, however, texts from the bible, Quran, and historical records of the ancient Chinese dynasties have reported the presence of female “concubines”. King Saul, was reported to have over 100 concubines and the Qing Dynasty had reported over 20,000 concubines (http://www.beijingmadeeasy.com/beijing-history/concubines-of-ancient-china).
Concubines were known as second wives to kings or royalty during the ancient times. Although they were titled as “second wives” their duties were constrained to procreating with the king or their masters. They were not allowed to have any other husbands and they were subject to torture and cruel treatment from the king’s wife. Concubines were pressured to give birth to male heirs. Those who produced male heirs were favored and were guaranteed wealth from the King after his death.
Concubines thus were merely flesh commodities in which their worth as their ability to produce children. They were not given any rights of a wife and they were subject to various forms of sexual exploitation by their masters.
1300s
The Ottoman Empire consolidated one of the largest trade systems of the 1300s. Its empire at the height of its power (16th – 17th century), it spanned three continents, controlling much of Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, stretching from the Strait of Gibraltar) in the west to the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf in the east, from the edge of Austria, Slovakia and parts of Ukraine in the north to Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and Yemen in the south (http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/OTTOMAN/ORIGIN.HTM).
1600s-1700s
The 1600s marked the first era of British colonial expansion. British conquerors ravished the new world for resources and human labor. This era would later transition into a full blown slave trade during the 1700s.
1700s marked the era of trade liberalization and the rise of capitalism. During this era, the slave trade boomed in the 1750s and there developed the ‘triangular trade’ where British slave merchants would coerce slaves to work on large plantations and cultivate raw material [4]
Female slaves were subject to harsh labor as well as sexual slavery. Slave masters were entitled to sex with their female slaves to produce more slaves or for own personal reasons. Female slaves were similarly subject to forced breeding with other male slaves of the master’s choosing. Females who were non compliant were beaten and tortured [3]
1800s
From the mid-1500s to the mid-1800s, almost 9 millions Africans were shipped mostly to Latin America – particularly to today’s Haiti, Brazil, and Cuba – under the most inhumane conditions. About 5 percent of all the African slaves ended up in the United States. On the sugar plantations of the West Indies and South America, crushing work and brutal punishment were the norm. Although Spain and Portugal had relatively liberal laws concerning the treatment of slaves – they could marry, sue a cruel owner and even buy their freedom – they were rarely enforced. In the British colonies and later in the U.S., slaves enjoyed somewhat better working conditions and medical care. Nonetheless, life was harsh and in some ways more difficult.
Since slaves in Latin America and the Carribbean usually outnumbered Europeans, they were able to retain more of their African customs. In British America, Africans quickly lost most of their cultural underpinnings.
Most American slavery was tied to the great Southern plantations that grew tobacco, rice, and other cash crops. Although slavery was also practiced in Northern states, it was never as widespread and had been largely abolished by 1800.
By the late 18th century, Southern slavery also appeared headed for extinction, as industrialization and other trends took hold, rendering the plantations system increasingly economically unfeasible. In 1793, Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin allowed slavery output to remain pretty high.
By the early 19th century, many Southern plantations turned to the processing of cotton by slaves. Much of the rest of the world, however, was abolishing slavery. In the early 1800s, many of the newly independent nations of Spanish America won their independence and immediately outlawed human bondage. Simon Bolivar, who liberated much of Latin America, was a staunch abolitionist, calling slavery the “daughter of darkness.” In 1821, Congress enacts the Missouri Compromise, specifying which new U.S. states will allow slavery. In Europe, the tide was also turning. Largely due to the efforts of abolitionist William Wilberforce, the British Empire outlawed the practice in 1833, although de facto slavery continued in India and some other colonies. In 1839, the world’s first international abolitionist group, Anti-Slavery International, is founded in England. In 1848, France also freed the slaves in its colonies. However, in the U.S., peaceful efforts at compromise over slavery failed, and the issue finally helped trigger the Civil War in 1861. In 1863, during the height of the conflict, President Abraham Lincoln issued the “Emancipation Proclamation,” freeing all slaves in the Southern, or Confederate, states. Soon after the war ended with Union victory in 1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery altogether. After the Civil War, the worldwide abolition of slavery continued. Spain outlawed the practice in Puerto Rico in 1873 and in Cuba in 1886. More important, Brazil began dismantling its huge slave infrastructure in 1888.
1900s – Present
Today, slavery is illegal in every country in the world and is outlawed by several treaties. The foundation of this complete acceptance rests on several groundbreaking international agreements, beginning with the 1926 Slavery Convention of the League of Nations, which required signatory countries to work to abolish every aspect of the practice. Slavery is also banned by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which holds that “no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.”
Other conventions prohibiting the practice include the 1930 ILO Convention on Forced Labor and a 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery. In 1978, the Human Rights Watch is founded.
In 1983, Sudan’s civil war begins, pitting the Muslim north against the Christian and animist south, leading to slave raids in the south. By 1995, Christian and non-governmental organizations begin redeeming slaves in Sudan. By June 1st, 1999, ILO adopts the Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention.
More recently, the U.N. in 2001 approved a Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish the Trafficking in Persons as part of a major convention on fighting organized crime. The protocol requires signatories to take action to fight trafficking and protect its victims. It has been signed by 117 countries and ratified by 45.
By February 2002, the Polaris Project is founded to fight human trafficking and by January 2004, the U.N. launches a year-long commemoration of anti-slavery movement.
The poorest and most chaotic parts of the developing world supply most trafficking victims – often women and children destined for the sex trade.
Image: Concentration of human trafficking in 2007
Source:
History Articles:
1. Chunghee Sara SOH, “From Imperial Gifts to Sex Slaves: Theorizing Symbolic Representations of the ‘Comfort Women’”, <http://docstore.ingenta.com/cgi-bin/ds_deliver/1/u/d/ISIS/42626423.1/oup/ssjapj/2000/00000003/00000001/art00059/D445EC1ECD3C5706120422646025932D7882D4EE95.pdf?link=http://www.ingentaconnect.com/error/delivery&format=pdf">
2. Wax Darold D., “Preferences for Slaves in Colonial America,” , <http://www.jstor.org/cgi-bin/jstor/printpage/00222992/dm990557/99p0160s/0.pdf?backcontext=page&dowhat=Acrobat&config=jstor&userID=80c3664c@uci.edu/01c0a8346900501d703d9&0.pdf">
3. Nilsson, Petra. “The Black Female Experience -A Feminist and Post-Colonial Approach to Toni Morrison´s Novels The Bluest Eye, Sula, Beloved, and Love.,” <http://www.miun.se/upload/Institutioner/HUM/Uppsatser/Petra+Nilsson.pdf">
4. Swift, Richard. "Cocoa chain: the history of the bean." New Internationalist 304 August (1998): 5-22. Exapanded Academic ASAP, Gale. <http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=EAIM">
IV. Examples and Cases
In South Asia, young women and children routinely are abducted and lured from Nepal, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Myanmar (Burma) to work in brothels in India’s large cities. Thousands also end up in Bangkok, Thailand’s capital and infamous sex-trade center. In Asia, the victims’ own families often sell them to traffickers for reasons all linked to poverty and the need for money to survive.
Eastern Europe is particularly fertile ground for sex traffickers. The collapse of communism decades ago has left many parts of the region, especially Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus, economically and politically stunted. For these women, it is a matter of survival. In Africa, more people are trafficked for forced labor than as sex slaves.
Child Brothels- Cambodia
Young children are sold by their parents to local brothels. One 14-year-old, who was recently freed from a brothel, says she came from an extremely poor family in the country next door, Vietnam. She says when she was walking home from school one day, she was approached by a woman offering work in a café. But the café turned out to be a brothel. With no money and no way to get home, she didn't have much of a choice and was forced into sex with grown men, many of them American.
Many sex tourists come to Cambodia for exactly that reason, and they're willing to pay a premium. Madam Lang tells us her virgins go for $600, and for that price she says we can take a girl back to the hotel and keep her there for up to three days. When she brings out the girl, the 15-year-old looks paralyzed with fear.
You-Mi-South Korea
You Mi Kim, a naive South Korean college student with a serious shopping habit who ended up getting duped into sex slavery to help her pay off her $40,000 in credit card debts. After answering an ad to work as a hostess in an American men's club ("Very gentle. No touching," the ad reportedly read), she was flown to Tijuana, Mexico, smuggled across the border and forced to spend five months having sex with dozens of men in Los Angeles' Koreatown and Ingleside neighborhoods.
Image: South Korean sex worker
Olga and Rosaria- Russia
Olga and Rosaria are mid aged poor Russian women. They are approached by a business man who tells them of a job opening the US as a flight attendment. However, upon getting on the plane, the two women were trafficked to Mexico and sold to a brothel. They were told that if they resisted they would get their "heads chopped off". "They had me working overnights. It was worse than prison," says Rosaria. "No freedom. Doing things I had never done before. It was like hell on earth."
Na- Thailand
Na is a poor Thailand grocery store worker who was given an lucrative offer by a business man to work at a US bar for good pay. However, once she arrived in the US, she was raped and sold to a China Town brothel. Almost as soon as Na arrived last September, she was informed of the real, Faustian terms of her passage to New York. To pay off the people who had bought her ticket and arranged her visa, she was expected to have sex with more than 300 men. She would be held captive behind the locked doors of a Chinatown brothel where, she later learned, the Thai women were known by numbers instead of names, bars covered the windows and buzzer-operated gates controlled the doors. She would not be allowed to leave the building until she had worked off her debt.
Nirmala Bonat- Indonesia
Nirmala Bonat is a 19 year old Indonesian villager. She was told of a lucratic opportunity to work as maid for a Malysian couple. However, upon arrival at the condominium she found herself the newly bought slave of an abusive master. The simple technology of a toilet and microwave were never-bore seen novelties for the young victim. Making a mistake was not allowed and Ms. Bonant was brutally beaten for any accident. The woman of the household repeatedly beat her face and pressed a hot iron against her back and breasts. She was not allowed near windows or doors, with the only exception being to take out the trash. Finally, after months of torture without the wages promised, weeping, bleeding Nirmala Bonant escaped to the Indonesian Embassy, a rare, lucky survivor.
Image: Nirmala after Indonesian Embassy rescue.
V. Debates/Criticism of Human Trafficking
Argument 1: Human Trafficking is a violation of Human Rights
“The new forms of slavery constitute the most colossal violation of human rights in the world today.”
-Pino Arlacchi, Executive Director, United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention.
The most widely held view, particularly among abolitionist groups, is that the abduction and exploitation of human beings, including children, into slavery is an extreme violation of human rights. In Article 4, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights straightforwardly states that, “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.” The forcing of individuals into slavery through the fraud, deceit, and deception trafficking tactics entail is a direct defiance of the Declaration.
Argument 2: Extreme poverty leaves families no choice
Slave trafficking is most likely to occur in areas of extreme poverty, political chaos, or war. In the case of extreme poverty, families are lured, deceived, or sometimes willing to send off children or themselves to work in the hope of living a better life. In Belize, Not For Sale reports, “parents from poor families are pushing children as young as 12 years old to “date” wealthy older men, between the ages of 40 and 70, in exchange for money and services that cover their basic needs: education, health, clothes and so on.” Families suffering from economic instability are desperate for welfare and believe that trafficking is viable option for their family’s survival. Living in these conditions often leads families to feel as if nothing could be worse than their current state, unaware of the intensity and abuses that slave trafficking entails. In a majority of cases, however, victims are told they will be sent to other countries to work as waitresses, maids, etc., but in actuality are taken to brothels, individual slaveholders, the sex market, and the like.
Argument 3: Trafficking brings economic prosperity
The smuggling and trafficking of human beings is a multi-billion dollar “business.” According to Wan Kim of the U.S. Justice Department, “trafficking is an extremely lucrative business,” occurring not only in developing countries but largely within the United States as well. In fact, the U.S. government says human trafficking is one of the largest criminal industries in the world - second only to drugs - and the fastest growing. Anna Rodriguez of the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking explains saying with, “human beings you sell and resell and resell and you're always making a profit.” Traffickers and con-men have created an underground market that has infectiously spread internationally. The revenue and income sent to poor countries by workers (if they receive their wages) and enjoyed by smugglers are vital to the economy of these countries.
Criticism: Not enough action is being taken against human rights
It is indeed certain that not enough action is being taken against human traffickers. There are thousands of young women, and little girls being abducted, kidnapped, or violently forced into prostitution that eventually mutilates and destroys their bodies. These women become infected with HIV and AIDS, many of the younger girls (primarily those involved with sexual abuses with pedophiles) are so badly taken advantage of that their wombs are permanently damaged, their internal female organs will never be able to reproduce once they have matured into women. These travesties occur in many Southeast Asian countries, as well as in India, Saudi Arabia, and the Pacific Islands. The governments and political leaders of these nations are aware of these crimes against humanity, and choose to pursue minimal involvement because the outcome is beneficial to their economy.
Criticism: Do the Coalitions against these inhumanities truly have the ability to make a change?
Yes, there are in fact many organizations that have successfully fought and made drastic changes in their campaigns for human rights within the sex trade and sex slave industries. One of the most noted ones is the organization Equality Now. This group’s campaign focuses on helping women and young girls regain their rights and dignity after suffering from severely brutal and violent circumstances of rape, murder, and slavery that is implemented through their abduction or deception into the slave trade. Equality now has brought to justice murders of women before the United Nations. It has also been responsible for shutting down THREE AMERICAN sex-tour agencies in New York, Texas, and Hawaii. On top of these acts, they have also taken militaristic action as a method of campaign promoting anti-sex slavery. Additionally, in 2007 Equality Now has established a second means of human rights expression through “the Fund for Grassroots Activism to End Sex Trafficking”, which appeals to organizations on a broader scope that are working to end sexual exploitation.
The European Union is another internationally acclaimed group of nations that have taken measures to prove their disbelief in Human Trafficking. They have recognized the sexual exploitation that exists among the primary group of women who are adolescents ages 11-25. “This protection clause was passed in 1996 to combat child sex tourism, and it is signified as the European Unions Aim to step up its action and combat against the sexual exploitations of women and children” This campaign was passed not only to bring recognition to this major human rights problem, but also to deter those involved from exploiting more innocent young women and children, but also to bring those who have committed atrocious crimes against humanity to justice.
Criticism: Human trafficking is a phenomenon that only exists in “third” world Countries.
This notion is entirely false. This exploitation exists on all points of the globe, in nearly every continent, and in both industrialized first nations as well as in poverty-stricken third world nations. Underground Brothels and sex slaves can be found everywhere from San Francisco, South Africa, to Tokyo. The US is considered more of a transit zone for sex slaves, while places like Thailand and Burma are home to some of the most astoundingly large numbers of prostitutes, slaves, and children who are involuntarily trapped in a life of abuse, exploitation, violence, and disease. The website www.Humantrafficking.org gives a detailed list of all nations on the globe that are affected both directly and indirectly by the Human Sex Slave trade. It also gives detailed reports on legal actions taken, campaigns fighting against it, and the specific locations where such problems have existed. In fact at least 5 of the nations listed are not third world countries, nor are they even on the continent of Asia. This malicious business occurs in every country from Australia, to Japan, to the United States.
Criticism: There is no true legal action taken by the nations to fight this exploitation
There are in fact, several laws that are to be enforced on those who practice sexual exploitation and Slavery. However, because there are a great number of sex slaves that are not residence to one specific country, the law is able to refute these victims the rights that would be offered to residents. Human Trafficking exists in many of the pacific islands and southeastern Asians countries, and a majority of these slaves are exported to other nations everywhere from China, Russia, Japan, and South Africa, to all over North America. For example, Thailand, a country with one of the biggest problems of prostitution and sex slavery does in fact have laws to fight against these exploitations. Thailand is a transit zone, a source country, and a primary destination for women, children, and the occasional male abducted or forced in the sex slave trade. “The denial of Thai residency to ethnic minority women and girls who reside in Thailand's northern hills makes them more susceptible to trafficking and delays repatriation due to lack of citizenship. Widespread sex tourism in Thailand encourages trafficking for sexual exploitation.” Therefore, there are many laws that place restrictions and make sexual exploitation illegal, but if the women are not Thai residents, they are essentially ignored, and denied the same human rights and civilities that would be “ Offered” to those who are in fact citizens or residents of the nation.
Additional Information
There are still many websites, and advertisement agencies that advocate sex tourism and openly ignore issues of human trafficking in existence today. These organizations are in business are not meant to end sex slavery but to promote it.
While it is a controversial and semi-illegal method, there are many links to getting pleasure tours and involvement with sex slavery throughout the globe.
The Philippines, Cambodia, and Thailand are the most popular attractions sited on the Internet for their infamous sex brothels and tours.
Additionally, sex tourism takes a whole new meaning in the manner of LOVE Tours. These tours are strategically designed and created in order to help match wealthy westerners with winning over potential new underage brides.
There are websites that promote specifically to men who are seeking sexual endeavors and young women, sometimes-even children. Because many of these websites are not located directly out of the US, there is nothing illegal about what they promote, in spite of the fact that it is illegal in the United States.
Two of the most visited Internet websites promoting sex tours and vacations:
http://www.themantour.com/
VI. References/Recommendations/Links
Articles:
“UN forum aims to end trafficking” from BBC News:
“Slavery in the Suburbs” by Tracy Smith:
“Vienna Forum to Fight Human Trafficking, 13-15 February 2008-Passport wanted: combating human trafficking and forced labor” from the Communication and Public Information Unit, International Labor Organization:
Books:
Kyle, David, and Rey Koslowski, eds. Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspective. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.
Inter-Governmental Organizations (IGOs)
International Campaigns
International Networks and Transnational Coalitions
International Nongovernmental Organizations (INGOs)
Internet Resource
National Organizations
Human Trafficking
|
|
Tip: To turn text into a link, highlight the text, then click on a page or file from the list above.
|
|
|
|
|
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.