Many victims of sex trafficking say they don’t choose the life and cannot extricate themselves from it. (Shutterstock)
Friday, August 30, 2013
Jewish groups ramping up response to sex trafficking | Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Source: Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Polaris Project Japan fights human trafficking - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun
NASUKA YAMAMOTO of The ASAHI SHIMBUN writes:
" Three years ago Shihoko Fujiwara received this startling message from a teenager living in the Kanto region via a social networking site: "I am full of longing for death."
Continue reading: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201308290069
Egypt’s chaos fuels Africa’s human trafficking | Africa | DW.DE | 27.08.2013
Egypt’s chaos fuels Africa’s human trafficking | Africa | DW.DE | 27.08.2013
Adrian Kriesch:
"Egypt’s political unrest has brought suffering not only to its own people but also to hundreds of African refugees. Their goal is Israel but many end up as hostages on the Sinai Peninsula."
Read with the full article here: http://www.dw.de/egypts-chaos-fuels-africas-human-trafficking/a-17050151
Adrian Kriesch:
"Egypt’s political unrest has brought suffering not only to its own people but also to hundreds of African refugees. Their goal is Israel but many end up as hostages on the Sinai Peninsula."
Read with the full article here: http://www.dw.de/egypts-chaos-fuels-africas-human-trafficking/a-17050151
Big business holds the key to eradicating modern-day slavery
Source: theguardian
Andrew Wallis:
"Only business has the resources and the ability to eradicate modern slavery. This may not be a popular opinion within parts of the NGO community and sections of the government, but it's a reality – because for business, ultimately, the impact of modern slavery is economic."
Read Andrew Wallis' full article here:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/aug/29/big-business-modern-slavery
Andrew Wallis:
"Only business has the resources and the ability to eradicate modern slavery. This may not be a popular opinion within parts of the NGO community and sections of the government, but it's a reality – because for business, ultimately, the impact of modern slavery is economic."
Read Andrew Wallis' full article here:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/aug/29/big-business-modern-slavery
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Modern-day slavery: an explainer | Global development | theguardian.com
SOURCE: theguardian.com
CONTINUE READING:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/apr/03/modern-day-slavery-explainer
What is modern-day slavery?
"About 150 years after most countries banned slavery – Brazil was the last to abolish its participation in the transatlantic slave trade, in 1888 – millions of men, women and children are still enslaved. Contemporary slavery takes many forms, from women forced into prostitution, to child slavery in agriculture supply chains or whole families working for nothing to pay off generational debts. Slavery thrives on every continent and in almost every country. Forced labour, people trafficking, debt bondage and child marriage are all forms of modern-day slavery that affect the world's most vulnerable people."CONTINUE READING:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/apr/03/modern-day-slavery-explainer
Child Forced Labor in Mining, Agriculture, and Manufacturing
Source: UN.GIFT.HUB
Part I: The Mining Industry
http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/en/stories/July2013/child-forced-labor-part-i-the-mining-industry.html
Part II: Agriculture in the Americas
http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/en/stories/August2013/child-forced-labor-part-ii-agriculture-in-the-americas.html
Part III: Manufacturing in Asia
http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/stories/August2013/child-labor-blog-part-iii-manufacturing-in-asia.html
Part I: The Mining Industry
http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/en/stories/July2013/child-forced-labor-part-i-the-mining-industry.html
Part II: Agriculture in the Americas
http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/en/stories/August2013/child-forced-labor-part-ii-agriculture-in-the-americas.html
Part III: Manufacturing in Asia
http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/stories/August2013/child-labor-blog-part-iii-manufacturing-in-asia.html
Trafficked into labour, a young girl tries to regain what she's lost
SOURCE: UNGIFT.ORG
"Blessing's story is short, and it has many holes, because she simply doesn't remember much of her life - at least the part before she came to Lagos, West Africa's biggest metropolis.
"Years ago, she left her native Ghana with an aunt who was headed for
neighbouring Nigeria. The aunt promised Blessing's parents that the girl
would go to school and work to send them money. Like millions before
them, they arrived in Lagos looking for opportunity."
CONTINUE READING:
http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/stories/August2013/trafficked-into-labour-a-young-girl-tries-to-regain-what-shes-lost.html
"Blessing's story is short, and it has many holes, because she simply doesn't remember much of her life - at least the part before she came to Lagos, West Africa's biggest metropolis.
CONTINUE READING:
http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/stories/August2013/trafficked-into-labour-a-young-girl-tries-to-regain-what-shes-lost.html
William Wilberforce's heirs are ready to tackle the great evil of the age - Telegraph
Source: Telegraph
"The picture of slavery in modern Britain exists in fragments, scattered around the news pages, so horrific and anachronistic that you can barely discern a pattern. The first problem is terminological. If Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson had spent the 1780s mumbling about “human trafficking”, it’s unlikely that anyone would have paid attention. It was Barack Obama who said last year that it was time to call modern slavery by its name. If girls are being forced into domestic service and beaten if they try to leave, it’s slavery. If Lithuanian workers are being kept in debt bondage working on a Kent chicken farm, that’s slavery."
Continue here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/10259927/William-Wilberforces-heirs-are-ready-to-tackle-the-great-evil-of-the-age.html
"The picture of slavery in modern Britain exists in fragments, scattered around the news pages, so horrific and anachronistic that you can barely discern a pattern. The first problem is terminological. If Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson had spent the 1780s mumbling about “human trafficking”, it’s unlikely that anyone would have paid attention. It was Barack Obama who said last year that it was time to call modern slavery by its name. If girls are being forced into domestic service and beaten if they try to leave, it’s slavery. If Lithuanian workers are being kept in debt bondage working on a Kent chicken farm, that’s slavery."
Continue here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/10259927/William-Wilberforces-heirs-are-ready-to-tackle-the-great-evil-of-the-age.html
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
A Thing of the Present: Contemporary Challenges in Battling Slavery and Human Trafficking
Abramo, C.W., & Madej, J. (2013): A Thing of the Present: Contemporary Challenges in Battling Slavery and Human Trafficking. An Interview with Dr Aidan McQuade; Director of Anti-Slavery International, in: Merkourios : Utrecht Journal of International and European Law, vol. 29, iss. 77, pp. 76 – 80.
Caio Weber Abramo and Joanna Madej''s interview with Dr Aidan McQuade; Director of Anti-Slavery International.
http://www.merkourios.org/index.php/mj/article/viewFile/72/76
TRAFFICKING MONITOR: EXCELLENT PIECE.
Related articles
Caio Weber Abramo and Joanna Madej''s interview with Dr Aidan McQuade; Director of Anti-Slavery International.
http://www.merkourios.org/index.php/mj/article/viewFile/72/76
TRAFFICKING MONITOR: EXCELLENT PIECE.
Related articles
Chinese Workers Trafficked Into Italy’s Garment Factories - The Daily Beast
Source:: The Daily Beast
Chinese immigrants wait to be questioned in a holding cell after an early-morning raid in June 2010 at a textile factory in Prato, Italy. (Nadia Shira Cohen/The New York Times, via Redux)
Barbie Latza Nadeau reports on the growing number of Chinese immigrants trafficked into Italy to work in inhumane conditions at the country’s garment factories or in the sex trade.
Read her article here:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/08/20/chinese-workers-trafficked-into-italy-s-garment-factories.html
Barbie Latza Nadeau reports on the growing number of Chinese immigrants trafficked into Italy to work in inhumane conditions at the country’s garment factories or in the sex trade.
Read her article here:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/08/20/chinese-workers-trafficked-into-italy-s-garment-factories.html
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Mass. panel issues report on human trafficking | Boston Herald
BOSTON — Massachusetts should provide more safe houses and other services for victims of human trafficking as part of a comprehensive plan to disrupt the sex trade, according to a new report. -
See more at: http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/08/mass_panel_issues_report_on_human_trafficking
Human trafficking: a battle that still needs to be won - Public Service Europe
Source: Public Service Europe
http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/3959/human-trafficking-a-battle-that-still-needs-to-be-won
by Nola Theiss
19 August, 2013
Slavery has been fought on many fronts in many countries in many eras and, with human trafficking, we are in the midst of the battle once again. Can we succeed this time?
Every year since 2001, the United States government has issued a Trafficking in Persons report known as the TIP report. It reviews the current state of global efforts to combat slavery, identifies a focus, and evaluates nations' efforts to attain minimal standards as set by the United Nations Palermo Protocol and the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act. As one can imagine, many nations object to the role the US takes as an evaluator, especially as it was not until 2010 that its own efforts were evaluated.
This year's TIP report states that 40,000 victims worldwide have been identified. Compared to the 27 million victims estimated to be living in the world today, that is a very small number, but it is significantly larger than even 10 years ago. One only has to compare the number of prosecutions and victims treated with the estimate of actual victims to understand why human trafficking continues to be a problem. It is a low risk, highly profitable criminal enterprise, second only to drug trafficking.
In addition to the US federal law, all 50 states have passed anti-human trafficking legislation. Just this week the Polaris Project, a non-profit that also runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline and which has assisted states in the passage of laws, issued a study evaluating the laws passed in all 50 states using a tier system, similar to the TIP report. Thirty-two states were placed in Tier 1 based on 10 criteria, including recognition of both sex and labour trafficking, training of law enforcement, Safe Harbour protection of sexually exploited minors, and vacating convictions for sex trafficking victims.
One problem with judging a state or country purely on the passage of laws is that laws are only as effective as the willingness of prosecutors to prosecute, law enforcement to enforce, and government to fund the services mandated. The impact of these laws on the recovery of the victims and the punishment of the perpetrators remains to be proven. Data is always hard to gather in this crime, where victims are sometimes treated as criminals and traffickers may be prosecuted under other existing laws, such as kidnapping, rape or assault.
This lack of valid data is often cited as a major hindrance in developing an effective approach to human trafficking, but unless investigating cases and rescuing victims become a priority, there will not be accurate data. Two weeks ago, the Federal Bureau of Investigation held a nationwide sting over one weekend in 76 locations and recovered 103 possible victims and arrested over 150 possible traffickers. This was the seventh year that they conducted this kind of assault on the crime.
How many more victims and traffickers would be found if this were the normal mode of operation for both federal and local government instead of a glorious exception? Yes, we have seen progress and, yes, the work is hard and times are tough. The 40,000 identified global victims receiving care are better off than they were before. But what about the estimated millions of others?
Nola Theiss is executive director at the Human Trafficking Awareness Partnerships
http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/3959/human-trafficking-a-battle-that-still-needs-to-be-won
by Nola Theiss
19 August, 2013
Slavery has been fought on many fronts in many countries in many eras and, with human trafficking, we are in the midst of the battle once again. Can we succeed this time?
Every year since 2001, the United States government has issued a Trafficking in Persons report known as the TIP report. It reviews the current state of global efforts to combat slavery, identifies a focus, and evaluates nations' efforts to attain minimal standards as set by the United Nations Palermo Protocol and the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act. As one can imagine, many nations object to the role the US takes as an evaluator, especially as it was not until 2010 that its own efforts were evaluated.
This year's TIP report states that 40,000 victims worldwide have been identified. Compared to the 27 million victims estimated to be living in the world today, that is a very small number, but it is significantly larger than even 10 years ago. One only has to compare the number of prosecutions and victims treated with the estimate of actual victims to understand why human trafficking continues to be a problem. It is a low risk, highly profitable criminal enterprise, second only to drug trafficking.
In addition to the US federal law, all 50 states have passed anti-human trafficking legislation. Just this week the Polaris Project, a non-profit that also runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline and which has assisted states in the passage of laws, issued a study evaluating the laws passed in all 50 states using a tier system, similar to the TIP report. Thirty-two states were placed in Tier 1 based on 10 criteria, including recognition of both sex and labour trafficking, training of law enforcement, Safe Harbour protection of sexually exploited minors, and vacating convictions for sex trafficking victims.
One problem with judging a state or country purely on the passage of laws is that laws are only as effective as the willingness of prosecutors to prosecute, law enforcement to enforce, and government to fund the services mandated. The impact of these laws on the recovery of the victims and the punishment of the perpetrators remains to be proven. Data is always hard to gather in this crime, where victims are sometimes treated as criminals and traffickers may be prosecuted under other existing laws, such as kidnapping, rape or assault.
This lack of valid data is often cited as a major hindrance in developing an effective approach to human trafficking, but unless investigating cases and rescuing victims become a priority, there will not be accurate data. Two weeks ago, the Federal Bureau of Investigation held a nationwide sting over one weekend in 76 locations and recovered 103 possible victims and arrested over 150 possible traffickers. This was the seventh year that they conducted this kind of assault on the crime.
How many more victims and traffickers would be found if this were the normal mode of operation for both federal and local government instead of a glorious exception? Yes, we have seen progress and, yes, the work is hard and times are tough. The 40,000 identified global victims receiving care are better off than they were before. But what about the estimated millions of others?
Nola Theiss is executive director at the Human Trafficking Awareness Partnerships
Monday, August 19, 2013
HUMAN TRAFFICKING AROUND THE WORLD Hidden in Plain Sight By Stephanie Hepburn and Rita J. Simon - The Washington Post
SOURCE: The Washington Post
"Human trafficking is one of those issues that rankles people even when they don’t understand its actual shape and scope. At least a dozen books have appeared in the past few years describing the horrors of sex trafficking, a gruesome practice of enslavement and perversion affecting millions of (mostly) girls the world over, including, with alarming frequency, in the United States. But as Stephanie Hepburn and Rita J. Simon point out in their encyclopedic study of global trafficking, the larger crime is forced-labor trafficking, which is three times greater than that for sex commerce. The official response to each is inadequate — under-resourced, legally fragile and too often complicit."
Continue with John Tirman's review of Human Trafficking Around the World:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/human-trafficking-around-the-world-hidden-in-plain-sight-by-stephanie-hepburn-and-rita-j-simon/2013/08/16/f3abff0a-f87e-11e2-8e84-c56731a202fb_story.html
"Human trafficking is one of those issues that rankles people even when they don’t understand its actual shape and scope. At least a dozen books have appeared in the past few years describing the horrors of sex trafficking, a gruesome practice of enslavement and perversion affecting millions of (mostly) girls the world over, including, with alarming frequency, in the United States. But as Stephanie Hepburn and Rita J. Simon point out in their encyclopedic study of global trafficking, the larger crime is forced-labor trafficking, which is three times greater than that for sex commerce. The official response to each is inadequate — under-resourced, legally fragile and too often complicit."
Continue with John Tirman's review of Human Trafficking Around the World:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/human-trafficking-around-the-world-hidden-in-plain-sight-by-stephanie-hepburn-and-rita-j-simon/2013/08/16/f3abff0a-f87e-11e2-8e84-c56731a202fb_story.html
How Britain's nail bars are propped up by victims of human trafficking forced to work for slave wages | Mail Online
Vietnamese migrants are propping up Britain's beauty industry after being put to work as slaves in nail bars, police have claimed.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2396560/How-Britains-nail-bars-propped-victims-human-trafficking-forced-work-slave-wages.html#ixzz2cRB4qrWY
The economic case for ending slavery | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional
Source: Guardian Professional
Read Nick Grono's article on why
"Anti-slavery organisations must start to make the case to governments and the private sector of the economic benefits of eliminating slavery, over the moral case"
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2013/aug/15/economic-case-for-ending-slavery
Read Nick Grono's article on why
"Anti-slavery organisations must start to make the case to governments and the private sector of the economic benefits of eliminating slavery, over the moral case"
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2013/aug/15/economic-case-for-ending-slavery
2013 State Ratings on Human Trafficking Laws | Polaris Project | Combating Human Trafficking and Modern-day Slavery
Source: The Polaris Project
Polaris Project has rated all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on 10 categories of laws that are critical to a basic legal framework that combats human trafficking, punishes traffickers and supports survivors.
Check out the Polaris Project's ratings :
http://www.polarisproject.org/what-we-do/policy-advocacy/national-policy/state-ratings-on-human-trafficking-laws
Related articles
Polaris Project has rated all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on 10 categories of laws that are critical to a basic legal framework that combats human trafficking, punishes traffickers and supports survivors.
Check out the Polaris Project's ratings :
http://www.polarisproject.org/what-we-do/policy-advocacy/national-policy/state-ratings-on-human-trafficking-laws
Related articles
What are US advocates doing to stop slavery worldwide? | Humanity United partner zone | Guardian Professional
SOURCE: THE Guardian
The Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (Atest), a project of Humanity United, is a coalition of 12 human rights organisations working to end modern-day slavery and human trafficking in the United States and around the world
The Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (Atest), a project of Humanity United, is a coalition of 12 human rights organisations working to end modern-day slavery and human trafficking in the United States and around the world
Atest is calling for companies that do business in the US to disclose the
steps they are taking to eliminate modern-day slavery within their supply
\ chains. Photograph: Alamy
READ THE FIVE THINGS ATEST CONSIDERS THE US GOVERNMENT MUST DO NOW TO STOP SLAVERY:
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
USAID announces grants to three universities to combat human trafficking
Source: UN.GIFT. HUB
http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/en/stories/August2013/usaid-announces-grants-to-three-universities-to-combat-human-trafficking.html?goback=%2Egde_4463846_member_264861538
( USAID ) - USAID announced this week three new research grants awarded to theUniversity of Southern California, Vanderbilt University and Texas Christian University to study human trafficking and produce evidence that could help USAID and other international development organizations combat human trafficking more effectively.
http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/en/stories/August2013/usaid-announces-grants-to-three-universities-to-combat-human-trafficking.html?goback=%2Egde_4463846_member_264861538
( USAID ) - USAID announced this week three new research grants awarded to theUniversity of Southern California, Vanderbilt University and Texas Christian University to study human trafficking and produce evidence that could help USAID and other international development organizations combat human trafficking more effectively.
USAID is awarding the $175,000-$200,000 grants through its partner the Institute of International Education as part of USAID's Counter-Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) Campus Challenge , a global campaign to strengthen the movement to combat human trafficking on university campuses. The Campus Challenge is part of a larger USAID effort to apply innovation, research and evidence to inform its counter-trafficking programs, a core objective of the Agency's C-TIP Policy released in 2012. The Campus Challenge also included a global technology contest for university students that ended in March 2013.
The three research projects - focusing on Moldova, Ukraine, Indonesia, and Nepal - will use a variety of methods to establish what local populations know about human trafficking, how they receive that knowledge, and what they do with it. The research teams also will study and measure how public knowledge and behaviors related to human trafficking are influenced by various anti-trafficking media campaigns in those countries. The winning proposals are:
- University of Southern California: The project will use a public opinion survey to measure how effective a documentary, developed by the USAID-funded organization MTV EXIT, is in changing knowledge and behaviors related to human trafficking among 500 survey participants in West Java, Indonesia. The project will be supplemented by a nationwide social media analysis to examine public sentiments on human trafficking over time.
- Vanderbilt University: The project will use a randomized control experiment to examine whether differences in media formats and content affect the impact of anti-trafficking awareness campaigns. Working in 144 villages in rural Nepal, the researchers will study how different message types (brochures, radio programs, graphic novels, etc.) affect individuals and how individuals react differently to the content based on their gender, age and caste. Stanford University and USAID partner organization Humanity United are co-funding the project.
- Texas Christian University: The project will administer a public opinion survey to 2,000 participants in Moldova and Ukraine to find out what they know and think about human trafficking. Through surveys, the project will also research how participants' knowledge and perceptions can be influenced to change behaviors and practices related to human trafficking.
All three research projects will begin this summer and are expected to be completed by early 2015. The grants are awarded under USAID's Democracy Fellows and Grants Program, managed by the Institute of International Education.
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