Woman endures five years of slavery - CNN.com:
Showing posts with label CNN Freedom Project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CNN Freedom Project. Show all posts
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Selling Atlanta's children: What has and hasn't changed - CNN.com
"The image sticks in my mind: A female defendant is escorted into the courtroom with shackles around her ankles, making it difficult to walk... . She was 10."
Read HERE
Selling Atlanta's children: What has and hasn't changed - CNN.com:
Friday, December 20, 2013
Mira Sorvino, CNN child-sex series ‘shameful’ for Cambodians | Asian Correspondent
Source: Asian Correspondent
WHEN U.S. actress Mira Sorvino came to Cambodia last week, a series of stories were released on “ending modern-day slavery.” Sorvino accompanied the CNN Freedom Project, having experience as United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Goodwill Ambassador Against Human
Trafficking to assist the project and keep a journal.
Continue:
http://asiancorrespondent.com/117471/mira-sorvino-cnn-child-sex-series-shameful-for-cambodians/
WHEN U.S. actress Mira Sorvino came to Cambodia last week, a series of stories were released on “ending modern-day slavery.” Sorvino accompanied the CNN Freedom Project, having experience as United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Goodwill Ambassador Against Human
Trafficking to assist the project and keep a journal.
Continue:
http://asiancorrespondent.com/117471/mira-sorvino-cnn-child-sex-series-shameful-for-cambodians/
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Bonded labor stretches from third to first world
Bonded labor stretches from third to first world:
Editor's Note: Anti-trafficking expert Siddharth Kara is the author of “Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia,” providing the first comprehensive overview of bonded labor in South Asia.
In September 2010, I met a young girl named Nirmala in the remote western Terai region of Nepal. Nirmala is one of the thousands of internally trafficked domestic slaves in Nepal, called kamlari, who belong to the outcast Tharu ethnic group.
Agents recruit Tharu girls as young as eight to work as servants in upper-caste homes. Aside from room and board, the children receive little to no payment for up to 10 years of work. Kamlari girls often suffer extreme abuse and maltreatment.
“I did all the work,” Nirmala explained, “cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, washing dishes. I woke each morning at 5 a.m. and went to sleep at 10 p.m. I slept on the floor…I did this work seven days a week. Sometimes the wife would beat me. The husband in the home would rape me. I did not want to be in that home.”
Nirmala’s situation is representative of a typical South Asian debt bondage arrangement: food and shelter as credit in exchange for slave-like labor exploitation.
The upper classes of Nepal see this arrangement as completely justified because the alternative for a low-caste girl such as Nirmala would be worse: destitution in her village or trafficking to India for forced prostitution.
My new book, “Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia” provides the first comprehensive overview of the unconscionable system of bonded labor in South Asia.
In a series of articles for the CNN Freedom Project, I will describe the system in more detail and outline how we can best tackle this brutish mode of servile labor exploitation.
The issue of bonded labor may receive marginal attention globally, but bonded labor is the most extensive form of slavery in the world today.
There were approximately 18 to 20.5 million bonded laborers in the world at the end of 2011, almost 90% of whom were in South Asia.
This means that approximately half of the slaves in the world are bonded laborers in South Asia.
More importantly, the products made by bonded laborers touch almost every aspect of the global economy, including frozen shrimp and fish, tea, coffee, rice, wheat, diamonds, cubic zirconia, glassware, hand-woven carpets, limestone, salt, cigarettes, apparel, fireworks, sporting goods, and many more products.
Virtually everyone’s life, everywhere in the world, is touched by bonded labor in South Asia.
Bonded labor basically involves the exploitative interlinking of labor and credit agreements between parties.
On one side, a party possessing an abundance of capital and power provides credit, food, or tenancy to the other party, who, because he lacks almost any assets or capital, pledges his labor to work off the loan.
Given the vast power imbalances between the parties, the laborer is often severely exploited. Bonded labor occurs when the exploitation descends to the level of slave-like abuse.
The borrower is often forced to work at pathetic wage levels to repay the debt. Exorbitant interest rates are charged (up to 20 percent per month), and money lent for future needs is added to the debt.
Sometimes these debts last a few years, and sometimes they are passed on to future generations if the original borrower perishes without having repaid the debt.
Centuries ago, debt bondage existed across the world from the American South to Medieval Europe to Tokugawa Japan. Social revolution and transition to market economies largely dissolved the system throughout the world, except for South Asia.
There, the system persists due to a highly pernicious cocktail of forces, including immense poverty, acute caste and gender discrimination, social apathy, corruption, and a global economy that scours the globe for the lowest cost of production possible.
The desperation of the bonded laborers I met across South Asia is acute.
Anguish to be rid of these debts leads to desperate measures, including the sale of kidneys, the sale of children to human traffickers, or suicide.
For the sake of the millions of outcast and destitute debt bondage slaves in South Asia like Nirmala, the need to eradicate this feudal system of slave-like exploitation could not be greater.
Editor's Note: Anti-trafficking expert Siddharth Kara is the author of “Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia,” providing the first comprehensive overview of bonded labor in South Asia.
In September 2010, I met a young girl named Nirmala in the remote western Terai region of Nepal. Nirmala is one of the thousands of internally trafficked domestic slaves in Nepal, called kamlari, who belong to the outcast Tharu ethnic group.
Agents recruit Tharu girls as young as eight to work as servants in upper-caste homes. Aside from room and board, the children receive little to no payment for up to 10 years of work. Kamlari girls often suffer extreme abuse and maltreatment.
“I did all the work,” Nirmala explained, “cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, washing dishes. I woke each morning at 5 a.m. and went to sleep at 10 p.m. I slept on the floor…I did this work seven days a week. Sometimes the wife would beat me. The husband in the home would rape me. I did not want to be in that home.”
Nirmala’s situation is representative of a typical South Asian debt bondage arrangement: food and shelter as credit in exchange for slave-like labor exploitation.
The upper classes of Nepal see this arrangement as completely justified because the alternative for a low-caste girl such as Nirmala would be worse: destitution in her village or trafficking to India for forced prostitution.
My new book, “Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia” provides the first comprehensive overview of the unconscionable system of bonded labor in South Asia.
In a series of articles for the CNN Freedom Project, I will describe the system in more detail and outline how we can best tackle this brutish mode of servile labor exploitation.
The issue of bonded labor may receive marginal attention globally, but bonded labor is the most extensive form of slavery in the world today.
There were approximately 18 to 20.5 million bonded laborers in the world at the end of 2011, almost 90% of whom were in South Asia.
This means that approximately half of the slaves in the world are bonded laborers in South Asia.
More importantly, the products made by bonded laborers touch almost every aspect of the global economy, including frozen shrimp and fish, tea, coffee, rice, wheat, diamonds, cubic zirconia, glassware, hand-woven carpets, limestone, salt, cigarettes, apparel, fireworks, sporting goods, and many more products.
Virtually everyone’s life, everywhere in the world, is touched by bonded labor in South Asia.
Bonded labor basically involves the exploitative interlinking of labor and credit agreements between parties.
On one side, a party possessing an abundance of capital and power provides credit, food, or tenancy to the other party, who, because he lacks almost any assets or capital, pledges his labor to work off the loan.
Given the vast power imbalances between the parties, the laborer is often severely exploited. Bonded labor occurs when the exploitation descends to the level of slave-like abuse.
The borrower is often forced to work at pathetic wage levels to repay the debt. Exorbitant interest rates are charged (up to 20 percent per month), and money lent for future needs is added to the debt.
Sometimes these debts last a few years, and sometimes they are passed on to future generations if the original borrower perishes without having repaid the debt.
Centuries ago, debt bondage existed across the world from the American South to Medieval Europe to Tokugawa Japan. Social revolution and transition to market economies largely dissolved the system throughout the world, except for South Asia.
There, the system persists due to a highly pernicious cocktail of forces, including immense poverty, acute caste and gender discrimination, social apathy, corruption, and a global economy that scours the globe for the lowest cost of production possible.
The desperation of the bonded laborers I met across South Asia is acute.
Anguish to be rid of these debts leads to desperate measures, including the sale of kidneys, the sale of children to human traffickers, or suicide.
For the sake of the millions of outcast and destitute debt bondage slaves in South Asia like Nirmala, the need to eradicate this feudal system of slave-like exploitation could not be greater.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Teen's brothel escape triggers Mexico clampdown
Teen's brothel escape triggers Mexico clampdown:
By Rafael Romo, CNN - They were only 14 years old, cousins from a small town in central Mexico, when a fun trip to the local fair turned into a nightmare of drugs and forced prostitution.
As Maria and Lupe - CNN has changed their names to protect their identities - were waiting by the highway for their early evening bus home, they say a semi-tractor trailer stopped right in front of them and two men got out.
There were no conversations. It all happened very quickly, the cousins say. "They were two men who were wearing black masks like hoodies. We couldn't see their faces," Maria said.
Lupe says she didn't even have time to react. "I only felt that they put something on my nose and that's all I remember. The last thing I remember is yelling for help," Lupe said.
Drugged and drifting in and out of consciousness, they lost track of time. They only know they woke up in a dark room where they were kept for several days. There was no food or water and the cousins were cold. But it was only the start of their ordeal.
Several days later, Maria says, a woman showed up. She let them both know that, from now on, they were going to "work for her," the cousins said. At that moment they had no idea what the stranger was talking about.
Lupe was taken out of the room and Maria was left alone with the woman. A man then entered the room and started beating her savagely. She says he raped her; and then both the man and the woman threatened her life and told her to cooperate.
That night Maria says she was forced to have sex with 23 men. "When they left, I stayed there, lying on the floor, bleeding. My entire body ached. The woman told me to get up, that it hadn't been that bad," Maria said.
It was the beginning of several months the cousins describe as torture. They were sold to a pimp who forced them to have sex with multiple men every night. Their hair was dyed. They were forced to wear skimpy outfits. They would get beaten up if they weren't "friendly" with clients.
Meanwhile, in their hometown, their families were desperately looking for them. At first, they thought the girls had got lost and searched around the town. Then they started looking in wooded areas around the town, afraid they might have been killed or fallen off a cliff.
Lupe's father, a laborer, recalls how desperate his family was to find the girls. The family organized search parties. They posted flyers everywhere they could and reached out to hospitals, jails and other places. At one point, someone suggested searching in bars along highways.
Francisco - CNN has changed his name as well - and a brother went to many different bars in Morelos state, neighboring Mexico City.
Francisco says he was disgusted by what he saw: underage girls who should be in school working as prostitutes. "We would see young girls. There are many in the state of Morelos. Some of them were wearing masks. Others had their hair dyed and wore suggestive clothing," Francisco said.
At one of the bars Maria was taken to, she says she was forced to work from 3 p.m. to 6 a.m. only to get up again at noon to prepare for another 18-hour shift. "I felt so dirty, that every time I took a shower and every time they put makeup on me I felt like an old lady. I felt as if I didn't have a family," Maria said.
Forced to use drugs and drink alcohol, Maria says she thought her life would soon end. She was horrified when she saw a very young girl brought into the house where she and others were being kept. She asked the girl how old she was. The answer: eight years old.
Maria says she attempted to escape once. She ran away and asked some police officers on the street for help. What she didn't know was that the officers were on the payroll of the pimp and took her right back into the brothel where she got another savage beating.
Maria and Lupe were kidnapped on January 27, 2010. Almost three months later, when Maria says she had lost all hope, she finally saw the light - literally.
Maria says she'll never forget the date: April 14. She woke up to see a ray of light in the room coming from behind an armoire. When she pushed the armoire out of the way, she found an unlocked door.
Maria says she ran as fast as she could. Several hours later, she ran into a young man who appeared genuinely concerned about her. A group of young Christian men fed her, gave her a room to stay the night and bought her a bus ticket home.
After Maria reached home, the girls' families went to the police who raided the brothel. Ten people were arrested and six underage girls rescued, including Lupe. The eight-year-old was not among them.
Lead prosecutor Victor Carranca, the state attorney in Puebla State, says this case allowed authorities to learn about the underworld of human trafficking and the vast networks that kidnap underage girls for forced prostitution.
"The State's Attorney's office focused on targeting sources of financing for these criminal groups. We eventually closed down 600 establishments," Carranca said. "Many of these places were not only illegal brothels, but meeting points where criminal gangs planned their crimes and illegal activities."
The cousins are now getting financial, legal and psychological help from Camino a Casa, an anti-trafficking organization that focuses on assisting victims. The foundation was started in 2005 by Rosi Orozco, a Mexican lawmaker who has launched a crusade against human trafficking.
"There are some people that think they can buy another human being," Orozco says. The Mexican Congressman authored an anti-trafficking bill that was signed into law in June.
The new law makes human trafficking a federal crime, punishable by up to 40 years in prison. And it targets not only those involved in sex trafficking, but also other forms of modern slavery, including forced labor and child pornography.
Orozco is also targeting those who pay to have sex with underage girls. "We all can change if we stop saying 'johns' - they're not johns! The clients are criminals," Orozco said. She estimates tens of thousands of underage girls are sexually exploited every year in Mexico.
With the help of the Camino a Casa foundation, both Maria and Lupe are learning new skills that will help them have a brighter future. They're back with their families. Maria says her mother still cries when she thinks about what her daughter went through.
As part of her therapy, she talks to small groups of people about her ordeal. "I want people to know what they did to me. I'm no longer angry or want to get revenge. That's what I want to say. Vengeance is not good. I have already forgiven those people and I'm happy again," Maria says.
A long and painful road to recovery is ahead, but finally being home, Maria and Lupe say, allows them to dream again of a better future.
By Rafael Romo, CNN - They were only 14 years old, cousins from a small town in central Mexico, when a fun trip to the local fair turned into a nightmare of drugs and forced prostitution.
As Maria and Lupe - CNN has changed their names to protect their identities - were waiting by the highway for their early evening bus home, they say a semi-tractor trailer stopped right in front of them and two men got out.
There were no conversations. It all happened very quickly, the cousins say. "They were two men who were wearing black masks like hoodies. We couldn't see their faces," Maria said.
Lupe says she didn't even have time to react. "I only felt that they put something on my nose and that's all I remember. The last thing I remember is yelling for help," Lupe said.
Drugged and drifting in and out of consciousness, they lost track of time. They only know they woke up in a dark room where they were kept for several days. There was no food or water and the cousins were cold. But it was only the start of their ordeal.
Several days later, Maria says, a woman showed up. She let them both know that, from now on, they were going to "work for her," the cousins said. At that moment they had no idea what the stranger was talking about.
Lupe was taken out of the room and Maria was left alone with the woman. A man then entered the room and started beating her savagely. She says he raped her; and then both the man and the woman threatened her life and told her to cooperate.
That night Maria says she was forced to have sex with 23 men. "When they left, I stayed there, lying on the floor, bleeding. My entire body ached. The woman told me to get up, that it hadn't been that bad," Maria said.
It was the beginning of several months the cousins describe as torture. They were sold to a pimp who forced them to have sex with multiple men every night. Their hair was dyed. They were forced to wear skimpy outfits. They would get beaten up if they weren't "friendly" with clients.
Meanwhile, in their hometown, their families were desperately looking for them. At first, they thought the girls had got lost and searched around the town. Then they started looking in wooded areas around the town, afraid they might have been killed or fallen off a cliff.
Lupe's father, a laborer, recalls how desperate his family was to find the girls. The family organized search parties. They posted flyers everywhere they could and reached out to hospitals, jails and other places. At one point, someone suggested searching in bars along highways.
Francisco - CNN has changed his name as well - and a brother went to many different bars in Morelos state, neighboring Mexico City.
Francisco says he was disgusted by what he saw: underage girls who should be in school working as prostitutes. "We would see young girls. There are many in the state of Morelos. Some of them were wearing masks. Others had their hair dyed and wore suggestive clothing," Francisco said.
At one of the bars Maria was taken to, she says she was forced to work from 3 p.m. to 6 a.m. only to get up again at noon to prepare for another 18-hour shift. "I felt so dirty, that every time I took a shower and every time they put makeup on me I felt like an old lady. I felt as if I didn't have a family," Maria said.
Forced to use drugs and drink alcohol, Maria says she thought her life would soon end. She was horrified when she saw a very young girl brought into the house where she and others were being kept. She asked the girl how old she was. The answer: eight years old.
Maria says she attempted to escape once. She ran away and asked some police officers on the street for help. What she didn't know was that the officers were on the payroll of the pimp and took her right back into the brothel where she got another savage beating.
Maria and Lupe were kidnapped on January 27, 2010. Almost three months later, when Maria says she had lost all hope, she finally saw the light - literally.
Maria says she'll never forget the date: April 14. She woke up to see a ray of light in the room coming from behind an armoire. When she pushed the armoire out of the way, she found an unlocked door.
Maria says she ran as fast as she could. Several hours later, she ran into a young man who appeared genuinely concerned about her. A group of young Christian men fed her, gave her a room to stay the night and bought her a bus ticket home.
After Maria reached home, the girls' families went to the police who raided the brothel. Ten people were arrested and six underage girls rescued, including Lupe. The eight-year-old was not among them.
Lead prosecutor Victor Carranca, the state attorney in Puebla State, says this case allowed authorities to learn about the underworld of human trafficking and the vast networks that kidnap underage girls for forced prostitution.
"The State's Attorney's office focused on targeting sources of financing for these criminal groups. We eventually closed down 600 establishments," Carranca said. "Many of these places were not only illegal brothels, but meeting points where criminal gangs planned their crimes and illegal activities."
The cousins are now getting financial, legal and psychological help from Camino a Casa, an anti-trafficking organization that focuses on assisting victims. The foundation was started in 2005 by Rosi Orozco, a Mexican lawmaker who has launched a crusade against human trafficking.
"There are some people that think they can buy another human being," Orozco says. The Mexican Congressman authored an anti-trafficking bill that was signed into law in June.
The new law makes human trafficking a federal crime, punishable by up to 40 years in prison. And it targets not only those involved in sex trafficking, but also other forms of modern slavery, including forced labor and child pornography.
Orozco is also targeting those who pay to have sex with underage girls. "We all can change if we stop saying 'johns' - they're not johns! The clients are criminals," Orozco said. She estimates tens of thousands of underage girls are sexually exploited every year in Mexico.
With the help of the Camino a Casa foundation, both Maria and Lupe are learning new skills that will help them have a brighter future. They're back with their families. Maria says her mother still cries when she thinks about what her daughter went through.
As part of her therapy, she talks to small groups of people about her ordeal. "I want people to know what they did to me. I'm no longer angry or want to get revenge. That's what I want to say. Vengeance is not good. I have already forgiven those people and I'm happy again," Maria says.
A long and painful road to recovery is ahead, but finally being home, Maria and Lupe say, allows them to dream again of a better future.
Friday, July 6, 2012
U.N.: Journalism can 'spark action' to help end human trafficking
U.N.: Journalism can 'spark action' to help end human trafficking:
Investigative journalism can "spark action" when it comes to helping end human trafficking, according to a recent United Nations report that examined CNN Freedom Project's "Factory Slaves" investigation.
The U.N. Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP) details how CNN senior international correspondent Dan Rivers and his colleagues uncovered bonded labor in Southeast Asia, where workers had been sent abroad, burdened with large debts and forced to work long hours for years at a time. The practice was part of the complex trail of exploitation in a business supply chain.
In one bonded labor scheme, recruiters got jobs for Cambodian workers at a Malaysian factory. As part the Factory Slaves investigation, which debuted in late 2011, CNN alerted a client company to the factory and the recruiters that employed the migrant workers, who were stranded abroad after surrendering their passports to their employer.
That client company "was moved to action by the (CNN) report," the UNIAP report states, and "quickly took action through an on-site audit at the factory in Penang (Malaysia), and ultimately ensured that their supplier improved the pay and conditions at their factory."
Read the full UNIAP report here.
Investigative journalism can "spark action" when it comes to helping end human trafficking, according to a recent United Nations report that examined CNN Freedom Project's "Factory Slaves" investigation.
The U.N. Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP) details how CNN senior international correspondent Dan Rivers and his colleagues uncovered bonded labor in Southeast Asia, where workers had been sent abroad, burdened with large debts and forced to work long hours for years at a time. The practice was part of the complex trail of exploitation in a business supply chain.
In one bonded labor scheme, recruiters got jobs for Cambodian workers at a Malaysian factory. As part the Factory Slaves investigation, which debuted in late 2011, CNN alerted a client company to the factory and the recruiters that employed the migrant workers, who were stranded abroad after surrendering their passports to their employer.
That client company "was moved to action by the (CNN) report," the UNIAP report states, and "quickly took action through an on-site audit at the factory in Penang (Malaysia), and ultimately ensured that their supplier improved the pay and conditions at their factory."
Read the full UNIAP report here.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Ferrero sets date to end cocoa slavery - The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery - CNN.com Blogs
http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/20/ferrero-sets-date-to-end-cocoa-slavery/
Source: CNN.com Blogs
April 20th, 2012
Chocolate maker Ferrero has pledged to eradicate slavery from farms where it sources its cocoa by 2020, as part of a growing movement by the multi-billion dollar industry to clean up its supply chains.
Source: CNN.com Blogs
April 20th, 2012
Chocolate maker Ferrero has pledged to eradicate slavery from farms where it sources its cocoa by 2020, as part of a growing movement by the multi-billion dollar industry to clean up its supply chains.
The Italian company, which produces Ferrero Rocher chocolates, Nutella spread and Kinder eggs, follows Nestle and Hershey as the third major chocolate manufacturer to announce new anti-slavery moves since September.
It says it will eradicate child labor and forced adult labor from cocoa plantations it uses by 2020, verified by “independent and credible” third parties. Also, it says it will publish a more detailed progress report this summer and promises improved communication to customers.
Up to 75% of the world’s cocoa beans are grown in small farms in West Africa. In the Ivory Coast alone, there are an estimated 200,000 children working the fields, many against their will, to create chocolate enjoyed around the world. Many of the children don’t even know what chocolate is.
In January, CNN highlighted the plight of the child labor in the Ivory Coast in a documentary, “Chocolate’s Child Slaves”, by correspondent David McKenzie.
A statement from Ferrero said its new goals were made “in the light of the need for transparency in the cocoa sector.”
The industry’s regulation over cocoa farms is largely self-regulated. Critics say progress is too slow.
NGO Stop the Traffik, which worked with CNN on its documentary, welcomed Ferrero’s move as a “sweet deal” for children doing “back-breaking work”.
“Ferrero is the first global chocolate company to explicitly state they will fulfill the promise the chocolate industry made collectively in 2001 to eliminate the trafficking of children in their supply chain. Together with Mars, who have promised 100% certified chocolate by 2020, Ferrero is the only other chocolate company to have made comprehensive commitments towards their entiry cocoa supply chain.
“This individual acceptance of responsibility, coupled with a commitment to report on progress each year, should be an example to the other major chocolate companies, such as Nestlé, Kraft/Cadbury, and Hershey’s, to follow suit.”
The London-based NGO called on Ferrero to put labels on wrappers of its products so customers would know they were untainted by slavery.
A statement added: “2020 is still a long way away, and Stop the Traffik will be monitoring Ferrero’s progress.”
More than 10 years ago, two U.S. lawmakers took action to stop child labor in the industry. The Harkin-Engel Protocol, also known as the Cocoa Protocol, was signed into law on September 19, 2001.
But manufacturers raised concerns and a compromise was reached that required chocolate companies to voluntarily certify they were stopping the practice of child labor. The certification process would not involve labeling products "child-labor-free," as initially proposed.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Slavery is far from over | | Independent Editor's choice Blogs
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/04/10/slavery-is-far-from-over/
Source: The Independent Blogs
Source: The Independent Blogs
- By Manuel Barcia
- Notebook - A selection of Independent views -, Opinion
- Tuesday, 10 April 2012 at 4:41 pm
Last December multinational internet and software corporation Google donated 11.5 million dollars to several groups fighting modern-day slavery. This timely gesture constituted a new reminder of the fact that various types of human bondage continue to exist and proliferate in different parts of our planet, sometimes much closer to us than we imagine.
Among the organisations chosen by Google were International Justice Mission, a human rights agency working in 13 countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America; Polaris Project, one of the largest anti-slavery organisations in the United States and Japan; and Slavery Footprint, another US-based body focusing on the supply lines of 400 consumer products with the aim of identifying whether slave labour is used in the production of any of them.
Google’s donation not only will endow the above mentioned groups with much needed financial support, but will also help raise awareness for the need for new legislation in order to stop all types of slavery across the world.
Although slavery is often referred to as a past evil consigned to history books, nothing could be farther from the truth. Slavery persists today in both the developing and developed worlds, and in spite of the efforts of organisations like International Justice Mission or the London-based Anti-Slavery International, the malady seems to be getting worse by the day.
In this respect New York Times reporter Nicholas D. Kristof, recently noted that “at least 10 times as many girls are now trafficked into brothels annually as African slaves were transported to the New World in the peak years of the trans-Atlantic slave trade”.
Sadly, Kristof is not exaggerating.
The CNN Freedom Project has also recently revealed the extent to which slavery-associated violence is still prevalent in parts of the world by conducting interviews, often undercover, in places like Mauritania, where chattel slavery survives very much as it did back in the nineteenth century.
Other corporations, organisations and media outlets have joined forces to denounce modern-day forms of slavery worldwide. From the predicaments of Nepali migrants in the Middle East to child labour in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry, more and more information is made freely available, and those responsible are named and shamed.
The challenge, however, is daunting. Professor Joel Quirk from Witwatersrand University in South Africa explains “There is no longer one readily identifiable solution, but many overlapping strategies, which tend to be geared towards harm minimization, regulation and alleviation.”
Finding an actual solution is indeed quite difficult, to a large extent because the roots of modern-day forms of slavery are to be found in social problems like poverty and hunger, especially in the developing world. The lack of opportunities to improve basic conditions of existence leave people with no alternative but to fall into slavery in their homeland, or to migrate to the developed world in search for a better future.
It is there that they become easy prey for a range of people willing to profit from their misfortunes. Networks of prostitution and sex trafficking are a lucrative business from Amsterdam to New York. An example of how entrenched and well-disguised modern forms of slavery are in the developed world was recently highlighted by Goldman Sachs’ decision to sell its stake in the company which owns the backpage.com website, after the site was accused in 2010 of aiding and abetting forced prostitution and the exploitation of children and child pornography by carrying ‘adult’ classified advertising.
Beyond backstreet brothels, apparently innocuous websites, and fancy escort services, there are other ways of reinstating forced bondage. For a new, creative, and legal way of exploiting migrant labour we only need to look at the US state of Alabama and their new draconian anti-immigration law (HB 56). As reported by Axel Caballero in The Guardian, new illegal migrants who arrive in the state are now being detained and turned into a source of forced agricultural labour for the region and profit for the two major corporations that house the inmates and run the US private prison system, CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) and the GEO group.
The convenient silence of those with the resources to tackle the problem should not be tolerated any longer, because as Bishop Desmond Tutu put it, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
The role of corporates in abolishing human trafficking | | Independent Editor's choice Blogs
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/02/08/the-role-of-corporates-in-abolishing-human-trafficking/
It’s estimated that today there are more than 27 million people (half of them children) trapped in modern day slavery – that’s more than at any other time in history. This insidious crime has the potential to infiltrate the supply chain of any organisation anywhere in the world, yet why in the corporate world are we not more aware of its existence and not more proactive about abolishing it?
It’s estimated that today there are more than 27 million people (half of them children) trapped in modern day slavery – that’s more than at any other time in history. This insidious crime has the potential to infiltrate the supply chain of any organisation anywhere in the world, yet why in the corporate world are we not more aware of its existence and not more proactive about abolishing it?
By this time tomorrow, 36,000 more people will have been trafficked, an alarming statistic in anyone’s book. Human trafficking is the second largest and fastest-growing illegal industry on the planet, and is worth more than £20 billion every year. Contemporary slavery takes various forms and affects people of all ages, sex and race, with products such as cotton, leather goods, tobacco, rubber and cocoa still being produced using child labour or forced labour. This crime takes place all over the world – in developed, emerging and developing countries alike, and it’s happening right here in the UK. Yet too many people remain unaware that it takes place. I regularly speak to Fortune 500 companies about trafficking; where supply chains can be infiltrated by traffickers and the ways in which the global business community can collaborate to try and prevent it. Time and again I am met with the same reaction: “What human trafficking? What slavery?” But when the issue was first drawn to my attention seven years ago, I responded in much the same way. This is our world and these are our people – we all have a responsibility to protect them and fight this injustice.
There are already a number of private sector initiatives making great progress, propelling human trafficking onto the media landscape: the CNN Freedom Project is one such well-respected global initiative, the End Human Trafficking Now campaign is another. End Human Trafficking Now unites the business community in anti-slavery initiatives, and encourages a shift in mindset across organisations to operate more ethically. In 2006, it established the Athens Ethical Principles, which declare a “zero tolerance” policy on working with any organisation that benefits in any way from human trafficking. Signing these Principles confirms a public commitment that your business operation – at every point – is slavery free; they are a 21st century abolition movement. With 12,500 corporations having signed the Principles we have made progress in preventing trafficking, but the process of identifying where traffickers get an advantage never ends.
Our work is grounded in people, so we have a duty of care to not just protect those people but also to work to eliminate human trafficking from all our supply chains to protect those who may be at risk in future. At ManpowerGroup, we strive to protect the vulnerable and disadvantaged in any society in which we operate, including the victims of trafficking. But this issue was brought home to us when we discovered that human trafficking was present in every country and territory in our network. This magnified the issue intensely within our organisation and it became a catalyst for change and, importantly, action. We were the first organisation to sign the Athens Ethical Principles, an international declaration we take very seriously and one that has led us to change the way we do business. Being slavery free is at the forefront of our operations. We work with our hundreds of thousands of suppliers to ensure their operations, and by extension our own, are untainted by slavery and we now require this to be demonstrated in the tendering process.
As organisations in the business community we must harness our influence to support worthy causes. In August, we became lead sponsor of the Row For Freedom campaign – a one-off event that has seen five ordinary women risk their lives to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic to raise awareness of human trafficking and much-needed funds for its victims. They have broken two world records to become the fastest female crew to make the crossing, rowing along the very route used to transport slaves in the 1800s, and are also the first female crew of five to ever row an ocean. Their extraordinary and courageous efforts are a reminder that anyone anywhere can make a difference against this issue.
We in the business community must lead from the front and strive to ensure our supply chains – and those of our suppliers – are free from slavery. In time it is my hope that products and organisations will carry a stamp declaring that they are slavery free, enabling individuals to make an informed choice about the products and services they use.
Human trafficking is present in every region in the world – it affects us all, however indirectly. No government, charity, individual or corporation can solve this problem alone but together we can fight it. This fight must begin now.
David Arkless isPresident of Global Corporate and Government Affairs at ManpowerGroup, President of the End Human Trafficking Now campaign and ambassador for the Centre for Social Justice and Advisor on its Anti-Slavery Report.
For more information about Row For Freedom, or to make a donation, please visitwww.rowforfreedom.com
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Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Can a Coin Help Stop Human Trafficking? | Coin Update
http://news.coinupdate.com/can-a-coin-help-stop-human-trafficking-1156/
January 10, 2012 By 1 Comment
The statistics of human trafficking are staggering, it affects the smallest village, town, and big city, and no continent is exempt. The figures are growing in terms of the number of women and men becoming victims of this horrific practice. But what can one person or group do to help combat this intolerable situation which still exists in the 21st century?
In the world of numismatics, an unusual and innovative approach is being launched by the United Future World Currency (UFWC) the global currency initiative which came to the forefront of international media attention during the G8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy in 2009. Wanting to do their part to help combat human trafficking and modern day slavery, the UFWC have produced a prototype coin that carries the message of ending human trafficking prominently depicted on the obverse. The contemporary design carries the message “BREAK THE CHAINS OF BONDAGE” a direct reference to the intolerable circumstances.
Inspired by the Freedom Project, a year-long campaign launched by CNN international in 2011, the UFWC have developed this eye-opening campaign to be part of their world-wide initiative. Their prototype coin, the first of its kind to include this socially responsible message will be launched at the World Money Fair, Europe’s largest coin exhibition on the 3rd February in Berlin, Germany. As part of their unique approach to spreading this message, a challenge or invitation during the coin’s launch will be extended to attending world Mints at the WMF, inviting them to issue a legal tender circulating/collector coin with the message of ending human trafficking & modern-day slavery.
The coin is being struck at the world renowned Royal Mint UK in eco-silver, (a product developed by Cookson Precious Metals UK) a responsibly sourced product from a dedicated line of recycled silver, thus eliminating the need for further mining activities which are harmful to the environment. The specially commissioned design includes the silhouette images of a man and woman back to back with a broken chain of five links below them and the UFWC’s insignia above them both.
The idea behind the concept of the coin is to additionally focus attention on the monetary link & ill-gotten gain to the scourge of human trafficking and to prompt world Mints & Central Banks to carry the message on a legal tender coin. It is hoped that this project will result in an international campaign which will carry into 2013 and beyond, conveying this vital message in the most direct manner, far and wide to all members of the public and compelling everyone to take a stand! Ultimately, we hope the coin will speak for those who can’t.
For more information on this innovative project, for images of the prototype coin or to speak to the organizers of the UFWC about this initiative, please contact Firsthand PR at firsthand.pr@gmail.com or at: +44 90) 791 352 2565
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