Trafficking Monitor is a blog I created and curate. It offers posts highlighting the multifaceted nature of human trafficking and forced/indentured labour. I draw on a diversity of sources for my posts. You are invited to recommend materials for posting.
"Leading electric carmakers may be unwittingly using child labour to produce batteries for vehicles that have grown in popularity for using clean energy aimed at limiting global warming, Amnesty International saidon Friday."
"The human rights watchdog said cobalt used in lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles, phones and laptops could come from mines in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that use child labour."
(Reporting by Lin Taylor @linnytayls, Editing by Katie Nguyen and Timothy Large; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, which covers humanitarian issues, conflicts, global land and property rights, modern slavery and human trafficking, women's rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org to see more stories)
A tiny portion of the price you paid for your smartphone, tablet or laptop could have been funneled to warlords in the Congo, lengthening a war that has already cost six million deaths - the deadliest conflict since WWII. It could also have led to slavery and systematic rape.
Since first seeing the images of child soldiers in Uganda, the widespread issue of human trafficking has been close to my heart. There are so many injustices in the world today, but the thought of men, women and children being enslaved is unbearable. I NEEDED to do something.
Last year, I quit my full-time job in sales at CBS to begin spreading awareness around human trafficking. This decision was not based on any expert knowledge or policy background. It was driven by my desire to do something against this injustice that so many people do not even know exists. I was shocked that even some of my own friends had not heard of human trafficking.
So what could I do? I decided to take a stand the best way I knew how: through my passion for music and my work with the New York City Urban Project. I wrote a song entitled “Taking a Stand” that captures the reality of this human trafficking atrocity as well as my struggle, as an “onlooker,” to fight apathy and respond to it. I’m going to create a video every month spotlighting an aspect of human trafficking that will help educate the public on the issue.
When I first started this project, I was armed with an old whiteboard, some dry erase markers, and a few nights to get creative. I had no previous knowledge of how to make a video so I decided to make a stop-motion video that would be both short and intriguing. I pulled a couple of all-nighters putting together close to 1,000 photos for a three-minute video, but so far the work has paid off.
This video focuses on the connection between electronics such as cell phones and iPads and human trafficking and conflict in the Congo. Our gadgets connect us with conflict minerals -- tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold -- that are sourced from mines in eastern Congo and used in the manufacture of our electronics products.
Why are they called “conflict” materials? These mines are controlled by armed groups who use rape, violence, and enslavement as a way to control local populations. The Enough Project estimates that armed groups take in some $185 million dollars annually trading these minerals, while the World Bank estimates that the miners themselves earn only $5 a day.
As consumers, we are fueling conflict and the use of human trafficking in Congolese mines in the form of debt bondage, child slavery, sexual slavery, and forced marriage when we purchase electronic devices sourced from conflict minerals. I am not saying you should not purchase the latest gadgets, but we should all do so responsibly. Greenpeace has posted a Guide to Greener Electronics, which ranks leaders and laggards in the consumer electronics industry on the use of conflict-free minerals. Check it out as you consider your next purchases.
So be aware of the electronics that you’re buying and make your voice heard! Go to theRaise Hope for Congo website to support conflict minerals legislation that will require companies to clean up their supply chain and no longer source minerals that are funding armed groups in the Congo. It is time to take a stand.
Courtney B. Wong is a singer/songwriter and worship leader who currently lives in New York City and works as a NYC Urban Project artist. Follow Courtney on Twitter (@CourtneyBWong)
LUANDA, Angola, October 27, 2009/African Press Organization (APO)/ — IOM Press Briefing Notes
A two-day conference focusing on what can be done to prevent a potential escalation in human trafficking in Angola ahead of the African Cup of Nations football tournament to be held in the southern African country in early 2010, begins tomorrow, 28 October in Luanda.
Organized by the Angolan Interior Ministry and IOM, the conference will feature experts from various government ministries from Brazil, South Africa and Portugal as well as IOM officials from its mission in Germany to share with participants their experiences on fighting human trafficking during big sporting events.
2010 is a big year for major sporting events, particularly in Southern Africa. The African Cup of Nations takes place in Angola between 10-31 January while South Africa hosts the football world cup between 11 June and 11 July 2010.
In total 120 people from various government ministries, including the Ministries of Interior, Foreign Affairs, Social Reintegration, Justice, Education, Family and Tourism, will participate in the conference funded by the British Embassy in Luanda and the Norwegian government.
With lots of football fans expected to converge on Angola ahead of the tournament, increasing migration flows to and within the country, there are growing concerns among women’s rights groups in the country that the inevitable influx of tourists will set a fertile ground for sex work that could be exploited by human traffickers.
“Although this is a potential worry, we need to turn it into an opportunity by raising awareness of human trafficking on a scale that has not been seen before in Angola. With a lot of international attention on the region next year, we have to grab some of it to ensure traffickers don’t win. It is also an opportunity for both the government and civil society to engage more actively on countering human trafficking,” says Katharina Schnöring, IOM Chief of Mission in Angola.
In addition to co-organizing the conference, IOM is working with the Ministry of Interior, UNICEF and the organizers of the African Cup of Nations (ACN) on an information campaign that raises awareness on Human Trafficking of children during the ACN.
According to the US State Department’s 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report, Angola is primarily a source country for trafficking, mainly that of women and children internally for domestic servitude and young men for forced agricultural labour.
However, Angolan women and children are also trafficked to South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia and Portugal.
For further information, please contact Katharina Schnöring, IOM Angola, Tel: 00244 924 643 032 Email: kschnoring@iom.int
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