HUMAN TRAFFICKING
(Taken from UNHCR, Connect Model United Nations 2009 )
The trafficking in human beings, for various forms of exploitation, has been a disease that has been prevalent in human society for thousands of years and today is estimated to be the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. The United Nations estimates that the trade’s worth some $32 billion in both ‘sales’ of people and the value of their exploited labor. Jolene Smith, executive director of Free the Slaves, comments, “Our research shows that there are at least 27 million people in slavery around the world today. And that’s really slavery - people held against their will, under violence, and paid nothing.” Human trafficking is a multi-dimensional issue. It is a crime that deprives people of their human rights and freedoms, increases global health risks, fuels growing networks of organized crime, and can sustain levels of poverty and impede development in certain areas. It is a misconception that human trafficking is a problem prevalent only in Third World Countries. The most common destinations for victims of human trafficking are Thailand, Japan, Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Turkey and the US,
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according to a report by the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) while the major sources of trafficked persons include Thailand, China, Nigeria, Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine.
There are more slaves today on Earth than there have ever been in the history of Mankind. 161 countries have reported being affected by human trafficking- either as a source or a transit/destination country. 1.2 million children are trafficked every year, another 2.45 million people are estimated to be in conditions of forced labour as a result of trafficking, 43% of victims are used for forced commercial sexual exploitation, of whom 98% are women and girls.
Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons defines ‘Trafficking in Persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation
shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.’ The common denominator of trafficking scenarios is the use of force as opposed to the ‘people smuggling’ market where illegal immigrants request smugglers to allow them to cross international borders. Traffickers can subject victims to labour exploitation or sexual exploitation or both. Trafficking for labour exploitation includes traditional chattel slavery, forced labour and debt bondage. Trafficking for sexual exploitation typically includes abuses within the commercial sex industry. In other cases, individuals exploit victims in private homes, often demanding both sex and work. The use of force or coercion can be direct and violent or psychological. Traffickers usually prey on weaker, more vulnerable sections
of society, especially women and children. Some victims leave developing countries, seeking to improve their lives through low-skilled jobs in more prosperous countries. Others fall victim to forced or bonded labour in their own countries. Women, eager for a better future, are susceptible to promises of jobs abroad as babysitters, housekeepers, waitresses or models- jobs that traffickers turn into the nightmare of forced prostitution. Some families give children to
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relatives who promise education and opportunity but instead sell the children into exploitative situations for money. But poverty alone does not explain this tragedy, which is driven by fraudulent recruiters, employers and corrupt officials who seek to reap profits from others desperation.The last year was marked by the global financial crisis, which has raised the specter of increased human trafficking around the world. As a result of the crisis, two concurrent trends, a shrinking global demand for labour and a growing supply of workers willing to take even greater risks for economics opportunities, seem a recipe for increased forced labour cases of migrant workers and women in prostitution. As it is a fast, low cost, low risk and high revenue activity, organised crime groups may use human trafficking as an early method to test routes and to identify corruptible officials. Once routes are established, commodities such as drugs and weapons are often used along the same routes. If rule of law and political structures are corrupted, then organised crime is very difficult to weaken making good governance and rule of law reform even more difficult to pursue. Human trafficking as such may be slightly misleading and focus one’s attention on the act of moving a person across an international border; however, the exploitative effects of this continue to be in effect for the rest of the victim’s life.
Major Forms ofTrafficking
Forced and Bonded Labour
A large portion (18%) of human trafficking in the world takes the form of forced labour or involuntary servitude. Employers, looking to squeeze out tiny profits, take advantage of gaps in law enforcement, high rates of unemployment, poverty, corruption, political conflict and cultural acceptance of the practice, to exploit vulnerable workers. Female victims of forced or bonded labour, especially those in domestic servitude, are often sexually exploited as well.
Sexual Exploitation
Sexual exploitation and forced prostitution continue to be the most commonly identified form of human trafficking (79%) because such crimes tend to be reported more. Estimates range from 700,000 to as many as 4 million women and children who are being trafficked solely for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The entire process usually takes three steps- recruitment, transport and destination. Similar to the way children are recruited, women, especially in third world countries and in vulnerable, poverty-stricken sections of society, are promised better jobs, a more affluent lifestyle and other comforts.
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International Adoption
Another facet of the human trafficking problem has been the growing rise of illegal adoption centers in third world countries which arrange for international adoption, an issue that came to the forefront with the highly publicized case of pop star Madonna’s attempted adoption of a small girl from Mali. Babies
are often sold by a family to facilitate the upbringing of the other children. In other cases, babies are simply kidnapped from small villages and then ‘resold’ in respectable international adoption agencies as victims of disease, malnutrition and war.
Organ Removal
As with human trafficking for other exploitative purposes, victims of trafficking for the purpose of organ removal are often recruited from vulnerable groups (for instance, those who live in extreme poverty) and traffickers are often part of transnational organised crime groups. Recipients of the organs must
pay a much higher price than donors receive, part of which benefits brokers, surgeons and hospital directors, who have been reported to be involved in the organized criminal network. This form of trafficking is different in terms of the sectors from which traffickers and organ ‘brokers’ derive; doctors and other health-care practitioners, ambulance drivers and mortuary workers are often involved in organ trafficking in addition to those involved in other human trafficking networks. Trafficking in persons for the purpose of removal of organs is addressed by the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The inclusion of this form of exploitation into the Protocol is intended to cover those situations where
a person is exploited for the purposes of a trafficker obtaining profit in the ‘organ market’, and situations where a person is trafficked for the purpose of the removal of their organs and/or body parts for purposes of witchcraft and traditional medicine.
Who Are Traffickers?
Human trafficking ventures range from small-time, mom-and-pop operations to tightly run, well-organized structures that operate on a competitive international basis. Players in this industry vary significantly in size, geographical range, and organizational structure. Amateur traffickers may operate on a local level, assisting potential migrants with a single border
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crossing; some work in coordination with a larger trafficking organization. There are also modest-sized trafficking rings that operate on a more permanent basis, employing practiced smuggling techniques and well-known trafficking routes to convey migrants from country to country.The most sophisticated trafficking operations are highly organized groups that function on an international basis, conducting the entire scope of the trafficking process, from recruitment to transportation to the migrant’s entrance into a destination country. Thanks to their far-flung network and complex structure, these groups adjust quickly to changes in national legislation, immigration, and law enforcement policies, and are adept at avoiding border surveillance.
Sources (Ignore this)
Amnesty International. “Democratic Republic of Congo- Children of War.” 2003.
Coghlan B, Brennan RJ, Ngoy P, et al. “Mortality in the Democratic Republic of Congo: a nationwide survey.” Lancet January 2006.
European Commission. “Report of the Experts Group on Trafficking in Human Beings.” December 2004. August 2009 <http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/doc_centre/crime/ trafficking/doc/report_expert_group_120>.
Guterres, António. “Refugees and IDPs.” Foreign Affairs (n.d.).
International Crisis Group. “”Congo At War: A Briefing of the Internal and External Players in the Central African Conflict.” Field Report. 1998.
International, Amnesty. “Democratic Republic of Congo: Mass rape - time for remedies.” Country Profile. 2002.
IOM Counter Trafficking Service. “Changing Patterns and Trends of Trafficking in Persons in the Balkan Region.” International Organization for Migration, 2004.
Kaye, M. “The Migration-Trafficking Nexus: Combating trafficking through the protection.” 2003. Anti Slavery. August 2009 <http://www.antislavery.org/homepage/resources/the%20 migration%20trafficking%>.
Nzongola-Ntalaja, Georges. The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A People’s History. 2002.
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Report of the Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. New York, 2004.
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “Huge Country, Huge Problems, Huge Potential- Can DR Congo Turn the Page?” Refugees 2007.
Refugees International. DR Congo- Strategies to Help Vulnerable People. Field Report. Washington, 2009.
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Refugees, Office of the United Nations High Comissioner for. “Guidelines on International Protection.” 2007.
Refugees, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for. “Combatting Human Trafficking: Overview of UNHCR’s Anti-Trafficking activities in Europe.” 2005.
“Democratic Republic of Congo.” UNHCR Global Appeal (2008-2009).
“Global Trends- Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Stateless Persons.” Country Data Sheet. 2008.
Refugee Protection and Mixed Migration: A 10 Point Plan of Action.” 2007.
Refugees, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on. Considerations on the issue of Human Trafficking from the perspective of international refugee law and UNHCR’s mandate. Buenos Aires, 2009.
Riiskjær, Maria and Anna Marie Gallagher. “Review of UNHCR’s Efforts to prevent and respond to human trafficking.” 2008.
Rupert Colville, UNHCR spokesman. “Congo and DRC: identity cards for refugees and asylum seekers.” 2007. UNHCR. August 2009.
The Kivu Conflict. August 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kivu_Conflict>.
Thom, William. “Congo-Zaire’s 1996-97 Civil War in the Context of Evolving Patterns of Military Conflict in Africa in the Era of Independence.” Journal of Conflict Studies 19 (1999).
UN Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking. “Global Report on Trafficking in Persons.” 2009.
UNHCR, Executive Committee of the. “UNHCR’s Role in support of an enhanced humanitarian response to situations of internal displacement.” Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2007.
UNHCR, Public Information Section-. “The Wall Behind Which Refugees Can Shelter- 1951 Geneva Convention.” Refugees 2.123 (2001).
United Nations High Comissioner for Refugees. “Refugee Protection and Human Trafficking.” 2008.
United Nations Security Council. “UNSC Resolution 1258.” New York, 1999.
“US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report.” 2008. US State Government. August 2009 <http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2008/>.
Vision, World. 10 Things You Need to Know About Human Trafficking. Bangkok, 2009.
“What is the Cluster Approach?” 2006. World Bank Site Resources. August 2009 <http:// siteresources.worldbank.org/IRFFI/64168382-1092419001661/20632001/Cluster%20 exhibit%20f rom%20Pamela%20Hussain.doc>.
Wildenberg, Sylvie Van Den. “Congo-Kinshasa: Launching of Preparatory Work for Kivus Peace Conference.” United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo , 2007.
CONNECT MODEL UNITED NATIONS 2009
UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - TOPIC B
(Taken from UNHCR, Connect Model United Nations 2009 )
The trafficking in human beings, for various forms of exploitation, has been a disease that has been prevalent in human society for thousands of years and today is estimated to be the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. The United Nations estimates that the trade’s worth some $32 billion in both ‘sales’ of people and the value of their exploited labor. Jolene Smith, executive director of Free the Slaves, comments, “Our research shows that there are at least 27 million people in slavery around the world today. And that’s really slavery - people held against their will, under violence, and paid nothing.” Human trafficking is a multi-dimensional issue. It is a crime that deprives people of their human rights and freedoms, increases global health risks, fuels growing networks of organized crime, and can sustain levels of poverty and impede development in certain areas. It is a misconception that human trafficking is a problem prevalent only in Third World Countries. The most common destinations for victims of human trafficking are Thailand, Japan, Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Turkey and the US,
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according to a report by the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) while the major sources of trafficked persons include Thailand, China, Nigeria, Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine.
There are more slaves today on Earth than there have ever been in the history of Mankind. 161 countries have reported being affected by human trafficking- either as a source or a transit/destination country. 1.2 million children are trafficked every year, another 2.45 million people are estimated to be in conditions of forced labour as a result of trafficking, 43% of victims are used for forced commercial sexual exploitation, of whom 98% are women and girls.
Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons defines ‘Trafficking in Persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation
shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.’ The common denominator of trafficking scenarios is the use of force as opposed to the ‘people smuggling’ market where illegal immigrants request smugglers to allow them to cross international borders. Traffickers can subject victims to labour exploitation or sexual exploitation or both. Trafficking for labour exploitation includes traditional chattel slavery, forced labour and debt bondage. Trafficking for sexual exploitation typically includes abuses within the commercial sex industry. In other cases, individuals exploit victims in private homes, often demanding both sex and work. The use of force or coercion can be direct and violent or psychological. Traffickers usually prey on weaker, more vulnerable sections
of society, especially women and children. Some victims leave developing countries, seeking to improve their lives through low-skilled jobs in more prosperous countries. Others fall victim to forced or bonded labour in their own countries. Women, eager for a better future, are susceptible to promises of jobs abroad as babysitters, housekeepers, waitresses or models- jobs that traffickers turn into the nightmare of forced prostitution. Some families give children to
CONNECT MODEL UNITED NATIONS 2009
UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - TOPIC B
2
relatives who promise education and opportunity but instead sell the children into exploitative situations for money. But poverty alone does not explain this tragedy, which is driven by fraudulent recruiters, employers and corrupt officials who seek to reap profits from others desperation.The last year was marked by the global financial crisis, which has raised the specter of increased human trafficking around the world. As a result of the crisis, two concurrent trends, a shrinking global demand for labour and a growing supply of workers willing to take even greater risks for economics opportunities, seem a recipe for increased forced labour cases of migrant workers and women in prostitution. As it is a fast, low cost, low risk and high revenue activity, organised crime groups may use human trafficking as an early method to test routes and to identify corruptible officials. Once routes are established, commodities such as drugs and weapons are often used along the same routes. If rule of law and political structures are corrupted, then organised crime is very difficult to weaken making good governance and rule of law reform even more difficult to pursue. Human trafficking as such may be slightly misleading and focus one’s attention on the act of moving a person across an international border; however, the exploitative effects of this continue to be in effect for the rest of the victim’s life.
Major Forms ofTrafficking
Forced and Bonded Labour
A large portion (18%) of human trafficking in the world takes the form of forced labour or involuntary servitude. Employers, looking to squeeze out tiny profits, take advantage of gaps in law enforcement, high rates of unemployment, poverty, corruption, political conflict and cultural acceptance of the practice, to exploit vulnerable workers. Female victims of forced or bonded labour, especially those in domestic servitude, are often sexually exploited as well.
Sexual Exploitation
Sexual exploitation and forced prostitution continue to be the most commonly identified form of human trafficking (79%) because such crimes tend to be reported more. Estimates range from 700,000 to as many as 4 million women and children who are being trafficked solely for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The entire process usually takes three steps- recruitment, transport and destination. Similar to the way children are recruited, women, especially in third world countries and in vulnerable, poverty-stricken sections of society, are promised better jobs, a more affluent lifestyle and other comforts.
CONNECT MODEL UNITED NATIONS 2009
UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - TOPIC B
3
International Adoption
Another facet of the human trafficking problem has been the growing rise of illegal adoption centers in third world countries which arrange for international adoption, an issue that came to the forefront with the highly publicized case of pop star Madonna’s attempted adoption of a small girl from Mali. Babies
are often sold by a family to facilitate the upbringing of the other children. In other cases, babies are simply kidnapped from small villages and then ‘resold’ in respectable international adoption agencies as victims of disease, malnutrition and war.
Organ Removal
As with human trafficking for other exploitative purposes, victims of trafficking for the purpose of organ removal are often recruited from vulnerable groups (for instance, those who live in extreme poverty) and traffickers are often part of transnational organised crime groups. Recipients of the organs must
pay a much higher price than donors receive, part of which benefits brokers, surgeons and hospital directors, who have been reported to be involved in the organized criminal network. This form of trafficking is different in terms of the sectors from which traffickers and organ ‘brokers’ derive; doctors and other health-care practitioners, ambulance drivers and mortuary workers are often involved in organ trafficking in addition to those involved in other human trafficking networks. Trafficking in persons for the purpose of removal of organs is addressed by the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The inclusion of this form of exploitation into the Protocol is intended to cover those situations where
a person is exploited for the purposes of a trafficker obtaining profit in the ‘organ market’, and situations where a person is trafficked for the purpose of the removal of their organs and/or body parts for purposes of witchcraft and traditional medicine.
Who Are Traffickers?
Human trafficking ventures range from small-time, mom-and-pop operations to tightly run, well-organized structures that operate on a competitive international basis. Players in this industry vary significantly in size, geographical range, and organizational structure. Amateur traffickers may operate on a local level, assisting potential migrants with a single border
CONNECT MODEL UNITED NATIONS 2009
UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - TOPIC B
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crossing; some work in coordination with a larger trafficking organization. There are also modest-sized trafficking rings that operate on a more permanent basis, employing practiced smuggling techniques and well-known trafficking routes to convey migrants from country to country.The most sophisticated trafficking operations are highly organized groups that function on an international basis, conducting the entire scope of the trafficking process, from recruitment to transportation to the migrant’s entrance into a destination country. Thanks to their far-flung network and complex structure, these groups adjust quickly to changes in national legislation, immigration, and law enforcement policies, and are adept at avoiding border surveillance.
Sources (Ignore this)
Amnesty International. “Democratic Republic of Congo- Children of War.” 2003.
Coghlan B, Brennan RJ, Ngoy P, et al. “Mortality in the Democratic Republic of Congo: a nationwide survey.” Lancet January 2006.
European Commission. “Report of the Experts Group on Trafficking in Human Beings.” December 2004. August 2009 <http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/doc_centre/crime/ trafficking/doc/report_expert_group_120>.
Guterres, António. “Refugees and IDPs.” Foreign Affairs (n.d.).
International Crisis Group. “”Congo At War: A Briefing of the Internal and External Players in the Central African Conflict.” Field Report. 1998.
International, Amnesty. “Democratic Republic of Congo: Mass rape - time for remedies.” Country Profile. 2002.
IOM Counter Trafficking Service. “Changing Patterns and Trends of Trafficking in Persons in the Balkan Region.” International Organization for Migration, 2004.
Kaye, M. “The Migration-Trafficking Nexus: Combating trafficking through the protection.” 2003. Anti Slavery. August 2009 <http://www.antislavery.org/homepage/resources/the%20 migration%20trafficking%>.
Nzongola-Ntalaja, Georges. The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A People’s History. 2002.
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Report of the Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. New York, 2004.
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “Huge Country, Huge Problems, Huge Potential- Can DR Congo Turn the Page?” Refugees 2007.
Refugees International. DR Congo- Strategies to Help Vulnerable People. Field Report. Washington, 2009.
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UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - TOPIC B
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Refugees, Office of the United Nations High Comissioner for. “Guidelines on International Protection.” 2007.
Refugees, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for. “Combatting Human Trafficking: Overview of UNHCR’s Anti-Trafficking activities in Europe.” 2005.
“Democratic Republic of Congo.” UNHCR Global Appeal (2008-2009).
“Global Trends- Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Stateless Persons.” Country Data Sheet. 2008.
Refugee Protection and Mixed Migration: A 10 Point Plan of Action.” 2007.
Refugees, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on. Considerations on the issue of Human Trafficking from the perspective of international refugee law and UNHCR’s mandate. Buenos Aires, 2009.
Riiskjær, Maria and Anna Marie Gallagher. “Review of UNHCR’s Efforts to prevent and respond to human trafficking.” 2008.
Rupert Colville, UNHCR spokesman. “Congo and DRC: identity cards for refugees and asylum seekers.” 2007. UNHCR. August 2009.
The Kivu Conflict. August 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kivu_Conflict>.
Thom, William. “Congo-Zaire’s 1996-97 Civil War in the Context of Evolving Patterns of Military Conflict in Africa in the Era of Independence.” Journal of Conflict Studies 19 (1999).
UN Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking. “Global Report on Trafficking in Persons.” 2009.
UNHCR, Executive Committee of the. “UNHCR’s Role in support of an enhanced humanitarian response to situations of internal displacement.” Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2007.
UNHCR, Public Information Section-. “The Wall Behind Which Refugees Can Shelter- 1951 Geneva Convention.” Refugees 2.123 (2001).
United Nations High Comissioner for Refugees. “Refugee Protection and Human Trafficking.” 2008.
United Nations Security Council. “UNSC Resolution 1258.” New York, 1999.
“US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report.” 2008. US State Government. August 2009 <http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2008/>.
Vision, World. 10 Things You Need to Know About Human Trafficking. Bangkok, 2009.
“What is the Cluster Approach?” 2006. World Bank Site Resources. August 2009 <http:// siteresources.worldbank.org/IRFFI/64168382-1092419001661/20632001/Cluster%20 exhibit%20f rom%20Pamela%20Hussain.doc>.
Wildenberg, Sylvie Van Den. “Congo-Kinshasa: Launching of Preparatory Work for Kivus Peace Conference.” United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo , 2007.
CONNECT MODEL UNITED NATIONS 2009
UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - TOPIC B