Human Trafficking : The Violation Of Human Rights

“43% of victims are used for forced commercial sexual exploitation, of whom 98% are women and girls” (UNGIFT). Women and girls are ensnared in sex trafficking in a variety of ways. Some are lured in with offers of real and legal work in restaurants, massage parlors, or anything else. Others are promised marriage, education and a better life. Still others are sold into trafficking by boyfriends, friends, neighbors or even parents (SOROPTMIST). Many of the girls and women are also forced into pornography. With all of the types of sexual exploitation comes abuse. Sexual, physical, and emotional are all types of abuse put onto females in human trafficking. Many people traffic others in hopes of getting money, work done, or just pure pleasure.

The recognition and development of human rights has dramatically changed internationally and domestically due to the constant change in societies needs, wants and values. Over the past 20 years many human rights have been implemented and recognized by various legal and non-legal measures to protect, promote and enforce these rights. The world has made great progress in identifying violations of individuals and societies human rights and has provided great efforts through legal and non-legal measures to protect issues that arise. There are a range of contemporary human rights issues that are being addressed domestically and internationally. One of the issues is the development of human trafficking and slavery. The United Nations defines human trafficking as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons by improper means (such as force, abduction, fraud, or coercion) for an improper purpose including forced labor or sexual exploitation". In order to correctly evaluate the effectiveness of Non- legal and legal measures in addressing these contemporary issues international and domestic efforts must be considered.

The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons is an internationally recognised protocol partially effective in its promotion and enforcement of human rights relating to human trafficking. As referenced above, Article 3 of this Protocol specifies the offences of human trafficking, whilst Article 5 requires that such conduct is criminalised under domestic legislation. By carefully detailing the offences arbitrary to the rights of humans, this Protocol effectively promotes the illegalities of such crimes, strengthening its enforceability through the widespread legislative response instigated by its introduction. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC), 134 countries have criminalised human trafficking by establishing a specific offence in line with the Protocol, including Australia’s Criminal Code Amendment (Trafficking in Persons Offences) Act 2005 (Cth). The responsiveness of nation states to

Over the past several years, human trafficking has become a sizable world-wide problem. Human Trafficking has had a considerable affect on the World and United States. To combat this, several laws and initiatives have been enacted. While this allows for some headway in combating this problem, there are still several things that we can do to help. This review of literature on Human Trafficking focuses on these areas and provides the information on the steps that can help combat this epidemic.

According to the United Nations, human trafficking can be defined as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons by means of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, or abuse of power of a position of vulnerability for the purpose of exploitation. Human trafficking occurs in every state of the nation and most victims of sex trafficking include U.S. citizens and noncitizens.

Human trafficking received more attention since the United Nations Protocol to Prevent Suppress and Punish Trafficking on Person (United Nations 2000) and the United Stated anti-trafficking law Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (United States 2000).The United States adopted its first anti-trafficking law by ratifying a convention that was created in the United Nations, United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Person (2000), which was known as “the Palermo Protocol.”

Today, we have more victims of human trafficking than ever before. How can that be? Do we not have international legislation and organizations to prevent us from making the same mistakes that were made in the past? The population continues to steadily increase and works in combination with globalization to feed the booming industry of exploiting people. Human trafficking has been a part of most cultures, sometimes lurking in the shadows, other times out and proud; however, its rapid advancement is not inevitable. Thus far, no nation or organization has been able to develop an effective criminal justice response. Developed nations, such as the United States have to take the lead in cultivating legislation and enforcement in order to stop human trafficking in its tracks. If the countries who hold great global power communicate properly and work

Articles 2(b), 6, 7 & 8 of the United Nations Trafficking Protocol were in place to provide help to any one who was a victim of Trafficking. The UNDOC also provide technical support to countries by “Assisting the review and revision of domestic legislation concerning assistance and protection of victims; Training criminal justice practitioners and service providers

With the devastating effects that human trafficking has made in nations worldwide, in the year 2000, the United Nations initiated a specific practice to address and increase aid for the countries that have been ratified. This practice is called the United Nations Palermo Protocol and has three protocols that are addressed: The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, and the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunition. The three protocols have entered the force under the United Nations General Assembly at different

In 2007, the U.S. state Department reported, “600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year,” “1 million is the number of children exploited by the global commercial sex trade every year,” and “161 countries identified as affected by human trafficking” (Polaris Project, DoSomething.org).

Today trafficking of woman is a multi-billion dollar internationally organised crime of epidemic proportions. Almost every country in the world is either an origin country, a transit country or a destination country for human trafficking. While trafficking is widely condemned as a violation of human rights, it is proving difficult to eradicate and is said to be the world’s fastest growing global crime. Mostly it involves sexual exploitation and forced labour, and more recently trade in human organs.

If serious help is to be given toward combating human trafficking, certain characteristics must be realized. For instance, human trafficking is constructed as a different sort of problem by a variety of social actors, agencies and institutions. Non governmental organizations (NGOs) tend to construct it as a problem of human rights abuses, while government agencies such as the police and the immigration service construct it either as a problem of organized crime or a problem of illegal immigration. Anti-trafficking policies should remain cognizant of the economic social and political roots of human trafficking. The current economic structures, including bilateral trade policy and structural adjustment programs are stacked against the interest of non-industrialized nations, creating a situation where citizens will take incredible risks to escape poverty.

They also state that currently, “all countries of the Middle East have ratified the Palermo Protocol” (123). The protocol outlines 3 elements of trafficking – the act, the means, and the purpose – and defines human trafficking in Article 3, paragraph (a):

Through the United States Department of State diplomatic tool of Trafficking in Persons report which is also known as the TIP report, explains how different countries are making efforts for anti-human trafficking

Currently there are approximately 21 million people being trafficked globally including 1.5 million in the United States. The United Nations in the year 2000 created the Palermo Protocol to help fight human trafficking. This protocol sets up the policies that should be implemented by each country regarding the laws and prevention, as well as, rehabilitation and restitution of victims. Despite the protocol, the number of convictions globally between 2005 and 2012 averaged less than 4,000 (Infographic, 2017).