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Human Trafficking Violation

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Imagine having strangers set your worth and place a price tag on the service they are forcing you to perform. Unfortunately, for many women, children, and men, this is the reality. According to Ark of Hope for Children, over four billion people are bought and sold into human trafficking every year. The United States alone holds 1.5 billion of those cases and these numbers are only rising. Whether it is labor or sex, human trafficking violates a wide variety of human rights, perhaps the most unique violation being against article four of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states “no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms”. This proposition tears down the trafficking …show more content…

Trafficking is the controlling of anyone, despite age, race, gender, or religion for the purpose of exploitation. Traffickers“recruit, transport, transfer, harbor, or receive” victims and proceed to exploit them for sex and labor (Polaris 5). In an explanation of human trafficking, the National Human Trafficking Hotline states that it is “for the purposes of compelled labor or a commercial sex act through the use of force, fraud, or coercion” and according to the hotline’s page on myths and misconceptions, force and “psychological means of control” are “sufficient elements of the crime”. Ultimately, these statements demonstrate the manipulation required to lure non-consensual victims into the industry, using techniques such as physical or sexual abuse, confinement, false promises, withholding wages, contract fraud, threats of harming loved ones, debt bondage, psychological manipulation, or document confiscation as a means of keeping victims in their control. Prior to becoming the intricate system it is today, trafficking began in the 1400s when the Europeans started slave trade. Although there have been many changes to the world of the slave trade since the years of African slavery, one thing remains similar; a model, referred to as the Action-Means-Purpose model is “used to describe the elements of human trafficking” (Polaris 4). In summary, …show more content…

Past attempts include the International Agreement for the Suppression of White Slave Traffic which did not protect people of color or male victims in any form. This was later changed to the International Agreement for the Suppression of Traffic in Women and Children in order to include all races, but still neglected male victims. Along with partial government protection, during tumultuous times such as wars and economic depressions, populations become susceptible to high trafficking rates. This creates a weak link between government action and actual resolution. For example, during WW11, Japan “set up a horrifying and outrageous system where women all across Asia were forced into sexual slavery” (“Timeline” 4). Vulnerable soldiers and greedy traffickers were the leading cause of this system . On the contrary, many efforts have proved to be making progress. Organizations such as The Polarize Project, which was set up in 2002, and Obama’s declaration of Human Trafficking Awareness Month, which takes place every January, have been faithfully working to raise awareness about the common behaviors of predators. The Alliance to End Human Trafficking has communicated with the government a need to “take a look into renewing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act”(“Timeline”

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