At the end of the last century, the world witnessed the growth of a modern form of slavery — trafficking in human beings. These modern traffickers treat women, men and children as commodities to abuse, sell, and move across borders like illegal drugs or stolen weapons. Modern traffickers have many faces. They are diplomats who import domestic workers and hold them in isolation and forced labor in their homes.1 They are members of organized criminal networks that move people into forced prostitution. Some of them are men who import foreign-born women, ostensibly for marriage, but in reality for the purpose of holding them in servitude and subjecting them to sexual abuse. Others are families that import men, women, and children to work in forced labor in their offices, factories, and homes, and subject them to sexual and physical assault. Traffickers, then, are our nextdoor neighbors. Their victims are all around us. They force their victims to cook our food in neighborhood restaurants or in their own homes, sew our clothes or pick today’s fresh vegetables. They could even be the foreignborn “wife” of a co-worker, or the woman held in isolation in forced prostitution in a quiet neighborhood.
]]>“64 percent of all the world’s statistics are made up right there on the spot “82.4 percent of people believe ‘em whether they’re accurate statistics or not”1 Statistics form the core of many policies, funding decisions and program designs around human trafficking into forced labor and debt bondage. But are the statistics accurate? How can people decide whether statements such as the following ones are supported by evidence?
Issue-Paper-3 Fact or Fiction – What Do We Really Know About Human Trafficking
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Human trafficking has grabbed the headlines around the world but what is human trafficking and what is its relationship to forced labor, debt bondage and slavery? Has the focus on human trafficking and particularly trafficking into forced prostitution, undermined or marginalized efforts to address forced labor, debt bondage and slavery? The answer to the first question is that, although they are interconnected, they are not the same in international law or in practice, which has led to much confusion and misinformation. The answer to the second question is yes, global mobilization to counter ‘trafficking’ has diverted attention away from the great number of persons who are in forced labor, debt bondage and slavery but who were not trafficked into these situations. So, the purpose of this paper is to provide some conceptual clarity to the current confused state and to issue a call for governments and civil society to address the human rights abuses suffered by victims of all of these crimes.
Issue-Paper-2 Slavery, Forced Labor, Debt Bondage and Human Trafficking
]]>Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the opening up of China, the world has experienced one of the greatest – and quite possibly the greatest – migrations of people in history. Millions are migrating worldwide, some out of choice and some out of dire necessity.
]]>Conference Report Helsinki, 23-24 September 2004
Ann Jordan: Participant and contributor
Every year, international organizations, governments, and NGOs make numerous efforts to combat trafficking in human beings, and vast funding is poured into anti-trafficking activities. During recent years, the international legal framework has continued to develop. More OSCE participating States have ratified the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, as well as its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. At the European Union level, the Council Directive on Short-Term Residence Permits was adopted in 2004. The OSCE adopted its Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings in 2003, while the Council of Europe drafted the European Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.
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