World Day against Trafficking in Persons 30 July 2019

Human trafficking is a heinous crime that affects every region of the world. Some 72 per cent of detected victims are women and girls, and the percentage of child victims has more than doubled from 2004 to 2016, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Most detected victims are trafficked for sexual exploitation; victims are also trafficked for forced labour, recruitment as child soldiers and other forms of exploitation and abuse. 

Traffickers and terrorist groups prey on the vulnerable, from people in poverty to those caught up in war or who face discrimination. Nadia Murad, the first trafficking victim to serve as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, was justly co-awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for galvanizing international action to stop trafficking and sexual violence in conflict. 

Armed conflict, displacement, climate change, natural disasters and poverty exacerbate the vulnerabilities and desperation that enable trafficking to flourish. Migrants are being targeted. Thousands of people have died at sea, in deserts and in detention centres, at the hands of traffickers and migrant smugglers plying their monstrous, merciless trades.

But everyday indifference to abuse and exploitation around us also takes a heavy toll. Indeed, from construction to food production to consumer goods, countless businesses and enterprises benefit from the misery.

Multilateral action has generated progress, including through the Palermo Convention and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. Most countries have the necessary laws in place, and some countries recently recorded their first trafficking convictions. But more needs to be done to bring transnational trafficking networks to justice and, most of all, to ensure that victims are identified and can access the protection and services they need.

The Sustainable Development Goals include clear targets to prevent abuse and exploitation, to eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls, and to eradicate forced labour and child labour. On this World Day against Trafficking in Persons, let us reaffirm our commitment to stop criminals from ruthlessly exploiting people for profit and to help victims rebuild their lives.

António Guterres - United Nations Secretary General

How Widespread is Human Trafficking in the US? Thalif Deen The United States is no exception to the practice of modern day slavery'a crime for which it is rarely held accountable at the United Nations. A rash of hidden crimes widespread in US inner cities and border towns include forced migrant labour, human trafficking, sexploitation of minors and ... MORE > >

VIDEO: World Day against Trafficking in Persons IPS World Desk The darkest underbelly of human existence hides right in front of us - modern day slaves are the foundation of the third largest criminal economy on the planet. As media consumption in the West is drawn to negative, sensational and explosive headlines, sinister realities escape our attention. ... MORE > >

Hidden in Plain Sight: Sex Trafficking in Canada Nadia Kanji Human trafficking for sexual exploitation has been steadily increasing in Canada. The most recent statistics indicate that 2016 had the highest recorded rate of human trafficking, with one police-reported incident for every 100,000 people in Canada. Despite these staggering numbers, reported cases ... MORE > >

-- FRENCH VERSION -- As Fathers Die, Kashmir's Children Become Breadwinners Umar Manzoor Shah Mubeen Ahmad was nine years old when his mother sold him into service to a mechanic for the petty sum of few thousand Indian rupees. His mother had found it hard to support the family after his father, a labourer, was killed during one of the anti-India protests in Jammu and Kashmir in 2008. So ... MORE > >

-- FRENCH VERSION -- West Africa's Fine Line Between Cultural Norms and Child Trafficking Issa Sikiti da Silva On a bus in Cotonou, Benin's commercial capital, four Nigerian girls aged between 15 and 16 sit closely together as they are about to embark on the last part of their journey to Mali, where they are told that their new husbands, whom they never have met, await them. They started off from their ... MORE > >

-- FRENCH VERSION -- Women and Girls "Preyed on as the Spoils of War" Sam Olukoya "They forcefully took us away and kept us like prisoners," Lydia Musa, a former Boko Haram captive who was abducted at the age of 14 during an attack on her village in Gwoza, in Nigeria's north eastern Borno State, tells IPS. Musa and two other underaged girls were captured and forced to marry Boko ... MORE > >

-- SPANISH VERSION -- -- DUTCH VERSION -- Migrant Farm Workers, the Main Victims of Slave Labour in Mexico Emilio Godoy "They mislead the workers, tell them that they will be paid well and pay them much less. The recruiters and the employers deceive them," complained Marilyn Gómez, a migrant farm worker in Mexico. Gómez, a member of the Mixteco Yosonuvico of Sonora Cerró Nublado cooperative and the mother of two ... MORE > >

-- SPANISH VERSION -- -- DUTCH VERSION -- -- FRENCH VERSION -- Myanmar and China's Bride Trafficking Problem Tharanga Yakupitiyage Women and girls from Myanmar are increasingly being trafficked as "brides" to China, a human rights group found. In a new report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented numerous cases of women and girls from Myanmar's Kachin and northern Shan States who were trafficked and forced into sexual ... MORE > >

Fighting the World's Largest Criminal Industry: Modern Slavery Tharanga Yakupitiyage Modern slavery and human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal industries and one of the biggest human rights crises today, United Nations and government officials said. During an event as part of the annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), government officials, UN human ... MORE > >

-- SPANISH VERSION -- -- FRENCH VERSION -- Was Slavery the World's First Human Rights Violation? Thalif Deen The United Nations, which diligently monitors human rights violations worldwide, believes that centuries-old slavery still exists worldwide. The UN mandate on "contemporary forms of slavery" includes, but is not limited to, issues such as: traditional slavery, forced labour, debt bondage, ... MORE > >

Slavery is Not a Thing of the Past, It Still Exists Today Affecting Millions Shannon Scribner While natural hazards like hurricanes, exacerbated by climate change, are causing people to migrate, it's conflict, violence and persecution that have forced more than 68.5 million people from their homes today, exposing them to higher risks and increased vulnerability, especially women and ... MORE > >

-- SPANISH VERSION -- -- FRENCH VERSION -- Modern Day Slavery Rated World's Largest Single Crime Industry Thalif Deen After an exhaustive study of modern day slavery, the Geneva-based International Labour Organization (ILO) concluded there are over 40 million people who are victims of slavery, including 25 million in forced labour and 15 million in forced marriages - with at least 71 percent of them comprising ... MORE > >

Human Trafficking - Hidden in Plain Sight Romy Hawatt The media globally tends to have a bias to negative, sensational and headline grabbing stories and events and this certainly applies to reporting related to human trafficking in the third world. With the abundance of stories around sweat shops, massage parlours and organ trafficking networks ... MORE > >

The Global Sustainability Network ( GSN ) http://gsngoal8.com/ is pursuing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 8 with a special emphasis on Goal 8.7 which ‘takes immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms’. 

The origins of the GSN come from the endeavours of the Joint Declaration of Religious Leaders signed on 2 December 2014. Religious leaders of various faiths, gathered to work together “to defend the dignity and freedom of the human being against the extreme forms of the globalization of indifference, such us exploitation, forced labour, prostitution, human trafficking” and so forth.

This special report is brought to you by IPS with support from the Riana Group. 
                                                             

IPS Daily Report - Formerly TerraViva
Editorial Coordinator: Thalif Deen
Managing Editor: Farhana Haque Rahman

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Estrella Gutierrez in Caracas with Stefanie Wildes and Veronica Firme in Montevideo
James Reinl, IPS UN Bureau in New York
Walter Garcia in Madrid with Mauro Teodori in Rome

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