INTRODUCTION

Human trafficking will grow in the twenty-first century as a result of economic and demographic inequalities in the world, the rise of conflicts, and possibly global climate change. 

 

Coordinated efforts of Governments, civil society, the business community, multilateral organizations, and the media are needed to stem its growth.

Modern slavery is all around us, but most people don’t even realize it.

 

  • There are more people in slavery today than at any other time in history: There are over 40 million children (estimations up to 100 million), women and men living in modern slavery, three out of every 1,000 people worldwide. If they all lived together in a single city, it would be one of the biggest cities in the world.

  • Human trafficking is the second-largest organized crime in the world. — U.S. State Department

  • 2 – 4 million young women and children will be sold into prostitution within the next 12 months. — Somaly Mam Foundation

  • Many of these children are sold into sexual slavery for as little as $10 and some are as young as 5 years old. — Anderson Cooper 360o

  • Total slaves esti­ma­tion from 40 Million
  • To 100 Mil­lion worldwide
  • 1.3 over 100

%

of the total world population

 

  • Modern slavery happens everywhere: There are over 1.5 million people working in slavery-like conditions in Europe, North America, Japan and Australia.

  • Labour / Sex slavery: Most of the people in slavery work in industries such as agriculture, fishing construction, manufacturing, mining, utilities and domestic work. Around one in five are victims of sexual exploitation

  • Modern Slavery is huge business: A recent ILO study estimated that modern slavery generates annual profits of over US$ 150 billion, which is as much as the combined profits of the four most profitable companies in the world.

Yearly profit in US$ billion

MOST OF THE MONEY FROM MODERN SLAVERY IS MADE IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD.

Slides below are an exam­ple of “Best Prac­tices” pro­duced by the “Pro­tec­tion Project” — Mohamed Mat­tar — “Com­pre­hen­sive Legal Approach­es to Com­bat­ing Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons: an Inter­na­tion­al and Com­par­a­tive Perspective”
See the doc­u­ment “A COMPREHENSIVE LEGAL APPROACHES TO COMBATING TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS”
This chart sum­ma­rizes the dif­fer­ent pro­files of traf­fick­ers includ­ed in the 2014 TIP Report. Each cat­e­go­ry in this chart was count­ed indi­vid­u­al­ly, so the mul­ti­ple list­ing of coun­tries is possible.
Accord­ing to the TIP Report 2014:
  • 77 coun­tries have a com­pre­hen­sive anti-traf­fick­ing statute pro­hibit­ing all forms of trafficking
  • 11 coun­tries have an anti-traf­fick­ing statute(s) pro­hibit­ing some forms of trafficking
  • 19 coun­tries have anti-traf­fick­ing statute(s) and penal code pro­hibit­ing some forms of trafficking
  • 56 coun­tries have pro­vi­sions in their penal code crim­i­nal­iz­ing all forms of trafficking
  • 19 coun­tries have pro­vi­sions in their penal code crim­i­nal­iz­ing some forms of trafficking
  • 3 coun­tries have insuf­fi­cient pro­vi­sions in their statute(s) or their penal code, but have a draft law or are in the process of draft­ing new legislation
  • 3 coun­tries have some anti-traf­fick­ing pro­vi­sions in their laws, which are pri­mar­i­ly child-related

TIER PLACEMENTS (US GOV) : DEFINITION

 

TIER 1

Countries whose governments fully meet the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards.

TIER 2

Countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

TIER 2 WATCH LIST

Countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards AND:

  1. a) The absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing;

  2. b) There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year; or

  3. c) The determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year.

TIER 3

Countries whose governments do not fully meet the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.

TIER PLACEMENTS 2017 (US GOV)

 

TIER 1

Armenia Australia Austria The Bahamas Belgium Canada Chile Colombia Czechia Denmark Finland France Georgia Germany Guyana Ireland Israel Italy Korea, South Lithuania Luxembourg Netherlands New Zealand Norway Philippines Poland Portugal St. Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan United Kingdom United States of America

TIER 2

Afghanistan Albania Angola Argentina Aruba Azerbaijan Bahrain Barbados Bhutan Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Cambodia Costa Rica Coted’Ivoire Croatia Curacao Cyprus Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Estonia Ethiopia Fiji Greece Honduras Iceland India Indonesia Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kosovo Kyrgyz Republic Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Macedonia Malawi Malaysia Maldives Malta Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Mongolia Morocco Namibia Nepal Palau Panama Paraguay Peru Qatar Romania St. LuciaSt. Vincent & The GrenadinesSeychellesSierra LeoneSingapore
Solomon Islands South Africa Sri Lanka Tajikistan Tanzania Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad & Tobago Tunisia Turkey Uganda Ukraine United  Arab Emirates Uruguay Vietnam

TIER 2 WATCH LIST

Algeria Antigua & Barbuda Bangladesh Benin Bolivia Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Cabo Verde Cameroon Chad Cuba Djibouti Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guatemala Haiti Hong Kong Hungary Iraq Kuwait Laos Liberia Macau Madagascar Marshall Islands Moldova Montenegro Mozambique Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Oman Pakistan Papua New Guinea Rwanda Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Suriname Swaziland Thailand Zambia Zimbabwe

TIER 3

Belarus Belize Burundi Central African Republic China (PRC) Comoros Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Guinea Guinea-Bissau Iran Korea, North Mali Mauritania Russia South Sudan Sudan Syria Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Venezuela

Special Case

Libya Somalia Yemen

Slides below are from the “Pro­tec­tion Project” — Mohamed Mat­tar — Com­pre­hen­sive Legal Approach­es to Com­bat­ing Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons: an Inter­na­tion­al and Com­par­a­tive Perspective

DEFINITIONS — Forms of Trafficking under International Law

Trafficking in Persons

Traf­fick­ing in per­sons shall mean 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. (Unit­ed Nations Pro­to­col to Pre­vent, Sup­press and Pun­ish Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons, Espe­cial­ly Women and Chil­dren, sup­ple­ment­ing the Unit­ed Nations Con­ven­tion against Transna­tion­al Orga­nized Crime—2000)

Slavery

The sta­tus or con­di­tion of a per­son over whom any or all of the pow­ers attach­ing to the right of own­er­ship are exer­cised. (Slav­ery, Servi­tude, Forced Labour and Sim­i­lar Insti­tu­tions and Prac­tices Con­ven­tion —1926)

Enslavement

The exer­cise of any or all of the pow­ers attach­ing to the right of own­er­ship over a per­son and includes the exer­cise of such pow­er in the course of traf­fick­ing in per­sons, in par­tic­u­lar women and chil­dren. (Rome Statute of the Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court—2002)

Practices Similar to Slavery

The act of con­vey­ing or attempt­ing to con­vey slaves from one coun­try to anoth­er by what­ev­er means of trans­port, or of being acces­so­ry there­to; the act of muti­lat­ing, brand­ing or oth­er­wise mark­ing a slave or a per­son of servile sta­tus in order to indi­cate his sta­tus, or as a pun­ish­ment, or for any oth­er rea­son, or of being acces­so­ry there­to. (Sup­ple­men­tary

Con­ven­tion on the Abo­li­tion of Slav­ery, the Slave Trade, and Insti­tu­tions and Prac­tices Sim­i­lar to Slavery—1956)

Servitude

The sta­tus or con­di­tion of depen­den­cy of a per­son who is unlaw­ful­ly com­pelled or coerced by anoth­er to ren­der any ser­vice to the same per­son or to oth­ers and who has no rea­son­able alter­na­tive but to per­form the ser­vice. Servi­tude shall include domes­tic ser­vice and debt bondage. (Ear­ly draft of the Unit­ed Nations Pro­to­col to Pre­vent, Sup­press and Punish

Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons, Espe­cial­ly Women and Children—2000)

Slave Trade

All acts involved in the cap­ture, acqui­si­tion or dis­pos­al of a per­son with intent to reduce him to slav­ery; all acts involved in the acqui­si­tion of a slave with a view to sell­ing or exchang­ing him; all acts of dis­pos­al by sale or exchange of a slave acquired with a view to being sold or exchanged, and, in gen­er­al, every act of trade or trans­port in slaves.

(Slav­ery, Servi­tude, Forced Labour and Sim­i­lar Insti­tu­tions and Prac­tices Convention—1926)

Debt Bondage

The sta­tus or con­di­tion aris­ing from a pledge by a debtor of his per­son­al ser­vices or of those of a per­son under his con­trol as secu­ri­ty for a debt, if the val­ue of those ser­vices as rea­son­ably assessed is not applied towards the liq­ui­da­tion of the debt or the length and nature of those ser­vices are not respec­tive­ly lim­it­ed and defined.

(Sup­ple­men­tary Con­ven­tion on the Abo­li­tion of Slav­ery, the Slave Trade, and Insti­tu­tions and Prac­tices Sim­i­lar to Slavery—1956)

Forced Labor

All work or ser­vice which is exact­ed from any per­son under the men­ace of any penal­ty and for which the said per­son has not offered him­self vol­un­tar­i­ly. (Inter­na­tion­al Labour Organ­i­sa­tion Con­ven­tion con­cern­ing Forced or Com­pul­so­ry Labour—1932)

Severe Forms of Trafficking in Persons

  1. Sex traf­fick­ing in which a com­mer­cial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coer­cion, or in which the per­son induced to per­form such act has not attained 18 years of age; or
  2. The recruit­ment, har­bor­ing, trans­porta­tion, pro­vi­sion, or obtain­ing of a per­son for labor or ser­vices, through the use of force, fraud, or coer­cion for the pur­pose of sub­jec­tion to invol­un­tary servi­tude, peon­age, debt bondage, or slav­ery. [Sec. 103(8)]

Sex Trafficking

The recruit­ment, har­bor­ing, trans­porta­tion, pro­vi­sion, or obtain­ing of a per­son for the pur­pose of a com­mer­cial sex act [Sec. 103(9)]

Commercial Sex Act

Any sex act on account of which any­thing of val­ue is giv­en to or received by any per­son [Sec. 103(3)]

Involuntary Servitude

A con­di­tion of servi­tude induced by means of:

  1. Any scheme, plan, or pat­tern intend­ed to cause a per­son to believe that, if the per­son did not enter into or con­tin­ue in such con­di­tion, that per­son or anoth­er per­son would suf­fer seri­ous harm or phys­i­cal restraint; or
  2. The abuse or threat­ened abuse of the legal process [Sec. 103(5)]

Debt Bondage

The sta­tus or con­di­tion of a debtor aris­ing from a pledge by the debtor of his or her per­son­al ser­vices or of those of a per­son under his or her con­trol as a secu­ri­ty for debt, if the val­ue of those ser­vices as rea­son­ably assessed is not applied toward the liq­ui­da­tion of the debt or the length and nature of those ser­vices are not respec­tive­ly lim­it­ed and defined. [Sec. 103(4)]

Coercion

  1. Threats of seri­ous harm to or phys­i­cal restraint against any person;
  2. Any scheme, plan, or pat­tern intend­ed to cause a per­son to believe that fail­ure to per­form an act would result in seri­ous harm to or phys­i­cal restraint against any per­son; or
  3. The abuse or threat­ened abuse of the legal process. [Sec. 103(2)]

FORMS OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS

VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING BILL OF RIGHTS

Vic­tims of Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons Are to Be Treat­ed with Dig­ni­ty, Fair­ness, Com­pas­sion and Respect for Human Rights

BENEFITS WHICH SHOULD BE GRANTED TO VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING

Vic­tims of Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons Are to Be Treat­ed with Dig­ni­ty, Fair­ness, Com­pas­sion and Respect for Human Rights

FORMS OF SEX TRAFFICKING

FORMS OF LABOR TRAFFICKING

FORMS OF TRAFFICKING IN CHILDREN

THE FIVE Ps

The out­lined mea­sures are not exhaus­tive, but rather illus­tra­tive of the most impor­tant mea­sures that must be tak­en to com­bat traf­fick­ing in persons

THE FIVE Vs

THE THREE Rs

The out­lined mea­sures are not exhaus­tive, but rather illus­tra­tive of the most impor­tant mea­sures that must be tak­en to com­bat traf­fick­ing in persons

PREVENTION

ASSISTANCE AND PROTECTION

The out­lined mea­sures are not exhaus­tive, but rather illus­tra­tive of the most impor­tant mea­sures that must be tak­en to com­bat traf­fick­ing in persons

PROTECTION OF VICTIMS

The out­lined mea­sures are not exhaus­tive, but rather illus­tra­tive of the most impor­tant mea­sures that must be tak­en to com­bat traf­fick­ing in persons

THE INTERNET AND MODERN TECHNOLOGY 

  • How Tech­nol­o­gy Con­tributes to the Traf­fick­ing Infra­struc­ture. Rapid com­mu­ni­ca­tion through the Inter­net and through inter­na­tion­al tele­phone net­works facil­i­tates traf­fick­ing in per­sons by increas­ing the abil­i­ty to meet the demand for sex­u­al ser­vices. The Inter­net is used to pro­mote sex tourism, view and pur­chase child pornog­ra­phy, and assist in pro­mot­ing the mail order bride indus­try. The Inter­net also assists in meet­ing the demand for labor by adver­tis­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties abroad. The Inter­net assists orga­nized crim­i­nal groups involved in traf­fick­ing by the ille­gal laun­der­ing of mon­ey through elec­tron­ic com­merce and the abil­i­ty to move large sums of mon­ey quick­ly around the world. The Inter­net has also removed the pur­chas­er from the process, less­en­ing the buyer’s chances of being caught and remov­ing the stigma­ti­za­tion that could come from know­ing­ly pur- chas­ing sex.

 

  •  How Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy can be used to Com­bat Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons. Although the Inter­net con­tributes to the traf­fick­ing infra­struc­ture, its effec­tive use, along with oth­er forms of Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy, can also assist in com­bat­ing traf­fick­ing in persons. 

    A key ele­ment for effec­tive­ly com­bat­ing traf­fick­ing is suc­cess­ful shar­ing of infor­ma­tion. Uti­liz­ing Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy relat­ed ini­tia­tives, includ­ing the Inter­net, web­sites, and com­put­er data­bas­es, will enhance co- ordi­na­tion and infor­ma­tion shar­ing among NGOs, civ­il soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions, and gov­ern­ment and law enforce- ment offi­cials across regions.

    The Inter­net can be used as a means of dis­sem­i­nat­ing infor­ma­tion about anti-traf­fick­ing ini­tia­tives and to edu­cate the pub­lic about the dan­gers and issues sur­round­ing traf­fick­ing in per­sons, as well as pro­mot­ing bilat­er­al and mul­ti­lat­er­al net­work­ing to increase pres­sure and address the prob­lem of traf­fick­ing in persons.

    Com­pre­hen­sive anti-traf­fick­ing data­bas­es could con­nect iso­lat­ed anti-traf­fick­ing groups across regions, pro­vide infor­ma­tion to law enforce­ment and bor­der con­trol offi­cials on miss­ing per­sons sus­pect­ed to be traf­ficked and assist vic­tims and pro­vide accu­rate traf­fick­ing statistics.

    Inter­net laws must be adapt­ed to estab­lish lia­bil­i­ty of the Inter­net ser­vice providers for exploitation.

LACK OF STATISTICS AND DIFFICULTIES WITH DATA COLLECTION

Infor­ma­tion on traf­fick­ing in per­sons is not always easy to obtain. Since the prob­lem is glob­al in nature and is man­i­fest­ed through illic­it inter­na­tion­al mar­kets. Con­se­quent­ly, fur­ther research is need­ed specif­i­cal­ly regard­ing the eco­nom­ic caus­es and con­se­quences of traf­fick­ing, the vol­ume of the trade in peo­ple and the num­bers of vic­tims. A role for aca­d­e­m­ic insti­tu­tions must be empha­sized, indi­vid­u­al­ly con­duct­ing research and incor­po­rat­ing traf­fick­ing in per­sons into the curricula.

THE ALERT APPROACH

There exists an inter­na­tion­al con­sen­sus that traf­fick­ing in per­sons is a com­mon prob­lem which must be defined and con­front­ed. Hav­ing reached that con­sen­sus, the path for­ward rais­es new obsta­cles. These obsta­cles can be sum­ma­rized into five main areas. This is known as the ALERT approach.

A stands for “Accountability”

At the close of 2008, 124 coun­tries had rat­i­fied the UN Pro­to­col. It is impor­tant that coun­tries be held account­able for the imple­men­ta­tion of their oblig­a­tions under the Pro­to­col. One way of ensur­ing account­abil­i­ty is devel­op­ing a mon­i­tor­ing and report­ing mech­a­nism such as a nation­al annu­al report and/or a nation­al spe­cial rapporteur.

L stands for “Legislation”

Most nation­al laws fol­low the UN Pro­to­col. The prob­lem is that the UN Pro­to­col pro­vides for min­i­mum stan­dards for the elim­i­na­tion of traf­fick­ing only. The UN Pro­to­col omits many key pro­vi­sions, such as the prin­ci­ple of non- pun­ish­ment and the grant­i­ng of ben­e­fits to vic­tims irre­spec­tive of tes­ti­mo­ny. By con­trast, the Coun­cil of Europe Con­ven­tion pos­sess­es enhanced stan­dards and is there­fore a viable alter­na­tive to the UN Pro­to­col for nation­al leg­is­la­tures look­ing to pass anti-traf­fick­ing legislation.

E stands for “Education”

The incor­po­ra­tion of traf­fick­ing in per­sons into the human rights cur­ric­u­la of uni­ver­si­ties and the dis­sem­i­na­tion and shar­ing of resources with regard to traf­fick­ing such as would occur with inter­na­tion­al associations.

R stands for “Religion”

Reli­gion can be a pow­er­ful influ­ence in pre­vent­ing traf­fick­ing in per­sons. Many inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions already work with reli­gious groups to engage them in such efforts. It is also true that pros­ti­tu­tion is pro­hib­it­ed by all reli­gions and pre­ven­tion of pros­ti­tu­tion should be a part of any anti-traf­fick­ing effort.

T stands for “Technology”

The Inter­net is used to pro­mote illic­it activ­i­ties, includ­ing sex traf­fick­ing, sex tourism, mail order brides, and pornog­ra­phy. The only inter­na­tion­al con­ven­tion on inter­net crimes is the Coun­cil of Europe Con­ven­tion on Cyber­crime 2000. The drafters of the Coun­cil of Europe Con­ven­tion did not find it nec­es­sary to include tech­nol­o­gy in the def­i­n­i­tion of traf­fick­ing since recruit­ment is a term that is wide enough to include recruit­ment through the Inter­net or oth­er technologies.