Government & Legal Efforts on Human Trafficking
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Rhode Island Bans Indoor Prostitution
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Action: Tell the House to Fund Crucial Services for Human Trafficking Survivors Today
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Georgia Supreme Court: Let Teen Strippers Take It Off
Victory in Landmark Human Trafficking Civil Case
Published November 04, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
What does justice look like for a survivor of human trafficking? Is it seeing her pimp handcuffed and sent to prison? Is it hearing his abuser sentenced to 10, 20, or 30 years? Is it reuniting with friends and family who were lost? All of these things can be justice for human trafficking survivors, but increasingly survivors are seeking another kind of justice -- cash. Specifically, they are suing their traffickers. And at least in once case in California this week, they are winning.
In what may be the first case of its kind in California, and one of the first in the country, a trafficked domestic worker brought suit against her former employer and was awarded $768,000, including $500,000 in punitive damages. The case stated that an Indonesian businessman brought the survivor Suminarti to Los Angeles to work in his home. The family confiscated Suminarti's passport, withheld all her pay, required her to work 16 hours a day with no days off, and refused to let her pray at a mosque or visit the Indonesian consulate. They abused Suminarti verbally and psychological, and told her to lie and say she was a family member if law enforcement ever visited the house. The family was convicted og the crime of human trafficking, but Suminarti wanted the sort of justice that civil suit could bring.
Her victory is indicative of a number of positive developments in the anti-human trafficking field.
Zimbabwe Still Exporting Blood Diamonds
Published November 02, 2009 @ 03:48PM PT
The folks over at the Kimberly Process certification scheme, the main body responsible for certifying diamonds as "conflict-free", have threatened to suspend Zimbabwe's participation in the program for six months. It appears Zimbabwe is still seeing a great deal of human rights abuses, exploitation, and slavery in the diamond industry.
The Kimberley Process (KP) is a coalition of governments, diamond industry representatives, and civil society stakeholders, which was created to stem the flow of conflict diamonds from countries in Africa to global markets. Rough diamonds have been used by rebel movements to finance wars against legitimate governments, and the diamond industry has become notorious for exploitation and slavery, especially of children. The trade conflict diamonds has fuelled devastating conflicts in countries such as Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone and resulted in the abuse of thousands of workers and children. The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) imposes extensive requirements on participating members to enable them to certify shipments of rough diamonds as ‘conflict-free’.
Zimbabwe's eastern diamond fields are the areas currently being questioned by the KP. Human Rights Watch has accused the military of killing a number of diamond diggers in the area and using the gems recovered from the dead diggers to line their own pockets. Zimbabwe is also accused of not having stringent enough regulations in place to prevent abuse in the diamond industry. A KP inspector recently recommended that Zimbabwe be barred from importing or exporting rough diamonds within the Process for at least six months "until such time as a KP team determines that minimum standards have been met." Such a ban would be a huge blow to the diamond industry in that country, but might also allow KP members to put the additional regulations in place to help prevent exploitation in the industry.
It's comforting to know the folks at KP are actively monitoring all of their members, and that they aren't hesitating to call one out for failing to live up to the rigorous standards KP insists on. But it's still important to know where the diamonds you buy have come from and how or if they are certified. You can find a wide selection of Fair Trade diamond and gold jewelry at Brilliant Earth's website.
Photo credit: swamibu
Why Human Trafficking is Not a Hoax
Published October 22, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
Every few years, some big study tries to find instances of human trafficking and fails to find them in any significant number. And every time this happens, fiscal conservatives and others come out of the woodwork and claim that the failed study is proof that human trafficking exists only in the imaginations of liberals, evangelicals, federal agents, social service providers, feminists, police officers, organized criminals, immigration officials, parents... you get the idea. Human trafficking was not a hoax before the recent failed study in the UK, and it won't be a hoax after the failure blows over.
The Pentameter study in the UK sought to root out human trafficking in the commercial sex industry by assigning 55 units of police officers to investigate human trafficking. And despite the fact that author Nick Davies begins his article in The Guardian claiming they found not a single trafficker, they actually found several, five of whom were eventaully convicted. But they didn't find the broad and sweeping numbers of victims that they originally thought they would. Is it because there really were only five traffickers on all the UK? Probably not. There are a multitude of reasons this particular study might have failed: the police didn't know what to look for, the victims lied, the traffickers moved the victims before getting caught, the police looked in the wrong places, etc. and so forth.
But the reasons why this study may have failed are not nearly as important as the many, many other studies that have shown human trafficking does exist and in significant numbers. The UN just estimated that 270,000 victims live in the EU right now. The U.S. State Department ballparks the number of individuals trafficked globally at 800,000 each year, with 17,000 of those being brought to the U.S. The International Labor Organization has also weighed in, claiming 2.4 million trafficking victims around the world. I could go on, but that would be quite boring to read. The point is, sometimes studies fail, but that doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist. Many issues, like global warming, that were once denounced as liberal conspiracy based a some flawed or failed studies have been proven to be real and dangerous phenomenon.
The field of human trafficking desperately needs more studies, sounder methodologies, and better statistics so we can appropriately address what's actually happening. I don't know anyone who works in this area who disagrees that we need to know more. But we need most is an actual field of academic literature on this subject. Right now we have one study that says human trafficking is real and one that calls it a hoax. We have one estimate that there are 27 million moder-day slaves in the world and one that says 500,000. When the information is so different, it's almost impossible to make policy decisions based on it.
For the time being, here are my answers. If you are person who loves math, statistics, and research methodologies, please go into this field. If you already in this field, do more and better research. And if you are an activist for this cause, please don't give up on the very real victims out there while the academics get their act together.
Photo credit: photogirl17
South Korea's Disposable People
Published October 20, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
Abolitionist Kevin Bales was the first to coin the term "disposable people" as a reference to modern-day slavery. It's remained a popular term because it has both great descriptive power and great accuracy. Victims of human trafficking are treated temporary, replaceable items -- not individual human beings. Amnesty International has recently shined a light on one group of people who are particularly treated as such -- migrant laborers in South Korea.
South Korea was actually one of the first Asian countries to grant equal rights to migrant workers, including the same status as Korean workers. In 2004, they passed legislation guaranteeing equal labor rights, pay, and benefits for all migrant workers. However, five years later, many migrant workers continue to face the hardships and abuse they experienced before legal reform. Workers often work with heavy machinery and dangerous chemicals without sufficient training or protective equipment, putting them at greater risk of accidents and fatalities. They receive less pay than South Korean workers in the same jobs. Female migrant workers face sexual harassment, rape, and trafficking into prostitution. Many workers have had wages withheld without cause and been cheated out of wages.
South Korea is an example of the importance of implementation of law. On the books, migrant workers have great legal protections and full rights. However, in reality, no mechanism for implementing the law exists. Workplaces are not monitored for safety violations, the claims of unfair dismissals and wage theft are not addressed. Unfortunately, this sort of situation is not unique to South Korea. Since the U.S. began issuing it's annual Trafficking in Persons report and rating countries on their efforts to combat human trafficking, more countries have passed better anti-trafficking legislation. Strong laws are important, but ultimately meaningless if the country lacks any mechanism to enforce that law. Too often, strong anti-trafficking laws have failed to make a difference in the lives of at-risk and trafficked people because of a lack of enforcement. We should learn from South Korea's example that the "how" of law is often just as imporant as the "what."
Until a better enforcement mechanism is in place, Amnesty International is asking South Korea to do the following:
- to ensure that employers respect, protect and promote the rights of migrant workers through rigorous labour inspections so that the workplace is safe, training is provided and migrant workers are paid fairly and on time;
- to protect and promote the rights of all female migrant workers and stamp out sexual harassment and sexual exploitation;
- to allow irregular migrant workers to remain in South Korea while accessing justice and seeking compensation for abuses by employees; and
- to ensure that during immigration raids, immigration authorities adhere to South Korean law requiring them to identify themselves, present a warrant, caution and inform migrant workers of their rights, and provide those under their custody prompt medical treatment when needed or requested.
Photo credit: 2017
Supreme Court to Hear "S&M Svengali" Sex Trafficking Case
Published October 16, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
When she took the job, Sotomayor might not have known she's be talking about whips and handcuffs at work. But that's what will happen when the issue of human trafficking with be put before the Supreme Court in early 2010. And how does human trafficking make it's first appearance at the SCOTUS? In the form of a case that involves S&M, slavery, and some other pretty unsavory sexual stuff. Glenn Marcus, the man dubbed the "S&M Svengali", was convicted of sex trafficking in 2001 and has appealed his case all the way up the legal food chain. It's a case that has potential ramifications for trafficking victims everywhere.
Here's what happened: Marcus had an S&M-themed website in the late 1990s which featured photos of women who were his "slaves" undergoing various levels of physical abuse. He met a woman who court documents just call "Jodi," and she agreed to be on the website. At this point, two stories diverge. Jodi claims Marcus took the relationship too far -- that he forced her to do things she didn't want to do and then write about them for the site. She couldn't escape, and was effectively a slave in real life, although she started out only portraying one on a website. Marcus, on the other hand, claims that everything was consensual and part of Jodi's employment contract. Apparently, even the parts where he carved the word "slave" into her stomach with a knife, shaved her head, and whipped her brutally were part of her contract.
The reason SCOTUS has agreed to hear this case is that the abuse Marcus inflicted on Jodi took place between 1999 and 2001. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the law under which Marcus was prosecuted and convicted, was passed in 2000. Marcus's lawyers claim that Marcus's behavior was so different before and after October 2000, that the jury may have only convicted him on evidence prior to the passage of the law. Even if that is the case, was none of his behavior illegal before? I'm pretty sure carving a word into someone's stomach against their will has never been ok.
I'm worried about the affect this case will have on the abolitionist movement for two reasons. One, I think the S&M connection will only confuse SCOTUS's understanding of sex trafficking. Human trafficking and S&M, with the notable exception of this case, are not really connected. Sex trafficking is not about the sort of activities which take place between the victim and perpetrator, but rather the victim's consent to the situation and ability to get out of it. I'm worried that the presence of S&M will bring the court's focus on the wrong set of issues. Secondly, this case could have an impact for victims who were trafficked before 2000. It is dangerous to set a legal precedent where being trafficked before 2000 and after 2000 (instead of just after) may weaken a case.
I'll be following this case closely and will keep you updated on what our good friends on the SCOTUS decide. Hopefully, they're be able to look past the chain-mail-and-leather packaging on this case and see the central issues beneath -- abuse, consent, and slavery.
Photo credit: laura padgett
Orange County Seeks Happy Ending to Massage Parlor Ads
Published October 14, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
The Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force can't get a decent massage. Maybe that's because the pages of their newspaper, and newspapers nationwide including the Washington Post, are full of ads for "massage parlors" featuring partially clothed, unlicensed female "masseuses." It's one of the most transparent fronts for prostitution and human trafficking still legally advertised, and people are increasingly calling for an end to the ads.
One of the beautiful parts of the American justice system is that people are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The same holds true for business activities -- they are presumed legal until they are proven illegal. It's legal to post an add promising massages by women in fishnets who just turned 18. It's legal to cover these ads with non-nude sexual imagery aimed at an exclusively male audience. But it's not legal (in most of the U.S.) to run a brothel and it's not legal to sell trafficked women anywhere. So how do you know which massage business are legal and which are illegal? Enter, law enforcement. It's their job to determine if a seemingly-legal business is actually a front for something illegal. A favorite tool of law enforcement to accomplish this is conducting raids in massage parlors they find suspicious, with results varying from ecstatic thanks from newly freed trafficking victims to deportations of undocumented women voluntarily in prostitution to significant abuse by the police. It is certainly a flawed system, but one which does achieve its aims much of the time.
There is one element which I often find missing when we talk about the connection between massage parlors, prostitution, and human trafficking: common sense. Let's face it -- many of these ads are painfully obvious as covers for illegal commercial sex. I think we often get so caught up in legal definitions, we forget to use our common sense as a test for what's legitimate and what's not. Legitimate massage ads tend to focus on their licensed therapists, spa services, relaxing atmosphere, hygiene standards, and quality of service. Illegitimate massage ads tend to focus on the age or race of their masseuses, the "eroticness" of the massage, and men as a target audience. Sure, some of these ads are more nuanced and deceptive, but many of them look and feel obviously illegitimate. If the common sense test comes out with a score of sketchy, then the trickier question becomes whether a massage parlor is an illegal brothel full of trafficking victims and/or children or women who have voluntarily entered prostitution.
It's important to approach this intersection between massage parlors, prostitution, and human trafficking with a solid knowledge of legal codes and a strategic plan to work with law enforcement. But it's also important for activists to use their common sense about what is being advertised in their newspapers and speak out about it. Police can raid only so many massage parlor brothels. But when newspapers have gotten enough complaints from readers about running these ads in the past, they've stopped. And no advertising means less business for pimps and less incentive for traffickers.
Photo credit: thomaswanhoff
Porsche Investigates Forced Labor Under Hitler
Published October 13, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
With the galactically-high price tag that comes with a Porsche, you'd think each of the people involved in making one are being paid pretty handsomely. That might be the case today, but it wasn't always so. Porsche has admitted to using forced labor in their factories during Hitler's regime in Germany before and during WWII, and are now investigating the extent of the abuses.
Porsche has owned up to enslaving at least 50 workers during that period, but journalist and researcher Ulrich Viehoefer claims that up to 300 might have been enslaved during that period, and possibly more. 300 people might not seem like a huge number, but it represents over half of the workforce of Porsche at the time. Porsche has thus far paid 2.5 million euros in reparations to victims of forced labor in their factories, but the discovery of an additional 300 could increase that amount.
Why is it important that Porsche is investigating allegations of forced slavery over 60 years ago? For one, it sets a great precedent for companies that abused or enslaved workers in Nazi Germany and under other regimes with a general disdain for human rights to face up to their history. The reparations especially could help pave the way for other companies to repay the individuals and families of those they have wrong. The investigation also practically puts a halo on Porsche's head -- so few corporations are willing to examine, much less address, serious human rights abuses in their past. The investigation has the potential not just to help Porsche's former victims, but cement better labor practices for Porsche and it's competitors.
So props to Porsche for taking on a hard but important task. Hopefully their initiative and focus on justice will help encourage other companies -- you know who you are -- to address historical human rights abuses. After all, if you can't face the problems in your past, how can you face the problems in your present?
Photo credit: stephenhanafin
