Human Trafficking in Africa
Somali Judge Who Sentenced Pirates, Traffickers Is Assassinated
Published November 12, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
Today is a sad day for human rights and a victory for pirates. And not the funny, grog-swilling eye-patch wearing pirates, the real kind of pirates who kill people. Sheikh Mohamed Abdi Aware, a Somali judge who took a stand for justice by sentencing pirates, human traffickers, and Islamist insurgents was assassinated today outside a mosque in Bosasso, Somalia. The region where Judge Aware was shot is only partially controlled by the Somali government, and it is on a well-traveled human trafficking route that smuggles Somali and other East African people into Yemen to be exploited in forced labor or prostitution. His story is a reminder of the dear price some human rights champions pay.
Throughout his career as a judge, Aware sentenced hundreds of human traffickers and smugglers to jail in Somalia. He also sentenced pirates and other organized criminals to long prison sentences. In a country where corruption and bribery are not uncommon, standing up to powerful criminal gangs in this way was both rare and a true act of courage. Corruption of officials like judges, police officers, and local leaders is one of the largest facilitators of human trafficking world-wide. Aware was a man who existed outside that corruption.
Friends and family of Aware think he was killed by gangs of pirates or human traffickers. He was in fact shot in a region of Somalia where human trafficking flourishes, and where traffickers and their networks control much of the infrastructure. Bosasso is on the tip of Somalia which juts out into the Persian Gulf, a short boat ride from Yemen. This corridor is often used to traffic African workers to the Middle East.
Perhaps one of the saddest parts of this ordeal is that Aware's case is far from unique in the world.
Kraft Foods Commits to Buy More Sustainable Cocoa
Published November 05, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
Kraft Foods, makers of Chips Ahoy and Oreo cookies (among others) has committed to buy 30,000 tons of Rain Forest Alliance certified cocoa beans to use in their products. In 2005, Kraft bought a smaller amount of certified beans from Cote d'Ivoire, but this move indicates a stronger commitment to fair and sustainable cocoa than ever before. Good job, Kraft Foods, for making a good choice in where your cocoa comes from.
As I've mentioned many times before, child labor, human trafficking, and abuses of workers are rampant in the cocoa industry, especially along the West Coast of Africa. Children enslaved and abused in the cocoa industry are made to work excruciatingly long days, and are often beaten if they try and leave or refuse to work. Many have been forced to pick cocoa with open wounds or covered in their own excrement. The cocoa farms of the Ivory Coast where some of the worst cases of child slavery and labor exploitation have been found are also the world's largest supplier of cocoa, making up 40% of the global market. The cocoa industry needs reform, and it needs it now.
To Better Know a Country: Human Trafficking in South Africa
Published November 04, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
Every year, the U.S. State Department releases a Trafficking in Persons report which rates countries on their efforts to combat human trafficking. Each week, I'll be providing a brief glance at human trafficking in one of those countries, based off the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report, with my own (often snarky) analysis added. This is just a snapshot of what's going on in the country. For more information, you can check out the full text of the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report here.
This Week's Country..... South Africa
Basic Stats
- Ranking: Tier 2
- Status: Source, transit, and destination country for trafficking victims
- Political Stability:It seems racial justice is actually good for a country. Who'da thought?
- Cash Flow:They are to the rest of Africa what Donald Trump is to me: someone a lot richer who isn't going to give the money away.
- Do I Think They Care?: Yes, but they're making a lot of bad policy calls.
Who Are the Victims and What Are They Doing?
- Women:commercial sex, domestic servitude
- Girls: commercial sex, domestic servitude, forced marriage, sex tourism
- Med: forced labor in mobile factories
- Boys:forced street vending, begging, crime, agriculture
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
Taken in the Night: Martin's True Story of Slavery
Published October 21, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
This story is originally from Reuters. While Uganda has become the most famous backdrop for stories of children trafficked to become child soldiers, it is not the only country where they are currently being exploited. Child soldiers have been used in conflicts all over Asia and Africa, including being used by the Taliban as suicide bombers. But Martin's story represents the experience of many child soldiers in Uganda.
I was 10 years old when the Lord's Resistance Army came to my door in the middle of the night. They ordered me to leave my home and come with them. In my district, we had heard about the atrocities they were committing, and so we were all terrified. The men looted my house, taking chickens, goats, and clothes. Then they took me. My cousins and I, along with other boys, were tied together by our hands. For one whole day we walked like that, trying to dodge the Ugandan army. We walked for a week, until we arrive in southern Sudan to begin our training.
During the day we were taught how to march and how to handle a gun. The mane in charge told us we needed to be ready for battle because President Yoweri Museveni had ordered the Karamoja to ome and raid all the cattle in the countryside and abuse and kill our families. We were told to overthrow the government, which would make Joseph Kony president and life better for us. The commanders told us that overthrowing the government was our main goal, a goal we should be willing to die for. The older boys were the security for the training camp -- forced to kill children if they tried to escape. They did it with a wooden club, and all the children were forced to watch as the offending child was beaten to death. It was meant to be a warning to us all. You would be beaten if you broke even the simplest rules, like not eating pork or shea nut butter. But you would be killed to trying to escape.
I saw my first battle at age 12. I was petrified and freezing, since we were attacking at dawn. Yet, somehow, I survived. For years I kept hopeful that someday I would be able to return home and go back to school. Maybe one day I would be chosen to be part of an operation in Uganda, and from there I could escape home. But that never happened. Instead, we moved from south Sudan to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The commanders claimed the war would be over by 2006, and we could all return home. When it didn't I decided with three others to escape. We managed to sneak away, walking three days until we reached a place near Aba in Congo. There, we found the Congolese army, surrendered ourselves, and explained our situation. News of my escape was broadcast over the radio, and my little brother came to meet me. We were overjoyed to see each other again.
Martin is now free and hopes to go back to school to continue his education.
Photo credit: babasteve
DOL Commits $59 Million to End Child Labor
Published October 01, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
It's nice to see a government agency putting their money where their reports and public statements are (for once). Following up their in-depth report identifying consumer goods made by child and/or forced labor in a number of countries, the Department of Labor has now committed $59 million dollars in grants to help end those practices and remove victims to safety. You can't see it, but I'm having a personal little party right now.
Here's how the breakdown of dollars went regionally:
- Africa: $20.4 million
- Latin America: $15.8 million
- Asia: $15.3 million
The rest of the funds will go to research and the development of a best practices model to prevent child labor. While I'm usually a fan of anything that channels more money to my often-ignored and under-funded friend Africa, I have to question their distribution between Africa and Asia. While Africa has some incredibly serious child trafficking and forced labor issues to address, the industries in Asia which enslave children and workers are much more diverse. Plus, the sheer logistics of getting to rural areas in Asian countries is much harder based on their size, and rural areas is where most of the exploitation is taking place. Arguably, African countries will be less able to put forth their own funds than relatively wealthier Asian countries like India and China, but I would still reconsider the expense of implementing a diversity of programs in the vast rural regions of Asia. It's going to be a huge undertaking.
But despite my difference of opinion on the funding allocations, I'm still celebrating. The reason for my party is that unlike previous administrations, <cough> Bush <cough>, it's good to see that the DOL under Secretary Solis isn't going to talk a big game and then sit on the cash and refuse to take any concrete action. The DOL is also modeling a behavior that we as consumers should pay attention to: if you say you care about this issue, be willing to pay for it. That means we have to be willing to spend a little more for t-shirts, coffee, rugs, and everything else that is made without child or forced labor. But if we're all willing to pay a little more, than no one has to pay a lot, especially enslaved children.
To Better Know A Country: Human Trafficking in Djibouti
Published September 16, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
Every year, the U.S. State Department releases a Trafficking in Persons report which rates countries on their efforts to combat human trafficking. Each week, I'll be providing a brief glance at human trafficking in one of those countries, based off the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report, with my own (often snarky) analysis added. This is just a snapshot of what's going on in the country. For more information, you can check out the full text of the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report here.
This Week's Country..... Djibouti
Basic Stats
- Ranking: Tier 2 Watch List
- Status: Source, transit and destination country for trafficking victims
- Political Stability: Djibouti is to democracy as Simon Cowell is to gushing praise.
- Cash Flow: Like rain in the Sahara
- Do I Think They Care?: They might care more if we stopped giggling at their name
Who Are the Victims and What Are They Doing?
- Women: Commercial sex and domestic servitude
- Girls: Commercial sex
Where Are They Coming From and Where Are They Going?
- Victims are trafficked from Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea to Djibouti.
- Victims from Djibouti are trafficked to the Middle East and some parts of Europe .
- Victims are trafficked through Djibouti fom Ethiopia and Somalia to the Middle East, especially Yemen.
What's Gotta Happen?
- Enforce anti-trafficking laws.
- Educate government officials on all forms of human trafficking.
- Establish victim identification procedures.
What Can I Do?
- You can support Resource Exchange International, an organization which works to support development and communities in Djibouti.
In summary, Djibouti may have a funny name, but its got a serious human trafficking problem. Its location makes it the perfect transit country for slaves being transported from East Africa to the Middle East. Couple with its small size, lack of financial resources, and heavy reliance on foreign aid, Djibouti is a trafficking nightmare. Even if the government steps up efforts and fully commits to fighting trafficking, it will still be a long battle.
