Government & Legal Efforts on Human Trafficking
Why the UN is Too Pessimistic About a Rise in Trafficking
Published September 12, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
Not everyone has the ovaries to do this, but I'm gonna disagree with the UN. According to a new UN report, crappy world conditions like global recession, female infanticide, and poverty will breed more crappy world conditions like human trafficking into a big depressing spiral. Sure, things are rough and might get a little rougher, but here's why I think that despite the bump in exploitation the recession will initially bring, the future looks rosier than the UN claims.
1. We're getting over our obsession with sex (trafficking). The UN points out that many countries are still struggling to identify and help victims of labor trafficking, even if they've gotten pretty good at finding slaves in commercial sex. But all over the world, NGOs and governments are starting to expand their focus to include labor trafficking victims as well as sex trafficking victims. It's a long way to an equal or even proportional labor/sex focus, but we're moving in the right direction.
2. We're finally getting the idea of domestic trafficking. The past three years have seen a significant increase in awareness in many countries that human trafficking is not just about foreign people being moved across borders, but about anyone being enslaved or exploited anywhere. Countries like the U.S., China, and Brazil with huge internal trafficking problems are finally starting to address them.
3. Legislation is being created and improved. Countries from Japan to Nigeria are creating new and better legislation to prevent trafficking, identify and protect victims, and prosecute the traffickers. Yes, there are still some gaping holes in a lot of the laws, but there are also laws where there were none before. And that's improvement.
Sure, it will be an uphill battle over the next few years, but who's to say that won't just result in some well-toned glutes and a healthy appreciation for the challenge. I think the UN is forgetting how much progress we've made and only focusing on how much we have to go. So chin up and smile and little, UN. You might just find that a positive attitude is the first step to progress.
Photo credit: Optimism by billaday
Department of Labor Releases List of Slave-Made Goods
Published September 10, 2009 @ 09:13AM PT
After receiving over 6,200 letters from Change.org community members, the Department of Labor released their long-awaited report on goods produced by child labor and forced labor today. Thank you all for urging DOL to release this important tool for consumers!
This list was mandated by anti-trafficking legislation back in 2005, but the Bush administration dragged their feet for years. Now, thanks to your voices and the hard work of NGOs like Polaris Project and the International Labor Rights Forum, it's finally here. This list is a huge boon for consumers who want to choose slave-free products. With this list, we as consumers can finally hold companies and countries accountable for the slavery they use in making the goods we buy, and we can decisively take action to prevent slavery in the production of consumer goods. Today, we as consumers are more powerful to end slavery than ever before. And you, through Change.org, helped make that happen.
The report tops out at a daunting 194 pages, and can be read in it's entirety here. But let's face it -- no one wants to read 194 page government report, no matter how useful it may be. So here are some of the highlights I've found in my initial read-through:
- The most common goods which have significant incidence of forced and/or child labor are cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, coffee, rice, and cocoa in agriculture; bricks, garments, carpets, and footwear in manufacturing; and gold and coal in mined or quarried goods.
- 122 goods in 58 countries are produced with a significant incidence of forced labor, child labor, or both.
- More goods were found to be made with child labor than forced labor.
There's a long, detailed list that's a little blandly formatted, but it indicates whether goods in a certain country are made with child labor, forced labor, or both. It's important to keep in mind this doesn't mean all goods from that sector in that country were produced with exploitation. Here are some of the worst offenders for forced labor or slavery specifically:
- Bolivia: nuts, cattle, corn, and sugar
- Burma: bamboo, beans, bricks, jade, nuts, rice rubber, rubies, sesame, shrimp, sugarcane, sunflowers, and teak
- China: artificial flowers, bricks, Christmas decorations, coal, cotton, electronics, garments, footwear, fireworks, nails, and toys
- India: bricks, carpets, cottonseed, textiles, and garments
- Nepal: bricks, carpets, textiles, and stones
- North Korea: bricks, cement, coal, gold, iron, and textiles
- Pakistan: bricks, carpet, coal, cotton, sugar, and wheat
I'm sure in the coming weeks and months there will be additional levels of analysis of the data the DOL has collected. For example, I would be extremely interested in the most natural next step -- finding out what companies source problem products from problem countries and ship them to the U.S. I'd also be interested in seeing the breakdown for services, which is not included in this report. Hopefully, we can look forward to that level of analysis coming soon. And if not, I might just go ahead and do it myself.
In the meantime, this report gives consumers a lot to keep in mind as they try and shop responsibly. I know I'll be checking to see if my Christmas decorations were made in China a little more closely this year.
I urge you all to write a quick note of thanks to the DOL for this report in the comments section to let them know how happy we are to have this information.
Photo credit: DOL.gov
Feudalism Still Practised in Pakistan
Published September 01, 2009 @ 02:50PM PT
What do 13th century France and modern-day Pakistan have in common? Feudalism -- a system where a tiny minority of people own the vast majority of the land. In medieval Europe, feudalism was one of the major reasons innovation came to a screeching halt for several hundred years and leeches were considered medicinal. In modern-day Pakistan, feudalism is keeping men, women, and children in bonded labor across the country.
Here's how bonded labor in Pakistan works. Let's say I'm part of the 10% of men (and they are almost all men) lucky enough to own 90% of land in Pakistan. I need someone to harvest the crops on my land, so I go into a village and find a poor family with children. I offer to take two of their sons to my farm, and feed and house the kids. All the kids have to do is sign a contract to work off their room and board. I'm not going to pay the kids, but I'll send the family a portion of my crops. The kids sign, I take them to my farm, and I invent a massive debt their room and board is costing me that they can never pay off. So, I get free labor for life and for only the cost of a tiny potion of my harvest. The system is not very different from that of medieval Europe.
Previous efforts to address debt bondage and slavery in Pakistan have revolved around legal intervention, humanitarian efforts, and public education. These are all great things, but the fact is that Pakistan is operating as a feudal society. And in a feudal society, there are serfs, or as we now call them, bonded laborers. But unlike 13th century France where almost all serfs were exploited in agriculture, Pakistanis are exploited in a number of industries, including brick kilns, carpet weaving, mining, glass-bangle manufacturing units, tanneries, domestic work and beggary. It's a diversified portfolio of a feudal society, but its still the dark ages.
In order to address bonded labor in Pakistan, we need a new approach which takes into account the archaic systems Pakistan has long relied on. Otherwise, Pakistan might never see its own Renaissance.
Photo credit: Little Farmer by Sparkle_lavalamp
Why Obama's "Neo-Socialism" Might Prevent Human Trafficking
Published August 31, 2009 @ 01:50PM PT
President Obama has been accused of a lot -- everything from being a Kenyan wearing a big-eared American mask to thinking there are 57 states in the U.S. But nothing beats the conservative right wing's pitch-fork-wielding, torch-brandishing cries of "Socialist! Socialist!" for the Misinformed, Knee-Jerk Accusation of the Year Award. In fact, President Obama's brand of "neo-socialism" just might prevent human trafficking in the U.S.
Robert Fisher points out that many of our socialist-under-the-bed fears stem from a huge cultural misunderstanding that socialism and communism are the same thing. Socialism and communism are like the Olson twins -- they're related, but one is a lot more healthy and functional. Socialism is an economic system advocating some level of public ownership and administration of production and resources, and it can operate effectively with democracy. Communism is a political system with one form of government and usually one party, and it cannot operate effectively with democracy. Socialism has actually been slowly and increasingly incorporated into the U.S. economy for over a century in the form of social programs and "safety nets" like food assistance, Medicaid, and other programs that are often the subject of political debate. So while some might throw around the term "neo-socialist" intending it to mean "corrupt Trotsky-worshipper," "neo-socialism" is just a logical extension of the slow expansion of the social welfare state that's been underway since the Magna Carta.
And "neo-socialism" has the possibility to do great things, like prevent human trafficking in the U.S. Over 100,000 American children are trafficked into the commercial sex industry each year -- not from other countries but from places like Ohio, Kansas, and Oregon. For the most part, these children are vulnerable to pimps and traffickers because they come from the foster care system, from families with addiction issues, from abusive parents, from impovrished neighborhoods, and from under-resourced school systems. The continued growth and evolution of the social welfare state will address a lot of these root causes of human trafficking in the U.S. When given access to the resources a developed and evolved "neo-socialist" fiscal policy provides, the children who are today lured from bus stops into brothels might still be in school. The young girls who turn to pimps because system after system has failed them might not be failed at all. And that's nothing to shake a pitch-fork at.
So President Obama, go ahead and fill that White House moat with alligators for when the angry mob comes calling, but don't be afraid of the "S-word." You could become the president whose bold, progressive policies finally put a dent in the growing number of trafficked children in America. And remember -- if the right-wingers get past your defenses, you can always put Biden in your spare Obama costume and hideout in Kenya.
Polygamy and Prostitution
Published August 27, 2009 @ 12:50PM PT
What do men who use prostitutes and polygamists have in common? According to Marci Hamilton, quite a lot. They are both populations of men who get away with raping, abusing, and degrading women, even in places where what they're doing is illegal. And like polygamists, johns are rarely prosecuted.
I've never really heard johns and polygamists compared in such stark terms, but I think Hamilton may be on to something. Both prostitution and polygamy reduce a woman to a commodity. In prostitution, a woman becomes an object, a tool for the pleasure of a man no more human than a sex toy. Because the transaction of prostitution is about money, (not mutual desire, affection or pleasure), it commodifies as woman's body and values it only as a means of male pleasure. In polygamy, a woman also becomes an object, though in this case a tool of reproduction, social status, and occasionally pleasure for a man. Polygamy, as is practiced in fundamentalist religious communities, values women as commodities- suppliers of children. They are just as much a machine designed to work for men as women in prostitution are.
Prostitution and polygamy are both symptomatic and catalystic of a fundamental gender inequality, where women are objectified and commodified without regard to their humanity or agency. And yet, the male perpetrators of both these crimes, the johns and the polygamist husbands, are rarely held accountable for their actions. I once worked on a case where a 40-something man was caught having sex with a 15-year-old girl, for whom he had paid $200. The police arrested the girl, put her in the back of the cop car, and brought her to jail. They told the man what he was doing was wrong, but let him drive away. When asked later why the cop let the john go, he replied,
"He had a wife, and I thought it would be bad to embarrass him like that."
Having sex with a kid should be embarrassing! It sould be a lot more embarrassing, in fact, it should result in an actual punishment. How are we afraid to embarass men who are engaging in prostitution, but we're not afraid to embarass the women and girls?
What interests me the most about the parallels between prostitution and polygamy is that many people who see prostitution as an opportunity for empowerment for women see polygamy as the opposite. In fact, I would argue the contrary. Prostitution and polygamy share more common values than dissimilar ones. Those values include a view of women as tools of men, female bodies as tradable commodities, and social superiority of men over women.
Photo credit: Jasonsager
Change.org Reader, Survivor Finds Justice After 10 Years
Published August 21, 2009 @ 11:22AM PT
Even in the darkness that human trafficking casts over the world, we occasionally find a bright ray of light. That ray shone on me today from a survivor named Privilege, whom I have been very lucky to correspond with.
Privilege first contacted me last March, hoping to find a way to share her story with the world. She had been brought to the U.S. by a husband who brutally abused her. And against all odds, she had managed to escape that abuse and ask for justice. Yet years later, she was still waiting for the U.S. government to grant her a U Visa, which would give her temporary legal status and work eligibility in the United States for up to 4 years. Without that visa, Privilege couldn't get a job to support her children. She couldn't truly feel free. She asked me to publish her story and I did, because it needed to be told.
Today, after an almost decade-long struggle, Privilege received the news that she was a U visa recipient, and her new life in America could begin in full. She says,
Today my attorney called me to inform me that I am now a U Visa recipient!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can now earn a living for myself and decide how my life will go!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been waiting two months short of ten years for this moment. There is a God out there and He has smiled on me! Thank you to everyone who prayed for me and called and wrote to USCIS on my behalf. A new day has dawned. I hope and pray that the waiting period will be even less for those that follow in my steps!
Good luck to you, Privilege, and to your family. I know having overcome so much, you will continue to do great things. We at Change.org are happy to have been of service to you in your quest for justice.
Who's Stealing Little Black Girls?
Published August 13, 2009 @ 08:05AM PT
Across America, young African-American girls are vanishing from homes, schools, and neighborhoods and reappearing in brothels, escort agencies, and strip clubs. But what's happening to them isn't magic- it's slavery. And the insidious part of the trick is that no one seems to be helping them.
Across America, about 800,000 children are reported missing each year, 33% of which are African-American. In New York City last year, half of reported missing children were black and 60% were female. And these aren't 17-and-a-half-year-olds; most of the girls were between 13 and 15. Other urban areas like Atlanta, Washington DC, Chicago, and Los Angeles with large African-American populations also have high instances of young black girls being kidnapped or "running away". But what's happening to these girls? Surely they don't vanish into thin air?
They vanish, in fact, into pimps' pockets; these girls end up as trafficking victims in the commercial sex industry. Some meet pimps on the street and are deceived or coerced into street prostitution. Others are forced into strip clubs or filmed for pornography. Still others are advertised on Craigslist, escort agency websites, and other corners of the Internet. They are just as much human trafficking victims as the Vietnamese women enslaved in brothels in Thailand or the Guatemalan girl held in a home in El Paso.
However, many law enforcement agents still understand human trafficking as an international crime and seek it out primarily among communities of immigrants. According to the AMBER Ready Inc./Foundation,
Law enforcement in general only discusses human trafficking in terms of the Asian and Latino immigrant population while ignoring the threat to young and under-aged indigenous Black and Latino women.
In addition to the lack of attention by law enforcement, significant public outcry has claimed missing black kids are not featured in the national mainstream media as much as missing white kids. In an entirely un-scientific study, I thought about the last few missing kids I remember, and yes, all of them were white. I live in Washington, DC, a majority African-American area, and all I can remember are stories of missing white kids. True, my memory could be faulty, but I think few would argue that missing black and white kids get truly equal time on the national news.
So between a faulty understanding of human trafficking and a racially-biased national media, young black girls are falling through not so much cracks as gaping holes in America's safety nets. And at the bottom of those holes are pimps waiting to make money and johns wanting to "get lucky". At the bottom of those holes is a life of rape and abuse and slavery.
We know who's stealing little black girls, and they aren't magicians or illusionists. They're human traffickers, and it's time we put an end to their act.
