Human Trafficking in Africa
Will 2010 Olympics and World Cup Boost Forced Prostitution?
Published July 14, 2009 @ 12:00PM PT
Next year promises to be a big one for sports fans, with the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada and the World Cup in South Africa. But will those same events make it a big year for pimps and traffickers as well? Do major sporting events boost forced prostitution?
There are competing answers, with both sides using statistics from former world-wide sporting events to support their position. The Future Group recently released a report stating that there was a significant risk of increased trafficking into prostitution in Vancouver during the upcoming Olympics. They cite the comparison of the 2004 Athens Olympics, during which the number of trafficking victims identified in Greece doubled. On the other hand, a different report from Vancouver's Sex Worker Safety Action group says that there will be no significant increase in women forced into prostitution during the Olympics. They cite the 2006 World Cup in Germany, which had no significant increase in the number of trafficking victims identified, despite the high estimates from advocacy groups. It seems very little data is available from the 2008 Beijing games, due to the Chinese government's data censorship.
The logical basis behind the argument that major sporting events pose a threat to increase trafficking of women and children into commercial sex is that these events draw massive numbers of men into one place. Sometimes these men are single, traveling without their families, or in a group of friends; sometimes they are drinking. It stands to reason that some of these men might demand commercial sex as entertainment during their trip, and traffickers will supply the women to meet that increased demand.
It's logical, yes, but does it happen? Athens saw a spike in human trafficking, but Germany did not. Was the difference the prevention campaigns which were conducted in Germany? Was the Olympics perceived as more profitable by the traffickers than the World Cup? Were men at the World Cup in Germany less interested in buying sex than the men in Greece? We may not know for sure, at least not until we have better information.
Both Vancouver and South Africa, as well as a number of international organizations, are preparing for the possible increase in human trafficking in 2010. I hope that other groups are also preparing to collect better data at these events as well, so we can continue to better understand what sorts of events motivate traffickers to force women into prostitution and how we can prevent them from doing so in the future. It would be a true celebration if 2010 were known only for excellence in athletics, and not in exploitation.
Cigarettes: Bad for Workers, Bad for You
Published July 03, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
Big Tobacco can't seem to catch a break these days, poor guys. First everyone starts banning smoking in public because it kills people. Then everyone starts taxing cigarettes because they kill people. And now, all around the world, migrant workers who pick tobacco are making ridiculous requests, like to be paid fairly for their work and not be exposed to deadly chemicals. Poor Big Tobacco!
There is the potential for exploitation in any industry which employs large numbers of migrant workers, and tobacco is no exception. In Malawi, child labor and forced labor have been identified throughout the tobacco industry. In India, children are often enslaved in factories rolling small, unfiltered cigarettes called bidis. Even in the U.S., workers have complained about mistreatment at the hands of employers while picking tobacco.
When I first started researching this issue, I assumed that tobacco is that it is one of the few consumer products which doesn't have a more fair or more sustainable option. Wrong! The UK recently released an ethically-sourced cigarette, which actually gives a portion of the proceeds to support disadvantaged Native American workers. This unexpected dichotomy boggled my progressive brain which commonly defaults to: tobacco=bad, fair trade=good. But what happens when they join forces? My dilemma is illustrated by the contrast between the shiny happy feel-good interracial handshake logo and the giant "SMOKING KILLS" warning on the ethically sourced cigarettes above. Weird.
Can an ethically sourced cigarette be a good thing? Is it just Big Tobacco pushing their addictive, deadly products on children and exploiting their workers which makes the industry terrible, or is it the product itself? Is there a place for small tobacco or fair tobacco? It seems to me that no matter how much the farmers are paid, no matter how much the exploitation is reduced, at the end of the day, it's still a cancer stick.
Image from guardian.co.uk
Is Hershey's Secret Ingredient Child Slavery?
Published June 23, 2009 @ 08:24AM PT
What do you think is the secret ingredient of a Hershey bar? Sugar, milk, or cocoa? What about the slave labor of thousands of children? Across Western Africa, and especially in the Ivory Coast, children are held in slavery and exploitative labor situations. And it's all in the name of chocolate produced by the world's leading corporations.
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 Hershey Company, on their website, specifically mentions sourcing cocoa from the Ivory Coast and Western Africa.
Right now, there is something you and the Hershey Company can do to help ensure that child slavery isn't the secret ingredient in a Hershey Bar. Ask Hershey to end child slavery and go fair trade. The best way to end child slavery in the chocolate industry is for major chocolate companies like Hershey to buy Fair Trade Certified cocoa. Other large chocolate companies like Cadbury and Mars have recently made a commitment to ending child slavery in Africa by buying Fair Trade. However, Hershey has not agreed to any third-party certification programs for their cocoa supply. In fact, Hershey since owns the license to produce Cadbury products in the US, Hershey could become a global leader in Fair Trade cocoa sourcing. But the Hershey Company needs to know that we want an end to child slavery in our chocolate! We want our cocoa to be to be Fair Trade certified!
Please, take five minutes to tell Hershey how important it is for them to help end child slavery in Africa by calling them today at 1-800-468-1714 as part of the International Labor Rights Forum's call-in campaign, or by sending a letter to the Vice President of Marketing and Vice President of Global Sourcing for the Hershey Company here.
Together, we can help end child slavery in cocoa. Because exploitation should never be the secret ingredient.
Freedom for the Weekend: African Tourism Organization
Published June 19, 2009 @ 12:00PM PT
Well, it's Friday afternoon, and that means the weekend is almost here! W00t! Perhaps you're reading this blog because you're bored at work or school and you're thinking about what you want to do this weekend. How about spending part of your weekend fighting slavery? Each week I'll profile a different anti-trafficking nonprofit who you can connect with to help free slaves and prevent slavery around the world. So, spend a couple hours this weekend getting to know this nonprofit through their website, and then get involved!
This Week's Profile: African Tourism Organization (ATO)
The Bottom Line: ATO is concerned with environmental refugees, including human trafficking victims and migrants, as well as illicit drug trafficking and other environmental issues. ATO participates in advocacy, capacity-building, promoting community development, as well as pro-poor and responsible tourism as an investment goal.
What They Do: They have a number of international partners who they work with, and hold trainings, meetings, and other events around human trafficking. They also publish a lot on the issue.
What Can I Do?: You can get in touch with any of their offices around the world for more information about opportunities; they have offices in the U.S., U.K., and Gambia.
Why They Rock: There's a great (and under-used) discussion board on their website, where people interested in issues around human trafficking in Africa can get together and share ideas.
So now that you've got some basic information on YANA, visit their website this weekend and get involved. And on Monday morning when everyone else is talking about sleeping in and watching tv over the weekend, you can say, "What did I do this weekend? Oh, just the usual- abolition of slavery."
Do you have a favorite nonprofit you'd like to see featured here? If so, let me know!
