Trafficking in Children
Video: Stop Child Trafficking Walks Inspire Action
Published September 28, 2009 @ 06:12AM PT
This past Saturday, thousands of activists gathered in cities across the country for one reason: to walk to stop child trafficking. The walks were organized by Stop Child Trafficking Now to raise awareness about the reality of child trafficking, especially in the U.S., and to raise funds for local organizations. Walks took place from Oregon to Florida, Canada to Texas. I caught up with the Washington, DC walk to find out what had inspired so many people to wake up early on a Saturday morning and take a stand against child trafficking. Here's the Change.org original video:
The success of the DC walk was tremendous, and I hope it will inspire activists and organizers to do similar events in other cities. The issue of child trafficking touched the lives of so many people who participated in the walk -- in their churches, sororities, businesses, and even personal lives. At an event like this one, the children who live in and have survived slavery are no longer a distant concept of a child. They are present in every walker who says "It happened to my roomate ..." "to my sister ..." "to me ..." They are real.
Congratulations to everyone who made the Washington, DC walk and all the other walks across the country a success.
Oppotunities to Fight Slavery for Muslims and Christians
Published September 24, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
Are you a Muslim or a Christian? If so, there are some exciting opportunities to fight slavery by engaging your faith. Human trafficking violates the principles of all major world religions, as well as the common human ethical values we share. Slavery is commonly prohibited by religious texts of all the major world religions. There are many way to engage your faith community in anti-trafficking efforts, whether it's spending time in prayer and/or meditation, giving money, or working in service.
For Muslims
American Muslims are coming together to answer President Obama's call to service by focusing on a number of key issues, one of which is human trafficking. The American-Muslim Interactive Network (AMIN) has partnered with human trafficking organization Bridge to Freedom Foundation to help engage Muslim Americans in service for survivors of human trafficking. Specifically, the partnership is focused on teaching at-risk communities how to identify traffickers and the trafficked. For more opportunities to serve human trafficking survivors and others in need with the Muslim American community, you can check out muslimserve.org.
The Muslim American community has been traditionally less involved in the anti-human trafficking movement than Christian and Jewish communities. Perhaps this is because Muslim-Americans have spent so long fighting negative cultural stereotypes about their faith, and they may be reluctant to draw attention to issues like trafficking, domestic violence, and abuse in their communities. As I've mentioned previously, the Quran condemns slavery like other major religious texts, so a call to fight human trafficking is natural for Muslims. I'm excited to see an increased focus on human trafficking by Muslims, since they have a great capacity to engage the Islamic faith in protecting victims and preventing trafficking in both Muslim and non-Muslim communities.
For Christians
The Salvation Army is hosting their 4th Annual Weekend of Prayer and Fasting for Victims of Sexual Trafficking. If you are interested in participating, you can get more information and resources to participate here. The Salvation Army has a number of great resources available on their website, including information for pastors, suggestions for prayers, and fasting guidelines.
Many denominations of the Christian community have been active in the anti-trafficking movement for a long time. Catholic organizations like the U.S. Conference for Catholic Bishops and Catholic Charities were primary recipients of anti-trafficking funding under the Bush administration. The World Evangelical Association just created an anti-human trafficking task force. Christians have a number of opportunities to engage their faith in anti-trafficking efforts, which also means they have no excuses not to.
It's great that these opportunities exist for Christians and Muslims, but I would love to see an opportunity that exists for all people of faith to work together. We all share in our condemnation of slavery and struggle for a freer, fairer world. Do you know of a movement against human trafficking in your faith? If so, I'd love to hear about it!
Photo credit: mufan96
Guatemalan Army Admits to Trafficking Kids for Adoption
Published September 21, 2009 @ 12:07PM PT
When it comes to talking about the human rights abuses that took place during their long and painful civil war, the Guatemalan military has acted like a cat next to a bathtub: willing to make a lot of noise but not jump in to the issue at hand. Surprisingly, however, the Guatemalan army has finally admitted to kidnapping and selling hundreds of children in international adoptions from 1977 to 1989.
If you're not up on your Guatemalan history, here's the over-simplified version: From the 1960 to 1996, Guatemala was engaged in a bloody, brutal civil war between right-wing, pro-Reaganonmics type government and the left-wing, Che-had-the-right-idea type insurgents. Over 200,000 people were killed or "dissapeared" by the government and the insurgents committed their share of murders and rapes as well. Human rights were about as well-respected as Paris Hilton's quantum physics term paper. And throughout the whole bloody mess, the army kidnapped kids and sold them as part of "international adoptions" both as a way to generate revenue and punish parents who spoke out against the government.
International adoption in Guatemala is nothing new; it has been a source of income there for decades. The chaos and brutality of the civil war meant less regulation of the army's activities and more opportunities for abuse. Guatemala has the highest per capita adoption rate in the world and is a leading provider of children for adoption to the U.S. In fact, 1 in 100 babies born in Guatemala are eventually adopted to parents in the U.S. who are willing to pay up to $30,000 in fees for a child. This money is a huge financial incentive in a country where 75% of the people live below the poverty level and $30,000 may represent untold hope for a desperate family. Advocates fear that mothers may be coerced, financially or politically, into putting their children up for adoption. Similarly, child advocates want to be sure children aren't being adopted into families which will abuse or exploit them.
The issue of international adoption as a front for human trafficking is international, and has affected several countries, including Guatemala. Romania actually banned international adoptions because the problems with exploitation were so severe. Many international agencies and the U.S. government have since asked Romania to lift or relax the ban, since the country cannot support the number of children who need care and Western families are eager to adopt Romanian children. There are a number of model policies for how to screen potential families and set up protective mechanisms to prevent children from being adopted by unscrupulousindividuals and couples. There are not, however, very many model policies for how to prevent mothers from being coerced into giving up their children. That is an area the international adoption community should look into more thoroughly.
It takes some guts to admit that you did something as heinous as kidnap kids for political reasons and then sell them for profit, but the Guatemalan army did the right thing by telling the truth. Their revelation has helped hundreds of families reunite with lost children, most of whom are now adults. It has also shed light on the important issue of international adoption used as a front for trafficking, which will hopefully help other countries identify policy measures to take in order to protect both mothers and children.
Photo credit: cotaro70s
The Internet's Role in Human Trafficking
Published September 20, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
Here's a pop quiz for you. Is the Internet a.) A series of tubes invented by Al Gore b.) an evil system of perversions with no redeeming qualities c.) one of the greatest facilitators of human trafficking in commercial sex markets or d.) all of the above? If you chose c.), you're right! If you chose d.), perhaps you might want to do a little background reading. The Internet is a tool, and like all tools it can be used for good or bad. And right now, the Internet is one of the largest facilitators of sex trafficking in the world.
Here are some common Internet technologies and how they are used to facilitate human trafficking in commercial sex:
- Craigslist.org: Used to sell child and adult trafficking victims for commercial sex. You may have noticed I've got about as much love for the adult services section of Craigslist as Taylor Swift's mom has for Kanye right now, but that's because they are a huge facilitator of illegal prostitution and the sale of children for sex all over the word.
- Online photo sharing: Allows for mass dissemination of child pornography without having to worry about being caught by the nosy developer or mail carrier. Online picture catalogues help buyers choose a girl as an "escort" or sometimes even as a wife. Online ordering of women has revolutionized how some traffickers do business.
- Mobile upload technology: Like photo sharing technology, mobile upload technology allows pimps and traffickers to conduct business on the road, sharing pictures and videos with perspective clients and making sure the girls they exploit are available 24/7.
- Social networking sites: Allow people interested in exploiting women and children to connect with each other and with potential victims. Traffickers use social media to connect with both buyers and victims, and in some cases to connect them directly to each other.
- Vast availability of porn websites: Pimps who sell children often use legal, adult pornography as a grooming technique. And I'm sure it's a huge surprise that they have no problem finding plenty of it all over the Internet.
- E-Commerce tools: Used to conduct the financial transactions of child pornography and of victims of human trafficking. Think someone would never charge sex with a child to their credit card via a website? Think again.
- Encryption technology: Enables transactions, information trails, and conversations to be difficult to impossible to detect by law enforcement.
Fortunately, law enforcement agents have access to these same technologies and are using them in sting operations and to identify and prosecute pimps and traffickers. However, too often the criminals are several technological steps ahead. They see the exploitative potential of emerging technolgies before we do, a dynamic that must change. Because, while these tools revolutionized the business of exploitation once, it won't be long until something new comes out and does it again. And this time, we want to good guys to be the tech-saavy ones.
Photo credit: dalbera
An American Pedophile in Cambodia
Published September 18, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
Warning: The the videos and commentary in this post are graphic and disturbing, even for a human trafficking blog.
Despite increased international pressure and national efforts to end child sex tourism in Cambodia, it remains a top destination for pedophiles looking to have sex with children. The child sex tourism industry in Cambodia is also notoriously young, including children who are five, six, and seven years old as well as pre-teens and young teens. ABC Nightline conducted a raid on a suspected American pedophile, and what they found was disturbing.
The story of Harvey Johnson -- the man who is the subject of the Nightline sting -- is not unique. It's the story of a retired man who moves to Cambodia and sets up a gig as a volunteer English teacher, giving him access to hundreds of children. Some of the thousands of the sex tourists who travel to Cambodia each year use simialr guises to have access to children, and some just shop for them on the streets. Case in point: while the ABC film crew were researching the ease of buying kids for sex in Cambodia, the cops showed up. At first the reporters were worried, but it turns out the cops just wanted a chance to sell the kids that they had procured, and they started loading girls into the back of the reporters' van. With some police conducting sting operations and others selling children to tourists, it's hard to know who to trust in Cambodia.
It is disturbingly easy to have sex with a very, very young child as a Western tourist in Cambodia. They are being sold by brothel owners, slave brokers, and even their own mothers. The desperation of so many families is so great, that sex with children in Cambodia has become a full commodity, a resource for a family who otherwise would have no resources. And most disturbingly of all, there seems to be no shortage of buyers in this marketplace, no lack of American and European men who want to buy the youngest child possible. If Harvey Johnson is found guilty, there will be a long line of men waiting to rent his house and take his place as a teacher/abuser.
Johnson's case is still pending, but the police and reporters found his apartment to be filled with an disturbing and incriminating assortment of items that would lead most people to believe he was making is own child pornography and abusing the young girls who he taught. You can watch the videos of Nightline's sting operation here: Part1, Part 2, and Part 3 (ABC won't allow them to be embedded for proprietary reasons).
Photo credit: vivere.christus
Children Are Sold for Sex in America's Capitol
Published September 17, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
Guest blogger Melissa Snow of Shared Hope International discusses their new public awareness campaign to address child trafficking in street prostitution in Washington, DC. Child sex trafficking happens all over our nation's capitol, sometimes only steps from the White House and blocks from a symbol of the end of slavery -- the Lincoln Memorial.
The words ‘sex', ‘children' and ‘13' are an unlikely combination for a campaign message, but this month in Washington, D.C., Shared Hope International confronts a shocking reality; American children are sold for sex in Washington D.C. This September, in collaboration with the D.C. Human Trafficking Task Force, we're unveiling End Child Sex Trafficking: Kids are NOT for Sale in D.C., an awareness campaign to shed light on child sex trafficking in Washington, D.C. In Metro stations near hot tourist spots, on over 200 metro buses, within the Adult Classifieds and Erotic Sections of CityPaper, and on a bus shelter on 14th and K streets, bright yellow advertisements catch the eyes of D.C. residents and visitors that scream messages such as "13 is the average age children are forced into prostitution".
These advertisements, although shocking, reveal that human trafficking is not just an international issue -- it occurs in our nation's capital. Along intersections such as 14th and K Streets, famously populated by lobbyists during the day, and along New York Avenue, young American girls are exploited by a pimp and sold for sex many times a night. These young girls' lives are risked every day when they take to the streets to earn money for their pimp. The advertising campaign, Kids are NOT for Sale in D.C., will make D.C. residents and tourists aware of sex trafficking in Washington D.C. and warn off potential buyers of sex, that buying a child for sex can result in a life sentence.
The Kids are Not for Sale Campaign will run throughout the month of September and is in timing with D.C. Human Trafficking Awareness month. Sponsored by the D.C. Human Trafficking Task Force, a collaboration of local governmental and nonprofit organizations, the Task Force hopes to engage the local community to stop Washington D.C. from becoming a breeding ground for traffickers.
The Washington D.C. area has been identified as a sex trafficking hub, and the D.C. Human Trafficking Task Force is aggressively tackling predators who attempt to buy or sell children in the District. Just last week, Shelby Lewis was indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. and charged with five counts of Sex Trafficking of Children and four counts of Interstate Transportation of a Minor for Purposes of Prostitution. Lewis, a Maryland resident, brought underage girls - including a 12 year old - into D.C. where he forced them into prostitution. If convicted, Lewis faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Shelby Lewis' case proves that human trafficking is occurring in Washington, D.C.; however, his arrest proves that human trafficking is not tolerated in our Nation's capital.
Although sex trafficking is a difficult topic to face, for the young girls and boys who are trapped in this modern day slave trade we must confront and overthrow this organized crime. American kids are being victimized in our nation's capitol and we need your help to stand up to sex trafficking in Washington D.C. Not on our streets, not in our city, not in our Nations' capital - Washington D.C. will not allow the sale of American children for sex.
Photo credit: Ed Yourdon
5 Steps to Fight Human Trafficking with a Movie Night
Published September 10, 2009 @ 03:00PM PT
On Friday, Oct. 2, 2009, the Kids with Cameras Foundation will celebrate Mahatma Gandhi's 140th birthday and the United Nations' declared International Day of Non-Violence with a historic worldwide screening event of the Academy Award-winning film Born into Brothels. We are asking our fans and supporters to help make a difference in the lives of more children in Calcutta like those featured in the film - just by having a house party.By hosting a movie night in your house, community center, school, house of worship or other local venue, you will join our supporters on four continents already registered to host a "House Party for Hope." All proceeds raised on October 2, 2009 will help us to build the film's legacy project called "Hope House" - a home that will provide mentorship, counseling, and a private day school education for 100 daughters of prostitutes living in Sonagachi - the largest red light district in Calcutta. Hope House will be the source of necessary support and opportunity to provide a different future for these vulnerable young girls who have been or will be another statistic of human trafficking.
Here's how to host a movie night:
1. Log on to www.kids-with-cameras.org
2. Sign up on our home page to be a host of a "House Party for Hope" as part of our worldwide screening event of Born into Brothels on October 2, 2009.
3. Donate $20 to KWC to receive a copy of the film and our special companion DVD to introduce your guests to the plans and vision for Hope House.
4. Using our online event management system, invite your friends to your party and encourage them to donate to Hope House either when they register or at your event. KWC has suggested a guideline of $30 per person, $50 per couple, or $20 for students but your guests are welcome to contribute any amount of their choosing.
5. If you can't host a party, check back on the KWC website to find a party in your area to attend. If there is not one nearby, consider making a donation to Kids with Cameras or buying one of the prints, books, or copies of the Born Into Brothels DVD available here.
Born into Brothels by Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2005. A tribute to the resiliency of childhood and the restorative power of art, Born into Brothelsportrays several unforgettable children who live in Calcutta's largest red-light district, where their mothers work as prostitutes. Zana Briski, a New York-based photographer, gives each of the children a camera and teaches them to look at the world with new eyes. As Ross Kauffman, said
"It was a dream of ours as we made the film to have a place for these children to learn and grow. The dream is close to becoming a reality. There is no better way for anyone that watches the film and falls in love with these kids, just as we did, to make a difference in their future."
Here's the Born into Brothels trailer. Now you have a chance to make a difference in their future as well, just by hosting a little hope.
