Subject Guide
Policies associated with managing population change, focusing on anti-trafficking policies
A. What is trafficking and how big an issue is it?
Use the materials below to write definitions of:
- Human trafficking
- Labour trafficking
- Sex trafficking
- The International Labour Organization estimates that there are 20.9 million victims of human trafficking globally.
- 68% of them are trapped in forced labor.
- 26% of them are children.
- 55% are women and girls.
- The International Labor Organization estimates that forced labor and human trafficking is a $150 billion industry worldwide.
- The U.S. Department of Labor has identified 139 goods from 75 countries made by forced and child labor.
|
|
|
Sex Trafficking
Sex trafficking is a form of modern slavery that exists throughout the United States and globally. Sex traffickers use violence, threats, lies, debt bondage, and other forms of coercion to compel adults and children to engage in commercial sex acts against their will. The situations that sex trafficking victims face vary dramatically. Some victims become involved with someone who then forces or manipulates them into prostitution. Others are lured in with false promises of a job, such as modeling or dancing. Some are forced to sell sex by their parents or other family members. They may be involved in a trafficking situation for a few days or weeks, or may remain in the same trafficking situation for years.
Sex trafficking is a form of modern slavery that exists throughout the United States and globally. Sex traffickers use violence, threats, lies, debt bondage, and other forms of coercion to compel adults and children to engage in commercial sex acts against their will. The situations that sex trafficking victims face vary dramatically. Some victims become involved with someone who then forces or manipulates them into prostitution. Others are lured in with false promises of a job, such as modeling or dancing. Some are forced to sell sex by their parents or other family members. They may be involved in a trafficking situation for a few days or weeks, or may remain in the same trafficking situation for years.
Labour trafficking
Labour traffickers – including recruiters, contractors, employers, and others – use violence, threats, lies, debt bondage, or other forms of coercion to force people to work against their will in many different industries. Labour traffickers often make false promises of a high-paying job or exciting education or travel opportunities to lure people into horrendous working conditions. Yet, victims find that the reality of their jobs proves to be far different than promised and must frequently work long hours for little to no pay. Their employers exert such physical or psychological control – including physical abuse, debt bondage, confiscation of passports or money – that the victim believes they have no other choice but to continue working for that employer.
B. Anti-trafficking policies
Create a simple mind-map to show the key aspects of UN strategy against human trafficking.
| GIFT report on human trafficking from the UN.pdf |
Key aspects of the United Nations approach to trafficking are listed below (these are taken from the Global Initiative to Fight human Trafficking or GIFT Report which you can read in full above):
- Raise awareness—inform the world of this crime and mobilize people to stop it
- Strengthen prevention—warn vulnerable groups and alleviate the factors that make people vulnerable to trafficking, such as poverty, underdevelopment and lack of opportunity
- Reduce demand—attack the problem at its source by lowering incentives to trade and decreasing demand for the products and services of exploited people
- Support and protect victims—ensure housing, counselling, medical, psychological and material assistance, keeping in mind the special needs of women and children and people at risk, such as those in refugee camps and conflict zones
- Improve law enforcement—strengthen information exchange between law enforcement agencies on international trafficking routes and traffickers´ profiles in order to dismantle criminal groups, leading to the conviction of traffickers
- Implement international commitments—ensure that international agreements are turned into national laws and practice by assisting countries in need and improving the monitoring of compliance
- Enrich knowledge—deepen world understanding of the scope and nature of human trafficking through more data collection and analysis, joint research initiatives and the creation of an evidence-based report on global trafficking trends
- Strengthen partnerships—build up regional and thematic networks involving civil society, inter-governmental organizations and the private sector
- Create a special purpose fund—to attract and leverage resources into funding projects around the world committed to ending human trafficking
- Create an informal contact group—to give like-minded Member States ownership of the process and create long-term momentum.
C. Tackling Human Trafficking - case studies
Choose one of the projects/NGOs below and create a simple case study file which includes:
- Location, the nature of the problem and the goals of the project
- Strategies used to tackle the problem
- Impact and evaluation:
- What have been the successes?
- What still needs to be done/what are the limitations?
|
| ||||||
|
|
|
| ||||||||