Human Trafficking: The Way Forward

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) recently released a report entitled "Human Trafficking: New Directions for Research". In the report, the IOM purports to "assess the current state of trafficking research, identify current knowledge gaps, share innovative research and data collection methods and highlight the importance of evaluation and assessment of counter trafficking programmes." Unfortunately, the report fails to address the key issues that impede international anti-trafficking programs.

The primary way forward is to stop fighting the definition of human trafficking that is contained within the UN Protocol. More time, energy and resources are spent fighting the definition of human trafficking than in fighting the problem of human trafficking. In the report, the authors argue against the definition of human trafficking and advocate broadening the definition to accomodate different cultures and social concerns. A broad, vague definition of human trafficking would make human trafficking difficult to prosecute because it would create confusion as to what actions constitute human trafficking.

The authors also complain that the trafficking of men and boys, as well as labor trafficking, are never studied. However, as long as people are focused on fighting the definition of human trafficking, these issues will never be addressed.

Finally, countries that legalize prostitution should not use the legalization of prostitution as an excuse to forgo passing anti-trafficking legislation.

Child Trafficking and Humanitarian Crises

We have all seen the moving pictures coming out of Haiti: millions of men, women and children devastated by the earthquake and its aftermath. People around the world have generously responded to the crises by donating money and supplies.

Many people have offered to adopt "orphaned" children from Haiti. Unfortunately, child traffickers are taking advantage of the surge in offers to adopt from well-meaning people as well as the lack of a functioning Haitian government. Reports have surfaced of Haitian children being trafficked into the Dominican Republic. The United Nations has reported people driving to the airport in expensive cars and putting undocumented children on outgoing flights. It is not even clear that the children are actually orphans. Child trafficking was a significant problem in Haiti before the earthquake, with Haitian children regularly sent to wealthier families to work as restaveks or to the Dominican Republic for sexual exploitation. Haiti's orphanages are poorly regulated and some are a facade for child traffickers.

Due to the risk of child trafficking, it is important during a humanitarian crises to suspend adoptions until all means of family reunification have been exhausted and to establish protocols for the care and protection of children.

Read more here.

Hip Hop and Human Trafficking

I'm that n***a tryin' to holla cause I want some bread
I could care less how she perform when she in the bed
B***h hit the track, catch a date, and come pay the kid
Look baby, this is simple you can't see
You f***n' with me you f****n' with a P.I.M.P

Lyrics from "P.I.M.P (G-Unit Remix)" 50 Cent feat. Snoop Dogg, G-Unit


Wait I got a snow bunny, and a black girl too
You pay the right price and they'll both do you
That's the way the game goes, gotta keep it strictly pimpin'
Gotta keep my hustle tight, makin' change off these women, yeah

Lyrics from "It's hard out here for a Pimp" by Three 6 Mafia


The glamorization of "Pimp Culture" is pervasive, especially within the black community. Rap songs abound with lyrics praising pimps and violence towards women. The rap song "It's hard out here for a Pimp" even won an Oscar! It is not "hard out here for a Pimp", it is hard out here for a victim. Victims of human trafficking are beaten, maimed and murdered by their pimps. Victims contract sexually transmitted diseases and are forced to have abortions by their pimps. Victims are not allowed to leave their pimps.

Rap songs like those by 50 Cent and Three 6 Mafia have inspired many to traffic young girls for sexual exploitation in order to make money and live the "pimp lifestyle". Disturbingly, a significant number of these pimps are teen aged boys who prey on vulnerable young girls by pretending to be their boyfriends. Once they believe that the girls are in love with them, the boys use insults, threats and violence to force the girls into prostitution.

Rap songs that glamorize pimps and the sexual exploitation of women act as cultural enablers that convince some that trafficking women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation is acceptable. Ending the glamorization of pimp culture is key to helping eradicate human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Child Trafficking and Ritual Sacrifice in Uganda

Recent reports point to an alarming increase in child trafficking for the purpose of ritual sacrifice in Uganda. The Independent reported that in the first two months of 2009, 18 cases of child sacrifice were reported. Children are brutally murdered by family, friends and strangers who are motivated by greed and the pursuit of quick financial gain.

Ritual sacrifice is horrific and gruesome. Body parts such as the tongue, fingers, genitals and head are removed while the victim is alive. The victim is kept alive because it is believed that the screams of the victim increase the magical potency of the body parts.

There are two major obstacles to the eradication of ritual sacrifice in Uganda. The first obstacle is a lack of legislation that specifically criminalizes human trafficking for the purpose of ritual sacrifice. Uganda does have a 1957 Witchcraft Act that penalizes acts of witchcraft that threaten others with death but the maximum sentence of five years imprisonment does not reflect the severity of the crime of human trafficking for the purpose of ritual sacrifice. The law is rarely enforced, thus creating a sense of impunity among witchdoctors. The second obstacle is the customers. Prices for magic charms made from human body parts range from 50,000 Ugandan shillings (U.S. $25.91) to 12 million Ugandan shillings (U.S. $6,217.65). These prices are well beyond the means of ordinary Ugandans. The only people able to afford to pay these prices are wealthy businessmen and politicians who use their power and influence to block efforts to end this barbaric practice.

Uganda must pass a law that specifically criminalizes human trafficking for the purpose of ritual sacrifice and contains penalties that reflect the severity of the crime. Uganda must also commit itself to prosecuting those involved in the crime regardless of their wealth, power or political connections.

Possible Points of Intervention

Numerous articles and reports on human trafficking in the United States as well as survivor's stories have indicated that there are places along the human trafficking transportation network where a public awareness and education campaign and law enforcement would make a significant impact and could rescue victims before they are exploited.

A recent article in The Charlotte Observer, noted that a human trafficker would routinely pick up women outside of a McDonald's near the interstate where other traffickers had dropped them off. A 2005 Department of Justice Report noted that human traffickers stopped at fast food restaurants, discount retail stores and gas stations in particular as they transported victims to their final destination to be exploited.

A public awareness campaign to educate the employees of these businesses on how to identify potential victims of human trafficking, the placement of brochures in public areas and restrooms that inform potential victims of their rights and give the phone numbers of victim assistance providers, and having law enforcement "on the lookout" at these places would all be effective measures to combat human trafficking.

The U.S. Department of Labor Gets It Wrong

The United States Department of Labor(DOL) recently released its report on goods produced by child labor or forced labor. In the report, DOL defines child labor in relevant part, as "(A) All forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale or trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom, or forced or compulsory labor, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict; (B) the use, procuring, or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or pornographic purposes; and (C) the use, procuring, or offering a child for illicit activities in particular for the production and trafficking in drugs."



Forced labor is defined as "work provided or obtained by force, fraud, or coercion, including: (1) By threats of serious harm to, or physical restraint against any person; (2) by means of any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause the person to believe that, if the person did not perform such labor or services, that person or another person would suffer serious harm or physical restraint; or (3) by means of abuse or threatened abuse of law or the legal process."



The DOL concludes that "The majority of forced labor and child labor victims are not trafficked into their situations of exploitation." [Emphasis mine]

This statement is not only patently false, it is absolutely outrageous. The definition of forced labor is taken from the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act(TVPA), any act that satisfies this definition is human trafficking by law. Furthermore, the definition of child labor includes elements found in the TVPA. It is clear that DOL mistakenly equates human trafficking with forced migration, which human trafficking is not. Movement across borders or State lines does not define human trafficking. It is the state of exploitation that defines human trafficking. The Department of Labor must learn what defines human trafficking in order to effectively fight it.

Falling Through The Cracks: Child Pornography

It will surprise many to learn that child pornography is considered a form of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) but not human trafficking. In the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report, the United States Department of State proclaimed that "CSEC includes all child prostitution as well as child pornography. This is not human trafficking per se, as some forms of CSEC such as child pornography are not always a form of human trafficking."

Sadly, the Department of State is right as far as pertaining to child trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The United States Trafficking Victims Protection Act 2000, as amended, (TVPA) defines severe forms of trafficking in persons as:

"sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age"

The TVPA further defines a commercial sex act as:

"any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person."

The term sexual act is defined in Title 18 of the United States Criminal Code Section 2246 as penetration, oral sex and intentional touching. So what of instances of child pornography that involve naked pictures of children who are posing and not engaged in sex acts? Under the TVPA these would not be instances of severe forms of trafficking in persons!

Although child pornography is a form of child trafficking for the purpose of forced labor, it should also be included in the definition of child trafficking for sexual exploitation. Congress should amend the TVPA (now called the William Wilberforce Act) to specifically include child pornography in the definition of severe forms of trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation.

Regardless of any change in the William Wilberforce Act, the Department of State must understand that trafficking children for the purpose of producing pornography is human trafficking.