“Children’s Exploitation and Women’s Condition: the issue of Human Trafficking” Speech by 1 Sandro Calvani, UNICRI Director Scuola d’Applicazione, Institute of Military Studies Turin, 12 June 2009 (Ladies) and Gentlemen, It is an honour to be here amongst you today to speak on such a delicate issue as Children’s Exploitation and Women’s Condition in the phenomenon of Human Trafficking. I would also like to thank the Scuola di Applicazione for inviting me to hold this lecture in such an esteemed setting. [slide 2] [Video 1: “Open your eyes to trafficking”] http://www.unodc.org/documents/human- trafficking/ungift_open_your_eyes_psa_60.mpg "open your eyes to trafficking" Length: 1' Source: UN.gift, UNODC [slide 3- Contents] [slide 4] III. Human Trafficking Of all the global resources, human life is the most significant . No diamond can mine itself and no gold has the capacity to be refined without manpower; without human life, all the weapons, food and oil in the world would mean nothing. Trafficking in weapons, drugs and blood diamonds has long been on the UN agenda; however, human trafficking has remained under-reported and under-prosecuted . As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- 1 Written by Joel Levesque. Edited by Francesca Bosco and Olivia Jung. 1 moon recently said, “we must add people to the list” of all the resources currently being trafficked. 2 In 2000 the United Nations adopted The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. It was designed to supplement the Convention Against Organized Crime, also known as the Palermo Convention; it was signed by 130 nations and it has so far been ratified by 117 countries. 3 [slide 5- Definition of Human Trafficking] Article 3(a) of the Palermo Protocol 4 defines Trafficking in Human beings (THB) as : “The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.” The consent of the victim is deemed irrelevant, 5 as this has been deceived or coerced into trafficking. Bearing this in mind, the definition of human trafficking can be further broken down into its three components: trafficking can be better understood in terms of an Act, a Means, and Purpose: 6 [slide 6- Components of Trafficking in Human Beings] • The act – intended as the actual act of the recruitment, transportation, harboring or receipt of a person being trafficked . • The means represents the threat, use of coercion , force or fraud against that person, their abduction, the abuse of power or of their vulnerability, or giving payments or benefits to a person in control of the victim. • The purpose of trafficking is the particular exploitation for which the person is being trafficked. It can be for sexual exploitation, forced labour, organ transplant or even for military purposes, such as the forced recruitment of soldiers. 2Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the General Assembly Thematic Debate on Human Trafficking – New York, 13 May 2009 3 For updates on the ratification status of the Trafficking Protocol, please consult http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=XVIII-12- a&chapter=18&lang=en 4 Article 3 (a) Palermo Protocol. (2000) Protocol to prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime. 5 Article 3 (b) Palermo Protocol (2000) 6 UNODC: What is Human Trafficking http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html 2 All things considered, human trafficking can be considered the modern-day form of slavery. [slide 7 – Human Trafficking, Modern Day Slavery] [video 2: Not for Sale Campaign] Women and children's exploitation (good overview on modern day slavery: sexual and labour exploitation, child soldiers) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mJHkc5k5MM&feature=PlayList&p=16E710A 77BC648D0&index=4 Length: 1'30" Where new national legislation has been enacted or is currently being drafted, it reflects the three critical components of the act, the means and the purpose. The focus of all investigative efforts should be placed upon securing sustainable evidence within these three categories. [slide 8- Under Reporting of Trafficking] The trafficking of this most valuable resource, human beings, is actually under-reported, as the real scale of THB is hard to determine. This may be for several reasons : • The Difficulty Victims face in reporting Trafficking . The vulnerability of women and children in the condition of a post trafficking situation cannot be underestimated. As will be explored further, they are highly unlikely to trust authority figures and are unaware of their asylum rights. Therefore they are unlikely to come forward and present cases against their abusers. Many bonded laborers feel as if they owe a debt to their masters and are unaware that the actions of their traffickers are illegal. • The Lack of a Criminal Justice Response . Human Trafficking is a low priority for law enforcement agencies; there is a lack of investigation and prosecutions concerning the crime of human trafficking. Moreover, there is an inadequate level of protection for the women and children who become victims of abhorrent crime. • The lack of Systematic Data Collection. Few states collect or publish data on human trafficking and the data collected by NGO’s is often program-specific. Furthermore, much of the data is not collected for comparative purposes and is therefore not capable of providing accurate global comparisons. 3 Identifying global trends in the number of victims detected is a hard task. Countries have different legislations and different definitions of trafficking in persons, and few have the sort of statistics that would allow for the identification of clear trends, given also that a substantial portion of trafficking victims are unreported out of their fear of retortion, or of being arrested and deported. Nonetheless data collected by UNODC and by IOM can give some tentative insights into the profile of the victims. Victims of human trafficking were identified through the criminal justice process and through victims’ assistance organizations. The profile of the victims is highly influenced by local laws and priorities, which often focus on child victims and victims of sexual exploitation (usually women). [slide 9 – Victims of Human Trafficking] Bearing this caveat in mind, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that, in 2001, between 700,000 to 2 million women and children were trafficked across international borders .7 UNICEF estimates that as many as 1.2 million children are trafficked every year (UNICEF). 8 Actual numbers are likely to be much bigger. Overall, UN.Gift (The UN Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking) estimates that, of the total number of people trafficked each year, two thirds of the identified victims were women and 13% were girls . Less than a quarter were men or boys. As you can see from the chart, 22% of all trafficking victims are children . However, in some parts of Africa and the Mekong region, children are the majority (nearly up to 100% in parts of West Africa). [slide 10 – Victims of Human Trafficking 2] What are the causes behind THB? From the victims’ perspective, what lures them into the traffickers’ trap is lack of opportunities in their home communities or countries, as well as deceit, coercion or violence; from the traffickers’ perspective, the main motive is money. Victims of trafficking are then used for exploitative purposes. The most common trends for trafficking of 7 United Nations (2002) “Women, Peace and Security” p 17, Available at http://www.unicef.org/emerg/files/WPS.pdf 8 UNICEF. (2007).“Child Protection From Violence and Abuse”. Available from http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_exploitation.html 4 women are for commercial sexual exploitation or labour, whilst children are trafficked to be used as child soldiers, for bonded labour, but also to work in brothels. These are the main areas that we will be exploring more in depth today; however the inventiveness of exploitation knows few bounds and there are several other ways that the THB manifests itself. For example, “UNICEF estimates that 1,000 to 1,500 Guatemalan babies and children are trafficked each year for adoption by couples in North America and Europe.” Girls as young as 13 (mainly from Asia and Eastern Europe) are trafficked as “mail- order brides.” In most cases putting them at great risk of violence. 9 Moreover, there is an “increasing demand” for trafficking human beings for the purpose of organ transplant; according to the WHO it is possible to buy a trafficked kidney for as little as “US$ 5000, “ 10 (WHO – bulletin) a real bargain compared to the prices of the official organ transplant list. [slide 11- Global Initiative to Fight trafficking] [Video 3] "The Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgSFOiqNs2c&feature=PlayList&p=16E710A 77BC648D0&index=1 Length: 30" video by UNODC & UN.gift introducing the issue of trafficking The problem of human trafficking is not specific to any one area; every major region on the planet is affected by THB, as countries of origin, transit, destination or a combination of these. In 2006 UNODC published the report “Trafficking in Persons: Global Patterns” identifying 127 countries of origin , 98 transit countries and 137 destination countries . This was an important first attempt to get a clearer picture of the problem and has been integral in the initiation of discussions on global human trafficking.