Human Trafficking Case Study

Background

The United Nations defines human trafficking as, “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons by improper means for an improper purpose including forced labor or sexual exploitation.” This defines the term as forced human smuggling, in order to take advantage of them. The issue of human trafficking is international, and widespread, especially in major cities. No country is free from this issue, and the impact is huge. Many traffickers are motivated by money and better profits, taking advantage of workers and paying little to none. They often beat or punish victims for trivial reasons. The worldwide human trafficking industry is estimated to be worth over 150 billion dollars, making the issue more severe

In November of 2000, delegates adopted resolution 55/25. This resolution was the result of the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime. One important aspect of this resolution was the Palermo Protocol, which was an attempt to bring together individual ideas into an international force. This was also an attempt to find out how to investigate and uncover more trafficking cases. In July of 2010, as one of the first significant acts against human trafficking, the UN passed resolution 64/193, titled “The United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons.” This resolution was developed based on three points, to promote universal ratification for other important documents on this subject, to raise global awareness, and to create a non-biased approach to the issue. The resolution also mandated an increase in security, hoping to reduce the amount of people illegally smuggled over borders, mainly women for the sex industry. This resolution had little effect on the international industry, but the basis of it is cited in multiple major resolutions concerning the subject of human trafficking. In 2013, member states of the General Assembly met and discussed this issue in detail. The result was resolution 69/192. One major point made in this resolution was the use of a voluntary trust fund to provide funding to NGOs to further combat trafficking. Furthermore, a World Day Against

Ukraine's dependence on Russia for energy supplies and the conflicts with Russia in the past have made the Ukrainian economy vulnerable to human traffickers. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, nearly 120,000 Ukrainian men, women and children have been trafficked abroad. This number is much more than any other Eastern European country. Many of the people who fall prey to these traffickers are tricked by hopes of a new life. Other people sell their children as the only way to successfully afford food. Ukraine is a large exporter of persons, meaning there is significant contribution to the very weak Ukrainian economy by trafficking. Oftentimes, the very police or border security designated to catching traffickers are the ones being paid to ship out these humans to other countries, such as Russia and Finland. NGOs do provide necessary aid and funding, however, corruption still makes these impacts very small. Even worse, the victims are not exposed to any necessary kind of therapy they may need, such as psychological help. Ukraine has worked over the past 2 decades to help curb the issue. In 2005, Ukraine joined the Convention of the Council of Europe on counteraction to human trafficking. Ukraine also implemented a OSCE Action Plan to combat trafficking. This mainly consists of strengthening security around borders and employing a special police