This paper is about the West African country Togo and the human rights violations. In Togo, women and children are neglected, abused, kidnapped, raped, and even forced to become slaves or traffickers. Women and young girls have to undergo female genital mutilation. The women and children are forced to undergo this hundred year old tradition to “protect” the girl’s modesty and to save the girl’s virginity for marriage. Both women and children are forced through human, drug, and sex trafficking. Children in this region are often kidnapped and forced to work under harsh conditions. When the children are kidnapped the kidnappers promise a new life, and better conditions for the child and the child’s family. If the children aren’t kidnapped or lured, …show more content…
“Orphans face many grave human rights abuses, and trafficking is surely one of the worst” (West Africa, 2003). Sometimes families lose children or children are abducted or lured from their homes. Young girls and women are at a higher stake of being forced into human, drug, or sex trafficking. Not only because these women live in a third world country, but also because the power in these countries lies in man’s hands. Once they are forced in, they “disappear” or it is often extremely difficult to pull them out of it. “She understood that our lack of political will and investment to protect girls from child marriage, sex trafficking, sexual violence, domestic servitude, denial of education or food were sides of the same coin” (Crawford, 2008). Ignoring what is happening to the people of Togo doesn’t make it okay or make it go away. Even Togo’s own government hides what is actually going on behind closed doors. The government tries to cover it up, or tone down the statistics to make it look like a minor problem. Women have no voice and if the women speak up about the lack of these human rights, punishments go into effect. Not only can these women not reach out for help but cannot even count on their own government to help them because even the government is lying. The country of Togo is violating women and children’s rights because women are forced to undergo female genital mutilation and sex slavery, children are forced into labor, and both women and children suffer through human, drug, and sex
Awareness of child sexual trafficking can be viewed as a balanced scale, with one side representing the country’s population that is fully informed of the issue, while the other side is either unaware or unattached to the issue. The public needs to have more involvement with this affair based on multiple concerns; first, the act of child sex trafficking itself is a serious crime that violates human rights (Fong & Cardoso, 2010). Second, various negative health repercussion including transmittable sexual diseases, physical damages, mental disturbance, post traumatic stress disorders, and other illnesses plague many victims (Fong & Cardoso, 2010). Third, sexual trafficking is responsible for generating poverty as a result of obstructing economic, and social development (Reid, 2012). Child sex trafficking proves to be a global dilemma affecting numerous countries
In the words of Wayne Dyer “Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery” (Brainy Quote). Today there are millions of modern day slaves all around the world of human trafficking. Some countries are more troubled with this problem than others, and it’s often accompanied with other crimes. There have been undertakings done to prevent and stop human trafficking, but 20 million men, women, and children all over the world still suffer from being sex slaves (Joseph 1). Programs do exist to prevent and put an end to human trafficking, but their actions alone are simply not enough. Therefore, anti-trafficking initiatives are failing to identify and help their victims.
Some governments still don’t have any laws that ban this evil and it is not good for people who suffer from it as it runs rampant in those countries. The places that need the government's help with this the most, have governments that are failing to protect them. The UN Chronicle says that the only way to end sex trafficking and give these victims the closure they deserve is the “prosecution of traffickers and protection of victims”(UN Chronicles). It is not the girls fault and if these traffickers are punished and made an example of, it could discourage others from following this dark path and this will mitigate and eventually end sex trafficking. Some countries don’t persecute the traffickers, or they do very little to punish them and this needs to change to eliminate sex trafficking. When some countries are “lagging behind with no counter-trafficking laws at all”(Jesionka), this prevents people who are held captive from getting the justice they deserve in some parts of the world. If the world worked together to eliminate this, the countries that are exploited for this trade would keep their people safer. The countries need to take on these traffickers if there is going to be any difference in this modern slavery. Not enough is being done to catch and punish these criminals and this is a giant problem. When others can actually see the problem, their governments
There are many aid projects across the world who claim to help millions of people, but because these aid projects claim to help millions of people, that does not always mean that is the case There are many different aid types, and there can be aid for almost anything an area needs help with. One aid project that not many people know about is called the Polaris Project. After being exposed to a story of six South Korean women being forced to work in a brothel, Katherine Chon and Derek Ellerman were inspired to do something about modern-day slavery (“Katherine Chon and Derek Ellerman: Fighting Human Trafficking" 3). Fast-forward 13 years and the Polaris Project is the world’s leading non-profit human trafficking aid organization in the country. The Polaris Project is the only aid organization to fight against all forms of human trafficking. Human trafficking occurs when a person is forced against his or her own will to engage in sexual acts. Human trafficking can happen to men, women and children; however, it mainly happens to women 18 years and older (“Sex Trafficking in the U.S.” 1). However, a deeper look needs to be taken into this organization to observe if Polaris Project is working effectively at what the organization claims to do.
In order to understand how sex trafficking affects its victims, one must first know the severity of sex trafficking and what it is. The issue of sex trafficking affects 2.5 million people at any given time (Abas et al., 2013). The form of sex slavery affects many women and children across the world. Even though both males and females are sexually trafficked and exploited, there is a deep emphasis on the sexual exploitation of women and children. This is due to gender discrimination (Miller, 2006). This is because women and children are more vulnerable and appeal to the larger populations of brothels and the so-called “clients” since the majority are men. Ecclestone (2013) stated that children as young as age three are trafficked. Sex trafficking has changed over time; “Today, the business of human sex trafficking is much more organized and violent. These women and young girls are sold to traffickers, locked up in rooms or brothels for weeks or months, drugged, terrorized, and raped repeatedly” (Walker-Rodriguez & Hill, 2011). It is found that many of the victims of sex trafficking are abducted, recruited, transported and forced into involuntary “sex work”. These sexual acts include prostitution, exotic dancing, pornography, and sexual escort services (McClain & Garrity, 2011). What happens to these sex trafficking victims is extremely traumatizing.
As victim count continues to rise, its difficult to see how such great numbers of men, women and children are bought and sold every year. Trafficking can be found in many forms, including: prostitution, slavery, or forced labor (Harf and Lombardi, 2014). It wasn’t until the 1980’s that international human trafficking became globally noticed. With the lack of government intervention and control in several nations, and the free trade market, slavery once again became a profitable industry (Harf and Lombardi, 2014). As previously mentioned, easier movement across nations borders is one of the outcomes of globalization. It is also what makes human trafficking so easy today. It is estimated that about 20.9 million people are victims across the entire globe (United Nations Publications, 2012); trafficking accounts for 32 billion dollars in generated profit globally (Brewer, n.d). 58 percent of all human trafficking was for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and of this 55-60 percent are women (United Nations Publications,
“I’ve been held down like a piece of meat while monsters disguised as men violated me again & again.” (Gladys Lawson, Blood Borne Connections.) Human trafficking is the modern day slavery, it involves taking control over a person through force, fraud or coercion to exploit the victim for forced labor, sexual exploitation. or both (“What” par.1). This is become the sad reality for many, approximately three out of every 1,000 people worldwide are being forced into this such slavery. Victims of human trafficking are people of all backgrounds and ages, no one is safe from the dirty hands of human traffickers. Every year thousands of men, women, and children are forced into human trafficking the public needs to be informed, enhance penalties for violators, and raise awareness to finally put a stop to these horrible crimes that are happening right end our noses.
There are many believed reasons for the increase in trafficking in the last decade. In general, the criminal business feeds on poverty, despair, war, crisis, and ignorance. The globalization of the world economy has increased the migration of people across borders, both legally and illegally, mostly from lower class to high class countries. International planned crimes taken full advantage of the more independent flow of people, money, goods and services to extend its own goal internationally (CRS, 2008). Many abusers are being put into jail for rape and abuse to minors and adults. As a community, it is needed to do more interdisciplinary interventions, just to care for the victims of trafficking, but also to help prevent the cause of it. Popular Defenders, an organization that trains local citizens to interact with victims of gender violence, started a task about female human rights. A way that communities are helping th...
According to the United Nations, thousands of people are smuggled across borders worldwide, and it now has reached an estimated 800,000 victims (“Human Trafficking Statistics”). By letting this continue, the numbers will only grow and continue to keep growing. Of the 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children who have been trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 80 percent are women and girls (“End of Human Trafficking Now”). The United Nations should be more proactive in both preventing and eliminating human trafficking because 161 out of 192 countries are involved with human trafficking (“Human Trafficking Statistics”) and the leaders of every country need to come together to end this phenomenon.
“Injuries of human dignity and Human rights of a globalized society. Nobody may be held in slavery or peonage; Slavery and slave trade are in all forms forbidden”. These are the words of the Universal declaration of human rights (United Nations, 1948).Human trafficking is just another name for modern-day slavery, where the victims involved are forced and deceived into labor and sexual exploitation. Exploitation referring to using others for prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery, or the removal of organs. The numbers are scary. Almost 600,000 to 800,000 women and children are annually trafficked across national borders. This does not count for the numbers that are trafficked within their own countries. Human trafficking is very much hidden and accurate data and the extent of nature of human trafficking are hard to calculate. Trafficked victims are often in dangerous positions and may be unwilling and too scared to jeopardize their lives to report or seek help from authorities. Victims live daily with emotional and physical abuse, inhumane treatment, and threats to their families, like they are going to torture...
Sex trafficking is a global issue that involves a form of coerced sexual exploitation, which is not limited to prostitution. Victims of sex trafficking are stripped of their basic human rights and forced to live a life of modern slavery. The U.S. State Department (Stop Child Trafficking Now, 2012) has stated that human trafficking is “one of the fastest growing crimes in the world.” It it hard to put a number on how on many people are living inside the sex trafficking industry for many reasons, one being that not all victims come forward. It is estimated by the U.S. State Department (Stop Child Trafficking Now, 2012) that every year “600,00-800,000 people will be trafficked across international borders, 80% being women and children.” This
The United States has one of the largest percentages of trafficked humans worldwide, however so many individual are unaware of this issue. As many as 17,500 individuals are thought to be trafficked into the United Stated annually, and some have estimated that 100,000 U.S. citizen children are victims of trafficking within the U.S. (Siskin & Wyler, 2010). Since many cases go unreported, these estimates may be fewer than the actual number of victims in the US. There is substantial evidence that supports the ideology that woman and children from low socio-economic status are most likely targeted (Okech, Morreau, & Benson, 2011), of all the people trafficked each year about 70 percent of women and 50 percent are children that are mainly forced into the sex trade (Human Trafficking Statistics). Among socio-economic problems, the trafficking business feeds on conditions of vulnerability, such as family conflicts, natural disasters, youth, ignorance, gender, social exclusion, political instabil...
In today’s era of technological advancement and scientific discovery, Man’s greed for power and fame has grown exponentially. We live in a world where we have accepted man’s absolute control over each and everything. The unjustified trade and enslavement of human beings in the current age represents a fallen civilisation. A civilisation that is advanced in technology and science, but backward in ethical values. So much so that personal greed comes before the value of a person’s life. Human trafficking is one of the most significant problems faced by the world today. It portrays a picture of inequality among equals with no regard for the right of every individual. Human trafficking is basically the use of human deception to exploit the vulnerable and the needy. According to Koettl (2009), “Human trafficking, as it is defined by international law, subsumes all forms of non-consensual
Sex trafficking is a world wide epidemic. It targets unknowing victims such as women and children enslaving them and exploiting their innocence. Human trafficking is becoming one of the biggest money making organized crimes in the world. The sex trade is one of the most profitable of all current slave trades. Through the age, gender, class, and race many are trapped in a never-ending cycle of coercion and abuse in order to survive in the corrupt society around them. In order to stop this monstrosity in the world, we need to start at the root of the problem. We must bridge the barriers between gender, class, and race in order to respect one another and live in harmony
Thousands of foreigners are smuggled across national borders as forced labour in factories, farms, and brothels. Many are forced to become victims of human trafficking through force or the false promise of the American dream. The threat of human trafficking presently is that it deprives people of their human rights, it is a global health risk, and fuels the growth of organized crimes, such as sex crimes. Within this paper I will discuss my research on human trafficking and the victims’ deprivation of human rights. In order to so, I will synthesize three relevant sources on this topic, discuss additional questions that should be addressed when further researching this issue from a peace studies perspective, and outline a specific proposal for future research.