Speaking of "Our Freedoms"...

Site Issues 2008 Archive Room
#1

People-trafficking and people-smuggling

Drawing lines in a dark place

Coercing hapless human beings into sex or servitude is obviously evil, but defining the problem (let alone solving it) is very hard.

LIVING from the forced labour, or unwillingly provided sexual services, of vulnerable people is a horrific business, and more should be done to punish the perpetrators and succour the victims. That is a sentiment to which almost all governments readily assent, even in the (quite large) slice of the world where links exist between officialdom, the police and the shady types who trade in flesh.

And at least in principle, cross-border trafficking is acknowledged to be so manifestly dreadful that every civilised state must be seen to help correct this wrong. As one sign of this feeling, a Council of Europe convention on trafficking went into force this year; 17 countries have ratified it.

The American government has for the past eight years been mandated by law to wage a many-fronted struggle against human trafficking, at home and around the world. And some hard arguments are now raging in Washington, involving politicians, lobby groups and rival government agencies, about whether the struggle should be escalated…

http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11921830

http://www.humantraffickingsearch.net/

#2

There’s a new film on human trafficking (a drama, not documentary) starring Kevin Kline…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr4xnWa1R2M

#3

Drama has a place in the fight against trafficking and slavery, providing it is informative, assists in making people aware and has a positive impact. Otherwise, it can become simply another entertaining film which isn’t taken seriously or numbs peoples’ minds as to how intolerable it really is.

Human trafficking and modern slavery is a massive problem in the twenty first century, far bigger than most people I know actually appreciate. I suspect the film is limited in its capacity to portray the whole picture, but will probably make people aware of certain aspects of the trade.

#4

Child Soldiers Global Report 2008

Hundred of thousands more children have been recruited, both into governmental armed forces and armed opposition groups. While most child soldiers are aged between 15 and 18, many are recruited from the age of 10 and sometimes even younger. In many countries, both girls and boys are used as soldiers; girls are at particular risk of rape, sexual harassment and abuse. The problem is most critical in Africa and Asia, though children are used as soldiers by governments and armed groups in many countries in the Americas, Europe and Middle East.

http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/972.html

#5

Interesting that we rightly condemn that yet laud Allied soldiers who served as young as 14 in WWII.

Maybe there’s a bit of an unconscious double standard at work?

#6

1914 was almost a hundred years ago and 1939 was almost seventy years ago, RS. Most of us weren’t around to complain about it. :slight_smile:

Two wrongs don’t make a right!

Having personnaly signed-up at the age of fifteen, I can appreciate the irony of your words. :slight_smile:

#7

Of course. It’s been largely ignored in places like the Sudan where slavery was used as a weapon in their civil wars. Now, they’ve just used genocidal ethnic cleansing, but the Christians and Animists in the north of the country were routinely abducted and used as sex toys, farm slaves, and target practice. The problem is more prevalent in Europe as far as the sex trade goes as Eastern European women/girls were targeted.

The film will no doubt let most know that it actually still exists.

#8

Concur, Nick.

Try this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/childrensrights/childrenofconflict/soldier.shtml