Human trafficking - stopping one of the worst forms of international crime
Slavery is something of the past – we think. Yet both the hunger for cheap products in our global marketplace and the hunger for cheap sex create an environment in which one of the worst forms of international crime is thriving: human trafficking. An estimated 27 million people live in modern day slavery. They have been trafficked, bonded, sold, or lured into total dependency on the criminals who profit from the labor of their victims, or with their bodies, or with their organs. More often than not, the reason behind this slave-like life is poverty and the hope to get out of it by finding employment somewhere else.
The international community recognized human trafficking as a crime against humanity in 2000 when the so-called Palermo Protocol was signed. Today, human trafficking has overtaken the international drug trade in volume – and has become the second most lucrative international crime.
Some governments and organizations have made efforts to combat trafficking. Pressure groups and NGOs campaign against the modern forms of exploitation and slavery and work with victims. Police forces and judiciary systems around the world are being increasingly informed about the crime, the victims and the way to uncover and punish the criminals. Prevention and protection are the other two important fields of action.
Even though we listen to tales of slavery on the cocoa production fields in the Ivory Coast, even though we have seen reports on women from Eastern Europe, Asia or Africa being lured into sex slavery in cities in Europe and the Near East, even though we have heard of child labor in Far Eastern sweatshops, there is hardly a major offense against fellow human beings so little embedded in the general public’s focus of attention.
So what can the media do to enhance the knowledge of our listeners and viewers, to expose the underlying structures favoring international trafficking? How can the media help to create awareness? And maybe, what action can be taken on the ground?
Moderation:
Conny Czymoch
Journalist
Panelists:
David Astley
Executive Chairman The MEDIA Alliance, Singapore
Christopher Davis
Director International Campaigns The Body Shop
H.E. Mosud Mannan
Abassador of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh
Roberto U. Romano
Human Rights Educator, Filmmaker and Photographer
Bärbel Uhl
Chairperson of the EU Commission’s Group of Experts to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings, Brussels