NEW NEWS
Judgement in the Queen v. Wei Tang case was received last week. The result was that the first person in Australia to be convicted under the 1999 anti-slavery laws had her conviction reinstated and upheld. Please see the alerts below for media coverage. Special thanks to Nina for keeping the Network Members informed about the judgement. Tang is now planning to appeal her sentence term. Trevor McIvor and Kanoporn Thauchit were sentenced on on Friday, receiving 12 and 11 years respectively. They too are expected to appeal their sentence term. More on this is due course.
Events/Conferences:
World Congress III Against the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents, in Bangkok. The congress, organised by Ecpat International, an international non-profit organisation network, will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from Nov 25-28
Reports:
Scotland's Slaves - A report by Amnesty International on Trafficking in Scottland.
A definition:
“Trafficking in human beings” shall mean 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. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
Article 3 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime (Palmero Protocol)
Men, women and children are trafficked within their own countries and across international borders. Trafficking affects every continent and most countries.
Due to the hidden and illegal nature of human trafficking, gathering statistics on the scale of the problem is a complex and difficult task. There are no reliable national or international estimates as to the extent of trafficking. Figures are usually counted in the countries that people are trafficked into and often fail to include those who are trafficked within their own national borders. The following statistics may represent an underestimation of trafficking, but are the most credible and frequently quoted.
At least 12.3 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide. Of these 2.4 million are as a result of human trafficking. A global alliance against forced labor, International Labour Organisation, 2005
600,000-800,000 men, women and children trafficked across international borders each year. Approximately 80 per cent are women and girls. Up to 50% are minors. US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2005
An estimated 1.2 million children trafficked each year. UNICEF UK Child Trafficking Information sheet, January 2003
The majority of trafficked victims arguably come from the poorest countries and poorest strata of the national population. A global alliance against forced labor, International Labour Organisation, 2005
Trafficking is the fastest growing means by which people are caught in the trap of slavery. Anti-Slavery
Human trafficking is the third largest source of income for organised crime, exceeded only by arms and drugs trafficking. UN office on drugs and crime
It is the fastest growing form of international crime, already generating 7 billion dollars per year in criminal proceeds. There are even reports that some trafficking groups are switching their cargo from drugs to human beings, in a search of high profits at lower risk. UN office on drugs and crime
People are trafficked into prostitution, begging, forced labour, military service, domestic service, forced illegal adoption, forced marriage etc.
Types of recruitment; include abduction, false agreement with parents, sold by parents, runaways, travel with family, orphans sold from street or institutions.
Not For Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade - David Batstone (2007)
Unspeakable: The Hidden Truth Behind The World's Fastest Growing Crime - Raymond Bechard (2006)
Woman, Child for Sale: The New Slave Trade in the 21st Century - Gilbert King and Eleanor Clift (2004)
Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy - Kevin Bales (2004)
Human Traffic: Sex, Slaves & Immigration - Craig McGill (2004)
Smuggling and Trafficking in Human Beings: All Roads Lead to America - Sheldon X. Zhang (2007)
Sex Trafficking: The Global Market in Woman and children - Kathryn Farr (2004)
Human Trafficking - Maggie Lee (2007)
The War on Human Trafficking: U.S. Policy Assessed - Anthony M. Destefano (2007)
Data and Research on Human Trafficking: A Global Survey - Frank Laczko & Elzbieta M. Gozdziak (2005)
www.NotForSaleCampaign.org
www.actnow.com.au
www.humantrafficking.org/
www.unodc.org/unodc/trafficking_human_beings.html
usinfo.state.gov/gi/global_issues/human_trafficking.html
www.interpol.int/Public/THB/default.asp
www.actnow.com.au/Issues/Human_trafficking.aspx
www.ashoka.org
www.CATWInternational.org
www.WomensCommission.org
NOT FOR SALE DVD (and many more at this link)
THE DAY MY GOD DIED Andrew Levine Productions
FOUR YEARS IN HELL info@filmakers.com