Commercial Sex Exploitation of Native American Children

Posted on by Michelle Lillie

Native American reservations have been plagued for years with high rates of crime, violence and alcohol abuse. In the past few years sexual violence against women has dramatically risen in many Native American Reservations across the country. The Department of Justice reports that Native American women living on reservations are 2.5 times more likely to experience sexual assault crimes compared to all other races and one in three Native American women reported having been raped during her lifetime. As with other violent crimes committed against Native Americans, reservation law enforcement is often unable to prosecute sexual crimes due to federal law.

Laws or Excuses?
The 1978 Supreme Court case Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe made it illegal for non-Native Americans to be tried under tribal law. In the case of commercial sexual exploitation of children, unless the man raping the girl is Native American, the man will not be prosecuted. This law has left the women and girls who live on reservations unprotected from the hands of sex traffickers. Even for a Native American charged with a crime, the longest jail sentence the tribe can impose is 3 years.

Raped as a Child, Prostituted as an Adult
New reports of sex trafficking rings and commercial sexual exploitation of children are emerging from the reservations almost weekly–and it is easy to see why. With little deterrent, non-Native American pimps are able to recruit young girls living on reservations with promises to lead them out of the cycle of abuse, poverty and alcoholism that is so common on the reservation. In Minnesota, many young girls are trafficked from the reservation onto the boats in Duluth where they are prostituted in international waters. This occurs so often in Minnesota that it is common to hear of multiple generations of women in the same family being forced to work as prostitutes on the same boat.

A three year study of adult female Native American prostitutes in Minnesota found that 79 percent of the interviewees had been a victim of sex trafficking as a child. Fifty-three percent of the interviewees had survived sexual torture and 49 percent had been kidnapped. Many times the children were prostituted by their own families, grandmothers, mothers and fathers who sell the child for sex in order to pay rent, feed their drug habits or get fast cash.

Who is Buying Children for Sex?
If poverty is rampant on Native American reservations, then the question of “who has the money to purchase sex” begs to be answered. Unsurprisingly the answer is white men. In fact, more than 80 percent of sex crimes on reservations are committed by non-Native American men, who are immune from prosecution by tribal courts.

What’s Being Done to Stop It?
Very little is being done to stop the commercial sexual exploitation of Native American women and children. The Violence Against Women Act was passed earlier this year with a small caveat for tribal jurisdictions. Now the tribal law authorities have jurisdiction to prosecute non-Native American men for domestic violence, dating violence and criminal violation of a protection order. However, the VAWA does not provide any new jurisdiction for the tribal authorities if the sexual violence is between two strangers (including sexual assault, sex trafficking and rape). The VAWA does not cover crimes committed outside Indian country; child or elder abuse or crimes committed by persons “lacking sufficient ties” to the tribe. In reality the tribal jurisdiction of the VAWA really only covers domestic abuse by a non-Native American towards a Native American. Until the tribes get jurisdiction to prosecute all men for sexual violence there will continue to be no deterrent for pimps and non Native American men to traffic women and children living on the reservation into prostitution.

States with the Weakest Human Trafficking Laws

Posted on by Michelle Lillie

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) is arguably the most important anti-trafficking law ever passed. Updated and reauthorized every two years, the TVPA defines a human trafficking victim as a person “induced to perform labor or a commercial sex act through force, fraud, or coercion.” Any person under the age of 18 who performs a commercial sex act is considered to be a victim of human trafficking, “regardless of whether force, fraud or coercion was present.” Under the TVPA, a convicted human trafficker faces anywhere from 15 years to life in prison. The federal government regularly indicts and convicts human traffickers in the federal courts. Since the TVPA only applies to federal cases, each state is responsible to enact its own legislation to handle cases within the state. All 50 states and DC have passed anti-trafficking laws. However, not all laws are created equal. The Polaris Project dubs Wyoming, Arkansas, Montana and South Dakota the “faltering four” states that have weakest anti-trafficking laws.

Wyoming
Wyoming is the very last state to ban human trafficking. On February 28, 2013, under severe pressure from human rights groups, Wyoming signed bill 133 into law. Prior to last month, the state has also excluded any singular law to abate the commercial sexual exploitation of children, leaving buyers of sex with minors largely under prosecuted and undeterred. Even with the passing of anti-trafficking law, there is nothing in Wyoming state law that even differentiates between commercial sex with a minor versus an adult. If an adult is caught soliciting a prostitute, regardless of the age of the person, the consequence is a $750 fine or 6 months in jail.

Arkansas
Arkansas has one of the weakest child protection laws in the country. All states have commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) laws. Arkansas has the distinct dishonor of enforcing a CSEC law that does not refer to the trafficking of persons law to identify minor victims of sex trafficking. This means only the person who engaged in a sexual act with a child will be prosecuted instead of the pimp or trafficker who forced the child into prostitution. In fact, under current Arkansas law, a John could solicit sex from a person of any age and the consequence is a maximum of a $1,000 fine or 90 days in prison. Arkansas has recently been circulating a bill in the house to toughen the state human trafficking laws by increasing jail time for traffickers and sex solicitors. Unsurprisingly, the new bill makes no mention of special treatment for minor sex trafficking victims or solicitors.

Montana
Montana has some of the most lenient jail sentences for human traffickers in the country. Under the federal TVPA, a convicted sex trafficker receives a sentence of 15 years to life. In the state of Montana, the same convicted sex trafficker faces a maximum of 15 years in prison or up to a $100,000 fine. The lowest prison sentence for human traffickers on the federal level is the same as the highest state prison sentence in Montana. In addition to weak prison sentences for traffickers, victims of minor sex trafficking have an additional hoop to jump through. Under Montana state law, minor sex trafficking victims are not covered under the “rape shield” act which is in place so that victims under the age of 16 do not have to face their attackers in court. Since this act only covers victims of sexual offenses, minor victims are often forced to face their traffickers in court as they are technically not the Johns who participated in the sex act.

South Dakota
South Dakota is the only state in the “faltering four” that contains provisions in its anti-trafficking laws for solicitation of a minor under the age of 16. However, much like Montana, the “rape shield” laws provide a deterrent to convicting human traffickers, as victims over the age of 12 are not covered under the law and must testify against their traffickers. The gap in South Dakota legislation is serving to re-traumatize the underage survivors of human trafficking. South Dakota is also one of the only states that does not have a law criminalizing sex tourism. South Dakota also does not require its law enforcement officers to undergo any type of training for identifying and helping human trafficking victims.

For more information on the “faltering four” states, please visit the Polaris Project website.To see how your state ranks, Shared Hope International recently released a detailed report for all 50 states and DC. The Protect Innocence Challenge 2012 Report Cards provides a comprehensive evaluation of the human trafficking laws from each state.

Top 3 States for Human Trafficking

Posted on by Michelle Lillie

Human trafficking is a global epidemic, but it doesn’t only take place in foreign countries. The Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report for 2012 states that the United States is a top “source, transit and destination country for men, women and children–both U.S. citizens and foreign nationals–subjected to forced labor, debt bondage, involuntary servitude and sex trafficking.” Due to the clandestine nature of human trafficking and the under-reporting of the crime, it is often difficult to determine just where in the United States this horrific crimes occurs the most. The Department of State lists the top three states with the most human trafficking activity are California, New York and Texas.

California
California Against Slavery reported that 3 of the ten worst child sex trafficking areas in the United States are in California: San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. Traffickers are drawn to California because of its large immigrant population and booming global economy–currently ranked as the 9th largest in the world. Sex trafficking is very profitable for traffickers.  In Los Angeles, the average sex trafficker can make $49,000 per victim during the course of her imprisonment. California is a hotbed not only for child sex trafficking, but also forced labor, sex trafficking and involuntary servitude. Many traffickers come to California because of easy access to the California-Mexico border, enabling them to bring victims up from Mexico into California to work as slave labor in sweatshops or on farms.

New York
The main hub for human trafficking in the state of New York is in New York City. Safe Horizons explains that this is “due to its large population of immigrants, close proximity of international ports and its concentration of many formal and informal industries where severe labor rights violations can go undetected.” International trafficking is not the only type of human trafficking. Due to the large number of homeless people, runaways and foster care children, New York City has one of the highest rates of domestic sex trafficking in the country. The Polaris Project states that in an eight-year period, 70-80 trafficked minors were identified at just one residential facility in New York City alone.

Texas
Much like California and New York, Texas has grown into a hub of human trafficking due to its location, immigrant community and large economy. In the media, human trafficking in Texas is portrayed as Mexican forced laborers trafficked through the borders, but the Freedom Place paints a much different picture. Houston is home to almost 6,000 runaway minors and an estimated 1 in 3 runaways are lured in sex trafficking within 48 hours of running away from home. Almost 30 percent of calls to report domestic trafficking at the National Human Trafficking Hotline originate in Texas. The largest population of youths at risk of being trafficked is centered in Houston, Texas.

Sex trafficking, forced labor, child labor, child sex trafficking and indentured servitude are all forms of human trafficking found in United States. The human trafficking epidemic has reached global proportions with the United States being one of the top destination countries for human trafficking victims. California, New York and Texas are the top states for human trafficking but by no means the only states where human trafficking is found. No matter the state or country where it occurs,  human trafficking is a rising global epidemic that needs to be stopped.

Human Trafficking on the Rise in the EU

Posted on by Michelle Lillie

 

In 2012 the European Union commissioned a report by Eurostat Working Group on Crime Statistics to discover the depth of human trafficking in Europe. The “Trafficking in Human Beings” report was released on Monday and the comprehensive report analyzed human trafficking statistics from European Union member states as well as Croatia, Iceland, Montenegro, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The findings of the report present a sombre reality for survivors of human trafficking in the European Union.

Key Findings
The key findings in the “Trafficking in Human Beings” report present a surprising statistic; namely that from 2008-2010 the number of suspected traffickers has decreased by 17 percent but the number of human trafficking victims has risen dramatically by 18 percent. This puzzling finding supports the Department of State Trafficking in Persons 2012 report, which states that human trafficking is increasingly becoming a larger part of organized crime rings rather than small time traffickers. The number of trafficking victims has increased as the organized crime rings continue to profit from the exploitation of vulnerable men and women.

Startling Statistics
Some not so surprising findings are that 75 percent of convicted traffickers are male and the majority of trafficking victims, 80 percent, are comprised of women and young girls. The majority of victims trafficked into the European Union from EU countries are trafficked from Bulgaria and Romania. This is not a new finding, as most victims of sex trafficking come from countries with high levels of poverty and Bulgaria and Romania are some of the poorest in the European Union.

The majority of victims trafficked into the European Union from non-EU countries come from China and Nigeria. This data corresponds to the Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report, which states that the majority of trafficking victims come primarily from Asia and Africa. It is also interesting to note that both reports mention that accused human traffickers are most likely to hold citizenships from Asian and African countries.

Dismal Future for Victims of Trafficking in the European Union
The biggest finding of the report lies in the startling fact that convictions for human trafficking decreased from 2008 to 2010 by 13 percent. The report concedes that part of the reason for the decrease is due to the slow response from local authorities in the European Union. The most striking figure to come from the “Trafficking in Human Beings” report is that only six of the 27 European Union states have fully incorporated the EU Anti-Trafficking Directive into their national legislation. The Anti-Trafficking Directive states that:

Member States shall take the necessary measures to establish national rapporteurs or equivalent mechanisms. The tasks of such mechanisms shall include the carrying out of assessments of trends in trafficking in human beings, the measuring of results of anti-trafficking actions, including the gathering of statistics in close cooperation with relevant civil society organisations active in this field, and reporting.

Addressing human trafficking is a strategic priority of the European Union member states and the European Commission. Earlier this month, the deadline expired for member states to transpose the EU Anti-Trafficking Directive into their national legislation. More than 21 countries watched as the April 6, 2013 deadline came and went without adopting the EU Anti-Trafficking Directive into their national legislation.

The “Trafficking in Human Beings” report states that within the European Union there has been a dramatic increase in human trafficking and a decrease in the conviction of traffickers. When these statistics are combined with the lack of effort by the majority of EU member states to adopt the EU Anti-Trafficking Directive, it creates a very dismissal outlook for the victims of modern day slavery.

Cutting Edge Technology, Corporate Interest and Human Trafficking

Posted on by Michelle Lillie

It’s not often that large corporations share their newest and best technology. It is even less often that these multinational companies award money for other companies and individuals to create rival technology. Yet this has become more common as large technology companies partner with anti-human trafficking organizations to battle modern day slavery. As technology improves the speed and capacity of the information internationally available, large companies are using their corporate foundations to create technology to stop human traffickers.

Google Giving

Google announced on Wednesday that it plans to award $3 million to three different anti-human trafficking organizations to create a Google Global Human Trafficking Hotline Network. Each organization covers a different part of the world. The Polaris Project is US based, La Strada International focuses on Europe and Liberty Asia (as the name implies) works on anti- human trafficking programs in Asia. In the United States, the Polaris Project is currently home to the national human trafficking hotline and has helped over 72,000 callers since it was first created in 2007. While the national hotline number has had a profound impact on US based callers, it has been unable to accommodate international victims. The funding given for the new Google Global Human Trafficking Hotline Network seeks to fill that void by creating an international helpline network using the vast amount of data available on Google.

Microsoft

Microsoft has long been funding programs involved with making the Internet a safer places for children. Through the creation of its Digital Crime Unit, Microsoft focused its research and funding on stopping child exploitative practices on the Internet. In mid-2012, Microsoft announced it had awarded six grants (totaling $185,000) to academic research teams to better help the public understand the intersection of technology and child sex trafficking.

Sarkissian Mason / USAID

In early 2013 both Sarkissian Mason and the United States Agency for Development announced they were accepting proposals for innovative technological solutions to the human trafficking problem. USAID offered a $5,000 prize for the best proposal to combat human trafficking in developing countries and Sarkissian Mason offered $100,000 of in house advertising and digital services to a human trafficking organization involved with direct services, educational and / or advocacy around anti-human trafficking. Every applicant must have a vision for utilizing technology to increase their reach and impact.

The organizations listed above are some of the most well known corporate anti-human trafficking funders, but the list is not comprehensive. Everyday public awareness of the human trafficking epidemic rises and as it does, more technology corporate foundations award their time and money to help end modern day slavery.

US Foster Care System a Breeding Ground for Human Trafficking

Posted on by Michelle Lillie

Half of all human trafficking victims are minors, and slaverynomore.org states
that 70 percent of these minors are children in the foster care system. Foster
Focus Magazine, an online publication devoted to the US foster care system, places
that number even higher at 80 percent. In a report by the state government of
Connecticut, 86 percent of victims rescued from domestic minor sex trafficking in
2011 had been involved with child welfare services in some manner and may had
been victimized while in foster care or residential placement.

These statistics are especially disturbing since there are an estimated 300,000
children involved in underage domestic sex trafficking in the United States which
means 210,000 to 258,000 children have been failed by the very system that
was created to protect and provide for them. Children in the foster care system
are especially vulnerable since many have experienced trauma such as physical
violence, substance abuse and parental incarceration. Children with no family and
no support system are easy prey for pimps who initially shower the girls with gifts
and attention. Many pimps pose as boyfriends or protectors to gain trust of the
young girls. Shockingly, it is often fellow housemates working for the pimps who
recruit other members of the foster home or shelter into prostitution.

According to The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: America’s
Prostituted Children, “children exploited through prostitution report they typically
are given a quota by their trafficker/pimp of 10 to 15 buyers per night. Utilizing a
conservative estimate, a domestic minor sex-trafficking victim would be raped by
6,000 buyers during the course of her victimization through prostitution.” After one
to two years of this horrific treatment, most children are either too sick or injured
from the brutality to be of any use to the pimps and are simply discarded on the
street. Children have not yet fully developed their natural immune system and are
more likely to be infected by diseases like AIDS, Syphilis and Hepatitis B. Since the
average age for a child to enter forced prostitution is 12-14 years old and most die
within seven years of their first sexual act, very few child prostitutes make it to
adulthood. The few that do reach their 18th birthday will have aged out of the foster
care system leaving them without food or shelter.

The link between human trafficking and children in the foster care system is not a
new trend and in recent years the issue has become more publicly discussed. In
fact there has been such a large public outcry that included as part of the President’s
Budget for Fiscal Year 2013, is a $5 million proposal that would create competitive
grants to address the exploitation of some youth in foster care who are victims of
sex trafficking. Although $5 million seems like a small amount of money to rescue
and rehabilitate the estimated hundreds of thousands of foster care children who
are victims of human trafficking, it is a step in the right direction, as no federal funds
have previously been allocated specifically for these children.

2 Forced Labor Campaigns that Made a Difference

Posted on by Michelle Lillie

With the rise of international watchdog groups and human rights organizations, corporate responsibility can no longer be an afterthought for the world’s largest companies. The new American consumers are socially aware, concerned citizens who will not consciously buy produce picked or products manufactured with slave labor. Human rights organizations are aggressively targeting specific international corporations to end forced labor in their business practices. While it is rare for multinational corporations to acknowledge their poor business practice we have identified two recent human rights campaigns that have made Philip Morris International and Hershey’s Chocolate change the way they do business.

“Hellish Work”
In 2010 Human Rights Watch released a 115-page report entitled “Hellish Work: Exploitation of Migrant Tobacco Workers in Kazakhstan,” documenting the terrible working conditions and abuse experienced by workers during 2009. The report was based on interviews with 68 people who were working on tobacco farms. The employees reported confiscation of their passports, earnings withheld, lack of clean water for drinking and bathing as well as children as young as 10 working in the tobacco fields. Human Rights Watch released this report bringing international pressure to Philip Morris International and Philip Morris Kazakhstan to provide safe working and living conditions for their employees. July 14, 2010 the report went public on the Human Rights Watch website and by the afternoon of July 14, 2010, Philip Morris International released a statement saying they were “grateful to Human Rights Watch for bringing these matters to [their] attention and have taken immediate steps [to] establish standards of treatment [for] the workers.” A little less than a year later, Philip Morris International announced a strategic cooperation with Verite, (a fair labor NGO) to provide monitoring and evaluation for Philip Morris International in Kazakhstan.

Raise the Bar
Raise the Bar was a campaign that began as partnership with the International Labor Rights Forum, Green America and Global Exchange. The goal of the campaign was to stop Hershey’s child labor practices in its West African cocoa fields. As letters to the company went unanswered and the consumer alerts posted in grocery stores were ignored, the Raise the Bar campaign finally got Hershey’s attention during its “Say S’mores,” photo contest where chocolate lovers were encouraged to upload photos to the Hershey website. Instead of photos of families eating S’mores, Hershey’s found itself face to face with dozens of photos of activist holding signs calling out Hershey’s child labor practices. Still resistant to admitting to its child labor practices, Raise the Bar took a final drastic step and planned to air an ad showing Hershey’s child labor practices in West Africa outside the super bowl game in 2012. Conveniently, a week before the ad was to air, Hershey’s announced it’s plans to spend $10 million in West Africa on initiatives to reduce child labor in cocoa fields. Hershey’s also promised to only use cocoa that comes from Rainforest Alliance Certified Farms which prohibits child labor and requires all workers to be paid the legal minimum wage with full rights and benefits. As a thank you to Hershey’s, Raise the Bar did not air the child labor ad at the super bowl. For more information please click here.

Put Slavery Out of Business
In mid-December 2012, WalkFree.org: The Movement to End Modern Slavery took corporate responsibility one step further and called on not one but the largest 25 companies in the world (with a net worth of $5 trillion dollars) to end slavery by signing a Zero Tolerance for Slavery Pledge. WalkFree.org called on these “Corporate Giants” (such as Coca Cola, Chevron, Apple, Inc., Pfizer Inc., just to name a few) to sign a pledge stating:

We pledge zero tolerance for slavery. We commit to prevent forced labor from finding its way into our products. We pledge that our operations are free of forced labor and will carefully monitor our supply chains and subcontracting arrangements to ensure the same. We will take responsible steps to respond to any problems found.

WalkFree.org has yet to announce which of the Corporate Giants have signed the pledge since December, but plan to reveal the complete list in a few short weeks on March 31, 2013. For more information please click here.

The United States’ Problem with Children’s Rights

Posted on by Michelle Lillie

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is a multilateral human rights treaty that promotes the rights of all children worldwide. It defines a child as any human being under the age of 18 and calls on state parties to take all appropriate measures to ensure that children’s rights are protected. The CRC contains 54 articles that set basic rights of all children which include: the right to survival; the right to develop to the fullest potential; the right to protection from abuse, neglect and exploitation and the right to participate in family, cultural and social life.

Since 1989, 193 nations have become state parties to the CRC, including countries with dubious human rights records such as Rwanda, North Korea and Pakistan. While the CRC is the most widely accepted human rights treaty of all United Nations member states, not all the signatories have ratified this treaty. Three countries have yet to ratify the CRC: Somalia, South Sudan and the United States.

Somalia and South Sudan are both fragile states, with very volatile recent histories. Somalia has been in a state of political uncertainty for the past two decades with no central government to ratify international treaties. The young state of South Sudan is still relatively unstable with daily violent clashes with Sudan. Yet the United States, which is arguably one of the most politically stable countries in the world, has either been unwilling or unable to ratify the CRC in over 20 years.

The United States was a leader in drafting the CRC during the Reagan and Clinton administrations and signed the CRC in early 1995. In order to ratify the CRC, the Clinton administration should have submitted the treaty for Senate approval. Yet in the 17 years since the United States signed the CRC, the treaty has never once been submitted to the Senate for ratification. In fact, the CRC has become a very contentious issue both domestically and internationally for the United States.

Opponents to the CRC believe that ratifying the CRC, will allow the United Nations to undermine United States laws. Some of the more conservative groups such as ParentalRights.org, assert that “under international law, the treaty [CRC] overrides even our Constitution.” While the CRC does appoint 18 committee members to monitor state compliance with the treaty, it does not have any enforcement authority either independently or through the United Nations. As a country deeply concerned and embedded with international human rights, it is baffling that the United States has never ratified the CRC.

On May 25, 2000, the United Nations adopted two Optional Protocols to the CRC. The Sex Trafficking Protocol addresses the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and The Child Soldier Protocol establishes 18 as the age for compulsory recruitment into armed forces, but allows for voluntary recruitment at age 16. Like many of its powerful allies, the United States ratified both protocols—it would simply be bad politics to oppose an international protocol that abolishes the worst forms of child abuse. While Human Trafficking Search applauds the United States for taking steps to abolish child sex trafficking and child soldiers, we strongly encourage the Obama Administration to present the CRC to the Senate, ratify the treaty and end child exploitation.

To become involved or for more information on the CRC please visit The Campaign for US Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Problem with Cotton: Child Labor in Uzbekistan

Posted on by Michelle Lillie

Uzbekistan is the world’s third largest exporter of raw cotton, earning the country an estimated $1 billion a year in revenue. Every year at harvest time, schools are shut down and children are forced to pick cotton alongside their teachers and other civil servants for little to no wages.

Uzbek men, women and children are forced to work from dawn until dusk picking cotton for less than $1 a day which the government “earns” back by deducting a room and board fee.

For years international human rights watchdog groups have accused the Uzbek government of forcing an estimated 1 million Uzbek children ages 6 to 15 to spend the autumn months picking cotton instead of learning in school. Uzbek activists who speak out about forced child labor are routinely detained and tortured.

Human rights watchdog groups such as the Responsible Sourcing Network and the Anti Slavery.org launched international campaigns against the Uzbek cotton resulting in the Uzbekistan government putting a legal ban on children under the age of 16 working at all. Yet it is widely believed that teenagers aged 15-17 are still forced to leave school and work the cotton harvest.

To help end the rampant forced child labor in Uzbekistan, the Responsible Sourcing Network (a project of As You Sow) introduced a pledge for companies to sign vowing to:

…commit to not knowingly source Uzbek cotton for the manufacturing of any of our products until the Government of Uzbekistan ends the practice of forced child labor in it’s cotton sector…

In just over a year, the Company Pledge Against Forced Child Labor in Uzbekistan Cotton has received 131 signatories from international companies ranging from low end Wal-Mart to luxury brand Gucci.

Human Trafficking Search applauds the efforts of the 131 signatories to stop using Uzbek cotton and encourages more companies to do so. To stay updated or get involved with the campaign against Uzbek cotton please visit Antislavery.org.

 

 

Welcome to Human Trafficking Search.Net

Posted on by Liz Salett

Human Trafficking Search would like to welcome you to our first official blog post. The goal of this blog is to inspire awareness, encourage research and empower our readers through easily accessible, unbiased, multilingual information about human trafficking.

What better month to begin this endeavor than January, which now has the honor and distinct privilege of being named “National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.”

On December 31, 2012, President Obama declared the month of January a time to:

…rededicate ourselves to stopping one of the greatest human rights abuses of our time. Around the world, millions of men, women and children are bought, sold, beaten and abused, locked in compelled service and hidden in darkness. They toil in factories and fields; in brothels and sweatshops; at sea, abroad and at home. They are the victims of human trafficking—a crime that amounts to modern-day slavery…

In the remaining part of his proclamation, President Obama reminded Americans that abolishing slavery in the United States was once thought to be impossible, but became possible over time. Yet the sad truth remains that almost 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery still prevails both in the United States and abroad.

A recent Department of State report estimated that 27 million men, women and children worldwide are currently victims of modern slavery. The number of people falling victim to human trafficking through forced labor, child labor and the sex trade continues to increase on a global scale.

Human Trafficking Search strives to reduce human trafficking by providing a ground breaking multilingual search engine to aid in the global awareness of modern day slavery. With that in mind please feel free to search our website to find web entries from around the world on the topic of Human Trafficking.

For a complete transcript of President Obama’s speech please click here.