Blog 2: Foreign Issues- Human Trafficking
By: Katherine Watson
Human trafficking not only violates numerous rights of the declaration, but it also poses a very serious cultural division of right and wrong. Statistics show that India is one of the worst countries in regards to human trafficking; classified as a Tier 3 human trafficking participator and is on alert with the UN’s defense against this horrifying phenomenon of human buying and selling (USDS, 2007). The huge cultural differences between the U.S. and India definitely pose problems in our intervention of the issue. Because the dominating cultural opinion on women’s roles in that particular county is so different from western standards, it is difficult to intervene and still keep up pretenses.
The full arm of the law should be extended in regards to international involvement to help prevent and stop this human trafficking. 95% of all victims are used for sexual purposes (USDS, 2007). It is a huge health threat to the world because of the massive spread of disease that has started because of the dangerous sexual activity of the victims. The spreading of AIDS is the biggest concern. The fact that it is a problem for everyone as a world epidemic means it should be viewed as such and taken seriously by every culture. The different beliefs between cultures shouldn’t matter when hundreds of thousands of individuals are suffering and spreading disease throughout the world. It is the point where the ethnocentric curtains should come down and everyone should work together for the greater good.
The prevention and intervention of human trafficking has definitely brought about conflict because of the vast cultural differences between those who made the Universal Declaration of Human Right’s (UDHR’s) and cultures who don’t follow the same set of human equalities and rights. Factors such as gender inequality, violence and lack of economic opportunities for women increase their risk to both trafficking and HIV. For example, In India women are treated as objects instead of equals to the male population. The caste system clearly defines different levels of importance on human life based on class status, money, spiritual know-how and of course gender. In many other countries however, weak governance makes the poor vulnerable to the risk of being trafficked. The absence of effective legislation and policies as well as poor law enforcement and corruption also contribute to this.
There is a huge division in the world on this issue and so many lives lay in the balance of the human right’s action being taken by the followers of the UDHR’s agreement. It is up to those who have voices to stand up and fight for those who do not. Humanitarianism can be a powerful tool in the stopping of tragic practices such as human trafficking. The hundreds of organizations out there fighting for specific right’s violated by human trafficking are making headway and succeeding in many ways to opening awareness to this heinous black market of human belittlement and injustice. The news is filled with new programs for education on the subject and new laws and policies are being put in place not only for the victims but for the prevention of human trafficking.
Resources:
U.S. Department of State (2007). Trafficking in Persons Report 2007. Retrieved on Dec.
29th, 2009 from:
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2007/
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with you that this is a serious issue. I think that after I watched the movie TAKEN it came into much more of a perspective of how easy it was to be taken and never seen again. I know that this is an issue that is not only in third world countries, but countries whom are powerful and aware of what is happening. I think that it is really sad for all of the women and even men whom have been taken and used in such a way that they can never recover from. I think that certain things should be done world wide to mabye take more precausion with traveling and awarness of women being abducted. I know hawaii is a huge area of activity in this issue, and it would be a good place to start helping with awareness.
ReplyDelete