Human trafficking is an open violation of human dignity, and also an exploitation of international human rights law. A trade, a business that is considered to be one of the most controversial topics for many countries, it takes place worldwide for the purpose of gaining money.
The trade is a major source of profit for traffickers. This “business” involves sexual slavery, forced labor, prostitution, child abuse, and commercial exploitation as well. Many children and women have been exploited in such a way to sell their bodies without their consent. They are also trafficked for labor exploitation, which is the violence of labour dignity as well. According to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, the most common form of human trafficking (79%) is sexual exploitation. The victims of sexual exploitation are predominantly women and girls.
Surprisingly, in 30% of the countries which provided information on the gender of traffickers, women make up the largest proportion of traffickers. In some parts of the world, women trafficking women is the norm. The second most common form of human trafficking is forced labor (18%), although this may be a misrepresentation because forced labor is less frequently detected and reported than trafficking for sexual exploitation. Worldwide, almost 20% of all trafficking victims are children. However, in some parts of Africa and the Mekong region, children are the majority; up to 100% in parts of West Africa.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights contains two articles that specifically refer to children. Article 25(2) states:
“Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children whether born in or out of wedlock shall enjoy the same social protection. ”
Article 26 calls for the right to education for all, and deals both with access to and the aims of education. Thus, education is to be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages; elementary education is to be compulsory; and education should be “directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.” Nevertheless, “Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.”
The article states the protection of liberty, choice, right to a secure and safe life of children and how important this is for them to have social protection. It’s a social responsibility of the community to protect children from any form of exploitation as it is a violation of child protection laws and exploitation of mental life of any individual.
Sexual exploitation can result in trauma that may impact children for the rest of their lives. In the modern world, nearly 1 in 10 children are subjected to child labor worldwide without their consent and traffickers make business out of this exploitation. Mostly this happens when the families of children face financial crisis, they push them towards labor. They sell them to traffickers as well, in order to overcome poverty. Migrant and refugee children – many of whom had been uprooted with the aid of struggle, catastrophe or poverty – additionally risk being forced into work or even trafficked, mainly if they’re migrating on their own or taking irregular routes with their households. Trafficked children are frequently subjected to violence, abuse and other human rights violations, and some may be forced to interrupt the law. For ladies, the threat of sexual exploitation looms large.
The trafficking of children – internally in countries, through countrywide borders and across continents – is intently interlinked with the call for cheap, malleable and docile labor in sectors and amongst employers where the working situations and the treatment grossly violates the human rights of the kids. These are characterized by environments which might be unacceptable, in addition to being dangerous to the fitness and the improvement of the kid. Those forms vary from bonded labor, camel jockeying, baby home labor, industrial sexual exploitation and prostitution, drug couriering, and toddler soldiering to exploitative or slavery-like practices within the casual commercial zone.
Human trafficking is a human rights violation that frequently includes bodily or mental violence, rape, kidnapping and enslavement. It’s also an extreme crime, most often global, for which it’s punishable in Poland and different countries of the European Union.
