Switched-On Magazine

In 1948, the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as "a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations", which is to say that the articles of the declaration are goals to achieve. Yet daily the articles set forth in the UN's Human Rights have either not been achieved, are not guaranteed, are violated.

Article 4, which states that "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms" is one that is constantly violated by organized crime that actively participates in the trafficking of humans. Human trafficking is an international crime and is considered by the UN as maintained for the "purpose of exploitation, which includes exploiting the prostitution of others, sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery or similar practices and the removal of organs." Human trafficking and the illegal industries it serves is not only a form of slavery but also a blatant violation of human rights.

Of the victims of human trafficking, many are youth from countries of origin that tend to be considered middle to low income by the World Bank. What that suggests is that the social and economic forces in such countries of origin play a role in driving motivation for human trafficking.

In countries where the dominant culture perceives the human rights of youth as less important or less extensive than those of adults, such a perception probably affects the success of human traffickers' recruitment and coercion of youth into their illegal industry. A youth being recruited or coerced for exploitation may perceive his or her ability to counter a human trafficker's advances on himself or herself as limited as he or she may feel powerless, both politically and probably physically, to fight back.

Perhaps what governments can do is make its demographics most vulnerable to human trafficking be aware of their rights and to counsel them on what to do if they are targeted by human traffickers. So much can be achieved through simple awareness of one's rights alone.

However, there are exploited people who initially enter the illegal industries willingly because they have nowhere else to turn to for a job, and are tricked into believing they will be compensated for by these human traffickers.

Several governments of these countries of origin have attempted to address the issue of this illegal industry, yet human trafficking persists in those areas as many remain unaware that around 27 million people in the world have been victimized by this problem. Larger issues, such as widespread unemployment in legal industries and low wages for the working classes, no doubt play a role in allowing human trafficking to persist.

In order to nip human trafficking in the bud, then, governments should not only punish the proponents of human trafficking but also address the wider issues at hand which push people into such a blatant violation of human rights.