Joy Ezeilo
17 July 2008
column
Lagos — The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, calls for a focus on the human rights aspects of the issue of trafficking in persons. I come to this position with many years of human rights activism behind me and global experience on gender and women's rights. I have stood shoulder to shoulder with women all over Africa and, indeed, the world, to demand an end to injustices, discrimination, degradation and the inhumanities that plague our current world.
I now approach this position with an open mind and a willingness to serve, bearing in mind that a calling such as this places a great obligation upon me to be transparent and non-biased while, at the same time, empathetic to the plight of the victims.
I call for the cooperation and support of governments, colleagues, Special Rapporteurs and activists because it is my sincere hope that, with this mandate, we can bring a beacon of hope to shine on the lives of the poor and the vulnerable, a light of revelation to the uninformed but eager migrant and more clarity to the lives and works of the champions of change who have taken on the course of ending the enslavement and exploitation of human beings by their fellows.
Human trafficking is not a new phenomenon. It is simply slavery wearing a new cloak and bearing a new name but now operating at a more high-tech level. This new form of slavery is supported by sophisticated technology, slow/inadequate response by crusaders, unclear perceptions of the issues and the, yet, unfulfilled yearnings of all human beings to find a better situation, a broader outlook on life or just find bread for the stomach.
The linkages between migration and human trafficking are now obvious; desperate circumstances of life force the need on young and old alike to move away from an 'unproductive' or 'uncomfortable' environ-ment in search of better choices elsewhere. This kind of migratory movement, in itself, is as old as time. Traffickers operate somewhere in the equation to prey on the uninformed, the vulnerable or the unsuspecting. The result is, by parts, debt bondage, severe exploitation, dehumanization and denial of all basic human rights.
The time has now come for governments, civil society, researchers, the private sector and, indeed, all relevant and interest entities in the fight against human trafficking to clean out our closets. We now need refreshing new ideas and insights into this phenomenon. Why, one may ask?
The answer is not far-fetched. Quite a lot has been done to put an end to of human trafficking. Efforts by governments and civil society globally are commended for their timeliness as well as determination to end this scourge but we need to ask ourselves very simple but critical questions; can we rightly say that there has been a significant decline in the problem? Are less numbers of children being moved across the borders of Asia for sexual exploitation? Are African children secure in their homes without worries of the need to cross borders in order to fend for their families? Are young children, men and women from all over the world safe from forced prostitution?
When young people migrate, are they doing so, secure in the knowledge that someone is watching out for them and that their dream-come-true is not, in fact, a trap jaw waiting to shut them in? Have the illicit child adoption rings of East and South Africa been silenced? Are South East Asian domestic workers safe and empowered as they venture into the Middle East in search of a future? Are young boys from Cambodia and Burma safe from endless days and nights labouring on precarious fishing boats?
The answers to these questions and many more will convince us of the need for a 'self-assessment'. The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Human Beings, especially women and children, provides a comprehensive strategic approach to combating trafficking in human beings.
Again, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) developed the Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking with a view to providing practical, rights-based approach to the prevention of trafficking and the protection of trafficked persons, and facilitating the integration of a human rights perspective into national, regional, and international anti-trafficking laws, policies and interventions.
Challenges abound in actual implementation. How to strike a balance between political concerns and the rights of the victims and the vulnerable remains a complex factor; achieving universal clarity on what constitutes trafficking and its main elements remains evasive and how to develop effective measures in the face of increased sophistication by traffickers all serve to hinder systematic and consistent implementa-tion. After seven years of existence of the Protocol and the Guidelines, the time is now ripe to seek understanding of how best we can over-come these challenges with implementation. Best practices abound all over the world; with this mandate, we will hopefully find, propagate and learn from them.
The need for better ways of generating and managing data on trafficking is being felt now more than ever. It will help give us a clear under-standing on where we are and the changes we hope to see in the phenomenon over the next few years. It will help us to say, with certainty, whether the end of the problem is in sight or whether we need to step up our efforts. Hopefully, better data will help us to locate where the most help is needed and offer it in timely and useful ways.
I hope that, together, we can examine our 'solutions' of the past and begin to try to propose better ways of looking to the future. I appeal to all nations of the world to keep their doors and hearts open to this noble cause. I propose to serve as a unifying factor in ensuring that, together, we come to common agreements on what is most important in this struggle. For me, that is to do our very best to ensure that, at all times, we promote the best interest of the world's children and centre the rights of all victims in our interventions.
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