By Nergui Manalsuren

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 4 (IPS) - Despite numerous international and regional treaties banning human trafficking, it remains a crime with low risks and high profits, said experts and diplomats at the first U.N. General Assembly open debate on the global slave trade Tuesday.

The Geneva-based International Labour Organisation (ILO) believes that there are about 2.5 million people trafficked into slave labour around the world.

“They are threatened with violence and held against their will. They are exploited for sex, forced to work, and even killed for their organs,” Asha-Rose Migiro, the U.N. deputy secretary-general, told the General Assembly delegates.

And it is a lucrative business. The ILO estimates that traffickers earn some 32 billion dollars in profits annually, making it second only to the illicit trade in drugs and arms.

The U.N. has identified 127 countries as sources of trafficked people and 137 nations as destinations for these victims, who tend to be the most vulnerable members of society – children living in conflict, or on the streets, and those forced to take desperate risks to earn a living outside their home country.

“The stories are heart-rending,” Migiro said. “A father dies and suddenly, his teenage daughter must sell her body to survive. Or a boy in a war zone is handed a gun and forced to commit atrocities he should never witness. Or a girl in a factory toils night and day, her little hands exploited for the intricate work they can produce.”

Half of all trafficked persons are children, according to the ILO, and most of their victimisers are walking free. In 2006, there were 5,808 prosecutions and 3,160 convictions of traffickers throughout the world – meaning that for every 800 people trafficked, only one person was convicted that year.

“Some victims are treated like beasts of burden, working under atrocious conditions in mines, plantations or construction sites. Others suffer the torment of sexual exploitation, many at the cost of their lives, and millions spend long hours in sweatshops but earn almost no pay,” said Migiro.

Despite this horrific situation, the General Assembly did not put the issue on its agenda until this year, which also marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

Ashley Judd, a Hollywood actress and philanthropist, who was a keynote speaker at the event and has travelled the world to meet with victims, told IPS, “I was little surprised to learn that today was actually the first time that it’s been addressed at the GA, and so I say not one day too soon.”

Judd stressed the importance of empowering women and girls, who face severe economic and social discrimination in many parts of the world.

“The prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnership really needs to be manifested on the ground both by pursuing national policies and legislation worldwide and then giving appropriate financial support to improve grassroots programmes that have such intimate effectiveness on the ground,” she told IPS.

Existing agreements to fight human trafficking include the U.N. Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime and the U.N. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, as well as numerous regional declarations and conventions.

“We therefore must ask ourselves, with all these laws and international agreements in place, why the problem is getting worse,” said General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim. “There remains a vast gulf between the letter of the law and the situation on the ground.”

Speakers called on member states to meet their commitments by ensuring there are proper mechanisms in place to protect and assist trafficking victims, and to prosecute traffickers, as well as actions to strengthen prevention and address the problems of poverty and social exclusion that increase vulnerability to trafficking.

A key point was universal ratification of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, which was adopted by the U.N. eight years ago in Palermo, Italy. According to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, 76 countries – about a third of U.N. member states – have not ratified the protocol, including some major countries that have not even signed it.

“This crime shocks all good people of conscience, and all countries must join the effort to fight back,” said Migiro.
(END/2008)