Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
Battle against kidnappings
Girl brides abducted as fabled HIV cure
By Justine Lang, CNN
KwaCele, South Africa (CNN) - The landscape of the rural Eastern Cape in South Africa has a haunting beauty. A myriad of round turquoise huts scatter across the land in a series of endless villages.
Yet these villages are also home to a terrible and devastating traditional practice that destroys children's lives and tears families apart.
In these villages, girls as young as 12 are kidnapped by older men and forced to 'marry.' It is accepted as part of the Xhosa people's culture. It has continued unabated for decades.
Ukuthwala, which translates as 'to pick up' or 'to take,' is used to justify the abduction of girls. In many cases the parents have given their consent in exchange for a bride price.
But a concerted campaign to educate these isolated communities of the illegality of under-aged sex and abduction appears to be paying off.
Nombasa Gxuluwe, born in the Eastern Cape, is a field worker for the World Aids Campaign (WAC), and has dedicated herself to trying to end what is essentially the buying and selling of brides, many of them still children.
Nombasa and many other organizations have spent hours talking to the men in the villages, trying to make them understand that the rules are different now.
For many, like Timothy Nyawuse, there was simply no awareness that what was being done was wrong.
"We apologize for that as we did not know we were breaking the law," he tells CNN.
Complicating the matter is a chilling, modern belief, as Nombasa explains: "There is a myth that if you sleep with a young girl who is a virgin and as a man you are HIV positive then HIV can be cured. That is why they are focusing on these young girls."
Nombasa said many of the male abductors are older men, widowed by HIV. They then look for a younger "virgin bride" and invariably end up infecting them too.
The tradition has its roots in arranged marriages where parents or village elders have the final say on who girls should marry.
And when men started taking younger and younger wives, elders in villages with no electricity of running water did not realize the modern world would see.
In the documentary, "Ukuthwala – Stolen Innocence," made by WAC, a girl living in the village of Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape tells her story of being a victim of this practice.
"The lady from next door called me and asked me if I wanted to get married. I said no. She said if I refused they would take me by force and beat me up.
"The next night the lady came to my house and took me to the river. There were seven people waiting there. They made me go with them to the house where the man lived. I couldn't believe this was happening to me. That I was getting married.
"There was this old man in the room and he told me, "I paid cattle for you and whether you like it or not you are my wife."
"He picked me up and put me on the bed and undressed me. He also got undressed and tried to force himself on me. I fought him but he pushed me down and forced my legs open. That's when he slept with me."
For those who have the courage to escape their illegal 'marriages' there is a place of refuge. The Palmerton Care Centre is housed in the grounds of a Methodist Church, in Lusikisiki.
It is here that social workers first counsel the young girls and then help them integrate back into the community.
It is no easy journey. Many have had years out of school. Some are infected with HIV. Others are no longer wanted back by their families, accused of bringing shame on them for not staying in the marriage.
Nombasa said: "They see them as rebellious, uncontrollable, because they are not obeying the rules of the parents, of the community."
The National Prosecuting Authority in South Africa is making a concerted effort in the villages surrounding KwaCele to show that such practices are illegal. Eleven men in the past year have been charged with abduction and under-age sex. None of the cases have yet reached court.
Even more promising, Nombasa said that since December 2011 there has not been a new case reported. She said: "It looks like we are winning."
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Lincoln's legacy fights modern slavery
February 28th, 2012
09:54 AM ET
By Athena Jones, CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Sheila White was beginning to
feel numb. She had been beaten numerous times by a man who forced her to
work as a prostitute on the streets of New York City.
"I done got beaten up in front of the Port Authority in Times Square," she said, a reference to a bus terminal on the city's West Side. "When stuff like that happens out in the open, you really feel like you're not even a person."
White was eventually able to escape her pimp and now works with victims of sex trafficking throughout New York state. But her story is proof that slavery is alive and well in America, 150 years after it was supposedly abolished.
While modern slavery may look different from the old images of plantations, slave cabins and auction blocks, abuse, coercion and manipulation remain the order of the day.
According to the anti-trafficking organization the Polaris Project, hundreds of thousands of people are being forced to work at jobs they don’t want to do - in the commercial sex trade, on farms, in homes, in factories and elsewhere in the United States. They work for little or no pay and under constant threat of violence and even starvation.
Polaris estimates this modern slavery affects an estimated 12 million people worldwide and brings in some $32 billion. Other estimates put the global number of victims as high as 27 million.
White told her story as part of “Not My Life,” a documentary on human trafficking that aired on CNN last year, believed to be one of the fastest growing criminal industries in the world. The film is featured in a new exhibit at President Lincoln's Cottage in Washington, part of a year-long effort by the cottage to celebrate the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation that freed slaves during the Civil War.
"(Lincoln) made some of the most important decisions during the Civil War here. He lived during his re-election here and he also developed the Emancipation Proclamation while living here," said Erin Carlson Mast, president of the cottage, which is a National Trust Historic Site. "This was really an opportunity to see how far we have come as a country in dealing with the issue of slavery."
How far the country has come is a complicated story, as the exhibit, called “Can You Walk Away?” illustrates.
Lincoln's proclamation was followed two years later by the 13th Amendment, which made slavery illegal in the United States. But instances of modern slavery still exist in all 50 states, according to Polaris, which partnered with the cottage on the exhibit.
Polaris was founded in 2002 and named after the North Star that helped guide slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad. The organization operates a national hotline, taking calls 24 hours a day in more than 170 languages, from people who suspect trafficking is going on in their communities and from victims themselves.
The goal of “Can You Walk Away?” - which will be on display through August 2013 and includes photos and other data on numerous trafficking cases - is to increase awareness of the issue in the U.S. and thereby increase the risk to traffickers of getting caught.
"It's a much bigger issue in the United States than most people understand or realize," said Polaris' executive director Bradley Myles.
"The whole issue of trafficking is dehumanizing and objectifying somebody and saying, “You're not a human being, we can use you like property.” And what we're trying to do is humanize the issue and say this is how to connect with it on a very, very human level."
Victims in the United States span all ages, races and nationalities. A young man named Given tells the story of how he left Zambia to travel to America as part of a choir, hoping to raise money to help support his six orphaned siblings.
Instead of being paid, he had his passport taken from him and he was forced to work for free, with his handlers withholding food and threatening to deport him if he protested.
"We were not getting paid. Our families back home in Zambia were not getting paid as they were promised. The schools that we were promised back home were not getting built," he said in an interview for mtvU's “Against Our Will,” a documentary that is also used in this exhibit.
"I never spoke to my little sister the whole two years that I was in the United States. I never spoke to my brother. I never spoke to any of my siblings, so I had no way to let them know what was happening to me."
Angie, a teenager from Wichita, Kansas, ran away with two friends after trouble at home. The three girls ended up under the control of a pimp who forced them to prostitute themselves at a truck stop in Oklahoma City, threatening to harm them if they did not bring in enough money. Another trafficking victim, Debra, was forced to work 24 hours a day at a home in Falls Church, Virginia, cooking, cleaning and caring for children with no breaks.
Human trafficking is appealing to criminals because there is an "enormous amount of money to be made" and low risk of being caught as long as the community is not aware, Myles said.
"I think it is harder to eradicate in certain ways, because it's already made illegal, and so there's this ecosystem of human trafficking and modern slavery that's developed. And we have to fight that ecosystem, and the ecosystem morphs, it changes, it's very nimble," he said, an acknowledgement that existing laws against trafficking only serve to push the practice underground.
Myles said Polaris is looking for people “to be the eyes and ears, looking for trafficking, and if they can call in and be the good Samaritan to break a case."
"But we're also trying to build a national, systemic response system almost like the national 911 for trafficking, where every single time there's a case, there's a response ready to help in that local community, so that those victims aren't falling through the cracks."
"I done got beaten up in front of the Port Authority in Times Square," she said, a reference to a bus terminal on the city's West Side. "When stuff like that happens out in the open, you really feel like you're not even a person."
White was eventually able to escape her pimp and now works with victims of sex trafficking throughout New York state. But her story is proof that slavery is alive and well in America, 150 years after it was supposedly abolished.
While modern slavery may look different from the old images of plantations, slave cabins and auction blocks, abuse, coercion and manipulation remain the order of the day.
According to the anti-trafficking organization the Polaris Project, hundreds of thousands of people are being forced to work at jobs they don’t want to do - in the commercial sex trade, on farms, in homes, in factories and elsewhere in the United States. They work for little or no pay and under constant threat of violence and even starvation.
Polaris estimates this modern slavery affects an estimated 12 million people worldwide and brings in some $32 billion. Other estimates put the global number of victims as high as 27 million.
White told her story as part of “Not My Life,” a documentary on human trafficking that aired on CNN last year, believed to be one of the fastest growing criminal industries in the world. The film is featured in a new exhibit at President Lincoln's Cottage in Washington, part of a year-long effort by the cottage to celebrate the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation that freed slaves during the Civil War.
"(Lincoln) made some of the most important decisions during the Civil War here. He lived during his re-election here and he also developed the Emancipation Proclamation while living here," said Erin Carlson Mast, president of the cottage, which is a National Trust Historic Site. "This was really an opportunity to see how far we have come as a country in dealing with the issue of slavery."
How far the country has come is a complicated story, as the exhibit, called “Can You Walk Away?” illustrates.
Lincoln's proclamation was followed two years later by the 13th Amendment, which made slavery illegal in the United States. But instances of modern slavery still exist in all 50 states, according to Polaris, which partnered with the cottage on the exhibit.
Polaris was founded in 2002 and named after the North Star that helped guide slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad. The organization operates a national hotline, taking calls 24 hours a day in more than 170 languages, from people who suspect trafficking is going on in their communities and from victims themselves.
The goal of “Can You Walk Away?” - which will be on display through August 2013 and includes photos and other data on numerous trafficking cases - is to increase awareness of the issue in the U.S. and thereby increase the risk to traffickers of getting caught.
"It's a much bigger issue in the United States than most people understand or realize," said Polaris' executive director Bradley Myles.
"The whole issue of trafficking is dehumanizing and objectifying somebody and saying, “You're not a human being, we can use you like property.” And what we're trying to do is humanize the issue and say this is how to connect with it on a very, very human level."
Victims in the United States span all ages, races and nationalities. A young man named Given tells the story of how he left Zambia to travel to America as part of a choir, hoping to raise money to help support his six orphaned siblings.
Instead of being paid, he had his passport taken from him and he was forced to work for free, with his handlers withholding food and threatening to deport him if he protested.
"We were not getting paid. Our families back home in Zambia were not getting paid as they were promised. The schools that we were promised back home were not getting built," he said in an interview for mtvU's “Against Our Will,” a documentary that is also used in this exhibit.
"I never spoke to my little sister the whole two years that I was in the United States. I never spoke to my brother. I never spoke to any of my siblings, so I had no way to let them know what was happening to me."
Angie, a teenager from Wichita, Kansas, ran away with two friends after trouble at home. The three girls ended up under the control of a pimp who forced them to prostitute themselves at a truck stop in Oklahoma City, threatening to harm them if they did not bring in enough money. Another trafficking victim, Debra, was forced to work 24 hours a day at a home in Falls Church, Virginia, cooking, cleaning and caring for children with no breaks.
Human trafficking is appealing to criminals because there is an "enormous amount of money to be made" and low risk of being caught as long as the community is not aware, Myles said.
"I think it is harder to eradicate in certain ways, because it's already made illegal, and so there's this ecosystem of human trafficking and modern slavery that's developed. And we have to fight that ecosystem, and the ecosystem morphs, it changes, it's very nimble," he said, an acknowledgement that existing laws against trafficking only serve to push the practice underground.
Myles said Polaris is looking for people “to be the eyes and ears, looking for trafficking, and if they can call in and be the good Samaritan to break a case."
"But we're also trying to build a national, systemic response system almost like the national 911 for trafficking, where every single time there's a case, there's a response ready to help in that local community, so that those victims aren't falling through the cracks."
Women allege widespread sexual abuse at Alabama prison, nonprofit group says
May 22, 2012 -- Updated 2041 GMT (0441 HKT)
Tutwiler Prison for Women opened in Wetumpka, Alabama, in December 1942.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: A 2007 report found Tutwiler had the highest rate of sexual assault among prisons for women
- The group says women reported "frequent and severe officer-on-inmate sexual violence"
- No comment from Alabama Department of Corrections or attorney general's office
- Equal Justice Initiative wants Justice Department to investigate Tutwiler Prison
The Equal Justice
Initiative asked the Justice Department to investigate alleged incidents
occurring between 2009 and 2011 at the Tutwiler Prison for Women in
Wetumpka, Alabama. The federal agency confirmed that it received the
complaint though declined further comment.
"In interviews with more
than 50 women incarcerated at Tutwiler, EJI uncovered evidence of
frequent and severe officer-on-inmate sexual violence," the
Montgomery-based group said in a statement.
"This troubling cycle of
abuse and lack of accountability has established a widespread pattern
and practice of custodial sexual misconduct," said Bryan Stevenson, the
group's executive director.
Stevenson also blamed the
Alabama Department of Corrections for under-reporting the alleged
attacks, which the group says include rapes, and for responding
inadequately.
The group claims that
more than "20 Tutwiler employees have been transferred or terminated in
the past five years for having illegal sexual contact with prisoners."
"It's an ongoing thing, a
daily thing," said Stefanie Hibbett, 31, a former Tutwiler inmate. "You
see women raped and beaten, and nothing is ever done."
Hibbett said she was the
victim of sexual assault in November 2010. She said she told the
prison's warden about the assault, but no charges were ever filed
against the prison guard she says attacked her. An Alabama judge
dismissed a civil suit she filed in the case in August.
Several imprisoned women
also allegedly became pregnant after being raped by guards, giving birth
while in custody, the nonprofit group reported.
CNN cannot independently
confirm that account. The Alabama attorney general's office referred
questions to the Alabama Department of Corrections, which did not
immediately return a call for comment.
A 2007 Justice
Department report found that Tutwiler maintained the highest rate of
sexual assault among prisons for women and 11th overall of those
evaluated across the United States.
CNN's Dave Alsup and Vivian Kuo contributed to this report.
Police: Man in custody being questioned in 1979 Etan Patz case
May 24, 2012 -- Updated 1337 GMT (2137 HKT)
Etan was officially
declared dead in 2001. His disappearance was the first of several
high-profile cases that catapulted concern about missing children to the
forefront of national consciousness.
HIDE CAPTION
Searching for Etan Patz;
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Police picked up the man in New Jersey on Wednesday, sources say
- NEW: Source says his claims are being treated with "a healthy dose of skepticism"
- More details will be released later, authorities say
- Etan was officially declared dead in 2001
However, a law enforcement source told CNN the man's claims are being treated with "a healthy dose of skepticism."
The man "has made
statements to NYPD detectives" regarding Etan's disappearance and death
33 years ago, Kelly said in a statement. Authorities will divulge more
details Thursday, he said.
The man, who was undergoing questioning, was picked up Wednesday in New Jersey, two law-enforcement sources told CNN.
The day Etan Patz disappeared in '79
New clues in Etan Patz mystery
What DNA could show in Etan Patz case
Lawyer: Miller did not kill Etan Patz
He claims he played a
direct role in Etan's death, according to the other law-enforcement
source. The man's claims are "a good lead," the source said, but it was
unclear where this will take the case.
The man lived and worked in the same area where the Patz family lived, the source said.
Investigators have looked
at the man before in connection with the case, according to the second
source, and his information is being treated very cautiously.
A spokeswoman for the
Manhattan district attorney's office, which reopened the case in 2010,
declined to comment on the development.
Etan's disappearance
received national attention and, along with other high-profile cases,
helped trigger a national movement that focuses on missing children.
Etan went missing on May
25, 1979, a block from his home in the New York neighborhood of SoHo.
It was the first time he had walked to his school bus stop by himself.
His mother, Julie,
learned after her son failed to return home from school that he hadn't
been in classes that day. After calling the school and Etan's friends,
she called police.
His disappearance
received renewed attention recently when local and federal law
enforcement searched a nearby basement for clues. The search came up
empty.
Etan was officially
declared dead in 2001 as part of a lawsuit filed by his family against a
drifter, Jose Antonio Ramos, a convicted child molester acquainted with
Etan's baby sitter. A judge found Ramos responsible for the boy's death
and ordered him to pay the family $2 million -- money the Patz family
has never received.
Though Ramos was
considered a key focus of the investigation for years, he has never been
charged in the case. He is serving a 20-year prison sentence in
Pennsylvania for molesting another boy and is set to be released this
year.
A source has previously said investigators wanted to expand the pool of possible suspects beyond Ramos.
Parents Stan and Julie Patz still live in their SoHo home and have not commented on the new developments.
Lisa Cohen, author of
"After Etan: The Missing Child Case That Held America Captive," told CNN
earlier that "the family's been living through this for 33 years.
They've had many moments like this. They've learned how to deal with
it."
The Patz case was among
those that drew national attention to missing children. Police tried a
then-novel tack to find him, putting his face on thousands of milk
cartons. Later, billboards and fliers calling attention to missing
children became common.
Just weeks after Etan
disappeared, an attacker abducted the first of more than 20 children to
be kidnapped and killed in Atlanta. A suspect in that case was arrested
two years later.
In 1981, the abduction and slaying of 6-year-old Adam Walsh from a Florida shopping mall also made national headlines.
In 1984, Congress passed
the Missing Children's Assistance Act, which led to the creation of the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
President Ronald Reagan named May 25, the day Etan went missing, as National Missing Children's Day.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Facing Common Struggles, Domestic Workers Mobilize Across Borders
IN THESE TIMES
WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL
Friday May 18, 2012 10:47 am
The United States isn't unique when it comes to political and social crises related to immigration. Migrants in other parts of the world face similar, sometimes much harsher struggles. Even those who are "legal" are often extremely vulnerable to economic exploitation, racial discrimination, and physical and sexual abuse. Abuse and enslavement of migrant and domestic workers from Asia and Africa has become epidemic in the Middle East. In the wake of the suicide of an abused Ethiopian worker, Alem Dechasa-Desisa, whose story helped galvanize migrant rights campaigns, the issue has moved into the media spotlight lately:
Stories of migrants dying on the job or taking their own lives are not uncommon, underscoring how their lives can be undervalued once they're swept into a "disposable" household workforce. Migrant women in particular struggle often with abusive employers and sexual harassment.
This video is part of a grassroots anti-harassment media campaign led by women in Lebanon:
Some migrant women are organizing and documenting their struggles in their own voices. One Ethiopian domestic worker-turned-filmmaker, Rahel Zegeye, has created a feature film, Beirut, which narrates the wrenching struggles of migrant women in Lebanon. In an interview with Tadias, Zegeye describes a plight that may sound familiar to domestic workers in the United States:
Domestic workers across the United States, many of them women escaping hardship in their home countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, also suffer from poverty, harsh conditions and sexual abuse. And they've also used grassroots organizing and media to bring to public light the injustices they suffer day-to-day on the job.
The Caring Across Generations Campaign—an initiative for home health care workers led by National Domestic Workers Alliance—has shown that here, too, giving workers a media platform to tell their own stories is crucial for educating and mobilizing the public.
Last summer, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, together with migrant workers' groups from around the world, pushed through the groundbreaking International Labour Organisation Convention for Domestic Workers. The accord codifies basic labor rights for domestic workers, including the right to organize, and sets standards for the treatment of workers in households, like a mandate for a genuine employment contract and immigration relief for victims of abuse.
But the challenge facing globalized concepts of labor rights is that they're eclipsed by the laws of nation states. Despite campaigns for pro-migrant labor protections on the local and national level, like the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights initiative, the absence of strong international standards makes workers everywhere more vulnerable. While multinationals assert corporate sovereignty over national systems, workers see their rights shredded by the sharp borders they've traversed.
The irony of the global economy is that the suffering comes from the two extremes of economic mobility. The workers who are stuck in Rust Belt towns, while behemoth manufacturing companies ship job overseas, find their communities devastated by "capital flight." Meanwhile, wealthy communities absorb droves of migrants who chase the fleeting promise of higher-paying jobs—only to become ensnared in a marginal underclass. Until the workers abandoned by capital, and those held hostage by it in a foreign land—realize that their plights are interlocked, labor remains fractured across divides of language, race and politics.
Still, domestic worker campaigns show that global communications can counter global exploitation. Creative protest through film and media are forming a common language for a dialogue on migrants' rights, breaking their silence with one collective voice.
Stories of migrants dying on the job or taking their own lives are not uncommon, underscoring how their lives can be undervalued once they're swept into a "disposable" household workforce. Migrant women in particular struggle often with abusive employers and sexual harassment.
This video is part of a grassroots anti-harassment media campaign led by women in Lebanon:
Some migrant women are organizing and documenting their struggles in their own voices. One Ethiopian domestic worker-turned-filmmaker, Rahel Zegeye, has created a feature film, Beirut, which narrates the wrenching struggles of migrant women in Lebanon. In an interview with Tadias, Zegeye describes a plight that may sound familiar to domestic workers in the United States:
TADIAS: What are the biggest problems that Ethiopian domestic-workers face with their employers?On the eve of May Day 2012, many migrant workers from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Sudan and other countries came out from behind closed doors and took to the streets to rally for fair treatment. As with many "guestworkers" in the U.S., one of the critical policy issues tied to the systemic abuse of migrants is the structure of labor sponsorship. As legal guarantors, employers can basically impose legal shackles on workers to make it all but impossible to leave or challenge abuse.
RZ: There are many. Most common issues include bad treatment, abuse from employers, no rest and no day off. It is also very common that the maids are not paid on time or at all, and that the employers limit their food or let them stay without food. Many employers are very racist and do not treat their workers with respect, dignity or humanity. Sexual harassment and abuse by employers also occurs. For example I know three girls who were made pregnant by their mister and were threatened not to tell their madam, and had to leave the house to go to the hospital to make an abortion.
TADIAS: How true are some of the horror stories we hear and read about in the media? And what can women do to protect themselves from such violence?
RZ: The horror stories are real and they occur. There are many more horror stories that are not reported and written about. There is very little protection for the women coming to work in Lebanon. She can try to communicate with her employer but many times there will be language problems and if the employer is abusive then there is little chance they will listen to her. She can ask them to let her go to the embassy and to return home. If she returns to the agency that brought her here they will not help her, just change employers, which may be for the better or for the worse. If she runs away from her employers she will not have her passport and papers and cannot go back to Ethiopia.
Domestic workers across the United States, many of them women escaping hardship in their home countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, also suffer from poverty, harsh conditions and sexual abuse. And they've also used grassroots organizing and media to bring to public light the injustices they suffer day-to-day on the job.
The Caring Across Generations Campaign—an initiative for home health care workers led by National Domestic Workers Alliance—has shown that here, too, giving workers a media platform to tell their own stories is crucial for educating and mobilizing the public.
Last summer, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, together with migrant workers' groups from around the world, pushed through the groundbreaking International Labour Organisation Convention for Domestic Workers. The accord codifies basic labor rights for domestic workers, including the right to organize, and sets standards for the treatment of workers in households, like a mandate for a genuine employment contract and immigration relief for victims of abuse.
But the challenge facing globalized concepts of labor rights is that they're eclipsed by the laws of nation states. Despite campaigns for pro-migrant labor protections on the local and national level, like the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights initiative, the absence of strong international standards makes workers everywhere more vulnerable. While multinationals assert corporate sovereignty over national systems, workers see their rights shredded by the sharp borders they've traversed.
The irony of the global economy is that the suffering comes from the two extremes of economic mobility. The workers who are stuck in Rust Belt towns, while behemoth manufacturing companies ship job overseas, find their communities devastated by "capital flight." Meanwhile, wealthy communities absorb droves of migrants who chase the fleeting promise of higher-paying jobs—only to become ensnared in a marginal underclass. Until the workers abandoned by capital, and those held hostage by it in a foreign land—realize that their plights are interlocked, labor remains fractured across divides of language, race and politics.
Still, domestic worker campaigns show that global communications can counter global exploitation. Creative protest through film and media are forming a common language for a dialogue on migrants' rights, breaking their silence with one collective voice.
2 comments ·
More by Michelle Chen
- Facing Common Struggles, Domestic Workers Mobilize Across Borders
- Shame of the Nation: House VAWA Bill Ratchets Up Attacks on Domestic Violence Survivors
- Child Labor and Agribusiness Churn Washington’s Food Fight
- U.N. Strike Shows Convergence of Labor and Middle East Politics
- Beyond May Day, Frustrated Immigrant Movement Forges Ahead
Human Trafficking: Who's Inspecting the Inspectors?
| 5/14/2012 | By Bill Leonard |
Ensuring the integrity of the supply chain has become a top priority for multinational corporations as they strive to protect their brand names from being linked to unethical and illegal employment practices such as child labor and human trafficking.
To protect this supply chain integrity, a growing number of corporations depend on the services of companies that provide third-party independent audits or inspections of vendors and contractors that supply goods and services. While these inspectors do offer a valuable and needed service, the questions people have begun to ask are: “Who are these inspectors?” and “Who audits them to ensure that they are on the up and up?” The answers are as complicated as the global workplace issues multinational businesses must contend with every day.
“There are close to 9,500 codes and standards that these third-party auditors monitor to ensure suppliers comply with accepted international business practices,” said Craig Moss, director of corporate programs and training for Social Accountability International (SAI) in New York City. “Most multinational ‘brand’ companies have their own codes of business conduct that inspectors will use to ‘audit’ the suppliers. It can be confusing for suppliers and contractors because they are often audited multiple times for compliance with multiple business standards.”
SAI has developed one of the most commonly used business standards for ethical and accepted business and employment practices. The standard, SA 8000, is based on guidelines developed by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Businesses that are certified SA 8000 compliant are setting the bar for all businesses to measure against, according to Moss. Still, the large number of codes and standards creates a complex maze of compliance issues.
Familiar Standards and Codes
However, most international audit and inspection companies are familiar with these varying standards and codes. Typically the codes of conduct of multinational corporations are similar and have slight variations depending on the industry and need of the corporation.
The size and scope of international auditing and inspecting might surprise many who are unfamiliar with the industry. According to Moss, dozens of companies throughout the world offer the services—with approximately 20 major players in the business. Most of the companies are headquartered in the U.S. and Europe but have multiple locations and thousands of employees scattered across the globe. For example TÜV SÜD, one of the largest of these companies, has a staff of more than 16,000 employees who work in dozens of countries.
“It’s definitely a growth industry, because multinational firms understand the value and the necessity of making sure their suppliers are not breaking international law or using forced labor,” said Moss, whose organization develops international business standards and provides training to businesses on how to comply with those standards.
Although the inspecting companies audit for compliance with any number of standards such as workplace safety, quality control and child labor, the international focus on human trafficking and forced labor issues has intensified in recent years.
“Corporate awareness is indeed improving on this issue,” said Aurelie Hauchere Vuong with the ILO’s Special Action Program to Combat Forced Labor. “More and more companies are taking action to prevent trafficking and forced labor in their supply chain.”
Much of this effort involves corporations that are including and adding provisions to their codes of conduct condemning human trafficking and the use of forced labor. Big, well-known corporations can apply the most pressure and help prevent suppliers and contractors from acquiring workers from questionable sources, according to Moss and Hauchere Vuong.
“It really is a matter of economic necessity and incentive. If a supplier or contractor knows that they stand to lose business and a lot of money because they have been participating in questionable employment practices, then those businesses become much more vigilant in curtailing the human trafficking trade,” Moss said.
Multinational businesses that use multiple suppliers and contractors to produce and deliver goods, such as Nike, The Gap, Wal-Mart and Apple, wield a “brand power” that can help effect change, Moss said. In addition, this brand effect works in ensuring that third-party auditors and inspectors conduct fair and ethical inspections.
“Put simply, end-to-end supply chain integrity just makes good business sense,” said Ishan Palit, president & CEO of TÜV SÜD Asia Pacific region. “Consumers are now well informed of its benefits, and demand for ethically produced products has subsequently skyrocketed.”
According to research conducted by BBMG, a brand marketing and research group in New York, 87 percent of consumers said they are more likely to buy from a company that supports fair labor and trade practices than one that does not.
Seeking Assistance
As the pressure for businesses to comply with ethical labor practices intensifies, more businesses are turning to groups such as the ILO and SAI to provide the training and technical assistance they need to ensure that their corporate supply chain complies with accepted business standards.
“The ILO is working to provide technical guidance and training to companies that want to address these fair labor issues,” said Hauchere Vuong. “By enabling staff, managers, buyers and social auditors to detect and recognize forced labor/trafficking situations, we contribute to … better compliance.”
With better training and raised awareness on the issue, pressure to do the right thing has increased globally, but no system is perfect, Hauchere Vuong acknowledged. She added that training and certification programs are the keys to making sure that third-party inspectors and auditors look for the right things and recognize signs of trouble.
While SAI’s Moss said that most if not all legitimate suppliers and contractors have gotten the message and are working to eradicate human trafficking and forced labor, much work needs to be done.
The key challenge, according to Shawn MacDonald, director of programs and research with Verité, a New Hampshire-based organization dedicated to ending human trafficking and forced labor, is ensuring that every part of an organization’s labor supply chain adheres to international employment standards. Often businesses use labor brokers and search firms that in turn subcontract the task of recruiting and finding workers. The multi-tiered system can create deceiving situations in which suppliers appear to comply with proper standards. However, lower-level subcontractors aren’t subject to the same level of scrutiny. This is where problems develop, MacDonald said. In many cases, serious forced labor or human trafficking problems go undetected because inspectors don’t delve deep enough and get an accurate picture of the supply chain, he added.
“It probably appears on the surface that the suppliers and contractors to the brand name corporation are complying with all the employment standards, and most likely they are,” said MacDonald. “Where this gets muddy and complicated are when you look at the subcontractors and labor brokers who might not be following the rules and accepted practices.”
Verité joined with Manpower Group Inc. to create a comprehensive framework for combatting human trafficking. The Verité and Manpower Group “Ethical Framework for Cross-Border Labor Recruitment” offers a checklist of specific standards of ethical practice for firms involved in cross-border recruitment of workers. These standards are designed to protect workers against abuse and, according to MacDonald, will be supported by a verification system that certifies business compliance.
Big Fees Up Front
In many cases, MacDonald said, labor brokers force workers into a lifetime of debt by charging exorbitant fees up front for work visas and guarantees of job placements. Legitimate businesses that hire these workers typically are unaware of arrangements with the brokers.
“So, in effect, the businesses hire the workers and everything looks OK on the face of it, when in reality these workers are so deep into debt with the brokers that they have no hope of climbing out of that hole,” MacDonald said. “These new standards can change that and help companies make sure that their supply chain is free from labor abuses from top to bottom.”
The interest and awareness in standards that ensure the integrity of all sources of labor is growing, MacDonald and others interviewed for this article agree. The challenge is to get everyone on the same page and have companies use the new standards when conducting audits and inspections.
“The ultimate goal is a safe and transparent system for cross-border labor recruitment, which provides workers with the information they need to pursue job opportunities and provide them protection against labor abuses,” MacDonald said.
For the latest news and additional resources on human trafficking, click here.
6 human trafficking cases registered in the first quarter
Amira Agarib / 19 May 2012
The Anti-Organised Crime Department of the Dubai police registered six cases of human trafficking, mostly about forcing people into prostitution, in the first quarter of this year.
The police arrested 22 suspects — including 12 Asians, three Arabs and five Africans — and rescued nine women victims, including two Europeans, three Uzbeks and four Asians.
Giving the details, Colonel Abdul Rahim Mohammed Shafee, Director of the department, said the majority of the women victims were brought into the country and forced into prostitution by the suspects.
The suspects cheated them with the promise of getting them jobs in the country.
The others were exploited absconding housemaids.
He said that victims who fell into the trap of the gangs were beaten up and locked up in flats; some of them were raped and threatened so that they would agree to work as prostitutes.
Col Mohammed Shafee said the department registered 20 cases of human trafficking in 2011 and arrested 63 suspects — including 12 Arabs, 40 Asians and 11 Europeans — and rescued 35 women victims — including nine Arabs, 21 Asians and five Europeans.
The officer said the Dubai Police have achieved success and continue to make efforts to combat human trafficking despite the challenges and complications.
The Dubai Police have created an anti-human trafficking section at the Criminal Investigation Department to investigate such cases, as per the instructions of Lt-General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, Commander-in-Chief of the Dubai Police, to protect human rights.
Last month, the police arrested a gang of four persons who convinced a housemaid to abscond from her sponsors and then forced her into prostitution under threats.
The suspects were domestic servants and illegal residents who exploited the ambition of the maid to get more salary, he said.
He said the Anti-Organised Crime Department also caught an Arab man who made friends with three women in Latin America online. He seduced them, saying he loved them, and when they came to the UAE, he had sex with them and forced them into prostitution.
news@khaleejtimes.com
Police rescue 43 human trafficking victims
By Bong Garcia
Saturday, May 19, 2012ZAMBOANGA City Police Office (ZCPO) operatives have rescued 43 victims of human trafficking, mostly minors, and arrested the suspected recruiter in this southern port city, a top police official announced Saturday.
Chief Superintendent Mario Yanga, police regional director for Administration, said the victims were rescued and the suspect was arrested around 8:56 a.m. Friday at a hotel along Governor Alvarez Avenue in downtown Zamboanga City.
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Yanga said the victims are from the villages of Makiri and Timpul, Isabela City, the capital of Basilan province.
Yanga identified the arrested suspect as Khaiser Salih, 25, a native of Isabela City.
The arrest of the suspect came after an informant tipped off Yanga concerning the presence of suspected human trafficking victims at Medio Hotel along Governor Alvarez Avenue.
Yanga immediately ordered Senior Inspector Gemma Luna, Women and Children Protection Desk chief, to lead a team of policemen to rescue the victims.
Investigation showed that some of the victims, who are of legal age, were recruited and will be brought by the suspect to Manila to work as teachers and to work at the Department of Health (DOH) and at the Senate, Yanga said.
The suspect allegedly has also promised scholarship grant to the other victims, who are minors, which the suspect said is sponsored by the National Government through the National Youth Commission (NYC).
When verified, Yanga said that NYC Commissioner Earl Saavedra has denied that they have scholarship program.
They were scheduled to be taken by the suspect to Manila on Friday, the day they were rescued.
It was further learned that the victims arrived in Zamboanga City from Isabela City last May 13.
Confiscated from the suspect’s possession were 112 envelopes containing application requirements of the victim, he said.
Appropriate charges are set to be filed against the suspect while the victims were turned over to the care of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
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‘B’deshi girls trafficked under honeymoon cover’
South Asia
Last Updated: Saturday, May 19, 2012, 21:18
1 BGB Director General Maj Gen Anwar Hussain said they have rescued around 70 women and children along the Indo-Bangla borders from human traffickers in the past three months.
He said the girls were often trafficked into India in the guise of honeymooners.
"Traffickers are changing their tactics and routes, while poor girls and women are falling prey to human traders who allure people with lucrative job offers abroad," Hussain told national news agency BSS on the sidelines of the launching national plan of action to combat trafficking for 2012-2014.
"The saddest part of the trafficking was that much of the rescued girls or young women cooperate the traffickers to cross the border expecting a better life," Hussain told the function also joined by Home Minister Sahara Khatun, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, Overseas Employment Minister Khandoker Mosharraf Hossain and Prime Minister's foreign affairs advisor Gowher Rizvi.
No official statistics were available to assess the number of women trafficking victims but the Home Ministry officials feared the figure could range between 100,000 to 200,500 every year.
Home Ministry's additional secretary Kamal Uddin said the human trafficking involved a turnover of USD 13.6 billion per year globally and it ranked third after dug and arms smuggling.
Bangladesh is generally a source country for trafficking of women, children and men. Thousands of people are trafficked every year, mainly in the form of fraudulent recruitment for overseas jobs.
The new national plan of action against human trafficking seeks to address weaknesses of previous plans as a follow up of government's enactment of the Human Trafficking Deterrence and Suppression Ordinance of 2011.
Trafficking in Sinai (Egypt). An Eritrean Mother Fights to Save her Son's Life.
Today we received a letter from Asmara, Eritrea:
Asmara, May 20, 2012
Frewoyni is a very poor mother who works in and grain mill (wheat, sorghum etc) in Asmara Eritrea and she nurtured her single boy as a single mother since his father is died. Her boy is not under control and he informed her that he will soon travel to Ethiopia illegally. Finally she received a call from telephone in the neighbor her only son called Muse Gebreegziabher is cough by the Bedouines in Sinai and they claim 1,500,000 Nakfa (One million five hundred thousand). Based on the black market exchange rate 37,500 USD.
This amount of money is un imaginable for her and it is she has never dreamed of it in her life. She is working in a floor mill the whole day and she gets from 3-4 Kg of floor from the customers in the floor mill and half of it she use for food and the rest she sold it and use for house rent and other living expenses.
I would appreciate if she could ever collect 50,000 Nakfa since most people are helping her with 10- 20 Nakfa. Moreover she has no one outside Eritrea who could help her. The smugglers contacted the voice of her son and he informed her unless she paid it urgently he will be killed.
She is now distributing a call for support for money; she is bagging in the churches and all around Asmara to fulfill and to save her only son.
This kind of merciless, unacceptable in all religion and beliefs should be stopped. Even the smugglers should consider the way they are acting ruthlessly.
They give her two weeks. Please lets apple this information to all concerned especially to the Egypt Government, Arab Leag and other concerned bodies who could help her. To stop such act on human being !!
Wish you all the best,
Daniel, Asmara, Eritrea
...
This is one of the many kidnappings taking place every day in Sinai, Egypt. Today there are over a thousand young Eritreans in the hands of traffickers. Many of them disappear into thin air.
In 2009 Abu Ahmed, a marauder in Sinai, told an activist who contacted him:
"The Egyptian authorities will not do anything to stop us because we use a lot of the money that comes from kidnappings to support Islam."
Today, we are asking the new Egypt to contradict him and all the murderers, torturers and rapists who carry out terrible atrocities in the name of their religion.
EveryOne Group
EveryOne Group
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Tuesday, May 15, 2012
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Blood drives are launched in several communities for Aimee Copeland
- She has been on life support since May 4
- "She appears to be remembering ... different conversations," father says
- Copeland's injury occurred May 1 when she fell from a zip line into a river
(CNN) -- The doctors for Aimee Copeland are promising a "roller coaster ride of highs and lows" in the coming weeks and months as she struggles against a rare flesh-eating bacteria, her father said.
"Each day, we claim some small victory," Andy Copeland wrote Tuesday evening in his blog that details his daughter's battle. "We don't have to see physical progress, we seem to take comfort from simple words, silly actions and quiet moments."
Aimee Copeland, who has been on life support since May 4, is in intensive care at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, Georgia.
"Personally I don't like the roller coaster analogy," Andy Copeland said on a website run by the University of West Georgia Psychology Department, where Aimee is a graduate student. "The best part of a roller coaster ride is when you are falling, because although it can be terrifying, it is extremely exhilarating. Sooner or later, the ride has to slow down and crest another incline."
As a result of the damage done by the bacterial infection called necrotizing fasciitis, doctors have removed part of Copeland's abdomen, amputated a leg and expect to remove her fingers, he said.
"However, physicians have hope of bringing life back to the palms of her hands, which could allow her the muscle control to use helpful prosthetics," Copeland said. "They are awaiting a safe time before embarking on surgery for this."
Tuesday was a good day for Aimee.
"She was in high spirits," her father told CNN.
"She appears to be remembering day-to-day different conversations we've had. We actually referred to some conversations she had yesterday, so her memory is -- short-term memory -- appears to be coming back, which is a very encouraging sign."
The master's student in psychology was with friends on May 1 near the Little Tallapoosa River, about 50 miles west of Atlanta, when she grabbed onto a zip line. It snapped and she fell into the water.
The accident left a gash in her left calf that took 22 staples to close.
Three days later, still in pain, she went to an emergency room, where doctors determined she had contracted the flesh-devouring bacteria Aeromonas hydrophila. She was taken to Augusta for surgery.
The infection is fatal in about one in four cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on its website.
But, as of Tuesday night, she had not yet fully grasped the extent of her illness, her father said. "As far as all the specifics, we steered her away from the experience itself. To me, it probably does no good in her healing process to bring up any bad memories, at this point."
Bored with television, his daughter was reading and trying to communicate with her family, the father said on the website.
But the ventilator made talking difficult, he said. "Some of the simplest words can take minutes to decipher when you have a tube interfering with your lips and movement of your jaw."
For example, he added, "lamb chop" turned out to be "laptop."
Copeland has been infused with 177 units of blood since she contracted the infection. That's more than 168 pints; the average human body contains about 10 pints of blood, according to America's Blood Centers.
"You've got a lot of need," the father said. "We've got blood drives in Augusta, Carrollton, Winder, Lawrenceville, Snellville," he added, referring to communities in Georgia.
A campus blood drive at West Georgia brought donations from some 200 people, CNN affiliate WSB-TV reported.
"I just felt like I could do something to help, and the least I could do was donate a pint of blood," Shirley Murphy said.
The school will hold another blood drive on June 1.
But for now, the roller coaster ride will continue.
"The inclines tend to be ho-hum, a time to catch your breath and smile at the person sitting next to you," Andy Copeland's blog says. "As you near the top, the anticipation builds until the terrifying exhilaration repeats itself."
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