Abstract
Slavery has been around since the beginning of time. Human rights have been compromised due to the act of slavery, which belittles people to nothing more than property. People in the Unites States seemed to be blind to the fact that people are still under slavery today in the act of human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons. It not only is happening around the world but also in the United States where it is thought to be non-existent. People need to be informed on this issue and given a sense of knowledge that will help them bring the end to human trafficking. This paper consist of research coming from different viewpoints that give different ideas to bounce off of and not leading one in one direction. At the end of this paper the reader should have a good background presence of human trafficking and be able to come up on his or her own opinion on how to address the issue.
One of the World’s Most Troubling Issues: Human Trafficking
What is the act of someone being forced to do something against his or her will for someone else’s economic benefit? The answer to this question long ago would have been slavery but now a days it falls under a new name, human trafficking. Human trafficking is becoming more and more of a global problem every year that goes by. It has affected so many families in ways like the loss of one’s children and mothers to forced into prostitution or men being tricked into better opportunities only to find out they are trapped in labor with no pay. To this day, nearly twenty one million people lay victim to human trafficking. According to a recent survey, only twenty three percent of college students know that this many people are laying victim to such a crime relatable to slavery (“Survey on Human Trafficking”, 2014). On the contrary to popular belief, slavery is a figment of history, it is happening in present day just under a new name for it. While there is not debate on the existence of the issue at hand, the debate comes more on how to exactly combat the issue of human trafficking.
To get a full grasp on the issue at hand, one must get answers to questions about human trafficking history, current policies that help combat it today, and proposed policies that can further combat human trafficking:
1. When did the act of human trafficking begin?
2. What are the current policies on human trafficking and are they effective?
3. What actions can be taken to further combat human trafficking?
Answering these questions will better the readers understanding of this terrible issue this world faces today. In the end helping them combat human trafficking on their own to hope to put an end to human trafficking so woman, children, and men can live their lives free like humans are suppose to.
When did the act of human trafficking begin?
Human Trafficking is the illegal movement of people, typically for the purposes of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. But when did it start? There is still a debate on exactly when human trafficking began. The two sides of when Human Trafficking began are back in the 1400s and the other one is of more recent years during the “white slavery.”
The first perspective on when human trafficking began is during the European slave trade. As you can see in figure 1 on your right, 90% of college students agree with this perspective over that of “white slavery” era being the beginning of human trafficking (“Survey on Human Trafficking”, 2014). During the European Slave Trade, Africans were captured and were sent to places in Europe, North America, and South America and forced to labor with no pay at all. As one can see, they are the same but the only difference between human trafficking and the European Slave Trade is that the human trafficking is against the law while the Slave Trade was completely legal. In figure one, you will see that 90% of people According to the Rutgers University Campus Coalition Against Trafficking, “the 1400s marked the start of European slave trading in Africa with the Portuguese transporting people from Africa to Portugal and using them as slaves” (Young, 2011). The slave trade would become extremely popular after 1492 due to the fact that Christopher Columbus had just discovered the New World.
Other countries wanted to discover new land so more and more European powers went and discovered this vast land with an abundant amount of raw material. These raw materials had to be grown and picked and who better to do it is those of the slave trade. Like human trafficking of today not a majority of the slave trade was happening in the area of present day United States of America. It was happening in Central and Southern America because the work was a lot tougher in those parts of the land. The harder the work was the shorter the life expectancy of the slave and this would lead to more and more slaves being trafficked.
Freedom Form Fear magazine has a different take on this start of human trafficking. They believed that while slaves did go through physical and sexual orientation starting in the 1400s, the history of human trafficking dates back a lot shorter. The focus of human trafficking is believed to start during the era of “white slavery” around the early 1800 to early 1900s. White slavery was the white woman and girls were being trafficked for prostitution. When this came about it was all about protecting these white woman and girls from becoming victims. There was nothing about criminalizing the efforts of trafficking these women though until 1910. According to Kangaspunta, “In 1910, 13 countries signed the International Convention for the Suppression of the White Slave Trade” (2008). This would criminalize the act of trading these white woman and girls.
The International Convention for the Suppression of the White Slave Trade only covered white woman and girls. It was very gender specific on females and boys were not mention. The League of Nations would be the ones to step up and address this problem. In 1920, the League of Nations was an international organization started after a result of the first ever world war to be a world governing body for peace, and one of its first agendas would be to address the White Slavery issue. In 1921, 33 states would meet up in Geneva and sign the International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children (Kangaspunta, 2008). This expanded the prosecuting of those who trafficked woman and children of both sexes not just girls. The League of Nations would fall apart as well as the International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children, but the United Nations would replace it after World War II. The United Nations would turn out to be a lot more set in stone than the League of Nations as well as its agreements.
What are the current policies on human trafficking and are they effective?
Since human trafficking has a victim and a perpetrator there are going to be some kind of laws and law enforcement to stop these perpetrators. Human trafficking is a global issue that affects people globally as well as locally. As a result we will be having two different kinds of policies, policies according to the United States and policies according to the United Nations.
In the United States, the Department of Homeland security is the organization that is in charge of human trafficking. The main law when it comes to combating human trafficking in the U.S. is the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (TVPA). According the United States Department of Homeland Security, “TVPA combats trafficking in persons, especially into the sex trade, slavery, and involuntary servitude” (2012). This act came about in 2003 but has been revised three times to the most current revision in 2008. This act goes after and tries to get rid of those who are trafficking in person by prosecution.
The United States not only does this but also tries to take some of the demand away from human traffickers with The Customs and Facilitations and Trade Enforcement Reauthorization Act of 2009. With this Act in place, it puts provision that prohibit the United States to import any kind of good that are produced by the acts of human trafficking or forced labor (Department of Homeland Security, 2012). This act is trying to dry out the human traffickers because if there is no demand, no product from human traffickers will be sold putting them out of business. Of course, the United States alone cannot dry out human trafficker on their own but it gives and example to other nations and is a key piece to the puzzle.
The United Nations as well has a law against human trafficking. The one big difference is the United Nation’s law takes out enforces the law globally instead of just locally. The United Nations has The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children that were brought into discussion on November 15, 2000 and put into force on December 23, 2003 (UNODC, 2015). It not only criminalized the act of trafficking in persons but also seeks out to help those who have been trafficked and protect their rights. Out of the 166 parties in the United Nations 117 have signed this protocol, which includes the United States.
Now that the world has these laws to combat Human Trafficking, are they effective? Human trafficking is a global issue so it is complex to combat it. In the local standpoint, Caitlin Grimmer believe they are not doing a good job in enforcing it. According to Grimmer, “the main issue plaguing the U.S. Government in preventing and prohibiting human trafficking is, predominately, the Government itself; in fact, despite the Government's claim of a zero-tolerance policy, these cases are rarely prosecuted” (2013). One cannot expect to combat an issue to be successful if one is not going through with the process of punishment. On the other hand these policies can be seen as a stepping-stone. Turning to a global standpoint, Lindsey King sees the proposal from the United Nations as an aid to the worldwide epidemic and ways for it to be affective is the incorporation of it in domestic legislation (2008, p. 88-89). The United Nations cannot simply combat human trafficking on its own it need its nations behind it for it to be effective. The effectiveness of the process relies of its support by the nations of the world. While the effectiveness of the polies are and will forever be debated, there are some out there locally as well as globally.
What actions can be taken to further combat human trafficking?
Human trafficking is a situation that is not going to go away easily but it does not mean it cannot come to an end. We have policies set in place in today’s world but maybe more can be done. There seems be more the one way people can go about combatting human trafficking. One can enforce more laws to combat human trafficking as well as ways that do not involve laws like creating awareness and economy.
As discussed in the previous section, the United States has the TVPA that makes it illegal to traffic in persons. Some say that this law does not cover the whole picture of human trafficking and it needs to be broadened. Currently there is a proposed law called the Uniform Act. The TVPA and the Uniform Act have a lot in common where essentially the Uniform Act has the same definition of what is illegal but adds to it. For instance, it adds to the definition of coercing someone into doing something. Hall mentions that this act adds: “controlling the victim’s access to a controlled substance, exploitation of the victim’s physical or mental disability, and confiscation of passports or other documents” (2014, p. 875) to ways of being coerced. What this means is that victims can be coerced into forced labor or sex trafficking other than just by fraud and force. This makes more victims of human trafficking actually victims in the court of law.
While the act opens the spectrum of who a victim is in human trafficking it also adds to the spectrum of who a criminal is. Right now, the TVPA states that only those who are traffickers can be considered criminals under the law of human trafficking. The Uniform wants to add on those who benefit from human trafficking. For instance, if a man was to receive sexual favors from a prostitute he knows to be a victim of human trafficking he could face charges of human trafficking the same way a trafficker would. According to Hall, “prosecuting johns as traffickers rightly apportions a large share of the blame for sex trafficking to the johns, without whom sex trafficking would not prosper or even exist” (2014, p. 882). This makes sense because without any demand for human trafficking there would be no supply.
Even thought the law is the first thing one might think of when trying to combat human trafficking it is the only way. Ordinary people can rise against human trafficking and do their part in combating human trafficking. Creating awareness to the issue is a good way to get people to know about this global issue. Getting people aware could put human trafficking high on the government’s agenda. Aronowitz mentions that it is essential for awareness rising campaigns to target victims on methods that traffickers use because so many Albanian woman are seduced with wedding proposals and trafficked to Italy for prostitution (2009, p. 147). The more people that are aware bring the possibility of less men and woman getting tricked into forced labor or forced prostitution.
These people that get tricked into being trafficked are usually people that are poor. Aronowitz argues that, “Because many of those trafficked are from poorer countries or are the most disadvantaged and marginalized in society, it is important to promote income-generating activities and opportunities” (2009, p 148). This could be from creating jobs to creating better educational systems for kids to better their chances in making money. The better educational system also keeps kids off the streets and more educated on the things around them. Either way it makes it to wear people are not desperate for ways to make money. That feeling of being desperate makes a person susceptible to falling for trafficker’s tricks and becoming part of the millions of people being trafficked. Regulating labor in poorer communities could drastically reduce the amount of men, woman and children and ultimately become a permanent solution to combating human trafficking.
In conclusion, it is up to the people of this Earth to bring a stop to Human Trafficking. It being a global issue means people of all nations need to come together to bring end to this modern day slavery. To do so, humans need to have some knowledge on the issue to be able to come up with their own ideas. The history of human trafficking can better people’s knowledge of human trafficking in not falling back into the problem, if ever the world sees and end to this issue. It also gives people a place to start because in order to get to the end of something you have got to start somewhere and what better place to start from than the beginning of the issue.
This nation and the world both have laws that try to fight against this disease like issue of human trafficking, but are they enough to fully get rid of human trafficking. Some say it is to early to tell while other say they are not. It does not matter what side you find yourself apart of to be able to use the current policy to further ones efforts against human trafficking. Those who say the current policies are not enough can use the information provided as a guideline to further come up with new laws. While those who say it to early to tell can use this knowledge on current policy to inform other bring awareness to the issue bringing more demand for prosecution.
There is always something one can do, not pertaining to a law in particular, to further combat human trafficking. This something can be from raising awareness to helping poor nation become better economically. To this issue and to most issues knowledge is a key to combating this terrible act against human’s right. In the end, no matter how one debates on the way human trafficking should be handled or how it began the important thing is that human trafficking meets it end in this world and people are given back their basic rights as humans.
References
Aronowitz, A. (2009). Ending human trafficking. In Human trafficking, human misery the
global trade in human beings (pp. 134-161). Westport, Connecticut:
Praeger.
Grimmer, C. (2013). Procuring protection: using the false claims act to combat human
trafficking by government contractors. Public Contract Law Journal, 43(1), 127-144.
Hall, A. (2014). The uniform act on prevention of and remedies for human
trafficking. Arizona Law Review, 56(3), 853-896.
Human trafficking laws & regulations. (2012, July 26). Retrieved March 17, 2015, from
http://www.dhs.gov/human-trafficking-laws-regulations
Kangaspunta, K. (2008, October 1). A short history of trafficking in persons. Freedom From
Fear, 36-37.
King, Lindsey. (2008) International law and human trafficking. Topical Research Digest:
Human Rights and Human Trafficking, 88-90.
United Nations office on drugs and crime. (2015, January 1). Retrieved March 18, 2015,
from http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CTOC/index.html
Young, P. (2011, January 1). Timeline of human trafficking. Retrieved March 4, 2015, from
http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~yongpatr/425/final/timeline.htm
Slavery has been around since the beginning of time. Human rights have been compromised due to the act of slavery, which belittles people to nothing more than property. People in the Unites States seemed to be blind to the fact that people are still under slavery today in the act of human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons. It not only is happening around the world but also in the United States where it is thought to be non-existent. People need to be informed on this issue and given a sense of knowledge that will help them bring the end to human trafficking. This paper consist of research coming from different viewpoints that give different ideas to bounce off of and not leading one in one direction. At the end of this paper the reader should have a good background presence of human trafficking and be able to come up on his or her own opinion on how to address the issue.
One of the World’s Most Troubling Issues: Human Trafficking
What is the act of someone being forced to do something against his or her will for someone else’s economic benefit? The answer to this question long ago would have been slavery but now a days it falls under a new name, human trafficking. Human trafficking is becoming more and more of a global problem every year that goes by. It has affected so many families in ways like the loss of one’s children and mothers to forced into prostitution or men being tricked into better opportunities only to find out they are trapped in labor with no pay. To this day, nearly twenty one million people lay victim to human trafficking. According to a recent survey, only twenty three percent of college students know that this many people are laying victim to such a crime relatable to slavery (“Survey on Human Trafficking”, 2014). On the contrary to popular belief, slavery is a figment of history, it is happening in present day just under a new name for it. While there is not debate on the existence of the issue at hand, the debate comes more on how to exactly combat the issue of human trafficking.
To get a full grasp on the issue at hand, one must get answers to questions about human trafficking history, current policies that help combat it today, and proposed policies that can further combat human trafficking:
1. When did the act of human trafficking begin?
2. What are the current policies on human trafficking and are they effective?
3. What actions can be taken to further combat human trafficking?
Answering these questions will better the readers understanding of this terrible issue this world faces today. In the end helping them combat human trafficking on their own to hope to put an end to human trafficking so woman, children, and men can live their lives free like humans are suppose to.
When did the act of human trafficking begin?
Human Trafficking is the illegal movement of people, typically for the purposes of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. But when did it start? There is still a debate on exactly when human trafficking began. The two sides of when Human Trafficking began are back in the 1400s and the other one is of more recent years during the “white slavery.”
The first perspective on when human trafficking began is during the European slave trade. As you can see in figure 1 on your right, 90% of college students agree with this perspective over that of “white slavery” era being the beginning of human trafficking (“Survey on Human Trafficking”, 2014). During the European Slave Trade, Africans were captured and were sent to places in Europe, North America, and South America and forced to labor with no pay at all. As one can see, they are the same but the only difference between human trafficking and the European Slave Trade is that the human trafficking is against the law while the Slave Trade was completely legal. In figure one, you will see that 90% of people According to the Rutgers University Campus Coalition Against Trafficking, “the 1400s marked the start of European slave trading in Africa with the Portuguese transporting people from Africa to Portugal and using them as slaves” (Young, 2011). The slave trade would become extremely popular after 1492 due to the fact that Christopher Columbus had just discovered the New World.
Other countries wanted to discover new land so more and more European powers went and discovered this vast land with an abundant amount of raw material. These raw materials had to be grown and picked and who better to do it is those of the slave trade. Like human trafficking of today not a majority of the slave trade was happening in the area of present day United States of America. It was happening in Central and Southern America because the work was a lot tougher in those parts of the land. The harder the work was the shorter the life expectancy of the slave and this would lead to more and more slaves being trafficked.
Freedom Form Fear magazine has a different take on this start of human trafficking. They believed that while slaves did go through physical and sexual orientation starting in the 1400s, the history of human trafficking dates back a lot shorter. The focus of human trafficking is believed to start during the era of “white slavery” around the early 1800 to early 1900s. White slavery was the white woman and girls were being trafficked for prostitution. When this came about it was all about protecting these white woman and girls from becoming victims. There was nothing about criminalizing the efforts of trafficking these women though until 1910. According to Kangaspunta, “In 1910, 13 countries signed the International Convention for the Suppression of the White Slave Trade” (2008). This would criminalize the act of trading these white woman and girls.
The International Convention for the Suppression of the White Slave Trade only covered white woman and girls. It was very gender specific on females and boys were not mention. The League of Nations would be the ones to step up and address this problem. In 1920, the League of Nations was an international organization started after a result of the first ever world war to be a world governing body for peace, and one of its first agendas would be to address the White Slavery issue. In 1921, 33 states would meet up in Geneva and sign the International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children (Kangaspunta, 2008). This expanded the prosecuting of those who trafficked woman and children of both sexes not just girls. The League of Nations would fall apart as well as the International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children, but the United Nations would replace it after World War II. The United Nations would turn out to be a lot more set in stone than the League of Nations as well as its agreements.
What are the current policies on human trafficking and are they effective?
Since human trafficking has a victim and a perpetrator there are going to be some kind of laws and law enforcement to stop these perpetrators. Human trafficking is a global issue that affects people globally as well as locally. As a result we will be having two different kinds of policies, policies according to the United States and policies according to the United Nations.
In the United States, the Department of Homeland security is the organization that is in charge of human trafficking. The main law when it comes to combating human trafficking in the U.S. is the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (TVPA). According the United States Department of Homeland Security, “TVPA combats trafficking in persons, especially into the sex trade, slavery, and involuntary servitude” (2012). This act came about in 2003 but has been revised three times to the most current revision in 2008. This act goes after and tries to get rid of those who are trafficking in person by prosecution.
The United States not only does this but also tries to take some of the demand away from human traffickers with The Customs and Facilitations and Trade Enforcement Reauthorization Act of 2009. With this Act in place, it puts provision that prohibit the United States to import any kind of good that are produced by the acts of human trafficking or forced labor (Department of Homeland Security, 2012). This act is trying to dry out the human traffickers because if there is no demand, no product from human traffickers will be sold putting them out of business. Of course, the United States alone cannot dry out human trafficker on their own but it gives and example to other nations and is a key piece to the puzzle.
The United Nations as well has a law against human trafficking. The one big difference is the United Nation’s law takes out enforces the law globally instead of just locally. The United Nations has The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children that were brought into discussion on November 15, 2000 and put into force on December 23, 2003 (UNODC, 2015). It not only criminalized the act of trafficking in persons but also seeks out to help those who have been trafficked and protect their rights. Out of the 166 parties in the United Nations 117 have signed this protocol, which includes the United States.
Now that the world has these laws to combat Human Trafficking, are they effective? Human trafficking is a global issue so it is complex to combat it. In the local standpoint, Caitlin Grimmer believe they are not doing a good job in enforcing it. According to Grimmer, “the main issue plaguing the U.S. Government in preventing and prohibiting human trafficking is, predominately, the Government itself; in fact, despite the Government's claim of a zero-tolerance policy, these cases are rarely prosecuted” (2013). One cannot expect to combat an issue to be successful if one is not going through with the process of punishment. On the other hand these policies can be seen as a stepping-stone. Turning to a global standpoint, Lindsey King sees the proposal from the United Nations as an aid to the worldwide epidemic and ways for it to be affective is the incorporation of it in domestic legislation (2008, p. 88-89). The United Nations cannot simply combat human trafficking on its own it need its nations behind it for it to be effective. The effectiveness of the process relies of its support by the nations of the world. While the effectiveness of the polies are and will forever be debated, there are some out there locally as well as globally.
What actions can be taken to further combat human trafficking?
Human trafficking is a situation that is not going to go away easily but it does not mean it cannot come to an end. We have policies set in place in today’s world but maybe more can be done. There seems be more the one way people can go about combatting human trafficking. One can enforce more laws to combat human trafficking as well as ways that do not involve laws like creating awareness and economy.
As discussed in the previous section, the United States has the TVPA that makes it illegal to traffic in persons. Some say that this law does not cover the whole picture of human trafficking and it needs to be broadened. Currently there is a proposed law called the Uniform Act. The TVPA and the Uniform Act have a lot in common where essentially the Uniform Act has the same definition of what is illegal but adds to it. For instance, it adds to the definition of coercing someone into doing something. Hall mentions that this act adds: “controlling the victim’s access to a controlled substance, exploitation of the victim’s physical or mental disability, and confiscation of passports or other documents” (2014, p. 875) to ways of being coerced. What this means is that victims can be coerced into forced labor or sex trafficking other than just by fraud and force. This makes more victims of human trafficking actually victims in the court of law.
While the act opens the spectrum of who a victim is in human trafficking it also adds to the spectrum of who a criminal is. Right now, the TVPA states that only those who are traffickers can be considered criminals under the law of human trafficking. The Uniform wants to add on those who benefit from human trafficking. For instance, if a man was to receive sexual favors from a prostitute he knows to be a victim of human trafficking he could face charges of human trafficking the same way a trafficker would. According to Hall, “prosecuting johns as traffickers rightly apportions a large share of the blame for sex trafficking to the johns, without whom sex trafficking would not prosper or even exist” (2014, p. 882). This makes sense because without any demand for human trafficking there would be no supply.
Even thought the law is the first thing one might think of when trying to combat human trafficking it is the only way. Ordinary people can rise against human trafficking and do their part in combating human trafficking. Creating awareness to the issue is a good way to get people to know about this global issue. Getting people aware could put human trafficking high on the government’s agenda. Aronowitz mentions that it is essential for awareness rising campaigns to target victims on methods that traffickers use because so many Albanian woman are seduced with wedding proposals and trafficked to Italy for prostitution (2009, p. 147). The more people that are aware bring the possibility of less men and woman getting tricked into forced labor or forced prostitution.
These people that get tricked into being trafficked are usually people that are poor. Aronowitz argues that, “Because many of those trafficked are from poorer countries or are the most disadvantaged and marginalized in society, it is important to promote income-generating activities and opportunities” (2009, p 148). This could be from creating jobs to creating better educational systems for kids to better their chances in making money. The better educational system also keeps kids off the streets and more educated on the things around them. Either way it makes it to wear people are not desperate for ways to make money. That feeling of being desperate makes a person susceptible to falling for trafficker’s tricks and becoming part of the millions of people being trafficked. Regulating labor in poorer communities could drastically reduce the amount of men, woman and children and ultimately become a permanent solution to combating human trafficking.
In conclusion, it is up to the people of this Earth to bring a stop to Human Trafficking. It being a global issue means people of all nations need to come together to bring end to this modern day slavery. To do so, humans need to have some knowledge on the issue to be able to come up with their own ideas. The history of human trafficking can better people’s knowledge of human trafficking in not falling back into the problem, if ever the world sees and end to this issue. It also gives people a place to start because in order to get to the end of something you have got to start somewhere and what better place to start from than the beginning of the issue.
This nation and the world both have laws that try to fight against this disease like issue of human trafficking, but are they enough to fully get rid of human trafficking. Some say it is to early to tell while other say they are not. It does not matter what side you find yourself apart of to be able to use the current policy to further ones efforts against human trafficking. Those who say the current policies are not enough can use the information provided as a guideline to further come up with new laws. While those who say it to early to tell can use this knowledge on current policy to inform other bring awareness to the issue bringing more demand for prosecution.
There is always something one can do, not pertaining to a law in particular, to further combat human trafficking. This something can be from raising awareness to helping poor nation become better economically. To this issue and to most issues knowledge is a key to combating this terrible act against human’s right. In the end, no matter how one debates on the way human trafficking should be handled or how it began the important thing is that human trafficking meets it end in this world and people are given back their basic rights as humans.
References
Aronowitz, A. (2009). Ending human trafficking. In Human trafficking, human misery the
global trade in human beings (pp. 134-161). Westport, Connecticut:
Praeger.
Grimmer, C. (2013). Procuring protection: using the false claims act to combat human
trafficking by government contractors. Public Contract Law Journal, 43(1), 127-144.
Hall, A. (2014). The uniform act on prevention of and remedies for human
trafficking. Arizona Law Review, 56(3), 853-896.
Human trafficking laws & regulations. (2012, July 26). Retrieved March 17, 2015, from
http://www.dhs.gov/human-trafficking-laws-regulations
Kangaspunta, K. (2008, October 1). A short history of trafficking in persons. Freedom From
Fear, 36-37.
King, Lindsey. (2008) International law and human trafficking. Topical Research Digest:
Human Rights and Human Trafficking, 88-90.
United Nations office on drugs and crime. (2015, January 1). Retrieved March 18, 2015,
from http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CTOC/index.html
Young, P. (2011, January 1). Timeline of human trafficking. Retrieved March 4, 2015, from
http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~yongpatr/425/final/timeline.htm
The biggest thing I got out of doing this assignment was the overall understanding of this issue. When I chose this topic at the beginning of the year, I never imagined it being such a big issue in the world. I can say I am one of the very many people who thought slavery was pretty much non existence in the United States but it is. Another thing is that there is at least two sides to a story, even when it comes to somethings history. The hardest part of this assignment was researching for the history/background section because it is like slavery, which has been around since the beginning of time, but then again its not.