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RIGHTS: HOLLYWOOD SPOTLIGHTS GROWING TRADE IN HUMANS
By Thalif Deen
Inter Press Service
Sep 19, 2007
Italy
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 19 (IPS) - Kevin Kline, an Academy Award winning
movie star, is outraged at the impunity with which human traffickers
ply their trade in one of the world's growing multi-billion dollar
businesses: the global sex industry.
"We are trying to put a human face to the problem," says Kline,
who plays the role of a police officer in the movie "Trade", which
premiered in the U.N. Trusteeship Council chamber Tuesday.
He said the movie, which is to be commercially released shortly,
will probe the inner workings of the global human trafficking network.
The primary objective, Kline told reporters, is to raise the awareness
of a problem "which is in plain sight -- whether in the state of New
Jersey or in Mexico."
Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the Vienna-based U.N. Office
on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said human trafficking is a 32 billion
dollar-a-year business, "whose profits are second only to drugs
and arms."
"Most of its victims (about 80 percent) are women and girls, many of
whom are forced into prostitution or otherwise exploited sexually,"
he told reporters Tuesday.
After seeing an advance screening of "Trade", another Academy
Award-winning Hollywood star, Meryl Streep, was quoted as saying
that the movie provides "an unflinching peek at the secret world of
sex trafficking."
"Anyone who fails to have their insides roiled by this film has
commenced rigor mortis," she added.
Kline said the movie also focuses on the plight of a young Polish
girl who is abducted and smuggled into the United States, through
neighbouring Mexico, and who is drugged, raped and made to work under
conditions bordering slavery.
"We are trying to spotlight the problem without sensationalising it,"
he added.
The movie is based on a 2004 New York Times Magazine article by Peter
Landesman titled "The Girls Next Door".
Taina Bien-Aime, executive director of the New York-based women's
advocacy group Equality Now, said that art "is a powerful advocacy
tool to raise awareness."
"We hope this dramatic and true-to-life film will move people to take
action against the scourge of sex trafficking," she said.
She said that New York city Mayor Mike Bloomberg had declared September
2007 an "anti-trafficking month" in order to raise "critical awareness
of the cruel and disturbing practice of human trafficking."
In a statement released Tuesday, Equality Now said that every year,
millions of women and girls around the world suffer unimaginable human
rights violations at the hands of those who profit from the trade in
human lives.
"Some are abducted; some are deceived by offers of legitimate work in
another country; some are sold by their own poverty-stricken parents
or are themselves driven by poverty into the lure of traffickers who
prey on their desperation."
Trafficking, it said, is a scourge that affects every country in
the world. "It is one of the fastest growing criminal industries,
the third largest, after the drugs and arms trade."
In June, the United States released its seventh annual "Trafficking
in Persons Report" which focuses on the trade in humans.
At a press conference in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice told reporters that human traffickers prey on the most
vulnerable members of society, most often innocent women and children,
exploiting and abusing them and profiting from their suffering.
"In my travels," she said, "I have noticed a greater desire by our
partners to fight this crime and protect its victims. We are helping
to lead a global movement, not just to confront this crime, but to
abolish it."
More and more countries are coming to see human trafficking for what
it is -- a modern-day form of slavery that devastates families and
communities around the world, Rice added.
Still, Rice said there is disturbing evidence that prosecutions have
leveled off everywhere.
In some cases, there are countries with major human trafficking
problems, but only a couple of traffickers have been brought to
justice.
This year's report covered more countries than ever before -- 164
in total.
"This cannot and must not be tolerated. Despite these serious concerns,
much in this year's report should give us hope," she added.
For example, she said, Georgia, Hungary Slovenia and Israel have all
made major improvements, as have Taiwan and countries like Indonesia,
Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and Jamaica.
Ambassador Mark Lagon, director of the Office to Monitor and Combat
Human Trafficking in Persons, said the structure of this year's
report and the purpose are focused largely on "drawing the world's
attention on the existence of modern-day slavery and the desperate
need to eliminate it in the same way that the world ended the African
slave trade more than a century ago."
"Human trafficking plagues every country in one way or another,
including the United States," he added.
The U.S. list also includes political allies such as Saudi Arabia,
India, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Algeria, while others in the
list include Equatorial Guinea, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Armenia,
China, and South Africa.
Asked about the Middle East, Lagon said: "What we found as a general
pattern in this report is an endemic problem of the way foreign
workers are treated in the Persian Gulf, in Middle Eastern states."
He pointed out that there is a recruitment pattern of people,
unsuspecting people who are offered jobs as secretaries, as maids;
but they end up being sex slaves or put into domestic servitude in
an involuntary way.
"That's seen throughout the region and it seems to be an increasingly
acute problem," he added.
By Thalif Deen
Inter Press Service
Sep 19, 2007
Italy
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 19 (IPS) - Kevin Kline, an Academy Award winning
movie star, is outraged at the impunity with which human traffickers
ply their trade in one of the world's growing multi-billion dollar
businesses: the global sex industry.
"We are trying to put a human face to the problem," says Kline,
who plays the role of a police officer in the movie "Trade", which
premiered in the U.N. Trusteeship Council chamber Tuesday.
He said the movie, which is to be commercially released shortly,
will probe the inner workings of the global human trafficking network.
The primary objective, Kline told reporters, is to raise the awareness
of a problem "which is in plain sight -- whether in the state of New
Jersey or in Mexico."
Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the Vienna-based U.N. Office
on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said human trafficking is a 32 billion
dollar-a-year business, "whose profits are second only to drugs
and arms."
"Most of its victims (about 80 percent) are women and girls, many of
whom are forced into prostitution or otherwise exploited sexually,"
he told reporters Tuesday.
After seeing an advance screening of "Trade", another Academy
Award-winning Hollywood star, Meryl Streep, was quoted as saying
that the movie provides "an unflinching peek at the secret world of
sex trafficking."
"Anyone who fails to have their insides roiled by this film has
commenced rigor mortis," she added.
Kline said the movie also focuses on the plight of a young Polish
girl who is abducted and smuggled into the United States, through
neighbouring Mexico, and who is drugged, raped and made to work under
conditions bordering slavery.
"We are trying to spotlight the problem without sensationalising it,"
he added.
The movie is based on a 2004 New York Times Magazine article by Peter
Landesman titled "The Girls Next Door".
Taina Bien-Aime, executive director of the New York-based women's
advocacy group Equality Now, said that art "is a powerful advocacy
tool to raise awareness."
"We hope this dramatic and true-to-life film will move people to take
action against the scourge of sex trafficking," she said.
She said that New York city Mayor Mike Bloomberg had declared September
2007 an "anti-trafficking month" in order to raise "critical awareness
of the cruel and disturbing practice of human trafficking."
In a statement released Tuesday, Equality Now said that every year,
millions of women and girls around the world suffer unimaginable human
rights violations at the hands of those who profit from the trade in
human lives.
"Some are abducted; some are deceived by offers of legitimate work in
another country; some are sold by their own poverty-stricken parents
or are themselves driven by poverty into the lure of traffickers who
prey on their desperation."
Trafficking, it said, is a scourge that affects every country in
the world. "It is one of the fastest growing criminal industries,
the third largest, after the drugs and arms trade."
In June, the United States released its seventh annual "Trafficking
in Persons Report" which focuses on the trade in humans.
At a press conference in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice told reporters that human traffickers prey on the most
vulnerable members of society, most often innocent women and children,
exploiting and abusing them and profiting from their suffering.
"In my travels," she said, "I have noticed a greater desire by our
partners to fight this crime and protect its victims. We are helping
to lead a global movement, not just to confront this crime, but to
abolish it."
More and more countries are coming to see human trafficking for what
it is -- a modern-day form of slavery that devastates families and
communities around the world, Rice added.
Still, Rice said there is disturbing evidence that prosecutions have
leveled off everywhere.
In some cases, there are countries with major human trafficking
problems, but only a couple of traffickers have been brought to
justice.
This year's report covered more countries than ever before -- 164
in total.
"This cannot and must not be tolerated. Despite these serious concerns,
much in this year's report should give us hope," she added.
For example, she said, Georgia, Hungary Slovenia and Israel have all
made major improvements, as have Taiwan and countries like Indonesia,
Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and Jamaica.
Ambassador Mark Lagon, director of the Office to Monitor and Combat
Human Trafficking in Persons, said the structure of this year's
report and the purpose are focused largely on "drawing the world's
attention on the existence of modern-day slavery and the desperate
need to eliminate it in the same way that the world ended the African
slave trade more than a century ago."
"Human trafficking plagues every country in one way or another,
including the United States," he added.
The U.S. list also includes political allies such as Saudi Arabia,
India, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Algeria, while others in the
list include Equatorial Guinea, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Armenia,
China, and South Africa.
Asked about the Middle East, Lagon said: "What we found as a general
pattern in this report is an endemic problem of the way foreign
workers are treated in the Persian Gulf, in Middle Eastern states."
He pointed out that there is a recruitment pattern of people,
unsuspecting people who are offered jobs as secretaries, as maids;
but they end up being sex slaves or put into domestic servitude in
an involuntary way.
"That's seen throughout the region and it seems to be an increasingly
acute problem," he added.