Human Trafficking And Global Slave Trade: Overview Of UN Conventions And History/Development

Overview of UN Conventions and History/Development

Discuss about the Human Trafficking and Global Slave Trade.

The slavery in the international law is governed by a number of declarations, treaties and convention. United Nations Refugee Agency, United Nations Human rights, UNICEF, United Nations women organization, International Labor organizations are some of the organizations that are involved in the issues of trafficking of people and exploiting people. They also deal with the efforts towards basic human rights. The Universal Declaration on Human Rights was passed on 10^th December 1948. This is not a treaty in itself rather it was signed to ensure that there was fundamental freedom for all. Article 1, 13 and 55 that has been formed in the Charter of the United Nations and the Vienna convention deals with these laws. In 1968, the United Nations International Conference on Human Rights formed the human right covenant. These were the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights and International covenant on economic, social and cultural rights. This declaration of the 1968 has been used in many of the implementation. The UN International Labor Organization (ILO) was formed in 1930 to address these issues of slavery. These are some of the efforts taken by UN to address the issue of slavery.

Primarily according to the UN conventions the laws mandated for international slavery and trafficking are classified into migrant workers, exploitation of children and women fall under a different clause. There are specific laws for domestic servitude, human rights violation, exploitation of children and women for sexual exploitation and also forcing children into armed conflict.

The United Nations High Commission for Human rights deals with the issues of slavery, exploitation and anti-trafficking. There are separate laws for children and women exploitation, migrant worker exploitation. In the following section there will be discussion historical development and the current laws regarding the same.

Initial efforts to combat slavery has been found in the abolition of the slavery movement, provisions of slavery convention (1926).  Forced labor convention (1930) was held where it was determined that all forms of forced or compulsory labor should be prohibited. Abolition of Forced Labor Convention was held in 1957. Child Labour convention (1999) were held to combat the rising issue of children being forced to work. In 1949, there was the employment convention that was held to protect the employees from being misled to work as slaves. Another convention was held in 1975. Home Work Convention 1996, was held to ensure that there of equal treatment of the homeworkers. In 2011, there was the convention held for the decent work of domestic workers.

UN Action Against Slavery-like Practices and the UN Human Rights

Some of secondary international laws that segments the trafficking of the people include Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights (1966), The United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (1949) and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979). These have served as an important function to eliminate the trafficking. The United Nations Human Rights Council also plays an important role in the creation of treaties regarding the same.

The UN International Labor Organization (ILO) has been originally formed in 1930 to address the issues of slavery in the nations. This organization deals with the labor issues in the nations and develops International Labor standards and mandates. Social protection and equal work opportunity are some of the issues that are dealt. ILO has 187 member states.  On the 2^nd December 1949 the resolution 317(1V) was passed. From that year to the current year, UN has declared 2^nd December as the International day for the abolition of slavery. The focus is to eradicate the different forms of child exploitation, sexual exploitation, force marriage and forced recruitment of child soldier for armed conflict. The overall plan for the United Nations has been to take a global effort to prevent slavery. The ILO is used to register complaints that violates the international rules. However, it is important to note that there should not be sanctions imposed on the government. Definitions for human trafficking has been explicitly explained in the Violence Protection Act of 2000. This is the official definition that has been explained in the United States. This definition has been developed to include the factors of modern slavery that exists in the nation. Slavery has been rising at an alarming rate in the nations according to the United Nations report.

International law has been considered as a powerful tool for handling the issue of human trafficking.  These laws handle the issues of debt bondage, domestic servitude, contract slavery or kidnapping.One of the most important force in this international law formation is the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime the related protocols that has been created by the United Nations.

These were the past efforts taken by the United Nations to combat the issue of slavery.

UN action against slavery-like practices and, the UN human rights (3pages)

Reference

UN has undertaken a comprehensive effort to handle the issue of trafficking and slavery of people.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the first effort taken by the UN to describe the kinds of human rights violation. The Covenant on civil and political rights state that the individuals have the right to self-determination, right to own, trade and sell their property without being deprived. The rights to legal recourse, right to life, liberty and freedom of movement, right to equality, right to presumption of innocence until proven guilty, right to privacy, freedom of thought and expression are some of the factors. There are also many laws that protect the socio cultural dynamics of the people. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is responsible for adopting the mandates for the human rights violation and trafficking. The Global Plan of Action Against Trafficking in Persons by the General Assembly (2010) along with the Human Rights Council Resolution (11/3) have provided memoirs recommendations and guidelines. According to this legislation the rights-based approach has been used for the intergovernmental organizations of Cameroon, Moldova, UAE to name a few. It provides training towards officials from certain countries.  Inter-agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT), UN GIFT UN Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking play an important role in the implementation of these legislations.

The UN convention has tried to develop a comprehensive policy of ensuring that people are protected. It discusses about the ways to prevent people from being victimized, special ways to protect the children victims and the ways to compensate the victims after they have been subjected to these human right violations or from being abused under the trafficking practices.

According to the UN convention, trafficking of people is a gross violation of human rights. Article 1 explains about the gender differentiation of the human rights violation. Article 2 of the convention explains about the different forms of offence against the people. Article 8 states that the victims of trafficking should not be penalized or prosecuted. Article 11 provides the ways in which the victims can be protected and the ways to provide assistance to the victims. Article 11 (1) to Article 11 (7) discusses about the different ways in which the people can be assisted along with the recovery periods. Article 13 provides guidelines to protect children. Article 15 and 16 gives detailed nuances of the ways to protect the child victims. Article 17 discusses about the compensation that should be provided to the victims. Article 18 provides guidelines to the nation to prevent such abuses. The Geneva convention are a series of treaties that explains to the different governments about how the civilians, prisoners of wars and soldier needs to be treated. Geneva convention mandates the ways in which the people esp. the prisonors of war should be protected.

There is also continual monitoring and individual treaties that are signed by certain nations to protect the people from being abused. These are the many ways in which the United Nations takes effort to prevent human trafficking and ensure that the human rights are not violated.

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