Human trafficking

Today my husband and I, along with some friends, attended an event called "Let My People Go: Equipping NYC Pastors to Fight Modern-Day Slavery". It was an event to equip Christian church pastors and church leaders to involve their congregations in the fight against human trafficking, organized by The Price of Life Campaign. Human trafficking as discussed today encompassed not just sex trafficking but also labor trafficking. In essence, human trafficking was defined as force, fraud, and coercion of the vulnerable; basically, it is an exploitation of vulnerability. The UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) has a diagram that describes more in detail what human trafficking is; to take a look, click here. Whether it's children, adolescents, homeless, or marginalized groups, human trafficking exploits human beings and considers them objects rather than beings with dignity and value. And Christian or not, this should be an issue that concerns all of us.

As those who live in the United States, we ought to know that the U.S. is the number two destination for trafficked persons next to Germany. And in the U.S., Flushing, New York is the epicenter of trafficking for the East Coast. Personally, living on the East Coast (close enough to Flushing) of the U.S., these are terrible facts to know. It is horrific to think that consumerism has extended to the exploitation of vulnerable people for profit. And it is imperative to spread awareness and action in whatever small or large way possible so that this form of slavery will come to an end.

But I'm sure there are people who might ask why we should care as long as we don't participate in it (particularly when it comes to exploitation of persons for sexual purposes, such as girls and women who are being prostituted). Well, it's never that simple because we are talking about forced labor as well as sexual exploitation. And we all contribute in some way to forced labor if we are not aware of what we shop for and where we shop. The clothes we buy, the accessories we wear, the food and drinks we consume (like coffee and chocolate) all have the potential of contributing to forced labor, child labor, and exploitation. So, being informed and aware of all the issues related to human trafficking is certainly an important step in the movement to abolish modern-day slavery. I've blogged about certain things before like chocolate, child soldiers, child miners, and the like. And there will be more related blogs to come in the future I'm sure, so be on the lookout for those.

Some websites for resources aside from what I've mentioned above include:

• The Polaris Project 
• Restore NYC 
• New York City Urban Project 
• List of Organizations that Oppose Human Trafficking  (not a comprehensive list but you can cross-reference with another that I post)
• List of Organizations in the U.S. Working to Combat Human Trafficking

Child Labor in Lebanon

Lebanon - a country I visited in 2005 and have fallen in love with has been plagued with long-running political impasse....and as a result, its people have been suffering. Among the suffering are children - some who are as young as 8 years old.... Some estimate the number of child workers in Lebanon to be about 100,000. These children work out of necessity and because situations are worsening due to the political deadlock in the country.

While Lebanon has signed the international convention in 2001 to take measures to curb the worst forms of child labor, there has been no government to implement and enforce these regulations. In the meantime, children are working - painting, welding, and hammering - because their families need money. Some have not been in school for several years. It is a serious and critical situation.

Read the BBC article.

Chocolate - Bittersweet

While my consumption of chocolate has diminished over the years and as I opt more for dark chocolate versus milk chocolate, I am still a huge chocolate lover. And the chocolate industry has billions of ardent fans. Think of the huge amounts of chocolate sold over Valentine's Day; and as Easter comes upon us, those chocolate eggs; and of course, who can forget Halloween? Chocolate is everywhere. Among us friends, it's a stress-reliever too and sometimes a sinful indulgence. But it slips my mind, quite often, that most things chocolate are made from cocoa. Reading a friend's blog and then doing a bit of searching myself, I was reminded of something I have read about in the past, and it makes me think twice about that bar of dark chocolate sitting on my kitchen counter....

A large part of the chocolate industry's cocoa comes from the Ivory Coast (or Cote d'Ivoire) on the continent of Africa. About 70% of the world's cocoa beans are in fact grown in that country. Some of those cocoa farmers employ children - children who are younger than 13. The situation is a conflicting one as these children, who would rather not be working and going to school instead, are sent out to the fields because of the poverty their families face. While US lawmakers and international human rights groups worked to eradicate this problem, it is far from being eradicated in the villages of the Ivory Coast.


Here is a link to a recent article summarizing a recent follow-up by US lawmakers. And here is the original article that I read on my friend's blog called "Chocolate's Bittersweet Economy". You should go to this article because you'll see all the pictures that accompanied the article....

Here's an excerpt from the article by Christian Parenti:
"Outside the village of Sinikosson in southwestern Ivory Coast, along a trail tracing the edge of a muddy fishpond, Madi Ouedraogo sits on the ground picking up cocoa pods in one hand, hacking them open with a machete in the other and scooping the filmy white beans into plastic buckets. It is the middle of the school day, but Madi, who looks to be about 10, says his family can't afford the fees to send him to the nearest school, five miles away. "I don't like this work," he says. "I would rather do something else. But I have to do this."

Sinikosson, accessible only by rutted jungle tracks, is a long way from the luxurious chocolate shops of New York and Paris. But it is here, on small West African farms like these, that 70 percent of the world's cocoa beans are grown - 40 percent from just one country, Ivory Coast. It's not only the landscape that is tough. Working and living conditions are brutal. Most villages lack electricity, running water, health clinics or schools. And to make ends meet, underage cocoa workers, like Madi and the two boys next to him, spend their days wielding machetes, handling pesticides and carrying heavy loads.

This type of child labor isn't supposed to exist in Ivory Coast. Not only is it explicitly barred by law - the official working age in the country is 18 - but since the issue first became public seven years ago, there has been an international campaign by the chocolate industry, governments and human rights organizations to eradicate the problem. Yet today child workers, many under the age of 10, are everywhere. Sometimes they're visibly scarred from their work. In the village of Lilo a young boy carrying a machete ambled along a road with a bandaged shin. He said he had cut his leg toiling in a cocoa patch."

World Day Against Child Labor - June 12, 2007

It's coming - World Day Against Child Labor. It will be here on June 12th. What can we do? Be aware that there are various events going on around the world to push for elimination of child labor, particularly the worst forms of child labor. If you do nothing at all, at least raise your own personal awareness of child labor and exploitation.

This year, the focus is on the elimination of child labor in agriculture. Child labor in agriculture can be one of the most dangerous forms of labor for children and it accounts for a large percentage of child labor around the world. Click here for more info from the ILO regarding child labor and this year's World Day Against Child Labor. It even has a link to materials on World Day 2007.

You can also check out another organization that works with children and eliminating the worst forms of child labor by clicking here. This will take you to the website for CARE International - a nonprofit organization that works to tackle poverty in various places all over the globe. Take a look.

Child Labor - Child Miners

This is another post regarding child labor. Today I want to focus on child miners. In many areas around the world, particularly where poverty is prevalent, children are exploited to work in mines because of their size. These children are exposed to injuries, health hazards, and dangerous conditions in these mines. This, among other worst forms of child labor, must be eliminated. Children work in mines all over the world, from the Cote D'Ivoire to Niger to Peru to the Philippines, from gold mines to other gem and mineral mines. In mines, risks to children include collapsing tunnels, falling ore, exposure to poor or dangerous air quality, physical strain, and asphyxiation in gold mines.

Follow this link to papers presented by the ILO (International Labour Organization) regarding child labor in small-scale mining - an example from three countries.



Ever heard of the gem tanzanite? It's pictured above. Isn't it pretty? It can only be found in one place - one place in all the world. You might have already guessed....that place is Tanzania, specifically in the town of Mererani. While the stone is beautiful, only recently have I discovered the sad story that lies behind this beautiful gem. Mererani is home to a 300 million dollar Tanzanite industry and yet, according to IRIN (the humanitarian news and analysis published by the UN), 30% of the 200,000 people who live there survive on less than a dollar a day; and even so, people from all over Tanzania move here in hopes of improving their lives by finding that rare gem. And of course, those who suffer the most are the children and their mothers who have to watch their children suffer. Even if the government is working to eliminate this form of child labor in the Tanzanite mining industry, they face obstacles - not enough schools for children to go to and the poverty that still remains, so the children inevitably turn to the mines.

Read the IRIN article on this story. The article was published last September, but is still relevant today. I don't know if any of you own Tanzanite jewelry, but I hope that no one will until the mining conditions have improved for this gem which includes the elimination of all children from the mines.

Child Labor

Although there are some forms of work that may be acceptable for children and within legal restrictions, child labor is often exploitative in many parts of the world. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child outlines that a child must be protected from any economic exploitation and forms of work that interfere or are harmful to a child's education, health, and development. The International Labor Organization Convention 182 addresses what are called the "worst forms of child labor" emerging out of the general convention held in 1999, and the contents of this convention call for a prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor.

Even with these regulations and laws, in 2007, child labor still exists in many exploitative forms. In my recent postings I have already covered one of them, namely children exploited in armed conflict (child soldiers). But there are more. As the weeks progress, I will continue to blog about child labor, among other things, more specifically.

Today I turn to the significant child labor problem in Ethiopia. About 60% of the children in Ethiopia work to supplement their family's income, according to the IRC, working in domestics, farm work, and mining. While child labor in Africa, particularly rural Africa, is viewed as a normal occurence, there is often a lack of distinction between moderate, excessive, and exploitative forms of work. Children are driven to labor by circumstances - poverty, death of family members, illness of family members, and ultimately to survive. The problem of child labor is a significant one but it is important to note that the solution is not simply to deal with the child labor issue alone. There must be more support given to these areas in order to decrease the circumstances that cannot help but push children into labor. Of course, the solution and support given to one area or country cannot be the same as another - they are each unique in their own ways.

For more information consult the following websites:

• The Convention on the Rights of the Child
  
• ILO Convention 182
  
• From the Bureau of International Affairs, on Ethiopia
  
• IRC News on Child Labor in Ethiopia