Perspectives on Human Trafficking

According to the article "Trafficking in Women: The Canadian Perspective," written by Donna E. Stewart and Olga Gajic-Veljanoski, Canada's efforts in the fight against human trafficking are fairly new and have yet to make a dramatic impact on the current crisis. In 2003, a U.S. report was written concerning the statistics of Canadian prevention, victim outreach and the persecution of traffickers. After the information of the report was published, Canada was downgraded from a tier 1 country ( a country whose governments fully comply with the Trafficking victims protection Act's minimum standards) to a tier 2 country (a country whose governments do not fully comply with the Trafficking victims protection Act's minimum standards but are making significant efforts the bring themselves into compliance with those standards). The following year, Canada established the Interdepartmental Working Group on Trafficking which combined the efforts of 14 different agencies led by Canadian Foreign Affairs and Justice Departments, (bumping their rating back to a tier 1 country). The main focus of Canada's war on human trafficking is concerning the criminal prosecution, which although is important and ultimately the cause of the issue, no critical measure have yet been taken to aid in the rehabilitation of their victims physical and mental health. Stewart, Donna E. and Gajic-Veljanoski, Olga, "Trafficking in Women: The Canadian Perspective," http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/173/1/25
























"To highlight the harsh realities of human trafficking, the South-African Salvation Army came with this hard-hitting idea that put children on sale in fashion boutique windows. The message emphasises the tragedy of putting a price-tag on a human life."

Advertiser:South-African Salvation Army
Agency:Leo Burnett, Johannesburg, South Africa
Additional credits:
Executive Creative Director: Vanessa Pearson
Art Director: Alan marks
Copywriter: Nicole Solarsh
http://osocio.org/category/third_world/

According to an article written by the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID), "It is difficult to reconcile many of the issues this paper raises about the Trafficking Protocol: the use of conditional and vague language when referring to persons who are trafficked has little meaningful effect, and the lack of concrete international anti-trafficking measures is practically unimaginable given the transnational nature of human trafficking. These grave shortcomings-in addition to the divide in the current anti-trafficking debate-have resulted in a UN instrument illequipped to deal with flexible networks of criminals who understand and take full advantage of the limitations of the modern State, the economic inequalities between origin and destination countries, and the particularly discriminatory approach to women in legal systems around the world." From the stand-point of the AWID, the Trafficing Protocol regulates the rights of women and children in a secondary mannor when compared to the criminalized conditions of the protocol. "The fact that the UN High Commissioner and NGOs have rushed to publish complementary documents reminding the international community of the need for a more integral approach to human trafficking further calls attention to the disregard for women's rights and the double standard in international law."

"International Approaches to Human Trafficking: The Call for a Gender-Sensitve Perspective in International Law," Association for Women's Rights in Development, http://www.awid.org/eng/Issues-and-Analysis/Library/International-Approaches-to-Human-Trafficking-The-Call-for-a-Gender-Sensitive-Perspective-in-International-Law#fn36