What has made sex trafficking, the flagship of the scourge that is human trafficking, the second fastest-growing crime in the world?
Profits.
Human trafficking and modern slavery comprise a $246 billion-a-year industry, or 0.26 percent of the world’s gross domestic product and nearly $50 billion more than the combined profits of Big Oil. That breaks down to about $170 billion from sexual exploitation and about $76 billion from forced labor.
There have been sting operations, shutdowns of online sex trafficking hubs and websites that inform the public, yet the plague of sex trafficking continues to spread, blighting 49 out of the 50 US states and leaving no country on Earth untouched. Trafficking can happen at construction sites and hotels, at major sporting events like the Olympics or through one’s laptop at the tap of a link.
The question is: Can it ever be stopped, or is it just another evil to live with and discreetly change the subject about when it comes up in polite conversation?
“It is urgent to humanize all people by teaching respect for human rights.”
Dr. Mary Shuttleworth, educator, founder and president of Youth for Human Rights International, points out that modern-day slavery is expressly forbidden by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed and agreed to by all 193 UN member states. Article 4 of the Declaration states, “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.”
Dr. Shuttleworth says, “The scourge of human trafficking, modern-day slavery, treats people like expendable commodities following the laws of supply and demand. We appropriately target the traffickers, but that trade will disappear without the market of exploiters (users, Johns). It is urgent to humanize all people by teaching respect for human rights. We must reach and teach our students about the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights to create a world where slavery will truly be abhorrent and nonexistent.”
A generation of children raised to respect one another would result in a world much different than our world today. It would be a world of human respect, which is the direct antithesis of human bondage. In such a world, sex trafficking could never survive—never even be conceived of.
It could work.
The United for Human Rights youth education program can be found at YouthForHumanRights.org.
