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Friday, June 22, 2012

Trafficking in Humans Report 2012

I made some scary commitments on Wednesday. I didn't really want to be that honest in such a public way, but I need the accountability, and I need help knowing how to follow through. I may be taking this blog in a new direction for a while, so I hope you'll stick with me and learn along with me.

So far, I've ordered some great books on the subject, which I'll share with you when they come in and I have a chance to look over them. (I have a good friend, who's ahead of me on this journey, and she's been making recommendations. Thanks Ashley!)

I've found a great website, the CNN freedom project, that highlights stories about slavery worldwide. Through it, I found out that the day after I wrote Wednesday's post that something called the "Trafficking in Humans Report" was released for 2012. This report rates countries based upon their efforts to minimize all forms human trafficking, including commercial sex, bonded labor, child labor, involuntary domestic servitude or child soldiers.


Photo Credit

Secretary of State Clinton Describes it this way:
"This report ... gives a clear and honest assessment of where all of us are making progress on our commitments and where we are either standing still or even sliding backwards...This could mean enacting strong laws, stepping up their investigations and prosecutions, or simply laying out a roadmap of steps they will take to respond." 
You can read her full report (or watch it) here.


In this document, countries are rated Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 watch, or Tier 3. The criteria are as follows:

Tier 1 ranking indicates a government has acknowledged the existence of human trafficking, has made efforts to address the problem, and meets minimum standards.
Tier 2 is countries whose governments do not fully comply with minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance.
Tier 2 watch is countries where governments do not fully meet minimum standards, and although they may be making significant efforts the country has a particularly large number of victims, or is not providing evidence of its efforts
Tier 3 is countries that do not fully comply with minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so. Tier 3 countries face the possibility of US sanctions because of their poor human trafficking record.

You can read the full Trafficking in Humans Report for 2012 here. (Scroll down and click the links titled "country narratives") 


The countries are listed alphabetically and begin by listing the countries rating as well as a profile of human trafficking in that country in recent years, followed by what that country is currently doing and what it should do to help minimized slave trade in that nation.


You probably won't be able to read the whole thing, it is insanely long, wordy, and official. I would love for someone to have this condensed into a user-friendly manual that lists what countries are safest to buy from. I always look at the tags of the clothes I buy and wonder what the factory they were made in looks like. Imagine a little list, sort of like the "dirty dozen" list of fruits and vegetables that we need to buy organically.


I may start to work on something like that for myself. Perhaps a list of all of the Tier 1 ranking nations.
This document is really long, I've skimmed some of it, but I truly hope to look over the whole thing to get a better picture of what's going on in my world today. 


Please come back for Monday's post. I'll be sharing some exciting news about something that's been in the works for a while in our home!


Have you heard of the Trafficking in Humans Report? Is it just me, or should it be bigger in the news?

5 comments:

  1. Its funny that you have written about this, as this is the report I read today at work. Its heartbreaking isn't it.

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  2. I just saw this post today, trying to do some catching up. I scanned over the document and wrote down the Tier 1 countries. Thought I'd share, in case you haven't already done it:
    Australia
    Austria
    Belgium
    Canada
    Colombia
    Croatia
    Czech Republic
    Denmark
    Finland
    France
    Georgia
    Germany
    Iceland
    Ireland
    Israel
    Italy
    Republic of Korea
    Lithuania
    Luxembourg
    Macedonia
    Mauritius
    Netherlands
    New Zealand
    Nicaragua
    Norway
    Poland
    Slovak Republic
    Slovenia
    Spain
    Taiwan
    United Kingdom
    US

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much! I've been meaning to do this, and it just keeps getting pushed off!

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  3. No problem, but if you read what is said under some of these countries on the report, it really doesn't make me want to buy from most of them either. Like, their efforts can basically be minimum, some of them have high populations of forced laborers...sickening.

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    Replies
    1. So they still have slave labor, it's just called something different. I'm reminded again that it's important to focus on what I can do and not go crazy thinking about how insurmountable this issue is.

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