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.
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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?
Its funny that you have written about this, as this is the report I read today at work. Its heartbreaking isn't it.
ReplyDeleteI 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:
ReplyDeleteAustralia
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
Thank you so much! I've been meaning to do this, and it just keeps getting pushed off!
DeleteNo 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.
ReplyDeleteSo 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.
Delete