Tangier Model United Nations Human Rights Committee The issue of human trafficking in relation to Cyber Security Chairs: Javier Rodríguez López and Zinat Moussaif
Introduction and history of the topic: In the world we live, human trafficking can be considered as much a cyber security issue as a human rights problem. Human traffickers use the internet to their advantage. This crime has already affected the lives of over 46 million people worldwide to this day. It is common to believe that slavery disappeared from the world after abolitionists managed to make this illegal worldwide, but the truth is that human trafficking is more present now than it was a hundred or two-hundred years ago. The rate of people involved in this crime is increasing at a large rate. Access to the internet and specifically, the dark web, has made these criminals be able to commit these crimes thanks low restrictions in the world we live today. According to the United Nations, human trafficking is described as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organ. This criminal activity is highly organised and usually crosses national borders. The traffickers make use of the latest technology in order to hide their illegal actions and so do not fear being caught, enjoying how lucrative this form of business is. In order to have a successful debate, it is expected of you to do the following: Follow all relevant directions given by the chairs. Fully understand the topic.
Provide a position paper (one or two pages) for this topic. Provide a Resolution for this topic. Discussion of topic: Robert Hannigan, the Director of Communication Headquarters for the British Government stated that groups like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp are the commend-and-control networks of choice for terrorists and criminals. These technologies have also become a way of making sure that their services (usually prostitution) are easily found through other websites such as Facebook, Craigslist and Backpage. This is not the only way in which traffickers sell their wares but it is a massive component to it. The victims have even had to spend time online advertising their services with both real and fake photo identities, the fake ones usually done in order to hide under age exploitation. Thanks to Thorn, a NGO set up by Aston Kutcher and Demi Moore to drive tech innovation to fight child trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children, it has been found out through a survey of sexual exploitation victims that 63% of the survey participants reported being sold online.
Also, the internet has been used as a way to recollect information about possible future victims, social media is perfect to do so as they can create fake profiles to develop a virtual relationship with the victim and lure them into prostitution and trafficking. These traffickers have highly developed social abilities, so they are able to recollect information using questions which sound innocent in order to make the victim feel like they are friends, and so effectively creating a false sense of intimacy. After this, they offer them help to achieve their dreams and desires and in exchange, they receive revealing pictures that are later used to blackmail or force a meeting, even selling them online. At this point is where social media and human trafficking join to create horrible crimes. However, this is only part of what happens on the surface of the web, it can be accessed by normal search engines such as google. These crimes become much more complex once the deep web is involved in the equation, as it is 500 times bigger than the size of the surface web, and beneath this, is where the dark web appears. This part of the internet is kept hidden on
purpose and is the perfect cover to develop a human trafficking web. In the dark web, there is an anonymity in which users use a multi-layered encryption technology called onion encryption, the websites accessed pass through different layers, and through each of them, the user s IP address is hidden more and more by being passed to a different server, when the destination website is reached, the website can only see that last IP address in this process, so the original is never found out. Entering the dark web is a very easy process, it can be done by using a search engine called Tor which navigates the onion layers and shows you the website you wanted to access without leaving any trace, Tor does not save your searches and so you can t be tracked in that manner either. Other elements of the dark web include the Hidden Wiki that provides a directory of what can be found of the dark web including the procurement of assassination services, arms dealing, human experimentation and pedophilia. A study by Gareth Owen at the University of Portsmouth found that 4 out of 5 searches on the dark web involve pedophile activity. The dark web also has its own currency called Bitcoin that provides anonymous payment for services along with prepaid debit cards. Even tech giants like Facebook are beginning to make their services available thought Tor. Thankfully, there are some good advances in tools to fight cybercrime on the surface web and the dark web that should be noted. Spotlight is a tool created by Thorn in partnership with Digital Reasoning. Spotlight scraps publicly available information from the internet, analyses it and uses it to help prioritise cases for law enforcement. It focuses on child trafficking data and essentially increases the response time of police by providing concentrated data to work with. With cybercrime being fairly recent, new groups are being established to monitor and provide accountability at a global effort. This is especially important as no one group owns the internet. Other relevant graphs:
Existing efforts: In January 2014 the Global Commission on Internet Governance was established to articulate and advance strategic vision for the future of Internet governance. Its key focuses include ensuring human rights online, freedom of expression and cybercrime cooperation. The European Union (EU) and UNODC have launched the Global Action to Prevent and Address Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants (GLO.ACT). A four-year joint initiative between the EU and UNODC, GLO.ACT will be implemented in partnership with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) through to 2019. The Human Trafficking Knowledge Portal is an initiative to facilitate the dissemination of information regarding the implementation of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and specifically the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. The Human Trafficking Knowledge Portal hosts a Case Law Database on officially documented court cases concerning trafficking in persons and a Database on Legislation. The Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT) is a policy forum mandated by the UN General Assembly to improve coordination among UN agencies and other relevant international organisations to facilitate a holistic and comprehensive approach to preventing and combating trafficking in persons, including protection and support for victims of trafficking. The UNODC Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking provides grassroots humanitarian, legal, and financial aid to victims of trafficking through governmental, intergovernmental, and civil society organisations. The key aim is to give people from all walks of life - including governments, the private sector, international organisations, NGOs, and individuals the opportunity to work together to provide solutions to assist victims of human trafficking. United Nations Convention on Transnational Organised Crime and its protocols on trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling.
The United Nation s International Police Organisation (INTERPOL) have created the International Child Sexual exploitation image database that is used by police globally. Google have been working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to adapt their copyright recognition program to detect child pornography. Likewise, Microsoft have also worked NCMEC to create PhotoDNA to analyse large number of images quickly to detect modified versions of child pornography.
Bibliography: http://globalinitiative.net/cybercrime-and-human-trafficking/ https://www.acams.org/aml-resources/human-trafficking/ https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/index.html