UNODC UnIted NatIons OffIce On. Drugs and Crime Topic A: Preventing Human Trafficking and migrant smuggling in North and Latin American countries Topic B: Promoting the rule of law and health to address drugs and crime in Southeast Asia Background Paper
Committee : United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime ( UNODC ) Topic A : Preventing Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling in North and Latin American Countries Director : David Santiago Estrella Herrera Moderator : Yanela González Santos I. Committee Background The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime also known as UNODC is the global leader on assisting in the issues of: organized crime, trafficking, corruption, crime rejection and justice reform, drug abuse prevention and health, and terrorism prevention. It was created by the union of the United Nations Drug Control Programme and the Centre for International Crime Prevention on the year of 1997. This organization fully and completely operates with all member states. The UNODC budget relies on government and personal voluntary contributions that help all members with research programs, solutions, and contributions. The UNODC operates in more than 150 countries around the world. These countries are being assisted by the UNODC by suggesting reforms, resolutions, and action plans enforced by the committee. II. Introduction and Description Human trafficking is the replacement or reforming of medieval slavery, and concentrates in forcing, convincing or buying people to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. Millions of men, women, and children are trafficked around the world. Human trafficking makes many billions of dollars per year, the most profitable crime, after drug trafficking. Human trafficking is rarely spotted, because of the experience and planning of the traffickers: taking them to another country with different language and rules,which stop their attempts at transportation. Traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion to lure their victims. They keep an eye out for people who have economic problems, psychological problems or vulnerability, people who aren't socially safe, and unstable teens.the trauma caused by traffickers can be so devastating that many do not consider themselves as victims or ask for help; even in highly public settings. III. History of Topic Human trafficking is the trade of humans, most commonly for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. Human trafficking has been considered to be a problem from a long time, because of its big numbers of victims and frequency.throughout time, it has become more common and more people and cartels make this trade, making countries unsafe. Before the 1900 s, human trafficking has been present one way or another. It used to be called White Slavery,defining the work of sexual and/or normal labor. In 1908 the Importation and Harboring of Woman for Immoral Purposes, was created and discovered a surprising amount of American human trafficking.thanks to the 1927 report on human trafficking, it came to be known that the main reason for doing this was money.the specific
report increased knowledge on the topic,international cooperation,and criminalization of human trafficking, as the percentage of awareness in human trafficking after it in the United States was increased by more than 4 percent. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirms that from 800 to 1,200 people per year are trafficked through Canada. Nonetheless, that number is incredibly low, and thanks to the fact that its government has much less corruption. United States on the other hand, has about 14-17 thousand people being trafficked per year. Organizations like the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act influence the halting of trafficking human beings by supporting countries such as Canada,with the information. South America and its countries are the most influential in child human trafficking in the world. That being said, about 30% of human trafficking in the whole world belongs only to South America. It has a low conviction rate,so trafficking has become harder to diminish. Corruption plays a role in why its conviction rate is small.out of 31 countries checked by the UN, 26 made human trafficking laws,efforts have been done to reinforce those laws, we also need to convince more countries to have them in the first place. Around the world,laboral slaves cost about 90 dollars when sold.in comparison, in United States 80% of the trafficking is for sexual exploitation,while only 20% is to forced labor. 80% of all slaves trafficked are female and inside that percentage are under age.human trafficking is the world s third most used illegal commerce,behind weapons and drugs.32 billion dollars per year are dedicated to human trafficking. Human trafficking can cause both psychological and physical effects to the victims. They could suffer physically because of the hard work in bad conditions, which could lead to disease. Psychologically they could be affected and have things like post-traumatic disorder. IV. Study Cases Mexico Mexico is a country with a high popularity and danger of human trafficking with a rate of 15 traffickers per 100,000 people. Some of the victims affected are: women both under aged and over aged,indigenous people,children,and even undocumented immigrants.this country ties USA for the most human trafficking in all the continent.these people are forced to do domestic or sexual labor and even street begging. States like Tlaxcala,Chihuahua,Baja California and more in the north are the most vulnerable.mexican authorities exerted law enforcement along with the cooperation of the United States and continue to share information and investigations on human trafficking and its relation with migration. Colombia Armed violence in Colombia has made a lot of communities vulnerable to human trafficking.in Colombia 86% of the victims are women.which of them, some are close to costing of 25,000 Colombian pesos. An estimate of 70,000 people fall into the hands of
traffickers yearly.colombia is having trouble battling this problem but have exerted the 1069 anti-trafficking law. Costa Rica Costa Rica is a country known for being a destination that deals with trafficking women. Also, costarricense people living in central coast pacific areas are in more danger of being snatched or lured.costa Rica s government actually does give a lot of importance to human trafficking and along with some organizations it has been widely reduced thanks to the awareness.the country prohibited the entrance of 53 foreign registered sex offenders disguising themselves as tourists. United States of America United States strong economy,large cities and fame has made it one of the countries with biggest human trafficking problems in the world. A lot of migrant traffickers travel here for victims but as well, victims are brought into the country, with the most common trafficking states being Texas, California and Georgia. Additionally, about 14,500-17,500 citizens and immigrants get trafficked yearly. The government of the United States is fully aware of this issue and is in full effort to stop it, from civilians all the way to the president of the nation. Belize Belize has become a country endangered with trafficking problems. Specifically centered in minors and women. The belize government have taken action in stopping this problems. First of all, there is a 5 year sentence to traffickers and $5,000 fine. Its action plan has been holding on then and still is, two recent cases of chinese shops with about 70 indian laboral immigrant workers which were rescued. Belize is also working with foreign countries doing trafficking investigations. Belize is continuing to reinforce victim services, laws, and is looking to make the penalties for traffickers longer. Honduras Honduras is considered a popular destination country to countries like Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and the United States. The countries government is fully helping to prevent this problem. It provided the CICESCT or for its spanish initials, Comisión Interinstitucional contra la Explotación Sexual Comercial y Trata de Personas, about 97 thousand dollars. Honduras gets mostly affected by traffickers that emerge from foreign countries. Penalty sentence for traffickers can extend to 15 years. V. Actions Taken UNODC alongside with the United Nations has launched a global plan to tackle human trafficking. The United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons was adopted by the General Assembly on 30 July to urge Governments worldwide
to take coordinated and consistent measures to try to defeat the scourge. (UNODC, 2010) It has been very effective as a lot of countries have joined it like Kyrgyzstan and Mexico. VI. Key Questions 1.How has your country acted towards human trafficking? 2.What organizations have worked in your country towards trafficking? 3. What laws have been implemented to solve this issue in your country? 4.Is your country in favor or actively against human trafficking? 5. What is the crime rate in your country,is it safe there? 6. What solutions can your delegation offer to eradicate or reduce human trafficking? 7. How does your country aid the victims of human trafficking? 8. What race/social/gender group is most vulnerable towards this issue in your delegation? 9. Has your delegation provided or received help from other countries? 10. How does society in your country detect human trafficking? VII. Note from Chair The UNODC chairs welcome you to MUNAPS 2018! We will try to ensure that you will have an amazing time at MUNAPS and of course, gain more knowledge through this experience. We will be looking for the delegates that participate, come well prepared, know the the protocol, think creatively and last but not least, we will be looking for leadership. We will be rewarding the delegate that can negotiate with other delegates and reach to an agreement. The chair is excited to meet each and every single one of you. We wish you the best of luck delegates! VIII. Works Cited What is Human Trafficking?/ExodusCry-Privacy Group/2017/ExodusCry http://exoduscry.com/about/human-trafficking/ Human Sex Trafficking: Canada s Hidden Crime/E.Klein/2010/The Mantle http://www.mantlethought.org/international-affairs/human-sex-trafficking-canadas-hidden-cri me Latin America s Success (and struggles) in fighting human trafficking/d.gagne/2014/insight Crime http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/latin-america-success-unodc-human-trafficking A short history of trafficking in persons/k.kangaspunta/2017/freedom from Fear Magazine http://f3magazine.unicri.it/?p=281 11 facts about human trafficking/dosomething.org/2017/dosomething.org https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-human-trafficking