Why you should care: the human trafficking footprint in the U.S. | Ryan L. Brooks | TEDxJerseyCity

what is the fastest-growing illegal business in the world put differently what is one of the most sought-after commodities on the black market human flesh specifically the flesh of women in children human trafficking has become the fastest growing illegal business on the planet and it's second only to the drug trade and US demand for cheap labor and cheap sex drastically exasperates any solutions to the problem now as a student I've been fortunate in both undergrad and in law school to be introduced to issues that I was otherwise unaware of more recently I worked for the Rutgers International Human Rights clinic and there were research the laws that protect and advocate for human trafficking victims here in the United States now much of this talk stems from that research as well as being introduced the experts in the field now there are three things I want you to take away from today's talk the first is to be able to answer the following question what is human trafficking and the second it's to understand that human trafficking happens everywhere even in Jersey City and the third most important is to understand that the issues that underlie the causes of human trafficking are uniquely tied to every single one of us now part of this talk does them from a conversation I had with a friend and in that conversation I was explaining to him what one does for a clinic and doing so I was rattling off a number of statistics like that there's 27 million trafficking victims in the world and that ninety-eight percent of those traffic for sexual exploitation are women and girls and on and on I went at some point he stops me and he says why should I care now needless to say I was irritated I was upset at a very simple truth that people tend not to care about things they can't see the effects of now I came to understand that my friend wasn't show so much expressing an inherent insensitivity to the plight of these individuals but was instead expressing in less words why should i concern my busy life with an issue that doesn't affect me so with that I came to understand that through sympathetic understanding and awareness of both the legal and social issues American can positively impact what has become the worst human rights violation slavery so what is human trafficking first let me highlight just how prevalent this issue has become in July of this year the International Labor Organization estimated that human trafficking is a hundred and fifty billion dollar a year industry now in 2005 that same report estimated it at thirty billion dollars a year that's a 500% increase in less than a decade now this highlights two issues among a number of others but two that we'll talk about today one that 10 years ago we lacked the statistical information in order to accurately determine how severe this problem is and to the war on drugs and other government initiatives has caused these perpetrators to seek an alternative means of income or an alternative product so what constitutes human trafficking one commits a crime of human trafficking when they recruit transport Harbor or obtain an individual by the threat or use of force fraud or coercion for the purposes of exploitation either sexual exploitation forced labor removal of organs things of this nature so the question becomes at this point why does it happen here in the US now the u.s. took that definition is the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime the u.s. took its own steps and they implemented the trafficking Victims Protection Act now the TVPA Divine's sex trafficking as commercial sex act induced by force fraud or coercion or in which the individual who is forced to commit such an act has not yet reached the age of 18 years now the sex industry utilizes a number of different venues in the United States namely aside from street prostitution namely residential brothels massage parlors strip clubs and online escort services TVPA also defines labor trafficking now labor trafficking is the recruitment transportation harboring a providing of an individual by force fraud or coercion for the purposes of labor exploitation you should start to see a trend here at some point and so in the u.s. there are a number of industries that are most susceptible to utilizing forced labor namely agriculture the restaurant and catering industry commercial as well as residential domestic work and then textile and garment industries specifically factories now the International Labour Organization recognizes that nearly 90% of all forced labor happens in the private economy many of these industries will actually utilize forced labor without realizing that they are doing so case in point in 2010 the Department of Justice issued an indictment alleging that global horizons a labor recruitment company have recruited 400 Thai workers and forced them to work in the agricultural field in 13 different states and they did so by forcing them by confiscating their passports and visas by having them accrue a substantial debt and by deporting those who didn't cooperate with the company's demands so why is this happen why is he with trafficking occur and it's honestly pretty simple like any commodity the purchase and sale of some item even human flesh is based off of supply and demand the bad guys of the world wouldn't be selling people if it wasn't lucrative to do so and it wouldn't be lucrative if there wasn't a demand and the fact is American industry is insatiable and that has its positives but it also has its negatives because at the end of the day American demand is what drives the supply of human trafficking an American demand is what causes human trafficking in the United States as well as in a number of other countries so this takes me to goal number two goal number two is to take the issue of human trafficking away from the international context and down to the national and even more specifically at the local level so in 2009 then director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Antonio Costa introduced a report by that organization with a letter called titled a knowledge crisis about a crime that shames us all now I'll quote him for a minute because then he states we lack a global understanding of the subject and how its components interact as a whole he then compares that to drug control policy stating that the drug control policies take into account data concerning the entire value-added chain of all drugs in all markets drug information is organized so that policies can target the whole and any of its parts he then highlights the informational lack of information that we currently have on human trafficking saying that we must but cannot catalog the different types of slavery exploitation through trial begging in Europe is different from what happens on a street corner or on a brothel in Australia preventive measures must be adopted taking into account that an asian father sells his underage daughter under circumstances different from what forces an African teenager into a ragtag army of killers or what pushes an illegal immigrant into a sweatshop in the Americas so there are a number of hurdles that effect each and every country and mr. Kostas comments are meant to point out that we have to take human trafficking within each country's more specifically each municipalities unique set of circumstances the hurdles that affect every single country and city or lack of statistical information and a lack of legal and law enforcement understanding now in 2013 in the summer of 2013 New Jersey decided updated human trafficking laws however in doing so they left out certain provisions that would have otherwise made New Jersey safer namely in the area of business entity liability now as is evident by the global horizons case businesses can utilize forced labor without realizing that they are doing so and without the proper liability being placed on businesses to be aware of their complex supply chains we will continue to have an issue with affecting the demand side of human trafficking here in the US now one of the major issues here is that we cannot currently identify with the current law whether a business will be held liable for human trafficking because as it currently stands businesses have not been held liable when they engage in authorized or willfully ignore issues of human trafficking now that doesn't mean that not there and a lawyer couldn't argue it however there is a question and for any of you that our lawyers are no lawyers you know that a question is all you need to win a case and that has to be fixed now aside from the legislative inadequacies the question comes what can you do about this we can do two things the first to be aware and ask yourself the following question as often as possible under what conditions is this person or group of people been employed and in this way I ask for five seconds of your consciousness when you're acting and your capacity as a consumer the second thing you can do is call text email post tweet whatever method you want your local and state legislators and ask them the following 10 word sentence what are you doing to combat human trafficking in Jersey City what are you doing to combat human trafficking in your local state your local County city whatever it is what are you doing to combat human trafficking now with that our court systems our court systems are currently inadequately equipped to deal with complex issues of human trafficking to combat that New York City implementing criminal intervention courts for prostitutes in a way that these works that when a prostitute is brought in being arrested instead of seeing a typical criminal court judge they're brought before a specialized court designed to deal with possible human trafficking violations and possible human trafficking victims now the point here is that and as of most of you know prostitution is illegal in the majority of the United States however this is not a viewpoint shared by most of the world the International Labor Organization for instance recognize this prostitution is a legitimate form of labor with that as do a number of other countries including Japan and Germany now my goal here is not to actually discuss the efficacy of the u.s. policy but instead to point to those individuals who have been forced defrauded or coerced into taking part in this type of work now this does bring up a moral question and that moral question is this the general prohibition on prostitution now like any layer like any service industry prostitution requires that person a the buyer receive some services in person be the seller in exchange for some thing of economic value this particular exchange is illegal in the United States and we do that because we find that this particular gaining money for this particular service and somehow against our moral integrity but the question becomes what about the penalties affected to both parties in New Jersey the penalty for person a the buyer is a disorderly persons offense which carries with it a maximum prison sentence of up to six months for the seller the prostitute person be the maximum penalty is up to 18 months and it's a crime of the fourth degree my question to you is why the disparity certainly the only actual difference in these two individuals actions is that one person gave money and the other person received it is they're receiving as such greater moral significance that we punish person B three times more harshly now in fairness to the law the law is written in the following way person B solicits or requests money from person a and in that way as instigator it's somehow morally more culpable or blameworthy however is that actually what goes on in the ground in order for person B to fulfill person a's demand person a has two simultaneously supply this exchange cannot actually happen without both people participating or supply so my question becomes to you under what conditions do you think person B was employed I'm put it differently how likely do you think person a the buyer was forced to fraud it or coerced into buying conversely how likely do you think person B the seller the prostitute was forced to fraud it a coerced into buying I don't think the most cynical person in this room would argue that person a is more likely the victim anyone here ever heard of a buyers pimp the guy out there on the street making sure that you're buying as much sex as you can take and then some the fact is is that the current policy requires that we have a better method of identifying victims and as it stands we do not have that method but the criminal intervention courts that have been used New York City as well as a number of other cities are one possible method of identifying victims so the question becomes why should you care this goal is simple as humans we have a duty to be informed enough that we can demand action from those who run a place to take it mr. Costa finishes his letter with an appeal to the experts in which he says I plead with social scientists in academia and especially in government to work with the UNODC to generate the logical and statistical categories and information needed for anti-slavery policy I'm gonna finish with a similar appeal to you be an informed consumer be an activist consumer do not let our sons and daughters become victims of this terrible crime do not let those individuals have continued to be oppressed stay that way when you have the power to affect change companies work on an easy system supply and demand if you demand social responsibility from these individuals from these companies they will be forced to supply it it is not their job to make change it is your job the average age at which a girl becomes a prostitute in the United States is between 12 and 14 years old it's also happens to be the average age of wish to become a victim of human trafficking now while this may not have been your daughter she was a daughter of Jersey City she was a daughter of New Jersey she was a daughter of the United States she was a daughter a son a brother a sister a father a mother she was the slave slavery of one individual is equal to slavery of all but one individual the quality of slavery is not determined by the number of people enslaved but by the mere fact that we as a people have allowed its existence thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 39,833

Keywords: Slavery, ted, tedx, TEDxTalks, ted talk, English, Global Issues, United States, tedx talks, Social Justice, Sexual Assault, Human Rights, tedx talk, Women's Rights, ted talks, ted x

Id: G7YCncaE1Ho

Length: 16min 6sec (966 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 30 2015