Translated material
Partnership against slavery
From the editorial office. The State Department of the United States published its annual report " Trafficking in Persons Report ", devoting it to the slave trade. Who, how not Hillary Clinton to react to the event is best?
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In 2001, twenty -year -old Oksana Rancheva left her house in Russia for the sake of, as she then believed, work as a translator in Cyprus. A few days later she found her dead after she tried to flee from the slave traders who tried to force her to engage in prostitution.
Oksana’s history is the history of modern slavery. Throughout the world, millions of people live in captivity. They work in the fields and factories, but if they try to run, they are facing reprisals. They work in the homes of families who actually keep them under the castle. They are forced to work as prostitutes and ask for alms. Women, men and children of all ages often find themselves far from home without money and connections, they are deprived of the opportunity to ask for help. They discover too late that they fell into a trap of forced labor, sexual exploitation and cruel violence. According to the UN estimates, at least 12 million people around the world are victims of slave traders. And since they often live and work in places covered from the relay of the law, this number is almost certainly underestimated. More than half of the victims of forced labor - women and girls who are forced to work in diagrams to clean houses or, like Oksana, are forced to engage in prostitution. They are faced not only with the fact that they have lost freedom, but also with sexual harassment and physical violence.
It may seem to some that slave traders are a problem that affects only a certain area of the world. But in fact, this problem is available in every country , including the United States, and we are as responsible for the fight against it as others. The destructive effect of the slave trade has on all of us. The slave trade weakens the legitimate economies, destroys families, gives impulse to violence, threatens public health and safety, tears social tissue to pieces, which is so necessary for progress. She undermines our long -term attempts to establish peace and prosperity. And it offends our values and our obligations to observe human rights.
The US presidential administration Barack Obama considers the struggle against the slave trade both within the country and abroad, as an important priority of his foreign policy program. The United States finances both 140 programs directed against the slave trade in almost 70 countries and about 42 working groups, within the framework of which representatives of non -governmental organizations, local and federal authorities fight against the slave trade. But there is still a lot to do.
Today, this problem is updated, since the regional economies around the world have suffered from the global financial crisis. Since people are more and more desperately grabbing the chance to help their families, they become more susceptible to the tricks of ruthless criminals. Economic pressure is an incentive for unprincipled entrepreneurs to squeeze everything that is possible from those who do not know their rights and try to bribe organizations and government trying to stop them with the help of all decreasing resources.
The annual report of the State Department " Trafficking in Persons Report ", published this week, provides an opportunity to see what challenge the problem of the slave trade gives each country. The report emphasizes the need to pay attention to the initial causes of the slave trade - including poverty, sluggish application of law and the operation of women - and their devastating effect on the victims and their family.
Since 2000, more than half of all countries have adopted laws prohibiting all forms of slavery. A new partnership between non -governmental organizations, including shelters for women and groups that protect the rights of immigrants, and state bodies led to the initiation of thousands of criminal cases, and many victims were provided with assistance.
The 2009 report emphasizes the progress of several countries in the intensification of the struggle against the slave trade. In Cyprus, where Oksana Ranchev was killed, the government took several steps to protect the victims of the slave trade. Another example is Rick Costa, for a long time, which was a nodal center for a sex worker. This year, laws against the slave trade were adopted there, the national campaign of increasing awareness of this problem was initiated and the programs to determine the victims of the slave trade were improved. Much of what has been achieved is the result of the long work of local activists, like Marillana Morales Berrios, who founded the Rakhab Foundation in 1997 and helped thousands of victims of slave traders to establish their lives. Lawyers, such as Marillana, increase the pace of changes from the bottom up, which inspires governments to carry out the necessary reforms from top to bottom.
We must be based on this work. When I started a campaign against the slave trade in the 1990s, I received information from first-hand about what was happening with the victims. In Thailand, I saw twelve -year -old children who were turned into slavery and died of AIDS. In Eastern Europe, I cried with women who did not know if they would see their relatives again. The call of the slave trade requires a comprehensive answer, which will simultaneously strike criminals and help victims . For our strategy for persecution, protection and warning, it's time to add another, fourth element: partnership.
Criminal networks that millions of people turn into slavery cross the boundaries and cover the continents. Our answer should be the same. The United States has undertaken to build partnerships with governments and non -governmental organizations around the world in order to discover new and more effective ways to combat the slave trade. We want to support our partners in their efforts and find ways to strengthen our own means of struggle.
The slave trade blooms, being in the shadows, and therefore requires attention, responsibility and passion from all of us. We need not to stop there, but to implement a program of struggle for weeks, months and years to come. Together we must shed light on every dark corner, still remaining on the planet, and help build a world in which there will no longer be a single slave.
Translation of Konstantin Arshin
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/16/ar2009061602628.html