Over the past few months, the Human Trafficking Project has reported on the impact of the global economic crisis on human trafficking. Increased poverty, gender inequality, desperation, and demand for cheap labor and goods has created a deadly combination. At a recent talk on human trafficking sponsored by LexisNexis, Martina Vandenberg stated that on the balance, she believes we are currently losing the fight against human trafficking.Despite these bleak trends, many anti-trafficking organizations state that their mission is to create a world free of slavery. Free the Slaves suggests that slavery can be ended within 25 years; Polaris Project's "vision is for a world without slavery;" the Not For Sale Campaign states that "together we can end slavery in our lifetime."
On the other hand, when I think about what must happen to completely eradicate slavery, I can't help but recall a conversation I had back when I first became involved in the anti-trafficking movement. At the height of my naivete, when asked about ending slavery I talked about ending poverty, racism, gender-based violence, and other forms of inequalities. The person who asked me the question countered that my vision was utopian, and that if ending human trafficking means ending all these other global problems, a world without slavery is impossible.
Given these apparent contradictions, I would like to open a dialog about what it really will take to end human trafficking. Over the next few weeks (and possibly longer), I hope that many of the writers for the Human Trafficking Project can weigh in with their perspectives. I also want to invite readers to be a part of the conversation through the comments section.
Some questions to help spark thoughts: what concrete steps, short-term and long-term, would you advocate for/implement if you could? What do you think is working in the anti-trafficking movement? What isn't? What are the most pressing needs (prevention, victim/survivor services, prosecution, education, etc.)? How do we allocate scarce resource among these needs effectively?
On a more abstract level, what would a world without slavery look like? What other issues are interrelated with human trafficking - ie, is global climate change an anti-trafficking issue? - and what does that mean for the anti-trafficking movement? What roles/responsibilities do we have as people with awareness of this issue?
