E Pahad: Global Initiative to Counter Human Trafficking - International
Forum

3 October 2007.

"Interfaith Dialogue: What the Religious Community can do to Combat
Trafficking"

Archbishop Njongonkulu W. Ndungane (Archbishop of Cape Town)
Antonia Maria Costa, Executive Director, United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime
Religious leaders,
Ladies and gentlemen.

On behalf of President Thabo Mbeki, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka,
and the Government of South Africa I would like to thank the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime for organising this vitally important Forum here in
South Africa. This UN sponsored Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking is
most timely in this year which marks the 200th Anniversary of the abolition of
slavery. And the Atlantic slave trade was certainly the most abhorrent example
of the forcible trafficking in human beings.

In 1810, Saartjie Baartman a twenty-one year old South African Griqua woman
employed as a servant on a farm near Cape Town was lured by Dr. William Dunlop,
who promised her fame and fortune, in England. Baartman readily accepted his
offer, and travelled with him to London by ship. Shortly after arriving in
London Dunlop chose to exhibit her in the nude in front of large crowds of
Londoners, who paid one shilling each to view the "Hottentot Venus" from
Africa. Baartman was made to parade naked along a 'stage two feet high, along
which she was led by her keeper and exhibited like a wild beast, being obliged
to walk, stand or sit as he ordered'. She was depicted as a wild animal in a
cage, dancing for her keeper (Insane Tree Promotions).

Eventually in order to feed herself and survive Baartman turned to
prostitution. When she died, abandoned and alone in France, only six years
after leaving Cape Town, her body was dissected, her skeleton was removed, and
her brain and genitals were pickled and displayed as curiosities in the Musee
de l'Homme in Paris for the next 160 years (Davie, 2002).

In 1994 then-President Nelson Mandela made an official request to have her
remains returned to South Africa. Her story is, as a commentator notes is "the
most notorious case of African trafficking never to have been named as such".
But her experience of recruitment by deception and cross-border transportation
for sexual exploitation is one common to millions of women, children and men
worldwide (Marquis, 2003: A3). Like Baartman they too seek to escape poverty
and are lured by promises of well-paying jobs abroad. They willingly accept
enticing offers made by human traffickers without realising the full nature of
their future employment, or the conditions of labour and are then caught in an
intricate web of immense disadvantage and deceit from which they are incapable
of extricating themselves.

I am proud to say that on 14 December 2000 South Africa signed, and on 20
February 2004 ratified the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (hereafter referred to as
the Palermo Protocol). We are one of at least 117 countries to have ratified
the Protocol. In so doing, we as a country committed ourselves to criminalising
trafficking and developing legislation to combat it. The National Prosecuting
Authority has been tasked with coordinating this process and has formed an
inter-sectoral task team to oversee the development of legislation. Provisions
on trafficking have already been included in the Children's Bill, and the
revised Sexual Offences Act has a dedicated chapter to criminalising
trafficking for sexual purposes.

Trafficking in human beings is morally reprehensible, it is illegal; it robs
people of their dignity and violates their fundamental human rights. It
objectifies and commodifies individuals, preys on the vulnerable and the
marginalised, it perpetuates their vulnerabilities and it repeatedly victimises
and re-victimises those who are the objects of the trafficking. Trafficking in
human beings is a transnational crime that takes advantage of trade
liberalisation and regional trading blocks that have eased restrictions on the
migration of labour across borders.

The Palermo Protocol is one of three supplementing the UN Convention against
Transnational Organised Crime. It provides an inclusive definition of
trafficking and identifies some basic principles for combating it. It
represents the first international agreement on a broad-based response to an
issue that has occupied policy makers for at least a century or more. Article 3
of the Palermo Protocol defines trafficking 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."

Trafficking as we are all aware is not the same as the smuggling of human
cargo, which is defined in the Smuggling Protocol as "the procurement, or order
to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, from
the illegal entry of a person" into a country of which they are not a national
or a permanent resident.

Trafficking and smuggling clearly share some characteristics in common –
irregular migration, recruitment and transportation by criminal networks, the
use of weak border controls and corruption. Trafficking is very much a power
relationship which is coercive and often involves deception. Individuals are
recruited for the purpose of exploiting their body and or their labour. The
primary purpose of trafficking is exploitation (including the prostitution of
others, forced labour and the removal of organs) and this is what distinguishes
it from smuggling and migration more broadly.

For us in South Africa, signing and ratifying the Protocol was a natural
extension of our commitment to human rights as enshrined in our Constitution.
Section 13 of our constitution unequivocally states that no one shall be
subject to any form of slavery, servitude, or forced labour in South Africa.
The state has a Constitutional duty to protect the rights of all our citizens.
Section 1 of the Constitution also informs us that "the Republic of South
Africa is one, sovereign, democratic state founded on the following values: (a)
human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights
and freedoms". One of the ways in which these rights, such as human dignity and
freedom, can be protected is through the implementation of legislation designed
to deal effectively with human trafficking.

In this endeavour we must first, make trafficking a crime; second, provide
protection for the victims of trafficking; and, third, ensure greater
solidarity amongst nations in the battle against all forms of human
trafficking. And in this regard, the Palermo Protocol is explicit "Each state
shall adopt such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to
establish as criminal offences the conduct set forth in article 3 of this
Protocol, when committed intentionally."

Collectively we need to get accurate data on trafficking globally,
nationally and regionally. Global statistics on trafficking vary widely. A
comparison of global statistics on human trafficking by the UN Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 2003 show huge discrepancies
in the figures. The highest, used by the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) and the UN, put the number of people trafficked
internationally at four million a year. The lowest, sourced from the US
Department of State, puts the figure at under one million people a year. These
figures are likely drawn from the Department of State's annual Trafficking in
Persons report, which in 2005 estimated that between 600 000 and 800 000 people
are trafficked across international borders each year – 80% of whom are women
and girls, and 50% of whom are minors.

This estimate is down from the 700 000 to four million quoted in the
Department's 2002 report. And the current concept paper for this Forum puts the
figure at 800,000 persons trafficked across global borders annually. The paper
also points to the role of organised crime and the reality that trafficking in
persons is a highly profitable and lucrative business – a total market value of
$32 billion ($10 billion realised at point of sale of persons and $22 billion
risk free profit from related criminal activity.

While we can all agree that even if one person is trafficked that is one too
many, there are still challenges with respect to the accuracy and reliability
of both global and national data and with respect to how the numbers are
arrived at. So, funding research that allows us to more accurately gauge the
extent, the nature and the form of the problem is invaluable to good, sound
policy. We know that trafficking is an under-reported crime, that even law
enforcement officials do not record trafficking cases accurately, and that the
lack of awareness of what trafficking is about, all impact on the accuracy of
the data. But this is precisely where your assistance with awareness raising is
so very important to the efforts of government.

Studies on trafficking in South Africa point to our country being a key
destination as well as a country of origin and transit point for individuals
trafficked to and from Africa and Europe as well as globally. Certainly given a
few high profile cases of trafficking there is increased awareness of
trafficking within South Africa. What we do not have, with any measure of
accuracy is the full extent of the problem.

A 2003 report by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on the
trafficking of women and children for purposes of sexual exploitation in South
and Southern Africa estimated that at least 1000 women are trafficked into
South Africa from Mozambique (IOM Paper, 'Seduction, Sale and Slavery:
Trafficking of Women and Children for Sexual Exploitation in Southern Africa.'
3rd Edition, 2003). The Report also found that South Africa was a transit point
for women and children trafficked from the SADC region. However the Report was
unable to provide reliable estimates on the numbers of women, men and children
trafficked into and out of South Africa and the surrounding countries. The
report noted that the working conditions of women trafficked into the industry
are extremely exploitative and include debt-bondage, long working hours, a
limited right to refuse clients, and removal of their freedom of movement these
are violations of fundamental human rights.

The Report also identified nine distinct patterns of trafficking activity
have that have emerged in southern Africa:

1. trafficking of women from refugee-producing countries to South
Africa;
2. trafficking of children from Lesotho to towns in the Eastern Free State of
South Africa;
3. trafficking of women and girls from Mozambique to Gauteng and
KwaZulu-Natal;
4. trafficking of women from Malawi to Northern Europe;
5. trafficking of girl and boy children from Malawi to Northern Europe;
6. trafficking of women and girls from Malawi to South Africa overland;
7. trafficking of women from Thailand to South Africa;
8. trafficking of women from China to South Africa;
9. trafficking of Eastern European women to South Africa.

In truth, we know very little about the scope and characteristics and
patterns of human trafficking in South Africa.

Most of the literature has focused on the trafficking of women and children
into the commercial sex industry. Interestingly recent studies including one
from the ILO study reveal large numbers of men, women and children who are
trafficked into a range of work outside of the sex industry. The ILO study in
particular shows that although sexual exploitation accounts for the single
largest category of exploitation, a little over half of all those trafficked
were involved either in some kind of economic exploitation or in mixed or
undisclosed activities. So conflating trafficking with sex exploitation is
problematic. And equally problematic is the underestimation of the numbers of
men and boys who are trafficked. With respect to the forced economic
exploitation by gender for example the ILO found that men and boys accounted
for 44% and women and girls for 56% of those exploited, while for forced sexual
exploitation by gender and women and girls accounted for 98% and men and boys
for only 2% of those forcibly exploited. So we need more research and more
nuanced research.

Trafficking is a result of a complex set of interrelated push and pull
factors. On the 'push' side most studies focus on such factors as poverty, a
lack of opportunities, dislocation, gender, racial and ethnic inequalities, and
the break-up of families. 'Pull' factors include the promise of a better life,
consumer aspirations, and lack of information on the risks involved,
established patterns of migration, porous borders and fewer constraints on
travel.

Recent research points to the importance of understanding the structural
roots of trafficking – noting that the factors underlying trafficking are
complex and go well beyond individual needs to include uneven patterns of
development, the demand for cheap labour, criminality, the global and national
policy environment, and societal attitudes that are permissive towards using
potentially trafficked labour.

One interesting study linked trafficking to the changed global division of
labour. As more women in the North entered the labour market, the demand for un
and semi-skilled domestic labour increased. And this combined with higher costs
of living, rising levels of poverty and unemployment in many poorer countries,
creates a very fertile ground for trafficking in women as even working women
from the middle strata in the North increasingly hiring others to cook, clean
and provide child and elder care.

The ILO Report notes that "A major incentive for trafficking in labour is
the lack of application and enforcement of labour standards ... tolerance of
restrictions on freedom of movement, long working hours, poor or non-existent
health and safety protections, non-payment of wages, substandard housing, etc.
all contribute to expanding a market for trafficked migrants who have no choice
but to labour in conditions simply intolerable and unacceptable for legal
employment" (ILO, cited in Anderson & O'Connell Davidson, 2004, op cit, p
32.).

Here is an important role for the religious community to play. You need to
mobilise your supra-national organisations into a force that can mitigate the
push factors like poverty and lack of economic opportunity in the source
countries. If the push factors can be mitigated in the so called originating
countries, and if the allure of the receiving countries can be de-mythologised
then much can be accomplished to combat trafficking. Religious organisations
have an expansive network that has a global reach and that network needs to be
activated and mobilised in a common cause.

In addition to mobilising our supra-national networks in the fight against
trafficking, I believe the religious community has a very important role to
play in combating trafficking – specifically this can be accomplished
through:

1) Advocacy – looking closely at the anti-trafficking legislation and making
concrete proposals to strengthen it – in South Africa and in the region;
2) Providing support to the victims of trafficking. The language used by the
Protocol, regarding protection of victim's rights, is less stringent than the
language used concerning the criminalisation of trafficking. The Palermo
Protocol says that states must consider implementing measures to support
victims. In this sense the Protocol recognises the limits on state resources
and advances the notion that states in cooperation with non-governmental
organisations (NGOs), states should make provision for housing, counselling and
information, medical assistance, and job provision for victims of
trafficking.
3) Assisting with the repatriation of victims as envisaged by the
Protocol.
4) Popularising the language, the spirit and the intention of the Palermo
Protocol by undertaking an educational and consciousness-raising campaign
regarding trafficking in persons.
5) Using the temples, synagogues and mosques to spread the anti-trafficking
message.
6) Ensuring that trafficking is not conflated with prostitution and the sex
trade, for there are many other reasons for trafficking in people including
forced labour.
7) Distinguishing trafficking from related issues such as forced labour, people
smuggling or migration. But a note of caution, if the overall objective is to
combat human rights abuses is this even a useful debate to entertain?
8) Working in partnership with other non-state actors within a nation state and
across states in a concerted drive to abolish human trafficking.
9) Recognising that trafficking in human beings is global and therefore
advocating for inter-state cooperation including harmonisation of legislation,
enforcement, sharing of information, reciprocal training of immigration and
border officials and law enforcement officials is critical.
10) Being careful with the collection and use of data on trafficking –
incomplete, inaccurate, inflated or underestimated data on the numbers of
people being trafficked nationally, regionally and globally can have a
detrimental impact on the formulation of effective policies to combat
trafficking.

Trafficking in persons is antithetical to all that defines us as human, it
commodifies the person. And the trafficker, the trafficked person and the
beneficiary of the labour of the trafficked person are all stripped of their
humanity and their dignity. Trafficking cannot be justified and all of us have
a moral, ethical and legal responsibility to eradicate every last vestige of
what can only be regarded as one of the most flagrant violations of the rights
of human beings. And I hope the few suggestions I have made about what the
religious communities in our country and globally can do to combat trafficking,
resonate with all of you.

Thank you.

Issued by: The Presidency
3 October 2007