Mini-series Explores the Inhumanity of Human Trafficking
By Sally Bolton, for the Chronicle
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| A scene from the mini-series "Human Trafficking". Photo/Lifetime Channel |
A teenage girl screams in terror as she is beaten by a man twice her size. Trapped in a squalid basement in a foreign country, bruised and bleeding, she is at the complete mercy of her captors. Having been repeatedly raped and forced into prostitution, the continued psychological torture has pushed her to the depths of despair.
A victim of human trafficking—the forced movement of people across international borders—her story of sex slavery for many would ordinarily be considered too shocking to bear contemplation. However, Human Trafficking, a Lifetime Channel television mini-series that aired in the United States in October 2005, has put a human face to the countless women and children who are victims of the cruelest and most degrading treatment imaginable.
The mini-series, with its theme, matter is not easy to watch. The brutal and dehumanizing treatment that the victims of sex slavery are forced to endure is challenging to viewers, largely because it usually remains invisible and ignored. The purpose of producing such a television drama is to give the issue the visibility needed to bring about change. Lifetime Channel also launched a comprehensive advocacy campaign in conjunction with the mini-series to draw attention to the problem and encourage people to do what they can to stop it.
Mira Sorvino, one of the actors in Human Trafficking, has been an Ambassador for Amnesty International’s Stop Violence against Women campaign for over a year. She was compelled to take part in the mini-series after learning through her work for Amnesty of the horrors of the trade for sex slavery in women. “They are ordinary girls, who’ve been stolen from their lives. Their lives are a living hell.” Imploring viewers to take action, she declared: “we cannot stand by and watch this sickening practice continue”.
The International Labour Office (ILO) estimates that there are over 12 million people trapped in forced labour around the world, one fifth of them are victims of human trafficking. This illicit industry generates as much as $32 billion in revenue each year.
Actor Donald Sutherland, who plays a senior United States Immigration and Customs enforcement agent in the mini-series, bluntly spelled out the economic implications of sex slavery: “An ounce of cocaine, wholesale, [costs] $1,200, but you can only sell it once. A woman or a child, [costs] $50 to $1,000, but you can sell them each day, every day, over and over and over again. The markup is immeasurable.”
At a special screening at UN Headquarters in New York, Zohreh Tabatabai, Director of the ILO Department of Communication and Public Information, urged people not to focus purely on the figures and statistics, as shocking as they are. “It is actually what those numbers mean,” she said. “Each of those numbers is the life of one human being.”
Human trafficking is an international problem that demands a multilateral response, according to Roger Plant, head of the ILO Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour. “It’s horrible, it’s alarming, but it’s not impossible to stop”, he said. “A lot of this horrendous problem is linked to poverty.”
The United Nations Global Programme Against Trafficking in Human Beings, of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in collaboration with the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute aims to assist Member States in their efforts to combat trafficking in human beings. Strategies tailored to the conditions in developing countries, where the victims primarily come from, as well as in wealthier countries, where they often end up, are designed to target the organized criminal networks that control the trade.
Aside from the commitment of national governments in addressing the problem and the involvement of intergovernmental organizations in coordinating efforts, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also provide a crucial role, particularly in helping the victims of sex slavery to rebuild their lives. Organizations such as Vital Voices, Geneva Global and Women’s Justice Centre are closely involved in efforts to combat human trafficking and worked with Lifetime Channel in preparing the advocacy campaign that accompanies the mini-series.
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More information about United Nations efforts to combat human trafficking is available at www.unodc.org.
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