Thank you to everyone who has helped us reach over $11,000 in donations for our end of year appeal! We still have work to do and a $20,000 goal to reach.
In our world today, young people face a multitude of risks, known and unknown. Keeping children and youth safe from violence and exploitation is critical to the health of our communities and our world.
In partnership with IOFA, you can:
We invite you to help build a safer world for all of us.
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Youth. Their Rights. Our Responsibility.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Urgent End of Year Appeal - We're More Than Half Way There!
Monday, December 10, 2012
Global Human Trafficking: How Migrants Are Impacted
Migrant
women are at an increased risk for becoming targets of human trafficking
perpetrators. It is estimated that 27 million people are trafficked for labor
and sex trafficking globally. Women
comprise 80-98% of those who are sexually exploited across the world. United
Nations reports that of those who are trafficked, 95% experienced physical and/or sexual abuse
while being trafficked. Migrant women who lack support structures in their destination country and come with low
funds, can find themselves coerced into being trafficked. Whether they came
under the guise of a job or continued education, or met a trafficker who
befriended them with one goal in mind, migrant women can find themselves in a
triple bind. They are poor, female, and undocumented while being trafficked in
a foreign country. The Inter Press Agency (IPS)states that “migrant women who get involved in the commercial sex
trade face multiple challenges. These include “insecurity in relation to the
immigration status (such as) the potential breach of immigration law on top of
prostitution-related law; criminalisation by the state; isolation and lack of
friends; disorientation from the constant movements around brothels in
different towns; vulnerability to extortion and blackmail; control by pimps and
advertisers and lack of medical care (apart from certain clinics for sexually
transmitted diseases).”
Not only do these women suffer
the dehumanizing treatment of being victims of trafficking, they also
lack access to health and medical care. As a result, many women attain a
variety of illnesses that go untreated and further erode trafficking victims
lives. Migrant families also face job discrimination whether they enter a new
country through legalized routes, as asylum seekers, or as undocumented
families. Women, who are still globally denied basic human rights, face extreme
barriers to finding work in a new country and can fall into stereotypical
gender roles which pay low and demand long hours (IPS). Thirty-two percent of
trafficking victims are forced into
economic exploitation, over half of this population is female. Global profits
for human trafficking is around 32 billion dollars and climbing. Worldwide,
prostitution is an act which women and girls, due to severely oppressive
factors, can become imprisoned.
Migrant men also face
great circumstances and make up a large number of those found in the forced
labor market. The Solidarity Network writes that migrant is a person who leaves
a country in pursuit of work. In North America, there are 18 million migrant
workers. The migrant worker population, which usually consists of domestic workers, construction
workers, contract laborers, low-skilled service sector workers, agricultural
workers, and export production factory workers. Often, those who possess these
jobs have left countries to find the work in which they are engaging. The need
for work, puts this group in a precarious position and makes them vulnerable to
being exploited through lowered wages, unlawful working hours, and other forms
of abuse. Here too, a lack of proper documentation gives traffickers further
power over the lives of migrant families. To be a migrant family, asylum
seeker, or refugee in a new country is to be presented with unique problems.
Those seeking the ability to provide for family members, those needing an
economic boost, or those fleeing prosecution should not be subjected to further
disempowerment, discrimination, or undue hardship. What can be done to aid
migrant families and keep them from getting lost in human trafficking circles?
Give us your ideas and feedback.
Sherie Shields
Task Force Intern IOFA
The U.S. Lags Behind in Ratification of Human Rights Convention
Happy International Human Rights Day! December 10 was chosen
to honor the day when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948. According to the UDHR, human rights
are indivisible and inalienable, and encompass three categories: 1) civil and
political rights, 2) economic, social, and cultural rights, and 3) rights that
extend beyond the confines of a country and an urge for all countries who have
signed the UDHR to mutually safeguard these rights for each other.
Eleanor Roosevelt and the UDHR
This morning, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, released
a press
statement celebrating the important of human rights and also reiterating
the United States’ priority commitment to protect human rights for both its
citizens and those abroad. “Human rights
cannot be disconnected from other priorities,” she wrote. The U.S. is no
doubt in a privileged position, with both political power and technical
knowledge that allows it to contribute to far-reaching human rights work. Our
nation seems to excel in the open discussions of many human rights issues and
does not have as serious of human rights violations as some other countries.
Isn’t it uncanny then, that the U.S. has not ratified the Convention on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CRC)?
The U.S. is among one of seven countries who have yet to
ratify the CEDAW, placing it alongside Iran, Nauru, Palau, Somalia, Sudan, and
Tonga. It is also the other country besides Somalia who has not ratified the CRC
to this day, although it has ratified two provisions: 1) prohibiting the
involvement of children in armed conflicts, and 2) prohibiting the sale,
prostitution, and pornography of children.
Both the CEDAW and CRC are crucial in protecting the
freedoms of children. The CEDAW promotes equality for women in the legal system,
in political and public life, in access to education, in the right to equal
pay, in the right to enter marriage, in the right to maternity leave. It
protects women from discrimination linked to parental responsibilities and
places women on the equal footing as men to enjoy human rights. The CRC
protects children from neglect, abuse, exploitation, sexual abuse, underage
labor, and deprivation of a national identity, healthcare, and education. It
even calls for pre-and post-natal care for mothers, and seeks to ensure that
children have adequate living standards that are conducive to their physical,
mental, spiritual, moral, and social development.
There are several
reasons for why the U.S. has not reached ratification of both of these
long-overdue treaties. Opposition to the CEDAW comes from the contentious
debate on women’s rights in the U.S. with regards to family planning,
reproductive rights, and gender equality. Some of the same individuals and
organizations that protest adoption of the CRC fear that parental rights to
raise children at each parent’s discretion and traditional family structures
will be undermined. However, the CRC does emphasize the importance of family
involvement and guidance in nurturing the child.
It has been 31 years since the CEDAW and 12 years since the
CRC went into force. The women and children of the U.S. have been waiting to
have their rights. The people of the U.S. have a responsibility to recognize
them and do them justice by serving them as equal human beings.
Esther Liew
AATOP program development intern
Thursday, November 22, 2012
A Thank You From IOFA
Happy Thanksgiving!
IOFA is thrilled to finish up our 14th year of working
to uphold the rights of young people around the world. With your ongoing support, we have so much to
be thankful for this year:
From our new and emerging programs:
- 50 plus orphaned youth graduated from the IOFA Project Prepare Ethiopia pilot program
- Over 500 first responders including law enforcement, legal professionals, and social service providers were trained on human trafficking in the United States
- In partnership with UNICEF, Susan Rosas, IOFA rep in Cambodia developed a safe process for orphaned youth to transition out of abusive orphanages into permanent loving homes with families
- The Asian American Trafficking Outreach Project, targeting labor and sex trafficking victims in Chicago’s isolated ethnic communities was launched in partnership with the University of Illinois, Chicago, and the Chicago Bar Association
In addition to new and continuing grants, we raised an
unprecedented amount of private funds:
- We doubled the IOFA 2011 End of Year Annual Appeal donations from 2010, raising over $18,000 and an additional $5,000 in our Spring Appeal
- IOFA Champion, Tracy O’Dowd raised over $2,000 for IOFA by competing in the exhausting Chicago Triathlon
- IOFA IVY Giving Member, Nabeela Rasheed and the South Asian Community helped raise $5,000 for IOFA at our summer Bollywood Nights Event attended by over 100 supporters
- IOFA Board Members, Meghan McGrath and IOFA Co-Founder and Board President raised over $6,000 for our local and Ethiopia work in Pound Ridge, New York
- $4,000 in seed money was awarded by the Asian Giving Circle for the launch of AATOP
Nikel Bailey, University of
Chicago, SSA, IOFA Ethiopia
Charlotte Cahill, PhD., Northwestern
University
Marianna Ernst, Hillsdale College
Mikiyas Feyissa, Program
Coordinator, IOFA Ethiopia.
Summar Ghias, University of
Chicago, SSA
Amy Gilbert, Loyola School of Law,
Child Rights Fellow, IOFA Ethiopia
Laura Horner, DePaul Law School
Esther Liew, University of Chicago,
SSA
Carly Loehrke, University of
Chicago, SSA, IOFA Ethiopia
Nikitha Murali, University of
Chicago, Summer Links Fellow
Kelleen O’Leary, Loyola School of
Law
Camil Palumbo-Sanchez, Washington
St. Louis University
Chanthy aji Renaldo, IOFA Cambodia
Susan Rosas, University of Chicago,
SSA, IOFA Cambodia
Aatifa
Sadiq, University of Chicago, SSA, Human Rights Fellow, IOFA Ethiopia
And we are incredibly thankful for Sehla’s new arrivals - Nuriya and Amaan Mufti – new IOFA team members who will be starting their internships
once they can keep their heads up!
More than ever, IOFA graciously gives thanks to the hundreds
of donors that have allowed IOFA to grow and expand it’s work to support the
most vulnerable adolescents in Illinois, New York, and around the world.
IOFA will see unprecedented growth in the US and abroad in
2013 and we will be sharing these new updates in December.
We look forward to
hearing from all of you.
Blessings to you and
your families!
Shelby French, Sehla
Ashai, the IOFA Board, and the IOFA Team
Monday, November 19, 2012
More Than Exchanging Drugs and Weapons as Gang Activity
Gangs in the U.S. have generally been known for drug
trafficking, the exchange of weapons, and violent crimes that result in
shootings and deaths. However, according to the FBI’s 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment, they have shifted from
activities which are more dangerous and risky to less visible ones such as
human trafficking, alien smuggling, and prostitution. At the time of the
report, 35 states and U.S. territories have reported gangs in their jurisdictions
who are complicit in these activities. These crimes involve a lower risk of
detection and are also more profitable because humans are considered a more
expensive commodity. After all, the criminal exchange of humans has become the
second most profitable industry globally after the drug trade. If the
traffickers are out of sight, the trafficked are the ones who will get into
trouble with the police because they are positioned vulnerably on the front
lines.
Some gangs have combined the trafficking of drugs and
humans, where girls and women will transport drugs and at the same time, engage
in commercial sex. Gangs in the U.S. are both locally based but also have
transnational ties, enabling the movement of trafficked victims across state
and international lines. Gang members act as pimps who first lure young girls
into their care, then will control them through physical and psychological
abuse. Gang-related human trafficking, many cases of which are sex trafficking,
is evidence of the escalating prevalence of the domestic sex trade in both U.S.
cities and suburbs.
Gang members have used social networking websites to recruit
girls. They prey on girls by complimenting them on their looks, asking to get
to know them better, and extending offers for opportunities to make monetary
profit with their good looks. If these girls, who are mostly young teenagers,
agree to meet their solicitors, they will be asked to provide a cell phone
number where they can be contacted for an in-person meeting. The girls are quickly
taught the ropes of commercial sex, sometimes by older girls who have had more
experience in this work.
Sometimes, girls are recruited through “skip parties”, where
young girls succumb to the enticing option of going to a party instead of
sitting in a classroom during school hours. The masterminds behind these
parties, knowing that girls like to travel in groups, conveniently encourage
them to invite friends to the skip parties. Girls are then passed on from
member to member, until she is “seasoned” for the streets and deemed ready to
work.
The FBI has identified Asian gangs, Somali gangs, Bloods,
Crips, Gangster Disciples, MS-13, Sureños, Vice Lords, and Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs
to have engaged in human trafficking. 27-year old Justin Strom, leader of the
Underground Gangster Crips in Fairfax, Virginia was convicted in September of
this year for recruiting high school girls online, then trafficking them for
commercial sex. MS-13, the first gang that the U.S. has named as a
transnational criminal organization in October, has been notoriously known for
its violent crimes, numerous murders, beatings, and infamous attacks with
machetes. The presence of MS-13 is most heavily felt in LA County and the
Washington, DC area. One of its mottos is “Mata, roba, viola, controla”, which
translates to “Kill, steal, rape, control”. To ensure payment from the girls’
customers and that the girls were not hurt, MS-13 members would carry weapons
while accompanying the girls to work.
Young boys are no exception to being victims of trafficking. They
are considered low cost, low risk, and expendable to gang members who traffic
them for labor purposes. While girls are more likely to be subject to sex
trafficking, boys at age 7 are recruited to transport drugs, steer customers
toward designated drug exchange locations, and as lookouts when law enforcement
investigates suspicious drug-related activities. These boys are offered
protection, food, and shelter when they cooperate, but are deprived of them
when they do not. They will be socialized to gang norms, desensitized to
violence, may grow up to belong to the gangs themselves, and will likely be incarcerated.
The nation’s first ever state-based wiretap investigation
targeting human trafficking involved a case in Chicago that lasted one and a
half years in 2011. Operation “Little Girl Lost” resulted in charging nine
individuals with ties to street gangs who trafficking children and young women,
some as young as twelve years old. The nine were charged with Involuntary
Sexual Servitude of a Minor and Trafficking in Persons for Forced labor,
punishable up to 30 years. Throughout the investigation, police found dozens of
young women and girls who had suffered extensive emotional and physical abuse
and were then provided social services that could give them safety from their
traffickers. IOFA played an important role in this case as a partner with the
State Attorney’s efforts to refer victims to recovery and after-care services,
and at present continues to be an important presence in the city as a
co-collaborator on the Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force.
With the involvement of gangs, human trafficking is becoming
an increasingly organized and networked crime. Although some tactics that gang
members use to coerce girls into working for sex are similar to non-gang
affiliated traffickers, it behoove anyone whose work involves interventions to
reduce and prevent gang violence to address human trafficking. Three San Diego
professors have received a $399,999 federal grant to explore the intersection
of gang activity and human trafficking in their region. Although this issue is
relatively new in comparison to other gang-related activity, it will continue
to be a fast-growing business if there is not a concerted effort to target
these specific victims. We cannot let the drugs, weapons, and shootings
overshadow human trafficking, for this is a vile human rights violation.
Sources:
Esther Liew
IOFA Asian American Trafficking Outreach Project program development intern
Monday, November 12, 2012
Political Conflict and Women in the Sex Trade
Rape and other forms of sexual exploitation have become
expected tools of warfare. For centuries, rape continues to symbolize the
ultimate destruction of society by its impact on the family unit. Unfortunately,
this ritualistic act almost goes unquestioned as an expected byproduct of war. For
many of us, we pause to reflect on the crimes committed, but can easily put it
aside in our minds if associated with an active conflict zone. Only within the
past two decades, an increasing amount of attention has been paid by peace-keeping
operations to provide services to individuals that are victimized. This also
raises concerns since many peace-keepers have also sexually assaulted women
during peace-keeping (Bastick, et al., 2007). However, for many, such as those
affected by the conflict in Kashmir, sexual exploitation does not end with a
simple truce or an interim in fighting. Rather, the conditions created by
conflicts propel and exacerbate circumstances that make sex work one of the few
options for income, especially among adolescent youth.
According to an article written
by Aliya Bashir for the Women News Network titled Sex Workers: Victims or Victimless Members of India’s Society?, Justice
Bashir Ahmad Kirmani, a retired judge from the Jammu Kashmir High Court
reported that more than 25,000 Kashmiri girls are working as prostitutes in
Srinagar, a major city of Kashmir. This represents a conservative estimate
since sex workers opt not to identify or report themselves. Some girls,
including minors, are black mailed and coerced into joining the sex trade as
demonstrated by the major sex scandal uncovered in 2006. For others, sex work
may be their only option. The driving factor behind the decision to work as a
sex worker remains primarily economic. The ongoing violence in Kashmir has
brought displacement, poverty, exclusion, and a lack of opportunity for women
in the area. Many girls were forced to become child soldiers or concubines for
military forces in the 1990s. These girls have grown up, and as women, struggle
to find better financial opportunities for themselves. Due to the conflict,
many of these women are the only heads of households, placing pressures on
children to help their mothers financially (Bashir, 2012). It also creates
opportunities for human traffickers to lure children seeking to help their
mothers into the business with false promises of money.
There has been little research to
document the experiences and the number of single women forced into the sex
trade as a means of survival after losing male family members to the ongoing
conflict. However, investigative journalistic pieces can shed light on the
issue through personal narratives. For example, Bashir discusses the story of
Heena, an 18 year old Kashmiri girl that turned to sex work to pay for her
mother’s cancer treatments. At the time, a pimp provided her with the money she
needed in exchange for being a call girl. Seven years later, Heena is still
involved in the sex trade, unable to escape, yet keeps her profession hidden
from her mother due to cultural stigma. Another
example is Shaista Begum, a 35 year old woman who started selling sex as a
means to buy food for her family. Begum admits that she would never have
thought that she would work in the sex trade, but because she is illiterate,
job opportunities were scarce (Nizami, 2012).
The stories of Begum and Heena are
only two voices from among thousands in similar situations. More attention
needs to be paid to the push factors involved in increasing women’s
participation in sex work as a means for survival, especially in conflict zones
where exclusion, poverty, and loss of male family members makes women more
vulnerable to pull factors such as pimps and traffickers, and the opportunity
to make money.
Sources:
Bashir, Aliya (2012). Sex Workers: Victims or Victimless
Members of India’s Society? Women
News Network. http://womennewsnetwork.net/2012/07/03/kashmir-india-sex-workers-victims-victimless/2/
Bastick, M., Grimm, K.,
& Kunz, R. (2007). Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict. Geneva: Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces.
Nizami, Salman (2012). Kashmiri Women and the Sex Trade. Daily Times.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Asian American Trafficking Outreach Project blog
Hello IOFA Talkers!
The Asian American Trafficking Outreach Project (AATOP) is an up-and-coming IOFA initiative that is focusing on gathering agencies and organizations in Chicago that are invested in the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community to:
AATOP held its first community forum last Wednesday with potential partners to brainstorm ways to move ahead with this program as trafficking among the API population is an issue that does not garner enough collaborative attention or support from API-serving organizations in a city with a large Asian American population.
Check out AATOP's blog here to keep updated on our next steps and future plans!
Esther Liew
AATOP Program Development Intern
The Asian American Trafficking Outreach Project (AATOP) is an up-and-coming IOFA initiative that is focusing on gathering agencies and organizations in Chicago that are invested in the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community to:
- Increase identification of Asian American victims of trafficking in the Chicago metropolitan area
- Build the capacity of Asian American-serving organizations to provide appropriate mental health and offer services to victims of trafficking in the Chicago metropolitan area
- Increase participation of Asian American organizations in anti-trafficking coalitions and task forces
AATOP held its first community forum last Wednesday with potential partners to brainstorm ways to move ahead with this program as trafficking among the API population is an issue that does not garner enough collaborative attention or support from API-serving organizations in a city with a large Asian American population.
Check out AATOP's blog here to keep updated on our next steps and future plans!
Esther Liew
AATOP Program Development Intern
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