Do the Right Thing: Ethical Issues and the Fight against Human Trafficking

Ethical issues play a key role in the fight against human trafficking. Each person and organization must do their part to prevent human trafficking by doing the right thing, implementing codes of conduct at corporations, enacting government procurement regulations, empowering workers, adopting zero tolerance policies within international organizations, requiring that staff conduct themselves at the highest standard of behaviour at all times and treating one another with dignity.

Case Study: The Coalition of Immokalee Workers

The empowerment of workers and protecting their rights is a fundamental part of the fight against human trafficking. One successful example of workers confronting and changing corporate practices is the Campaign for Fair Food, initiated in the 1990s by a community-based human rights organization of farm workers, civil society and consumers, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), in response to cases of agricultural workers trafficked for labour exploitation in Florida and other states in the region.

These workers proved that change is possible, putting an end to slavery and other horrific abuses that have plagued the US agricultural sector for too long,

Rev. Noelle Damico, National Economic and Social Rights Initiative

The Campaign united farmworkers and consumers to stop trafficking and the use of forced labour on Florida farms while also eliminating the poverty and lack of rights which helped cases of modern slavery to flourish. It demanded that corporations buying tomatoes use their market power to improve wages and conditions and called for a boycott of a major US fast food corporation that purchased tomatoes from Florida farms. More than nine years ago the fast food corporation agreed to the demands, and by 2014 eleven other retail food corporations signed similar agreements with the Coalition, to create the Fair Food Program.

New Challenges in Human Trafficking

While the Coalition of Immokalee Workers represents a success story in the fight against human trafficking, many challenges lie ahead for advocates and government officials who are determined to stamp out this crime in all of its forms.

Trafficking in human beings for the purpose of organ removal is one example. As recently as fifteen years ago, it was considered an obscure practice in remote parts of the world, but in recent years cases have surfaced in the OSCE area.

“The number of jurisdictions that can be involved even in one trafficking network is daunting,” Milbert Shin, an independent expert on the subject said. “Both victims and recipients can come from multiple countries; the transplant surgery can take place in yet another country, involving medical professionals that are also from different countries.”

Shin was the main author of an OSCE publication on the topic issued last year, which has become an important tool for raising awareness about the complexity of the crime.

Ethics are the wellspring from which humanity began to define what is fair and moral in human activity and more importantly, how we should treat each other.

Ambassador Madina Jarbussynova, OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings

The Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings is also focused on working with governmental authorities and civil society to prevent human trafficking in the private sector throughout the OSCE participating States and elsewhere. The conference will include a side event on the launch of a new paper exploring whether the current methods used to motivate businesses to respect commitments made under voluntary initiatives are effective, which intends to spark a discussion on how to motivate States and businesses to enforce standards and to do even more to prevent modern-day slavery.

Much has been achieved since the first Alliance conference in 2004, but as human trafficking continues to grow as a threat to security across the OSCE region, the Office of the Special Representative will work to promote innovative approaches to combat it in the 21st century. This year’s Alliance conference will show some of the myriad ways that this is possible.