The Role International Law Is Playing in the Prevention of Human Trafficking - Research Proposal Example

Proposal on Human Trafficking ABSTRACT One of the major purposes of this study is to identify and recognize different aspects of human trafficking that has now become one of the major issues globally. In specific, it is anticipation that results of the proposed study will allow an understanding of the contribution of international laws in the prevention and reduction of this practice around the world. The researcher will carry out the proposed research principally while focusing on the secondary research methodology that will include archival analysis of books, articles, magazines, and WebPages regarding different aspects of human trafficking, such as its causes, factors, preventive measures, statistics, etc. Primary research methodology will include case studies that will focus on specific region or country, in order to investigate and analyze existence of human trafficking in the region. Therefore, the researcher will acquire a balanced approach by taking into account both primary and secondary research methodologies to perform the proposed study efficiently. According to the estimates of 2008, more than 8 million people all round the world are living as the victims of human trafficking. Unfortunately, the United Nations Agency for Child Welfare expects that more than one million children would become victims of child trafficking this year. UNODC has estimated that more than 0.8 million people are trafficked across the international borders and these numbers are on a growing trend. Unfortunately, thousands of others are smuggled within the borders of many countries, and for them no authentic data is available. Another interesting study by the International Labour Organization (ILO) calculates that the overall world income would increase by more than 20 percent or 4.3 trillion US dollars in the next 20 years, if the all nations ban child labour, stop human trafficking, and educate them properly. Conclusively, the research proposal identified various significant aspects of human trafficking briefly that will be part of the proposed study in detailed manner. Aims and Objectives It is very significant for a study to identify particular objectives of the research that are every important in ensuring productive results, as it is an understanding that lack of goals often results in misuse of resources. From this aspect, one of the major purposes of this study is to identify and recognize different aspects of human trafficking that has now become one of the major issues globally. In specific, it is anticipation that results of the proposed study will allow an understanding of the contribution of international laws in the prevention and reduction of this practice around the world. Moreover, the researcher will put efforts to recognize various factors that contribute in the increment of human trafficking in different parts of the globe that will enable a more critical approach to the issue. Lastly, the most imperative objective of the research is the identification of specific real examples that will be very effective in understanding this phenomenon in efficient manner. Research Statement In this regard, the proposed research will focus on the following purpose statement: “To identify the factors related to the human trafficking and analyze its relationship with international law” Research Questions What is human trafficking and who are the major victims/beneficiaries of this practice? What role does international law is playing in the prevention of human trafficking? What factors impede the process of preventing human trafficking? What is the role of developed countries (UK, USA, and Canada) in preventing human trafficking? To what extent do nation states are implementing and practicing international law related to human trafficking? What role does the United Nations is playing in reducing human trafficking? What is the contribution of NGOs in preventing human trafficking? What are the prospects regarding the reduction or increment of human trafficking globally? Methodology Along with focus on research statement, questions, and objectives, methodology is the most imperative component of every research that plays a decisive role in determining success or failure of researcher’s efforts. For this reason, it is very significant to plan adequate research methods, as inefficient approach often results in unconstructive results (Bernard, pp. 11-17, 2005). Therefore, the researcher will carry out the proposed research principally while focusing on the secondary research methodology that will include archival analysis of books, articles, magazines, and WebPages regarding different aspects of human trafficking, such as its causes, factors, preventive measures, statistics, etc. Brief analysis has indicated that a huge number of researchers and organizations are carrying out studies on the abovementioned research statement that will be very valuable in obtaining critical information related to the human trafficking. In additional, internet has now become an efficient platform for the acquisition of detailed information, and it now offers examination of journals and books that will make it easier for the researcher to identify important information. On the other hand, one of the flaws of secondary research results is that it will now allow acquisition of results specific to the research statement (Babbie, pp. 49-57, 2000). Therefore, the proposed study will endeavor to carry out primary research as well. In this regard, primary research methodology will include case studies that will focus on specific region or country, in order to investigate and analyze existence of human trafficking in the region. For such purpose, the research will attempt to identify efforts of particular governments, non-governmental organizations, and international law-related bodies in the prevention and reduction of human trafficking that will allow the researcher to acquire an understanding of human trafficking based on the ground realistic results. For this reason, case studies of the proposed research will include identification of certain international laws that exist globally, and will involve their analysis in relation to the statistics identified during the literature review. In addition, the proposed research will select university students for the questionnaires that will ensure understanding of theoretical perspective of students regarding the phenomenon of the human trafficking. Therefore, the researcher will acquire a balanced approach by taking into account both primary and secondary research methodologies to perform the proposed study efficiently. In brief, on one hand, secondary research will be simple from the fact that it will be easier to identify and analyze books, journals, and articles in the library or websites. On the other hand, the primary research will incline research to put enormous amount of efforts during case studies, as well as during analysis of questionnaires (Bryman, pp. 30-33, 2001). Briefly, outcomes of both methods will be very valuable and beneficial in carrying out a high-quality revealing analysis that will be very valuable for researches in the future as well. Literature Review “United Nations office on drugs and crime (UNODC) officially defines human trafficking in article 3, paragraph (a) of protocol to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking. It states that trafficking in Persons 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. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs” (Kara, pp. 112-145, 2009). This definition from UNODC puts forward an excellent basis of study of human trafficking. This is because it divides the whole procedure into act, means, and purpose, and the definition discusses them in the same order as put forward in the last sentence. Despite the fact that it is illegal, unethical, and unacceptable and all the nations of the world are working towards its elimination, and they have strong legislation to avoid it; yet it is growing as the third largest criminal industry of the world (Lee, pp. 11-18, 2007), whereas, the first and the second are arms and drugs dealing respectively. According to the estimates of 2008, more than 8 million people all round the world are living as the victims of human trafficking. More surprisingly, around half of them are under the age of 18. In fact, more than 200 millions kids all around the world have no choice but to work (Kara, pp. 112-145, 2009). Unfortunately, the United Nations Agency for Child Welfare expects that more than one million children would become victims of child trafficking this year. Experts (Lee, pp. 11-18, 2007) have indicated that if one can step into the shoes of a trafficker or smuggler, then he or she would find that it is not that difficult to actually get the victims on board. This is because of the fact that most of the victims are either women or children under the age of 18. As far as women are concerned, the world knows that it is quite simple to persuade them. These women are usually working women facing the pressure of debt payments or want to live a better life than their current one. Another pair of researchers (Beeks & Amir, pp. 1-18, 2006) has discussed that when a woman is expecting an angel to rescue her, then, it is a straightforward process to show her some shinning stars and trap her by some false promises of making her a model or actor. These traffickers most probably take her to some alien or may be neighbouring country. Once she is there, they usually take her passport, visa, and other documents and the brutal process of trafficking reaches its peak where she serves her masters and gets nothing out of it. Majority of these young women are thrown into prostitution, since the data indicates that almost 47 percent of people trafficked are used for prostitution (Cohen & Buckley, pp. 1-8, 2009). On the other side of the picture, it is even easier to get small kids for the same purpose. Most of the kids trafficked belong to parents who either voluntarily or involuntarily sell them because of their extremely poor financial conditions, or in other cases, kidnapping of kids is also a possible way. The bulk out of these children smuggled belonged to Asian countries, since it is relatively unproblematic to find poor children in Asian countries (Zhang, pp. 24-28, 2007). Analysis has indicated that UNODC estimates that more than 0.8 million people are trafficked across the international borders and these numbers are on a growing trend. Unfortunately, thousands of others are smuggled within the borders of many countries, and for them no authentic data is available (DeStefano, pp. 36-47, 2007). The official data suggests that Asian countries like “Pakistan, India, Nepal, Ukraine, Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Russia, Albania, Thailand, Brazil, Ivory Coast, and Moldova” (Friman & Reich, pp. 65-67, 2007) are the countries where extensive trafficking takes place. The study also examines the situation at every specific country. For example, in Albania, 90 percent of the young girls do not go to school just because they fear that they would find themselves kidnapped for prostitution. More than 25 percent of the women working in nightclubs as dancers in Bosnia and Herzegovina claim that they entered this business of prostitution forcefully. A significant percentage of prostitutes in Thailand are the children sold by their parents, in fact, most of tourists in Thailand enjoy their services (Friman & Reich, pp. 65-67, 2007). Most of the women sold from Asian countries end up finding themselves in United Arab Emirates. More than 80 percent of prostitutes working in the Western Europe belong to Moldova. Many people in Sudan still set up gatherings to sell captured women and children (Hart, pp. 45-47, 2009). Many villages in Nepal no longer have teenage girls. Another scholarly work (DeStefano, pp. 36-47, 2007) identified during the literature review has argued that it is quite understandable that why human trafficking occurs. According to the basic principle of economics, when there is demand for something, the supply is there. There are people all around the world who are sex lovers, who desire for sexual relations outside their marriages, people who find profits in businesses of prostitution, sexual exploitation, child labour and forced employments, people who want their work done from cheap labours, and people who think that humans are worth using as machines. Moreover, until and unless there is illiteracy, extreme poverty, unjust distribution of wealth, income disparity, debt bondages and inefficient governments, human trafficking would exist in some or the other. Another interesting study by the International Labour Organization (ILO) calculates that the overall world income would increase by more than 20 percent or 4.3 trillion US dollars in the next 20 years, if the all nations ban child labour, stop human trafficking, and educate them properly (Hart, pp. 45-47, 2009) (United States, Government Accountability Office, pp. 2-5, 2006). However, this good news is that many countries are actively fighting against human trafficking, and they have showed some sort of progress as well. Countries like “Austria, United Kingdom, Belgium, United Arab Emirates (Hart, pp. 45-47, 2009), Taiwan, Switzerland, Colombia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Morocco, Ghana, Denmark, Mauritius, Netherlands, Poland” (United States, Government Accountability Office, pp. 2-5, 2006) and a few others. However, it would another decade of effort for all the stakeholders to eliminate this phenomenon completely from this planet. Conclusion Conclusively, the research proposal identified various significant aspects of human trafficking briefly that will be part of the proposed study in detailed manner. In this regard, the research will put efforts to identify and examine the available findings in a critical manner that will be valuable for future researches. In brief, the researcher will focus on primary, as well as secondary methodology to obtain practical data regarding varying range of factors related to human trafficking. Lastly, the proposed study will attempt to recognize the contribution of various governments, NGOs, and more specifically, the international law in the area of human trafficking. It is expectation that outcomes of the study will be advantageous for students, teachers, and professionals in better understanding of the topic. References Babbie, E. (2000). The practice of social research, Wadsworth. Beeks, Karen, & Amir, Delila. (2006). Trafficking and the global sex industry. Lexington Books. Bernard, Harvey Russell. (2005). Research Methods in Anthropology. Rowman Altamira. Bryman, A., (2001). Social Research Methods. Oxford. Cohen, Aaron, & Buckley, Christine. (2009). Slave Hunter: One Man's Global Quest to Free Victims of Human Trafficking. Simon & Schuster. Creswell, John W. (2003). Research Design. Sage Publications. DeStefano, Anthony M. (2007). The war on human trafficking: U.S. policy assessed. Rutgers University Press. Friman, H. Richard., & Reich, Simon. (2007). Human trafficking, human security, and the Balkans. University of Pittsburgh Press. Hart, Joyce. (2009). Human Trafficking. The Rosen Publishing Group. Kara, Siddharth. (2009). Sex trafficking: inside the business of modern slavery. Columbia University Press. Lee, Maggy. (2007). Human trafficking. Willan. United States, Government Accountability Office. (2006). Human Trafficking: Better Data, Strategy, & Reporting Needed to Enhance U.S. Anti-trafficking Efforts Abroad. DIANE Publishing. Zhang, Sheldon. (2007). Smuggling and trafficking in human beings: all roads lead to America. Greenwood Publishing Group. Read More