Sex trafficking in Cambodia - Please watch

I am VERY happy to announce to you all that the video that triggered my anger and inspiration for my posts on sex trafficking, namely "Sex trafficking in Cambodia: Stacey Dooley Investigates", is back on BBC iPlayer. Please do go on this link and check the video:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00vcwdd/Sex_Trafficking_in_Cambodia_Stacey_Dooley_Investigates/#recommendSource=tv_homepage&recommendId=dcafc175-4b7e-4411-a9f6-688d241bf00f.0
It's shocking and a real eye-opener. The harsh reality of some parts of our world.

Take care x

If you are growing cannabis at home, STOP!

Having created a blog entitled “Illegal Trade”, how could the issue of drug trade not be discussed? Drugs is probably the first thing that comes to most people’s minds once they hear the phrase “illegal trade”; justifiably, indeed, since drugs are playing a crucial role not only in world economy, but also in our everyday recreational time that we spend with other indivi duals. Either we like it or not, or, even, either we know it or not, people around us are more likely than not to have tried some kind of drugs and to be doing drugs on regular basis. The purpose of this post is not to judge, but, rather, to give some interesting facts on cannabis trade within Britain, which came to my knowledge after my interest was triggered by a BBC iPlayer documentary, which unfortunately expired and is no longer available.

Like everyone, and before watching the documentary on BBC iPlayer, I could have never imagined the extent to which cannabis is being cultivated in Britain. Having watched films such as Johnny Depp’s “Blow” and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and having followed the news back in my country and in Europe in general, my knowledge extended only to the obvious facts: that cannabis is cultivated in certain developing regions, such as some Latin American and Asian countries. Children being forced to work in the production of cocaine, cannabis, and the long list goes on. Drugs illegally imported in developed countries and distributed and re-distributed from there by drug dealers. I knew that certain drug dealers would cultivate their own crop, but not that the profits of that crop could reach up to and more than £1 million!

This documentary was essentially about the raids that the UK police was doing in suspected cannabis factories. The method that the police was using to trace those factories was quite interesting, and it is proving to be quite efficient. Let me put it this way: the next time you see a helicopter up in the skies, do not automatically assume it is an experience day for couples. It could be looking to trace a cannabis factory, using infra-red heat detection devices. The main idea behind this detection system, is that the lamps used to provide light and heat to the cannabis plants within random rented houses in normal neighbourhoods, give out excessive heat, which may be detected through these devices. For more information on this relatively new method, please read this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/mar/13/drugsandalcohol.drugs

The information that this article provides is similar to the information given regarding these devices in the documentary. 

What impressed me the most is the fact that through this type of raids, so many cannabis factories had been uncovered, which, on the outside had seemed to be normal neighbourhood houses, except for the fact that their curtains always remained closed! Behind closed doors, the scenery reminded me of those Colombian landscapes that we see in movies, cultivating different varieties of cannabis. Those factories were operating in normal neighbourhoods, without anyone suspecting that next door, there was someone about to make hundreds of thousands or even million of pounds just by planting a few seeds and providing the right conditions for the plant to thrive!

For a very recent story on cannabis factory raids, go on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-11734940

More interesting facts about drug trade to follow shortly!

Take care x

Censorship Vs Setting the moral limits

“The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct”: This is the title of a book being sold on Amazon only a few hours ago!

Whilst browsing through the news, doing my research for my next topic, the title “Amazon row over pedophile book” appeared under the Most Popular titles for the day on the BBC news website. Considering my sensitivity over child exploitation, it is hardly surprising I clicked on the story. Upon reading the article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11731928), my eyes almost popped out of their sockets!

Not only has Amazon allowed this book to be listed amongst the rest of its books, but they have also “explained” their allowing it to be listed as fair and legitimate since it “did not promote criminal acts but also avoided censorship”! Are they being serious? If this book is not an encouragement for pedophiles to continue torturing children, then what is? From the title, my wild guess is not only that this book is encouraging pedophiles, but that it is a guide to “young pedophiles”, who are new at the “job”, as well. Or, if its scope is broad enough, giving new ideas to those criminals looking to cause even more harm!

How dare they use the word “censorship” when people demand that the book be taken off the website? A website, which, ironically, has advertised a book that would have gone unnoticed otherwise! Have we forgotten under what conditions it was decided that censorship should not be legitimate? Censorship is what Hitler’s propaganda minister, Goebbels, did to the German press in the 1930s and 1940s; censorship is what led the world believe that the Soviet Union was powerful and thriving, when Stalin was sending millions of people to their death in Siberia and his people were dying in the streets of Stalingrad because of starvation and the cold; censorship is what is currently happening all over the world today, for example Iran. The difference is that, nowadays, we have learnt from the mistakes of the past, and anyone with common sense and a healthy mind would realise the difference between being morally conscious, preventing the advertisement of horrific crimes such as pedophilia, and censorship that leads to the blinding of the public opinion.

I applaud the individuals on Twitter that took the initiative to ask Amazon to take the book listing down. If it weren’t for them, thousands of new pedophiles would be encouraged to explore in practice their urges, after buying the specific book on Amazon. Let’s keep in mind that buying and selling is not simply an exchange of money; it is an exchange of opinions, which could have a critical impact on the world of tomorrow.

Let’s keep trade moral, so that our children do not have to grow in a world where anyone can be informed on the “How to’s” of a crime. Let’s raise them in a world, which will explain everything to them, and will help them distinguish right from wrong…

Take care x

An inconclusive conclusion...

I am utterly speechless! And I thought I had made a beautiful discovery by describing to you Sweden's amazing achievement to wipe out prostitution! Once more, it has been proven that there is never one side to the coin. Soon Lee, in his comment below, very cleverly directed me to this link: http://www.thelocal.se/19102/20090427/

This article discusses how Sweden comes first in Europe in the number of reported cases of rape! I am shocked! 

So, that is why states are so indecisive on the issue of the legalisation of prostitution: to legalise prostitution and encourage people to pay for sex, hence encouraging sex trafficking as well (see Netherlands, Thailand, etc, etc, etc) or to criminalise prostitution resulting in a decrease in sex trafficking and increase in rape cases (e.g. Sweden)? Or does rape have nothing to do with the legalisation of prostitution? Are they simply two problems that need to be tackled separately without assuming that as one decreases the other increases?

It seems like this discussion could go on forever. All arguments seem to have a counter-argument, and they are all valid! The problem with this issue is that prostitution has its passionate supporters due to its nature, but also its hateful critics. My research has shown me that the best way to slowly extinguish this "tumour" of society, its main victims being the vulnerable, is through welfare strategies that will ensure that the potential victims will never have to resort to prostitution or be sold and forced to succumb. This has been one of the main concerns in the work of UNICEF. Talking in 2000, the executive director of the organisation, Carol Bellamy, outlined the problem and acknowledged the efforts done by certain countries to fight against this problem. For a very interesting brief on her speech and more specific examples, please log onto http://www.unicef.org/newsline/00pr05.htm. The governments around the world should make education and elimination of poverty their priorities. Close inspections to poor forgotten areas, educating children – not only little boys, but also the girls – and providing families with the necessary tools to lead a better life HAVE to go to the top of the list. Corruption and blind eyes are no longer an option in certain parts of the world, but those in power do not seem to recognise this…

I was really hoping to get to the root of this problem, but it just does not seem possible! This issue could be a whole dissertation and it requires getting to the root of the problems of every individual nation. I do wish I could provide valid answers to all our questions, but, as always, the conclusion cannot be one-sided. Please do provide your comments, with any further points that I haven’t made or with any ideas!

Take care x

Eliminating prostitution and sex trafficking: something has actually worked!

So let me start by outlining a very successful initiative taken in Sweden in an attempt to reduce – hopefully eliminate – not only sex trafficking, but prostitution altogether.

Yesterday I was actually very pleasantly surprised to find out how well Sweden is getting on with extinguishing prostitution and, consequently, the illegal trafficking of women and children for the purposes of prostitution*. During the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s – when prostitution was still legal in Sweden – everyone would have known of Sweden’s brothels and massage parlours; these are now, in their majority, things of the past. As for trafficking? Well, whilst Finland’s numbers reach up to 17,000 females being trafficked per year, Sweden’s comparative estimation lies somewhere between 200 and 400 – a negligible figure considering the statistics. Could there be hope?

Sweden’s 1999 policy has proved triumphantly successful and surprisingly simple: legislation concerning the violence against women, which “a) criminalizes the buying of sex and, b) decriminalizes the selling of sex”; short and sweet! The theory behind this legislation is the notion that prostitution is abuse of women and children in chauvinist society, in which men trade and exploit them. So long as it is legal for men to do this, gender equality within a state can never be attained. Having embraced this theory, Sweden treats the men who buy sex as criminals and the prostitutes as victims that need help to come out of the way of life they have been forced to follow.

Nevertheless, this was not the case from the beginning. During the first two years after the legislation was passed, minimal arrests had occurred and figures did not seem to be going down significantly. Until the State realised that it was the police force that was being inefficient, due to lack of understanding the true severity of the problem, as well as lack of training. Appropriate funding was spent tackling this inefficiency, and prostitution became a thing of the past for Sweden. If this has worked for Sweden, then why do other nations not follow this paradigm?

I have mentioned before how inefficient the Cambodian police authorities were in finding the brothel owners and closing the brothels down. Buying, forcing into prostitution and torturing under-aged girls are obviously against the national laws, but nothing effective is being done. Apart from inherent corruption within the authorities, another factor disrupting the work against prostitution that I can think of is lack of money; Cambodia is a desperately poor country and obviously the government cannot afford to spend as much as Sweden is spending on just one of its problems. In addition, the general Swedish public seems to be in support of the legislation, at an overwhelming 80%. The state has made the effort to educate its people, teaching them that prostitution is unacceptable and they should fight against it. Unfortunately, very few states can say that their people are against prostitution, and even fewer would educate against it or even think of doing it. Especially in developing countries or countries, which are used to accepting prostitution, getting the support of the public, especially the males, which are using the “services”, is practically impossible. Let’s not forget that not only is sex trafficking acceptable, but also, everyone – clients and brothel owners – are more than happy to pay extra for a very young girl. If, in their conscience, they can prostitute a child, they are, obviously, incapable of supporting a legislation against prostitution altogether, especially if it means criminalising themselves.

When a country can barely provide food and education to its people, how can it control prostitution? Of course, the reality of poverty and its wrecking effects have to be brought to the attention of the heads of the state and to national organisations, so that something IS actually done to save those children that are being sold and bought every day. The difference between countries such as Sweden (also Finland, Norway and Scotland seem to be ready to follow) and other countries lies in the fact that, in the case of the former, the government can somehow trust its public. The latter, however, have to FORCE their public to accept certain rules and ENFORCE them, rather than relying on them to abide.

All we can do now is hope that Sweden’s success on eliminating prostitution will persuade and encourage other states to follow its policies.

Take care x

* http://www.justicewomen.com/cj_sweden.html

Sex trafficking: thoughts...

Following the comments of my lovely course mate Vanessa below, I started thinking that my previous post was more emotional than practical. Raising awareness about certain problems in our world may be appraisable, but it cannot help practically the wrecked victims of certain situations. Rather than declaring our support, it’d be preferable to look into what is actually being done in the society and what we, as individuals or groups of individuals, can do from our insignificant side. Is motivation to help enough? Should I wait to “grow up” and become a powerful lawyer that can influence society or is it enough to be an unknown law student with good intentions? This dilemma has been in my mind ever since the previous post, hesitating to write the next one, since I have genuinely reached no conclusion. Usually writing my thoughts and findings down helps me put everything in order and new ideas and conclusions come naturally… Let’s see if it happens now, too… Wish me luck!

“And you thought that slavery was a thing of the past…”

From the luxury of our homes and through our prestigious legal education we have been taught that protection from slavery and forced labour is not only a right that we may claim from society as human beings; it is a FUNDAMENTAL human right, that NO ONE may infringe. Some creatures, however, claiming they are “humans”, seem to believe that they have the right to trade with human flesh, for a number of appalling reasons and mainly prostitution.

Whilst the good intentions of the Human Rights Act 1998 (Article 4), the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 4), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 8), the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions Similar to Slavery*, should, by no means be doubted, the harsh truth remains that humans are still being sold, exploited and treated like objects – or worse. Funnily enough, we tend to take excellent care of our expensive belongings, adore them and worship them, as if they add to our value as humans. However, some of us tend to forget to care for suffering individuals – but that is not the worse part of our nature. Human nature is capable of committing horrific acts that the most malevolent beast in the universe would be incapable to commit.

Otherwise, WHY would one kidnap or sell a 7-year-old girl for the purposes of prostitution? WHY would one sell his 17-year-old wife to a brothel for $200? WHY would an aunt sell her 13-year-old nice – twice – to a brothel for $150? WHY would one buy a 12-year-old’s virginity for $300 because she is so desperate to pay for her mom’s mental illness, caused by her husband’s violence? WHY would you fire gunshots and threaten a teenage girl that is refusing to satisfy 17 men at the same time? Most importantly, WHY should these creatures be allowed to sleep peacefully at nights, just because they have killed their conscience? WHY?

These “people” should feel the agonising pain when someone puts off a cigarette on someone else’s skin, just like they do on children, teenagers and women, when they try to escape the humiliation they never had the choice to avoid. They should learn what it is like to be slowly dying of AIDS at the age of 24, because you have been forced to be a prostitute for the past 11 years. They should feel the pain of a parent whose baby has been abducted and forced to watch pornographic films in order to learn what to do. They should experience the rejection of a family towards their daughter when, violated and a human wreck, she escapes from a brothel and seeks protection, but she finds it nowhere. And worse… They deserve worse, because they forgot to be humans; they forgot to see the pain in those children’s eyes.

Someone has just told me that I sound brutal and I am not any better than these “people”, since I want them to experience the pain that they have caused. Perhaps he is right. I am just not sure whether I believe in the rehabilitation of someone who humiliates and violates other humans, shuttering every dream and hope, on an every day basis, for… what else? Money! Should I believe in them becoming humans again? Something has to trigger my faith, but it has not happened yet…

What I am giving to you now, is only a dot in the vast picture of what is actually happening in the world. A slightly bigger dot is the following video:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7MJVQJnHcM> 

What made me realise how I forgot to be informed about this inhumanity was a documentary that I decided to watch by chance a few weeks ago on BBC iPlayer. It was unfortunately removed a few days ago, before I had the chance to urge you all to watch it. It was about sex trafficking in Cambodia, a case study of Stacey Dooley, who travelled there and investigated the situation in person. She talked to young prostitutes, how they ended up living like that and what kinds of humiliation they were forced to experience. She also attempted to close down some of the brothels, which seemed impossible, since the authorities were obviously incapable of dealing with the case or – as they appeared – unwilling, perhaps due to corruption. It made me wonder, is there some kind of exchange going on between the brothel owners and the policemen? Are the policemen using those services themselves? Is it their laziness that prevents them from acting? More likely than not, we will never know…

Don’t be fooled into thinking that this situation is only a problem in developing and least developed countries. Even worse corruption exists in the so-called developed world, the governments of which are presumed to be in better control of the happenings within their territories; Eastern Europe and Latin America are the predominant “suppliers” of sex workers into the “developed” westernised world, of Europe and America.

I wish I could apologise to you all, if you have been shocked by the images or the information that this post has given to you. But I can’t: my purpose was a wake-up call to all of us who think we know all about exploitation. Illegal trade of humans occurs every day in every single country of the world and all of us have to be shocked in order to understand its true dimensions. I will, however, apologise if you have been insulted by some of my inappropriate reference.

Take care x

*for more interesting legislation, start off by checking out <http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/slavery/modern/law.shtml>

Fairtrade: The Vision and its Catches

Mission accomplished! This is the nutshell of the essay that led to the creation of my blog. A summary of my polemic on Fairtrade, the result of my tedious research:

Is Fairtrade Fair?

The FLO is made up of 21 Fairtrade Organisations, including the UK Fairtrade Foundation. The main aims of the work of the FLO are set out in two main sets of standards:

(i)            Ensure that small co-operatives function in a democratic setting

(ii)          Protect the workers’ rights, e.g. fair payment, trade unions, good working conditions

The Fairtrade initiatives have been both praised and criticised. For example, Fairtrade helps individual producers to stay in the market at times of economic crisis. Theoretically, the producers should follow the Free Trade model: when prices fall, production should fall in order for demand, therefore prices, to rise. In practice, however, the producers produce more to cover for their lost income. Secondly, the demand and consumption in the developed world do not fluctuate proportionally with price changes.  Without Fairtrade to buy the produce at a non-fluctuating price, these minor producers would starve.

Fairtrade also helps the producers produce a higher profit, since the intermediaries involved when trading and their profit, are eliminated. Also, when buying a Fairtrade product, the consumer pays for a premium. This is the slightly higher price that the consumer pays on top of the market price of the product. Even though the producers do not receive the whole value of the premium, they will still make 10-40% more profit, which is significant for them in their poverty.

According to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994, the long-term prosperity of the nations should be the target, by preventing the excessive dependence of a nation on exporting. Collins has contested that Fairtrade does not allow the minor producers to escape their property and try to create a new, improved life. Rather, it helps them to the extent that they barely survive in their poverty. Dhillon-Penner disagrees, suggesting that the global need for a product is not covered completely by the major producers. The minor producers are needed to cover the remaining needs.

Fairtrade critics also suggest that Fairtrade producers receive a higher payment for their goods compared to non-Fairtrade producers, which is unfair. This is true, only if market prices are low: buyers cannot afford to give high prices.  When market prices are high, however, other buyers will have to offer higher wages to compete with those offered by Fairtrade.

Fairtrade can also be said to be illegitimate, since the Fairtrade City Program constitutes a breach to GATT 1994. The five policies that UK cities have to adopt in order to be designated Fairtrade Cities violate WTO’s Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM), since they provide free advertisement for Fairtrade goods.

Fairtrade is not flawless, since it breaches certain regulations. Nevertheless, the harm caused to trade is so negligible, that it cannot overshadow the number of people it helps!

This essay could, very easily, have been a very long piece of work. The debate is endless, so please feel free to comment on anything!

I will be posting a more relevant topic to Illegal Trade very very soon, so behold!

Take care x

My journey (continued)

"...I had done a respectable amount of research on the databases..." 


Obviously not enough. So I went back and started searching the databases I had never searched before. HeinOnline was my saviour this time. My search produced an endless amount of articles. And each article with lots of references to online books and articles which I was able to find, read and reference in my own work. Everything seemed relevant and, suddenly, 1000 words were not enough! Hence, I was able to produce a satisfactory piece of work, with viable arguments for both sides of the coin, which had seemed impossible at the beginning!

Therefore, dear all, I advice you to be stubborn and cynical where needed, because you NEED as many arguments as you can get. You have to have the luxury to discard the ones you don't like, so never give up on your research when writing a piece of work. Even if you have enough information continue researching, because the more you learn about the topic you are writing about, the more ideas you will get as to where to research.

Now, why "Illegal Trade"?

The assignment on Fairtrade made me realise how much I enjoy these socio-legal topics. They fit into everyday life and they are essential social knowledge. No harm will come upon you if you don't know anything about them, but a lot of good will come for you and others if you are socially aware.

Of course, there is the practical side as well: I linked it to trade because I wanted it to link to my Commercial Law LLM, even if not directly, at least somehow.

Trade is everywhere in our lives, it regulates everything we do: whether we eat what we like or not, whether we wear what we like or not, whether we live in a healthy social and natural environment or not, and every other aspect of our lives.

So here it is, my blog on Illegal Trade, in an attempt to learn more myself and share it with you all.

Beware of the first topic coming up, Fairtrade!

Take care x

Because it's the journey that matters, not the destination..!

So this is how my work for my first assignment on Legal Research started…

For days I was sitting in front of my little laptop, gazing at the Fairtrade official website and the "Trade and Human Rights" chapter of 'The Oxford Handbook of International Trade Law', trying to figure out why there was absolutely nothing on the - possible - unfairness of Fairtrade initiatives or on fair trading in general, for that matter. It was impossible!

Humanitarian organisations always seem honest; no catch involved, we just feel obliged to believe in them and their cause. However, after a certain period of time, could be months, years, or even decades, some kind of scandal will break out and the public are left speechless. They realise that they should have kept in mind that wherever there is bureaucracy, more often than not, there exists some kind of corruption. Undoubtedly, the founder(s) of that specific organisation meant to do pure good to the society, aid helpless individuals, had selfless intentions. And, as the number of people getting involved with this pure cause augments, the possibility of corruption within grows as well. Hence, for instance, the financial and mismanagement scandal that broke out a few years back with UNICEF. Remembering the shock of the world that such a well-known, long-standing, benevolent foundation could ever be associated with corruption, I wondered how it was possible that Fairtrade Labelling Organization International (FLO) had nothing negative associated with its name. Impossible!

After finding no cases or legal articles related to Fairtrade from all the databases of the kind of Westlaw and Lexis Library, the academic spectrum of which is massive, I felt utterly disheartened. What was I supposed to write on my assignment? That, after all my intensive research, all I could come up with was copying and pasting from <www.fairtrade.org.uk>, notably that Fairtrade is one of the very few foundations that practically benefit the world, that there is no exploitation, no corruption, no scandal? That it responds successfully to its aim to reduce world poverty and helps people lead a life of happiness and dignity? I felt dismayed at the thought.

This will sound very cynical, but my logic could not accept it! So I turned to the - much detested by the academics - search engines, such as my beloved Google. It has the answers to practically anything in the world. It has saved me at times of utter despair, it had to save me this time. But it let me down... All that it was coming up with was the Fairtrade Foundation and FLO websites. I searched the New York Times; I found very few articles on how benevolent the action of Fairtrade is, e.g. by saving Afghanis by giving them permission to sell their raisins as Fairtrade products. Was that all? 

I felt like I had completed my circle of research: I had been to the Library, I had done a respectable amount of research on the databases, I had read the relevant websites, I had searched the Internet and the online press in particular, and I had nothing negative...  Some of you might call me cynical, some of you will understand that I am just desperately stubborn, but I refused to believe I had next to nothing…

What happened next? We shall all find out on Wednesday's class! Look out for the continuation of this post, which will eventually explain why “Illegal Trade” and not something else.

Take care x