Trafficking in human beings: human rights and ... - unesdoc - Unesco

shown below the defi nition and concept of traffi cking must be looked at with criminal
law eyes to make any sense and be operational.
It is true that there are particular push factors, which place girls and young women at a
higher risk than boys or young men. Girls in many societies are less valued than boys.
Girls are expected to sacrifi ce their education and assume domestic responsibilities such
as taking care of their parents and siblings. Since they will leave the family upon marriage,
they are regarded as a poor investment and this makes it easier for the parents to send them
out to work. Additionally, domestic work is regarded as preparation for marriage. 23 The
traffi cking in children is further fostered by West and Central African nations’ historical
and cultural patterns of migration and the placement of children outside the home. The
practice of “child fosterage”, sending children to live with extended family or friends to
be educated, trained or to work, is a culturally accepted practice in West Africa and is
done to foster extended family solidarity and to further the educational and vocational
training of the child. Diffi cult fi nancial situations within the family often are the basis
for the placement. This “strategic fostering out of children” is said to be a stronger causal
factor in child traffi cking than poverty. The majority of traffi cked children come from
polygamous, large and poorly educated families where the children have limited (if any)
opportunities for training and education. Children are often withdrawn from school
and forced to help support the family. Parents, who may not even be able to feed their
children, are often willing to “give” them to traffi ckers who promise to provide the child
with a job, an education or training. 24
But it is very important not to focus only on women and children thus rendering
traffi cking of men for especially labour exploitation invisible.
BEST PRACTICES
Being a multi-causal problem, human traffi cking cannot be addressed by one practice.
Likewise no single organisation is capable of ‘solving’ all affi liated problems, nor should
it enforce one vision of the problem as global. A combination of practices capable of
creating synergetic effects and consolidating policy goals among engaged actors is sorely
needed. Finding Best Practices to counter human traffi cking begins with the recognition
that such practices are elements in a broader process of social transformation. They are
initiatives to transform a complex web of social relationships – specifi cally those that are
causal related to human traffi cking. Social contexts in which the causes of traffi cking are
progressive and cumulative pose a considerable challenge in determining priorities and
boundaries of action. 25
23 Ibid.
24 Ibid.
25 UNESCO: Searching for Best Practices to Counter Human Traffi cking in Africa: A Focus on Women and
Children. p. 61.
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