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Introduction
Over the last several decades, governments have collectively pledged to slow global warming. But despite intensified diplomacy, the world is already facing the consequences of climate…
Women and Foreign Policy Program
Human Trafficking
About the Project
Despite near universal condemnation of human trafficking, the number of victims remains high, with an estimated 40 million people trafficked and enslaved worldwide—71 percent of whom are women and girls. The scale of the problem is only growing, exacerbated by global challenges including migration and conflict. Today, human trafficking bankrolls operations for transnational crime syndicates and extremist groups, producing an estimated $32 billion annually for perpetrators, making it one of the world’s most profitable crimes. New tools are needed to improve implementation of global and national anti-trafficking standards. The financial sector has an important role to play in freezing profits illegally gained by traffickers; private industry could do more to ensure that supply chains are slavery free; and national security policies should address how human trafficking fuels conflict, drives displacement, and undercuts the ability of international institutions to promote stability.
To improve global and U.S. efforts to eliminate modern slavery, the Project on Human Trafficking will propose innovative and robust enforcement initiatives, thereby adding critical tools to the arsenal of human rights-based and prosecutorial approaches that have produced too little progress to date. Project activities will include a Council Special Report, short publications, a symposium, and roundtable series.
Events
It is estimated that twenty to forty million people around the world are victims of human trafficking. Of these, the majority are trafficked for labor, and many of them are exploited in the United States.
Jamille Bigio, senior fellow for CFR’s Women and Foreign Policy program, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the spread of and international response to human trafficking. July 30 marks the United Nations’ World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.
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This post is part of the Council on Foreign Relations’ blog series on human trafficking, in which CFR fellows and other leading experts assess new approaches to improve U.S. and global efforts to curb trafficking and modern slavery. This post was authored by James Cockayne.
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This blog post was authored by Jamille Bigio, senior fellow in the Women and Foreign Policy program, and Elena Ortiz, intern in the Women and Foreign Policy program. Despite widespread condemnatio…
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This post is part of the Council on Foreign Relations’ blog series on human trafficking, in which CFR fellows and other leading experts assess new approaches to improve U.S. and global efforts to curb trafficking and modern slavery. This post was authored by Marcia Eugenio.
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This post is part of the Council on Foreign Relations’ blog series on human trafficking, in which CFR fellows and other leading experts assess new approaches to improve U.S. and global efforts to curb trafficking and modern slavery. This post was authored by Sarah E. Mendelson.
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This post is part of the Council on Foreign Relations’ blog series on human trafficking, in which CFR fellows and other leading experts assess new approaches to improve U.S. and global efforts to curb trafficking and modern slavery. This post was authored by Dr. Jean Baderschneider, inaugural-CEO and Chair of the Board of Directors, Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS).
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This post is part of the Council on Foreign Relations’ blog series on human trafficking, in which CFR fellows and other leading experts assess new approaches to improve U.S. and global efforts to curb trafficking and modern slavery. This post was authored by Dan Viederman, managing director of the Working Capital Fund.
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This post is part of the Council on Foreign Relations’ blog series on human trafficking, in which CFR fellows and other leading experts assess new approaches to improve U.S. and global efforts to curb trafficking and modern slavery. This post was authored by Philip Langford, President of IJM United States, and Peter Williams, Principal Advisor on Modern Slavery at IJM.
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Last year, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring 2021 the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labor. Despite such commitment, recent global estimates project child labour to be on the rise, with cases surging by up to 50 million in the next five years.
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This blog post was authored by Olivia Enos, senior policy analyst in the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation, and Mark P. Lagon, chief policy officer of Friends of the Global Fight Agains…
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The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated human lives, the global economy, and educational systems. Given the enormous financial hardship on families, the mass movement of people, and the closing of schools, the risks of human trafficking have increased. In this environment, multidisciplinary interventions coupled with innovation, technology, and entrepreneurial thinking must remain a priority.
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Desperate families face risky job offers, dubious loans, and online predators.
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A DNA study of a sample gathered from African Americans shows that their genetic origin in Africa accords closely to the documentary, historical record. It is estimated that 12.5 million Africans wer…
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This post is part of the Council on Foreign Relations’ blog series on human trafficking, in which CFR fellows and other leading experts assess new approaches to improve U.S. and global efforts to curb trafficking and modern slavery. This post was authored by Laura Gauer Bermudez, director of evidence and learning, April Stewart, senior evidence and learning associate, and Shannon Stewart, senior data scientist, and at the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS).
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This post is part of the Council on Foreign Relations’ blog series on human trafficking, in which CFR fellows and other leading experts assess new approaches to improve U.S. and global efforts to curb trafficking and modern slavery. This post was authored by Jeff Bond, associate director, Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS).
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This post is part of the Council on Foreign Relations’ blog series on human trafficking, in which CFR fellows and other leading experts assess new approaches to improve U.S. and global efforts to curb trafficking and modern slavery.
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As the United States renews its commitment to protecting freedom and ending slavery—with its annual observation of National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention this month, culminating on National Freedom Day on Feb. 1—it should address the many ways that human trafficking imperils global security.
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Global refugee flows are currently at the highest levels in history. Many refugees are at risk of a human rights violation too often insufficiently addressed in security and conflict prevention efforts: human trafficking.
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As the world celebrates the power and potential of girls today, on the International Day of the Girl Child, we must also grapple with the significant obstacles that prevent girls from participating fully in society.
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Elevating the status of women and girls has been demonstrated to advance global prosperity, stability, and security, yet the journey toward gender equality has been marked by fitful and incremental g…
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In 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the “Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.” In the more than two decades since, …