3 Latin America Region
3.3 International Human Trafficking Laws adopted in the Region
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3.2.3 Forms of Human Trafficking
From the data gathered from the IHRLI the most prominent forms of trafficking were:31
• False Promise of employment: One of the most common, traffickers will offer attractive jobs as waitresses, dancers, bartenders or factory workers.
• Misadventure: Women and adolescents in pursuit of employment will find the way to get transported outside their home country. They will find rides with trucks travelling to the North of Mexico and the United States. Migrant smugglers are also used.
• Abduction: Reports show children abducted for commercial sexual exploitation.
• Gang-related: In Honduras and El Salvador, young women and adolescent gang members were reported been trafficked for sexual exploitation in order to raise capital for the gang.
• Peer-influence: Trafficking of children who are homeless or runaways.
• Family controlled: This was reported in a minor scale but happens when family members who have been trafficked become recruiters of their relatives.
Most evident was particularly in Dominican Republic.
• Marriage Fraud: In Dominican Republic, foreign men were reported to pursue marriages with local women in order to take them abroad for purposes of prostitution.
3.3 International Human Trafficking Laws adopted in the Region
International laws have given a statement demonstrating that states around the world are committing on defending people’s rights. States have demonstrated to commit in
31 Steglich and Guinn, 33-34
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punishing those who commit criminal acts. The creation of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons has been a necessary tool especially in Latin America. A universal definition on human trafficking was vital for Latin American countries due to the confusion of thinking it is the same as prostitution. It was necessary for Latin America countries to ratify a law that prosecutes human traffickers as well.
The regional closeness with neighboring countries illustrates the need for a synchronized work between all states. The TIP report of the U.S. Department of State encourages the Latin American countries to fight human trafficking. Also, the region has to show its interest and comply with the standards if it wants to keep receiving funding from the United States.
3.3.1 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons in Latin America
In 1996, the governments of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean through their embassies which, where accredited in Mexico celebrated a Memorandum of Understanding with the purpose of committing to work with UNODC.32 By this time the purpose of joining forces was to fight against drug trafficking and violence in the region. A regional office was opened in 2003 in Mexico as the central office. Through time UNODC opened an office in Brazil supporting the southern cone. Later on offices of UNODC were open in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador.33 With the ratification of the Transnational Organized Crime Convention and protocols thereto the UNODC is supporting the American continent in combating transnational crime.
32 UNODC, Oficina de Enlace y Partenariado México LPO. Oficina de las Naciones Unidas contra la Droga y el Delito. https://www.unodc.org/mexicoandcentralamerica/es/romex/oficina_LPO.html (accessed April 8, 2014).
33 UNODC, “Field Offices.” United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. http://www.unodc.org/unodc/field-offices.html?ref=menutop (accessed April 8, 2014).
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Latin American countries have ratified or signed the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children. Yet, not all the countries ratified or signed the protocol once the UN enacted the law. The first countries to ratify the protocol during the period of 2002 to 2005 were Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Belize, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay.34 The last country to ratify the protocol was Haiti in 2011.
3.3.2 The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in Latin America The problem of illegal immigration and trafficking in persons in Latin America has pressured the region to comply the minimum standards of the TVPA to combat human trafficking. The Trafficking in Persons Report releases annually a summary of the most important changes. For the research, information from the reports published will be compared from 2008 to 2013. From 2008 to 2013 most Latin American countries have fall somewhere in the middle of the Tier rankings, with 18 or 19 countries in Tier 2 and 8 to 9 in Tier 2 Watch List. Colombia from 2008 to the 2013 report has remained in in Tier 1. From 2008 to 2011 Colombia was the only country in Tier 1.
In 2009 five Caribbean countries were ranked for the first time, which are Antigua and Bermuda, Bahamas, Barbados, St. Vincent and Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago. Costa Rica upgraded its tier ranking by passing a TIP law improving its victim’s assistant program. They trained1000 polices and other government officials in 2009. Belize fell in Tier 2 Watch List failing to convict and prosecute offenders.
34 UNODC, UNODC Secretariat. Status of Ratification of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crimes and the Protocols Thereto. Report presented at the sixth session of the Conference in Vienna, 15-19 October 2012.
http://www.unodc.org/documents/treaties/organized_crime/COP6/CTOC_COP_2012_CRP/CTOC_COP_2012_R P1.pdf (accessed April 9, 2014).
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Nicaragua also downgraded to Tier 2 WL for failing to provide adequate assistance and protection to victims.
Table 3.2 Latin America and the Caribbean Trafficking in Persons Tier Rank 2008-2009
Source: Claire Ribando Selke, “Trafficking in Persons in Latin America and the Caribbean”, (United States Congressional Research Service 2009),18-19.
In 2012 Nicaragua earned its first Tier 1 by securing 35 TIP convictions more than the rest of Central America combined. Cuba has been in Tier 3 since 2008 and has remained in the same rank until now. Honduras and Guyana downgraded their tier ranking in Tier 2 Watch list together with Uruguay, Suriname, St. Lucia, Haiti and Venezuela.35 For the fiscal year of 2013 the president granted aid prohibitions to all Tier 3 including Cuba (See Table 3.3).
35 Ribando Seelke, ‘Trafficking in Persons in Latin America and the Caribbean 2013, p. 9.
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Table 3.3 Latin America and the Caribbean Trafficking in Persons Tier Rank 2012-2013
Source: Claire Ribando Selke, “Trafficking in Persons in Latin America and the Caribbean”, United States Congressional Research Service, 2009, 20-21
3.4 International Human Rights Laws adopted by Latin America
The authoritarian past in Latin America has connected the human rights tragedies in the region by the military coups, disappearances, death squads and the bloody civil wars. While the human rights policies demanded by the U.S. to Latin American countries, it was difficult to assist due to the resistance in the region. L.A. not only had pressure from the United States but also from transnational advocacy networks. It is considered this pressure by allies was necessary for Latin American countries to have dramatic changes in human rights.