How many slaves work for you?

By Charlotte Shurtz

Buying, selling, and trafficking humans ended with the Civil War, right? Actually, human trafficking is still a problem today. Human trafficking happens in every country even though it is illegal all over the world. The exact number of slaves is difficult to estimate, but there are at least 27 million slaves worldwide. That is 27,000,000 people who are forced to labor in dangerous conditions for hours at a time, not paid for their work, abused physically, sexually, mentally, and emotionally, and prevented from leaving. Made in a Free World is an organization that identifies human trafficking in supply chains, from raw materials through every step to final assembly. They have identified products such as electronics, clothing, and foods that were made or harvested by modern slaves. I recently took their slavery footprint survey to see how many slaves work to make the things I own and buy on a regular basis. Let’s be honest; I was flabbergasted by what I learned.

My slavery footprint is 28 slaves.

Twenty-eight slaves is four times the size of the family I grew up in. That is a lot of people. Here are a few of the things I learned about where these slaves probably work.

• Slaves are used in Southeast Asia for the shrimp sent to the U.S. They work 20 hours a day and are sexually assaulted if they try to escape. Many of my favorite foods, such as chocolate and tomatoes, are also harvested by slaves.
• I don’t own a lot of makeup, but it is probably made by slaves. #WearNoMakeup
• Coltan is a mineral that slaves are forced to mine. It is used to make capacitors used in electronics, like the smartphone, laptop, tablet, and camera that I own
• I own a bicycle and helmet. Slaves work every day for months without a day off in sporting goods factories.Cotton is harvested by children in Uzbek. Additionally, clothing is sometimes made in factories that use slave labor to keep their products cheap.
• In addition to working with businesses to make sure their supply chains a slavery free, Made In A Free World works with consumers like you and me to use purchasing power to reward companies who have slave-free supply chains and punish companies who don’t change their supply chains. You can take the quiz at slaveryfootprint.org to find out how many slaves work for you and learn about using your purchasing power to change the world!

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Was slave labor used to make your smartphone? That new shirt you just bought? The chocolate bar you ate earlier today? Not in the modern world, right? Unfortunately, the answer is yes, yes, and yes. Charlotte Shurtz, a BYU student, shares how she took the slavery footprint survey to find out how many slaves work for her. #BYUAHTC #MadeInAFreeWorld #HumanTrafficking

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Was slave labor used to make your smartphone? That new shirt you just bought? The chocolate bar you ate earlier today? Not in the modern world, right? Unfortunately, the answer is yes, yes, and yes. Find out how many slaves work for you at slaveryfootprint.org. #BYUAHTC #MadeInAFreeWorld #HumanTrafficking

Trafficking and Exploitation Summit Flyer: Distribute these and come!

2016 Dirty Dozen List

Every year the National Center on Sexual Exploitation publishes their Dirty Dozen list, a dozen organizations that are top contributors to sexual exploitation through pornography, prostitution, and trafficking. Here is their 2016 list:

Amazon
American Library Association
Amnesty International
Backpage.com
Cosmopolitan Magazine
Department of Justice
HBO
Sexpresso Cafes
Snapchat / Snapcash
Starwood Hotels and Resorts
Verizon
Youtube

You can find out more information on why these make the list and past victories here:
http://endsexualexploitation.org/dirtydozen-2016/

Blood Diamonds

Written by: Josh Malyon

INFOS:
Blood Diamonds are also known as “Conflict Diamonds” and are usually produced in areas controlled by rebel forces or corrupt governments. The rebels use violence to force men, women and children into slave labour to mine the diamonds. The diamonds are used to purchase arms and fund their military actions.

Countries most Affected: Angola, Sierra Leone, Cote D’Ivoire, Liberia, Congo

The Kimberly Process was adopted by the World Diamond Congress in 2000 to strengthen diamond industry’s ability to block sales of conflict diamonds. BUT, while it may ensure the diamonds do not finance civil wars, it does NOT ensure the diamonds are:

Free of human rights Abuses
Environmentally responsible
Ensure fair labor practices

Kimberly Process Pros:
“The Kimberley Process attempted to curtail the flow of conflict diamonds, help stabilize fragile countries and support their development. As the Kimberley Process has made life harder for criminals, it has brought large volumes of diamonds onto the legal market that would not otherwise have made it there.”

Kimberly Process Cons:
“The Kimberley Process has ultimately failed to stem the flow of blood diamonds, leading key proponents such as Global Witness to abandon the scheme.[34] In addition, there is no guarantee that diamonds with a Kimberley Process Certification are in fact conflict-free. This is due to the nature of the corrupt government officials in the leading diamond producing countries. It is common for these officials to be bribed with $50 to $100 a day in exchange for paperwork declaring that blood diamonds are Kimberley Process Certified.”

“During the 1990s and the first decade of this century, hundreds of thousands of people were killed in wars fueled by diamonds, across Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Liberia and Sierra Leone. Even today, blood diamonds from the Cote d’Ivoire, eastern DRC, and Zimbabwe continue to enter the market. Furthermore, many diamonds, even conflict-free diamonds, are cut and polished in sweatshop conditions, often by children, for wages that are inadequate for even the most basic standard of living.”

“The Kimberly Process is allowing conflict diamonds into the market. If your jeweler can’t tell you where your diamond was mined, they can’t guarantee it’s conflict-free.”
(www.ingleandrhode.co.uk)

 RESOURCES:
www.globalwitness.org
www.amnestyusa.org
www.diamondfacts.org
http://www.materialytics.com/

MEDIA:
The Ambassador (2011, Danish/English/French, 93 min); a Danish journalist poses as a European ambassador to look at Africa's blood diamond trade.

Ed Zwick's motion picture Blood Diamond (2006), starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou. The film helped to publicize the controversy surrounding conflict diamonds and led to worldwide awareness of the Western African involvement in the diamond trade.

SOLUTIONS:
Diamond-rich areas were discovered in Northern Canada in the 90s and are working to combat conflict mining in Africa! See Partnership Africa Canada:  http://www.pacweb.org/en/

You can also buy lab-created diamonds or moissanite, which appear the same as regular diamonds but can be certified conflict free. These two options, especially moissanite, are also much more affordable.