Simone Monasebian of the
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) discusses the
challenge posed by human trafficking. Each year an estimated one
million people – mostly women and children – are trafficked in the
United States and around the world and forced to live in slavery-like
conditions of forced labor and sexual exploitation. Human trafficking
has become one of the world’s largest criminal enterprises, generating
huge profits for traffickers and organized crime. Due to it’s
clandestine nature, human trafficking is likely to remain an
increasingly underreported crime. UNODC is the acknowledged global
leader in the fight against illicit drugs and international crime. It
also serves as the custodian of both the Convention against Corruption
and the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime – both crucial
international instruments in the fight against human trafficking. What
can be done to stop this global problem? What is the U.S. doing? What
is the United Nations doing?
