Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Love146 Benefit Concert

Sept 5th there will be a benefit concert at CGCC to advocate, educate and raise money to rescue children and women from sex trafficking. Trafficking in persons is modern-day slavery, involving victims who are forced, defrauded or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation. Sex trafficking happens daily, not only over seas, but also in America, and yes, even in Indiana.
Brutal sex slavery is claiming the lives of many, whose voices go unheard.
Please join us as we collectively become a voice and people who help rescue those who are seemingly forgotten.
Below are stats you can find also on the website: www.love146.org:

(UNICEF) now believes that the number of children trafficked annually is around 1.2 million. It is estimated that two children per minute are trafficked for sexual exploitation.

Annually, according to U.S. Government-sponsored research 2006, approximately 800,000 people are trafficked across national borders, which does not include millions trafficked within their own countries. Approximately 80 percent of transnational victims are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors. The majority of transnational victims are females trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation. (2007 Trafficking in Persons Report,U.S. State
It is estimated that at least 27 million people are currently enslaved around the world, many who have been enslaved through being trafficked. This is more than double the number of Africans enslaved during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
The U.N. and other experts estimate the total market value of illicit human trafficking at $32 billion - about $10 billion is derived from the initial "sale" of individuals, with the remainder representing the estimated profits from the activities or goods produced by the victims of this barbaric crime. (UNODC)
These numbers make trafficking in persons the second most lucrative crime in the world. The first is drug trafficking. (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2006).
About $28 billion of this is generated from commercial sexual exploitation. (International Labor Organization)

The organization to End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking in Children for Sexual Purposes believe that 45,000-50,000 persons are trafficked into the U.S. each year, 15,000 of them are children. (ECPAT-USA)
Supply and Demand
The "demand" of the multi-billion dollar global sex industry puts children throughout the world at-risk of becoming the “supply.” Criminal gangs, pimps and pornographers seek to profit from this demand by enslaving and abusing children, preying on those made most vulnerable by poverty, lack of education, minority status, gender bias and homelessness.
Often, captors will threaten, beat and starve new recruits to condition them for the fate that awaits: sex with multiple customers every day. Eventually this abuse “breaks” the children. They learn to force a smile for the pedophiles, sex tourists and others that frequent their establishments.
The Effects

Sexual exploitation and abuse have grave consequences on any person’s well being, especially a child’s. Unprotected sex, gang rapes, forced abortions and manipulation can cause severe psychological and physical damage, including HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases or conditions.
What is Child Trafficking?
According to the UN ODCCP Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, child trafficking is: the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of deception, of the abuse of power or of position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
Most countries in the world are involved – they may be a source of vulnerable children, a place they pass through, or a destination for trafficked children. Unfortunately, even the United States plays it’s part when U.S. “sex tourists” visit countries like Thailand or Cambodia and have sex with children, including those trafficked into the sex industry.

Children who are desperately poor are especially at risk of being trafficked.
Where is the problem?
Every year at least 1.2 million children are estimated to be trafficked around the world and that number is growing. Child trafficking is not limited to developing countries; the U.S. and Europe deal with domestic trafficking issues and also serve as destinations for trafficked children from abroad. Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa are also becoming hot spots for child trafficking. Today, the situation is dire in the Asian region, in countries such as:Cambodia,Thailand,Laos,Myanmar, the Philippines,India,Nepal, and Bangladesh
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC)
ECPAT defines CSEC as the following: A Fundamental violation of children’s rights. It comprises sexual abuse by the adult and remuneration in cash or kind to the child or a third person or persons. The child is treated as a sexual object and as a commercial object. The commercial sexual exploitation of children constitutes a form of coercion and violence against children, and amounts to forced labor and a contemporary form of slavery. (ECPAT, Questions and Answers about CSEC) The primary factors of CSEC are prostitution, pornography, trafficking and sex tourism of persons under the age of 18. Under the age of 18 is an internationally recognized definition of child in numerous international treaties and conventions.

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