By not mandating minimal educational requirements for home-schooled children, we are allowing the most vulnerable citizens of our country to fall prey to human trafficking. Ironically, last year the Obama administration increased the number of countries that may face U.S. sanctions for not doing enough to combat human trafficking, “calling on those and other nations to get serious and take tough steps to eradicate the lucrative illicit practice.” Yet there are countless children being neglected, abused, and trafficked in the name of religion,...
Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs continues to use his ecclesiastical power to impose tests of faith that inflict severe mental anguish on his followers. Granted, it’s no revelation that the convicted felon disregards the laws of the land – that’s why he’s in prison. But somehow, from prison, he was practically able to install his own totalitarian government and reign like a tyrannical dictator over a group of vulnerable, unprotected people. And he did it with the silent approval of officials. Signs There was a lot of religious nonsense during Jeff’s court proceedings, including the documents where, um, Jesus Christ weighed in...
• That trafficked persons, especially women in prostitution and child laborers, are no longer viewed as criminals but as victims of a crime • That global trafficking will be answered with a global response. Although organized crime such as traffickers, smugglers, pimps, brothel keepers, forced labor lords, enforcers, and gangs are powerful forces or ganized cooperation by police, immigration authorities, social service agencies and NGOs is encouraged by this Protocol (Art. 10) • That there is now an accepted international definition of trafficking and an agreed-upon set of prosecution, protection and prevention mechanisms on which to base national legislation against...
Loyola Law Professor Dr. Kathleen Kim wrote a paper called “The Coercion of Trafficked Workers” describing labor settings where coercion is explicitly codified as a fundamental legal element in human-trafficking crimes. Although this paper is about using psychological means to hold immigrants hostage and achieve slave labor, the concepts can even be applied to adults in polygamy and other cults. The Coercion of Trafficked Workers Abstract: Enacted pursuant to the Thirteenth Amendment’s section 2 enforcement power, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (“TVPA”), criminalizes the use of psychological coercion to compel labor. The TVPA further aims to protect and provide...
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State. All are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of the law. These are basic human rights. How many human rights are being violated by...
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people, Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a...
The Right to Be Protected The obligation of the government is to protect the rights of those deprived of their liberty, yet governmental failures to protect individuals who are not in custodial settings also raise human rights concerns. The United States has an international legal obligation to protect individuals from violence perpetrated by the state and by private actors. And when public officials such as border agents or police officers have the authority to use force, human rights standards require that it be used proportionally, and only when necessary. Unfortunately, either because abuse happens at the hands of public officials,...
As the year comes to an end and the followers of Warren Jeffs await the apocalypse he has predicted, they’re living under a challenging edict: they’re forbidden to have sex until Jeffs is sprung from a Texas prison. READ ARTICLE HERE HILDALE, Utah — A new crackdown on followers of Warren Jeffs by his own lieutenants and a ban on everyday items such as children’s toys have triggered turmoil in the FLDS community. Former members of the group say a large-scale purge is under way in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. Many followers of the...
It’s time to make something clear about polygamy and human trafficking. According to the Protocol on Human Trafficking adopted by the U.S., human trafficking can exist within an isolated community, or even a family for that matter. It does not require crossing borders between Canada and the U.S., or any other country. The definition does not require movement at all. What is does require is the abuse of power and the exploitation of a human being, particularly a vulnerable human being. Think about the circumstance where a prophet, an ecclesiastical leader with power far beyond the average minister or priest, arranges a “marriage”...
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