CHAPTER 9

Contemporary human rights issues

REVIEW 9.1

1 Identify the form or forms of slavery applicable to each story featured above.

● Nila and Miram — sexual slavery.

● Keni binti Carda — forced labour, and possible debt bondage.
● Phirun — forced labour.
● Xiao Ping — debt bondage, elements of forced labour and sexual slavery.

2 Explain how each of these individuals was trafficked — describe the methods used and the
purpose for which they were trafficked.

● Nila and Miram — lured by the traffickers’ false promises, kept by passport theft, false
imprisonment, and likely by other threats.
● Keni binti Carda — lured by the promise of paid employment, kept by false imprisonment,
physical abuse, emotional abuse, and threats of physical abuse.
● Phirun — lured by the promise of higher wages, kept by seizing of passports, false imprisonment,
and by physical and emotional abuse.
● Xiao Ping — lured by a false boyfriend and falsely imprisoned, then transferred for profit; kept by
emotional abuse, physical abuse and apparent imposition of debt.

3 Describe the person or persons likely to benefit from the victim’s exploitation in each of
these instances. Identify where any profit was likely to be involved.

● Nila and Miram — profit to sex trafficking ring, including possibly recruiters, smugglers and
brothel manager.
● Keni binti Carda — benefit to employer; possibly also involvement of a human trafficking
network.
● Phirun — benefits to recruiters, smugglers and fishing boat owners.
● Xiao Ping — benefit to recruiter (false boyfriend), person married off to, and likely wider
trafficking ring.

REVIEW 9.2

1 Identify the section and division of the Commonwealth Criminal Code under which Wei Tang
was prosecuted.

Wei Tang was prosecuted under Division 270 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code, which contains
the anti-slavery provisions. More specifically, she was convicted of intentionally possessing a slave
and intentionally exercising a power of ownership over a slave, contrary to section 270.3(1)(a).

2 Describe where the women came from and how they came to be working in Australia.

The women in the case came from Thailand. They were previously working in the sex industry in
Thailand and entered into agreements with a broker to be brought to Australia to work in the Fitzroy
brothel. Ms Tang purchased them from the Thai recruiter for $20 000, and they were brought to
Australia on fraudulently obtained visas. When they arrived, they were forced to enter a ‘contract’
with Ms Tang to repay their debts.

3 Outline the conditions of the ‘contract’ that Wei Tang had made with the women.
1
Under the purported contract, each woman was required to repay a debt of $45 000. The women were
forced to work to repay the debts, by working six-day weeks over seven to eight months. Each time
they serviced a client, $50 was taken off the debt, requiring a total 900 clients required to repay the
debt.

4 Describe some of the conditions that amounted to a finding of the women being kept as
slaves, and outline the powers that Wei Tang was found to have exercised.

Ms Tang withheld the women’s passports as well as their return aeroplane tickets until the debt was
repaid. Although apparently she did not physically abuse the women, and they were not usually
locked in, they had little money and limited English, with no passport and fraudulently obtained visas,
so they feared being caught and detained by immigration authorities. The women were forced to work
extremely long hours.
Ms Tang was found to have exercised the power to make each woman an object of purchase, the
capacity to use the women in a substantially unrestricted manner for the duration of their contracts,
the power to control and restrict their movements, and the power to use their services without
adequate compensation.
REVIEW 9.3

1 Describe some of the efforts of the UN and the ILO in tackling human trafficking.

Students could discuss any of the following:

● the Slavery Convention of 1926 and the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the
Slave Trade and Practices Similar to Slavery of 1956
● the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children,
which entered into force in 2003, was the first legally binding instrument with an agreed
definition on human trafficking, and was designed to provide an umbrella of overall protection,
outlining an appropriate regime of protection, prosecution and prevention in order to effectively
and more uniformly combat human trafficking
● the UN’s Global Report on Trafficking in Persons
● the UN has established a Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) to mobilise non-
state actors to help combat human trafficking
● the ILO also plays a crucial role in implementing and reporting on workers’ rights worldwide, and
has campaigned ceaselessly against forced labour
● in 2001, the ILO established a Special Action Programme on Forced Labour to attempt to raise
global awareness of forced labour in its different forms.

2 Explain the role of the media, NGOs and other non-legal responses in combating human
trafficking. Evaluate how these groups can complement the legal measures in place.

Any of the following points could be discussed:

● NGOs play an extremely important role in combating human rights abuses by reporting on and
exposing abuses, researching issues and informing the public and governments on incidents and
patterns of abuse, or working to combat causes, incidents of or effects of abuse
● some examples include Anti-Slavery International or the American Anti-Slavery Group
● the media plays a role in informing the public about the existence and nature of modern slavery
internationally or domestically
● films, books and documentaries have also played an important role, for example the 2006 SBS
documentary ‘Trafficked’
● Australian universities are also crucial in researching and reporting on trends in human
trafficking in Australia, and collaborating with government agencies and community groups.

3 Critically evaluate the effectiveness of legal and non-legal responses to human trafficking
based on consideration of the causes and drivers behind the problem.

2
Some of the points that students could raise include:
● the main factors in preventing human trafficking include:
o limited resources or effectiveness of developing states to combat forms of exploitation and
transnational crime
o socio-political and economic factors that underpin the movement of people from one place
to another
● in a globalised economic system, there is an increased demand for all types of labour, legal and
illegal, and this demand is exploited by criminal organisations
● poverty in source countries, combined with a lack of education and the rule of law, can contribute
to the vulnerability of victims and the success of recruiters’ coercive or deceitful techniques
● the implementation and enforcement of treaties and laws is up to national governments, and
some may be unwilling or unable to effectively tackle the problem
● reporting mechanisms such as the annual US Trafficking in Persons Report
● the work of the UN, ILO and NGOs.

Chapter summary tasks — Issue 1

1 Explain when slavery was officially abolished and why it still remains a problem today.

The worldwide movement to abolish slavery began in the 18 th Century and culminated in the
development of numerous anti-slavery treaties in the 20 th Century. This lead to the abolition of slavery
worldwide by the end of the 20th Century. However, even though all countries have enacted laws
officially abolishing slavery, illegal slavery and the trade and trafficking of human beings continues to
this day. According to some researchers and NGOs, as many as 27 million people or more may
currently be enslaved around the world.

2 Identify the forms of contemporary slavery and the ways in which slaves are recruited and
trafficked.

Contemporary slavery can take a number of forms, including:

● forced labour — under the threat of a penalty or harm which the person has not voluntarily
submitted to; a person may be directly forced, or lured, for example, by the promise of a
legitimate job opportunity and instead forced to work without pay and endure physical and
emotional abuse
● debt bondage — where a person is forced to repay a loan with labour instead of money, where the
proper value of the labour is not applied towards repayment of the debt, or the type or duration of
services are not properly limited; in many cases, the person may be deceived into paying
extremely high rates of interest, making it impossible to repay the debt, and in some cases,
children of the borrower may be forced to repay the debt across generations
● sexual slavery — repeated violation or sexual abuse, or forcing the victim to provide sexual
services; the victims might be captured, coerced, deceived or even sold by their own families or
acquaintances into sexual slavery
● some more specific situations that may result in conditions of slavery include domestic workers
kept in captivity, forced marriage, child soldiers or the adoption of children who are effectively
forced to work as slaves.

3 Outline the international responses to human trafficking, including reference to the purpose
of the main treaties.

Students could discuss any of the following:

● the Slavery Convention of 1926 and the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the
Slave Trade and Practices Similar to Slavery of 1956

3
● the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children,
which entered into force in 2003, was the first legally binding instrument with an agreed
definition on human trafficking, and was designed to provide an umbrella of overall protection,
outlining an appropriate regime of protection, prosecution and prevention in order to effectively
and more uniformly combat human trafficking
● the UN’s Global Report on Trafficking in Persons
● the UN has established a Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) to mobilise non-
state actors to help combat human trafficking
● the ILO also plays a crucial role in implementing and reporting on workers’ rights worldwide, and
has campaigned ceaselessly against forced labour
● in 2001, the ILO established a Special Action Programme on Forced Labour to attempt to raise
global awareness of forced labour in its different forms.

4 Describe some of the non-legal responses to the issue of human trafficking.

Any of the following points could be discussed:

● NGOs play an extremely important role in combating human rights abuses by reporting on and
exposing abuses, researching and informing the public and governments on incidents and
patterns of abuse, or working to combat causes, incidents of or effects of abuse
● some examples include Anti-Slavery International or the American Anti-Slavery Group
● the media plays a role in informing the public about the existence and nature of modern slavery
internationally or domestically
● films, books and documentaries have also played an important role, for example the 2006 SBS
documentary ‘Trafficked’
● Australian universities are also crucial in researching and reporting on trends in human
trafficking in Australia, and collaborating with government agencies and community groups.

5 Critically evaluate the effectiveness of legal and non-legal responses to the issue of human
trafficking and contemporary slavery.

Some of the points that students could raise include:

● the main factors in preventing human trafficking include:
o limited resources or effectiveness of developing states to combat forms of exploitation and
transnational crime
o socio-political and economic factors that underpin the movement of people from one place
to another
● in a globalised economic system there is an increased demand for all types of labour, legal and
illegal, and this demand is exploited by criminal organisations
● poverty in source countries, combined with a lack of education and the rule of law, can contribute
to the vulnerability of victims and the success of recruiters’ coercive or deceitful techniques
● the implementation and enforcement of treaties and laws is up to national governments, and
some may be unwilling or unable to tackle the problem
● reporting mechanisms such as the annual US Trafficking in Persons Report
● the work of the UN, ILO and NGOs.

4
5