Today is the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, established by the United Nations to raise awareness and bring everyone together around the key issues of prevention, protection, and prosecution for human trafficking. The act of human trafficking is a crime which involves the exploitation of children, women, and men for various purposes, the two main being: forced labour and sex. Twenty-one million people globally are victims of forced labour, as estimated by the International Labour Organisation.
The trafficking of persons is a grave human rights violation and amongst the most difficult global challenges to address. However, the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda embraced various goals and targets on trafficking in persons. There are three goals in particular that aim to tackle address human trafficking. The first, SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, applies because women and girls encompass the clear majority of detected victims for sex trafficking. SDG 8: Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all; and SDG 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels; are the other two goals. SDG 8 drives attention to the need of creating more stable, well-paid jobs to address the disparity between the very high level of poverty concerning almost half the world’s population. SDG 16, states that although basic laws to address human trafficking are in place in most countries, the conviction rates remain very low, and in turn create a high profit low risk industry.
To address forced labour in the hospitality industry, The Shiva Foundation, founded by the Shiva Hotels group created a dynamic model to tackle and prevent human trafficking and modern slavery across the sector by facilitating a more collaborative, systemic approach to making change. Earlier this year they launched a set of assets specifically for hoteliers. To find out more about what your business can do, please get in touch.