Human Trafficking In Australia

Human Trafficking is defined in Article 3 of the United Nations (UN’s) Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a 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.”

The offence of human trafficking often encompasses multiple nations and by extension, multiple jurisdictions. This has created a complex issue that can’t be solved by the actions of one jurisdiction or country.

The offences are applicable to Australians citizens and permanent residents overseas engaging in sexual activity with children and the distribution of child pornography outside of Australia. Changes were made after revelations of child sex tourism in neighbouring developing nations such as Indonesia, Cambodia, and Thailand had grown exponentially and were becoming popular destination for convicted Australian child sex offenders. Recently, a man was charged with child sexual abuse in a joint collaboration between the AFP and Indonesian authorities after one of the man’s daughters had revealed that she was afraid that her sister was being molested by her father. The children now reside with their grandparents in Australia. Australia is one of only 16 nations in the world who have such laws enabling these arrests to

However, these conventions set out no clear means of evaluating and monitoring human rights abuses and no universal set of laws were outlined that would eradicate slavery on an international scale. It wasn’t until after the end of World War II, and the establishment of the United Nations, were stronger multilateral treaties signed with greater means of preventing multinational offences. Until 2007, the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery provided evidence of human rights violations. The group was disbanded and replaced by a Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, whom is appointed by the Human Rights Council. A Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons was deemed the most appropriate mechanism to combat slavery and human trafficking in contemporary settings. Actions in states such as education and support for governments legislating and enforcing aforementioned laws prevents marginalised and destitute populations from being trafficked to destination