how to write a speech about human trafficking

United Nations

Office on drugs and crime, yury fedotov.

Director General/Executive Director

Remarks at the Opening session UN General Assembly Interactive Dialogue "Fighting Human Trafficking: Partnership and Innovation to End Violence against Women and Children"

Mr. President,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am extremely pleased to address this high level meeting at the General Assembly Interactive Dialogue on the issue of "Fighting Human Trafficking: Partnership and Innovation to End Violence against Women and Children."

Indeed, this is a challenge of extraordinary proportions. US$32 billion is being earned by unscrupulous criminals running human trafficking  networks every year.

At any one time, 2.4 million people suffer the misery of this humiliating and degrading crime.

Of the individuals trafficked each year, 17 per cent are trafficked for the purposes of forced labour, while 80 per cent are trafficked for sexual exploitation.

Children, women, migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons, are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking.

The international community also needs to be aware that the conditions for human trafficking, as with other crimes, are heightened by conflict and the lack of security.

Human trafficking is also an issue of economic and social development. However, this crime is not simply the symptom of a fragile or poor country, it occurs in every region; irrespective of the size of the GDP.

Due to the multifaceted nature of human trafficking, and its close connections with other transnational issues, no country is capable of combating this transnational threat on its own.

This global threat, therefore, requires a coordinated and meaningful response at all levels: local, regional and international.

The foundation for these activities must be the Palermo Convention on Transnational Organized Crime, including its protocol on human trafficking.

Our approach needs to balance progressive and proactive law enforcement with activities that combat the market forces driving human trafficking in many destination countries.

With very few victims being detected when it most matters, we must work closely with enforcement bodies to increase the risks of arrest, trial and imprisonment for traffickers.

In contesting the market forces, we must also raise awareness of this issue at the national and international levels, but especially in communities.

To achieve this, we are forging partnerships and empowering key groups within societies, particularly, women, young people and the private sector.

Women must receive our fullest support. Two out of every three victims of this crime are women.

Around 7 individuals every hour are trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation in Europe.

Far too often, women and young girls are the victims of the trafficking and the physical, psychological, and economic violence that accompanies it.  We must stop this.

This means working with every link in the criminal justice chain to promote sensitivity and understanding of violent crime and how it targets women.

Complementing this approach, we must design advocacy campaigns capable of educating people about human trafficking and its violence.

Young people everywhere must also be engaged by these activities. We need to help them channel their passion and dedication into the movement to eradicate this crime.

The private sector has an ability to support local communities and encourage best practices.

It is especially important that human trafficking is addressed through the supply chains of the private sector. The United Nations stands ready to assist in this matter.

All of our activities must be based on the strong political commitment of the international community as well as an inter-agency, multi-stakeholder strategy.

There has been significant progress through the work of the United Nations' Inter-Agency Coordination Group and the Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking. But, we must work harder.

In 2010, the UN adopted the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons. Under this plan, a UN Voluntary Trust Fund was established to provide critical aid to those victimized by this crime.

The Trust Fund has already provided funding to support grass-roots NGOs working directly with the survivors of human trafficking.

Since the Trust Fund was created, around US$1,000,000 has been pledged, with around US$470,000 contributed. In the first tranche, awards of up to US$25,000 were given to 11 NGO's.

The funding supported the provision of educational, medical and psychosocial assistance to child victims of trafficking in Cambodia; assisted victims in Albania through a reintegration program, and supported a Nepalese NGO almost entirely staffed by the survivors of human trafficking.

However, there are still significant amounts outstanding. For example, just three countries pledged a total of US$460,000. An amount that has yet to be sent to the Trust Fund.

I call on all countries to assist our project development by sending these outstanding funds as quickly as possible.

We have the partnerships, we have the necessary innovation, we must now bring this shameful crime to an end.

I call on all Member States to assist and to make sure that we can align your vision to our practical support for the victims of human trafficking.

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• Speech on Child Trafficking

Long and Short Speech on Child Trafficking

Child trafficking is one of the most serious problems that no part of the world is safe from. Across the globe, child trafficking is a part of the problem of a bigger one is Human Trafficking. This article attempts to explain human trafficking meaning in English. Trafficking is done by luring children and young adults, who are often on the lookout for a better opportunity than their actual living situation. Those trafficked are then compelled to many forms of labour, sexual slavery and exploited for forced marriages, extraction of organs etc. In this speech on trafficking, we have provided a Long Speech On Child Trafficking as well as a Short Speech on Child Trafficking.

Introduction to Child Trafficking

Child trafficking is linked to a desire for limited labor, particularly in places where working conditions are poor. Slavery, domestic labor, sexual exploitation or prostitution, drug couriering, and/or turning children into child soldiers are some of the dangerous and illegal scenarios in which children may be forced.

When children are taken from their homes and exploited, this is known as child trafficking. Children who have been trafficked are often forced to work, used for prostitution, or just sold.

Long Speech on Child Trafficking 1

This form of human trafficking speech is useful for students in higher grades 8-12 where they can delve into details and speak about the situation in a panoramic manner.

Greetings to everyone, I Abc (mention your name) feel honoured to have the opportunity and platform to speak on such an important issue that everyone needs to be aware and wary of. Let us understand human trafficking meaning in English. Trafficking refers to the act of the doer that is the traffickers who mostly are men and in some cases, women as well. They lure their victims who are especially women, and young children using varying deceptive techniques. Deception via charm and lies and promising them better opportunities in life to make more money, etc. When this form of abuse of power and exploitation is done to children and kids, it is called child trafficking. 

These young children who place their trust in dangerous strangers are trafficked and find themselves helpless in the most difficult situations where they cannot even get out of. The rate of this serious crime and violation of human rights, where every year the number of victims falling prey and being trafficked in their home country and abroad is only alarmingly rising. 

Trafficking happens because of poverty, lack of social opportunities, oppression, and lack of economic opportunities. They want to break the cycle of poverty and be free but these conflicts and instability in life make them the victims of such heinous crimes as they are trafficked to even worse conditions, with unhygienic sanitation and no healthcare.

The drive of humans to fulfil their own selfish needs has taken such an ugly turn that even children are not spared. And most of these trafficked children are girls. Nearly ⅔ rd of the trafficked children are girls. They are then forced into many illegal activities like child labour which is otherwise considered a punishable offence. They practice this in remote areas where this offence cannot even be reported as people are unaware of it. Not only that but they are also forced to marry much older men who treat them as sex slaves. Young girls are also forced into prostitution that is a violation of human rights. They are also often used for extracting organs and selling them to make money.

At such a tender age, these children suffer unimaginable pain, they become a victim of multiple pregnancies, and many also suffer from sexually transmitted diseases, and they also lose their lives more often as their bodies are unable to bear so much trauma. 

The most chilling part of this practice is how strategic and organised the perpetrators who carry out this mission are. Once the victim falls prey they are trapped and overnight transported to another region, state or country where they know no one to ask for help and hence they suffer.

Some organisations are fighting against trafficking and taking action to provide a home and take care of victims who somehow managed to get out of it. But this is a long fight and there aren’t enough organisations fighting for it. UNICEF, which is the United Nations Children's Fund, is a Humanitarian Aid Organisation that works on a global level to provide a rehabilitation centre for such children.

Long Speech on Child Trafficking 2

Good morning everyone! Today I am here to address a very serious issue called Child Trafficking. 

We discuss educational reforms, child labor, children's rights, and the future of children. However, the only thing we don't do is act. We often see children begging or selling something at traffic signals, working in stores, and even coming to and working in our houses, but we prefer to remain silent observers.

Today's issue is that we talk and believe that our work is done. This is why, despite our best efforts, we have yet to eradicate anything as serious as child trafficking. Every year, millions of children in our country are forced into prostitution, organ trafficking, slavery, and terrorism. These children are kept in a desolate environment and are subjected to dangerous and hazardous situations.

The majority of the time, kids are not properly fed. This is the India we are giving down to our children after 70 years of independence. There is one group of children who are afraid to move around or play because no one knows what will happen to them next, and another group of children that is created by their own parents to do business in order to survive and fight hunger.

Some blame poverty, some blame unemployment, others still blame illiteracy, and others blame moral degradation. However, I believe that there is no single reason for this inhumane act and that they are all connected and lead to one another.

Now is the moment to stop waiting for others or the government to act and start seeing things for ourselves! We need to awaken our consciousness rather than just talking about it for a while and then forgetting about it. You may not be able to change the entire world on your own, but you may be the turning point by encouraging others to contribute.

Thinking about issues, discussing them, and obtaining opinions are all important aspects of raising awareness and better understanding the situations. However, we need to go beyond discussing and take the necessary treatment steps.

Short Speech on Child Trafficking

This type of speech is helpful for students in grades 4-7 where they can understand such a complex topic in simple terms and a short time.

Hello everyone, I XYZ (mention your name) feel fortunate to have the opportunity to speak on a topical matter that is child trafficking. Child trafficking is a way of seizing children from their families and their opportunities to lead a normal life by violating basic human rights.

Children who are born into poverty, in low-income families and areas and are oppressed. The families with a long downtrodden line of poverty are more likely to fall prey to this serious crime. As the families try to cope up with their limitations of lack of proper education and better economic opportunities, traffickers come along and promise their families of giving money. In return, they ask for their children to be sent off work so they can lead better lives.

The traffickers can be men and women. Both use deceit as their weapon of choice. The children are trafficked into worse conditions and are forced into illegal activities like labour, making them work in factories and industries in unhygienic environments. Girls are forcefully married or traded into prostitution, it is called commercial trafficking. It leads to multiple pregnancies in young girls, and they may lose their lives. Apart from this, the children are used for the extraction of organs. 

There are a few organisations that carry out rescue missions to protect the children from labour and sexual exploitation, for example, Avani in Mumbai, Her Choices Trust in Hyderabad, and Faith Foundation in Shillong. These are Non-Government Organizations, and the financial support they acquire is also limited, but they still manage to provide the necessary rehabilitation resources.

10 Line Speech on Child Trafficking

This form of speech is easy to understand and convey the meaning to the students in grades 1-3 in a simple manner.

Child trafficking is an illegal act committed by violating the basic human rights of an individual.

Children fall prey to the lure offered by traffickers because they are naive and don’t know right from wrong.

About ⅔ rd of the children trafficked are girls, and they are mostly from rural parts of the country and the world.

These children are forced into labour, are sexually exploited, become victims of organs extractions and abusive marriages.

The children often lose their lives due to trauma that is physical and mental as well.

No part of the world is free from this heinous and serious crime.

There aren’t enough and stricter laws to punish the offender, and therefore the rates are only increasing every year.

Few organisations carry out rescue missions to support the children and provide a better and safer environment to live and grow.

These organisations are often Non-Governmental Organisations, so we can stop this crime by supporting them financially.

The better way to stop these crimes is by educating the families and communities in rural as well as urban areas and having stricter laws.

FAQs on Speech on Child Trafficking

1. What is child trafficking?

Human trafficking includes child trafficking. Kidnapping a child for adoption, exploitation, forced labor, or slavery is for the purpose of recruiting, transportation, exchange, harbouring, or receiving the child. Slavery in the modern era takes many forms, one of which is child trafficking. This practice enslaves children to provide cheap labor, to work in dangerous conditions, to engage in criminal activities, to work as domestic laborers, to be compelled to smuggle drugs, to be child soldiers, and to engage in prostitution; to name a few examples.

2. What are the examples of child trafficking?

Bonded labor, child domestic labor, camel jockeying, drug transporting, physical exploitation for economic objectives, slavery practices in the informal industrial sector, and serving in brothels are all examples of child trafficking. The victim's health is harmed, and the torture can result in the child's death.

3. What are the causes of child trafficking?

Poverty, a lack of education, and the need to financially support their family are some fundamental causes of child trafficking in India. Aside from that, there are not many financial opportunities. When youngsters are allowed to labor, they are more likely to be exploited. Poor children are frequently forced to trade sex for a place to live or food. Some parents have been compelled to sell their children to human traffickers to escape poverty or pay off debts. Gangs frequently traffic children and force them to beg on the streets. One of the most common causes of child trafficking is child marriage.

4. What are the effects of child trafficking?

Child exploitation and trafficking have severe social and psychological effects. Children are frequently traded as commodities. These child trafficking organizations are part of a multibillion-dollar industry that operates with virtual impunity in many cases. Children are trafficked for commercial sex work, pornography, and other forms of child labor. A single child can be sold into many child slavery arrangements.

Speech on Human Trafficking - unknown date

I feel very privileged to be with you all tonight to discuss how together we can stop the appalling scandal of human trafficking. I also feel a little over-awed to be sharing a platform with two people who deserve huge credit for the new urgency in combating this terrible crime.

Through their determined efforts, Antonio and Steve have helped intensify Government action against trafficking around the world – and mobilised public opinion to ensure Governments keep their promises.

I am well aware in comparison that I am no expert. But as all of you who know Steve can testify, when he asks you to do something it is very hard – actually impossible - to say no.

I suppose we should all be grateful he found his vocation - otherwise he would have a made a world class double glazing salesman.

So I thought it best tonight if I talked about something I do a little about which is how by fighting to ensure these rights are spread across the world we can help combat trafficking.

For those who don’t know my background, I come to the issue of trafficking through my work as a British lawyer specialising in human rights and my personal determination to do all I can to remove the barriers blocking the progress of women.

There is, of course, no more basic human right than freedom from slavery. Indeed it can lay claim to be the very first human right recognised by international law.

Britain outlawed the Atlantic Slave Trade just over two hundred years ago followed by an outright ban on slavery throughout the Empire. These actions have been followed, in the last two centuries, by something like eighty international conventions and documents aimed at stopping the vile practice of slavery and its modern form of trafficking. They clearly demonstrate the world’s revulsion at this inhumanity. They also underline the limits of the law in stopping trafficking.

International law may make clear that those responsible for enslavement are guilty of a crime against humanity and are viewed as enemies of all people. The appallingness of their crimes, in fact, put them beyond the protection of any individual country and make them liable - like the torturer – to arrest and prosecution by the international criminal court. But it is a mark of just how profitable is this evil trade and the difficulty of enforcing the law that the trafficking and ownership of human beings continues on a huge and shameful scale.

I have no doubt that William Wilberforce and his fellow campaigners would be both shocked and appalled if he knew of the staggering statistics of slavery so many years after his death. Millions of people are still tricked or forced from their communities to be exploited and abused. At any one time, it is estimated that over 2.5 million are recruited, entrapped, transported and exploited within in forced labour as a result of trafficking within countries or between them. 1

This trade in all in its many forms nets an estimated $32 billion dollars2 each year for the traffickers according to the International Labour Organisation and United Nations. They estimate that US $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.

And as Antonio through his fantastic work at the UN can tell you much better than me, human trafficking knows no boundaries. Almost every country in the world is affected, either as a source, transit or destination for victims. But there is a danger that this very scale numbs our response or drives us into despair.

That is why it is important we all listen to the tragic individual stories of the victims. It is these stories which are so important and demand our anger and our action. It is these accounts of hopes crushed and lives ruined which must shake us out of our lethargy and despair.

And time and time again, it is the female voices we hear. This should be no surprise. Women and girls, of course, make up the overwhelming majority of victims trafficked for sex. Their destinations include cities and towns up and down the UK and around the world.

A recent investigation by the Guardian newspaper showed the heart-breaking fate of hundreds of Chinese girls, some as young as 11, brought to the UK where their dreams of a better life ended in brothels in our communities. Similar stories could be told about too many communities in too many countries in our world.

But women and girls are also the majority, according to the ILO, of those economically exploited in other ways, in sweatshops or as domestic servants.

Trafficking, like poverty, discrimination and abuse of human rights, wears a women’s face. Indeed they are strongly related. It is the prejudice which women face in many parts of the world, their lack of rights and control over their own lives which helps create the conditions where trafficking can flourish. Women – and children – are the key target group of the traffickers exactly because of their marginalisation, their poverty and their exclusion from employment and educational opportunities.

It is why we must see the urgent need to step up efforts to combat trafficking as part of the wider battle for human rights and those in particular of women.

And this is also timely. For along with the recent celebration of the 200th anniversary of the ending of the transatlantic slave trade, we have recently marked another very significant anniversary.

Sixty years ago, the international community agreed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was a remarkable response to the horrors of the Holocaust and the Second World War and signalled a determination to build a better world. Drawn up by experts from across the world, led by the inimitable Eleanor Roosevelt, it set out clearly the basic rights which belong to us all, whatever our background and whatever our country, simply because of our common humanity. Adopted in December 1948 by the founding members of the United Nations, it was a huge step forward for the world. It proudly proclaimed in Article 4 that “no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave shall be prohibited in all their forms”.

But just as Wilberforce would be shocked to see the size of the modern day slave trade, so the authors of the Declaration would, I believe, be appalled that their ambitions were so far from realisation. Across the world, there are still tens of millions living in fear and hunger, denied even the most basic rights.

And while both men and women suffer from this denial of the basic dignity of life, the facts show that women are particularly badly affected. Seventy per cent of the world’s poor are female, according to the United Nations. Two out of three illiterate adults are women3. Less than two per cent of titled land in the developing world is owned by women.4 Half a million women a year die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth5.

The discrimination which women suffer can be seen in many forms from the cradle to the grave. You see it in the cultures which encourage families to value boys which can lead to abortions or even infanticide of baby girls. In those societies which limit educational opportunities for girls, forcing them to remain trapped inside the home instead of preparing them for a life outside the home. You see it, too, in child brides, in forced marriages and in the many societies which turn a blind eye to domestic violence. And it exists as well in the plight of widows in India and other countries who are pushed to the very fringes of society, denied the right to inherit their husband’s assets.

Gender gaps vary from place to place, but the overall pattern of women’s disadvantage remains clear - and women around the world know it. A woman in a Nairobi slum summed it up when asked by a development worker what event she would change in her life if she could, she replied “I would be born a man”.

It is in these conditions that traffickers select their victims and peddle their lies. By reinforcing a culture where women and girls are seen as commodities or possessions and lacking the worth of their male counterparts, they help create the conditions where this trade can flourish.

So by taking steps to root out these prejudices and practices, we can help combat trafficking, increase real choices for women and, importantly, improve the wealth and health of their societies.

We need to improve access to education to increase their opportunities and limit their vulnerability to the false promises of the traffickers. The benefits of educating girls go, of course, far further than this. It is simply the best investment, as repeated studies have shown, that any country can make. It is directly linked to higher economic productivity, better health, lower infant mortality, higher returns on investment, even higher agricultural yields.

So enabling girls to be educated to at least secondary level does more than open up new opportunities and choices for them. It also creates a more prosperous country, combating the poverty which makes the promises of the traffickers so difficult to resist. Education is not the answer to everything, as it must be linked to job opportunities and equality in all areas. But it is one of the key elements in a strategy to reduce human trafficking.

By educating girls we will also give them a stronger voice within their communities, giving them more power over decisions at local and national level. We have a long way to go. There are still five men, for example, for every woman elected to the world’s parliaments. But the greater the say women have over decision-making, the more progress there will be in bringing in policies and changing attitudes which contribute to the vulnerability of women being trafficked. This is something specifically recognised by UN.GIFT.

I am delighted to have been asked to play a part in its new Women Leaders’ Council. The aim is to help push forward the agenda on women’s rights and to provide a resource for advice and mentoring for women around the world to help combat trafficking. If women have more political clout, it will help, for example, step up efforts to tackle violence and abuse in the home.

It is a sad fact that research has found that majority of girls and women who have been trafficked into Europe were abused as children either by their family or in their local community6. Their lack of self-worth and desperation to leave makes them easy prey for the traffickers and their local spotters.

We need to create a culture where people no longer stay silent about the abuse they are suffering and where the legal systems take such violence seriously. For if violence and sexual abuse in the home or community is tolerated, it is easier for men to see women as commodities and accept them being bought and sold.

It may seem that changing the culture on domestic violence is an impossible challenge. But we must remember how attitudes here in the UK have been transformed inside three decades. When I started practising as a young barrister some 30 years ago, it was clear that neither the police nor courts took domestic violence as seriously as they took attacks on strangers. It was a reflection of views in society as a whole that what went on behind closed doors within families was not the business of anyone else. Now the authorities and society see such domestic violence as the cowardly, despicable crime it is.

If we can see such a transformation in attitudes in the UK and in many other countries in such a short time, we can see it elsewhere. Even in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has perhaps the worst record of sexual violence in the world, slowly the culture is being changed. Courageous women helped by grass-roots groups and with outside legal advice, are now standing up to help bring their attackers to justice. UN officials say the number of rapes, though still appalling high, had begun to come down before the latest outbreak of fighting and appalling brutality.

And by giving women more protection over their own bodies, it will also help reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS which is having such devastating impact on many countries in the developing world.

It is, of course, far harder to root out violence in the home or community if violence is all around as is the case in the DRC. And the sad fact is that many of the countries which provide the main source of victims are scarred by conflict, ethnic tensions and civil war. It is these conflicts and the increased poverty and despair they bring which lead to many seeking a better life elsewhere whatever the risks. Conflict leads a legacy of lawlessness, of destruction, of economic instability and of rising numbers of orphans and widows. It also leads to violence being seen as the norm where rape and abuse are commonplace and where the breakdown of society means the attackers are unlikely to face any sanction. Such sexual violence has, as we have seen across the world, become institutionalised with girls and women taken captive to serve as sex slaves – as well, of course, as being coerced into fighting.

Trafficking within borders is just as evil and just as damaging as that which crosses continents or national borders. So we need to step up efforts to tackle the source of these conflicts which lead to such increases in violence, to mass migration and economic misery.

The reality is, of course, that we are not going to stop migration. It is important for the prosperity of many destination countries just as many of the source countries depend on the money sent back from abroad. We must work within our own countries to improve protections for migrants and particularly for women who are far more likely to work on the margins of society.

As Radhika Coomaraswamy, former UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women has pointed out traffickers fish in the stream of migration “preying on the most vulnerable to supply to the most exploitative, hazardous and inhuman forms of work”. This must involve more than increased action against the criminals behind this trade and exploitation.

We must also offer more support to the victims including protection schemes, safe houses and assistance schemes. We must remember that they are not criminals but victims of an appalling crime. They deserve and need our sympathy and help, not our condemnation. Where they are returning to their own countries, we must ensure they can return in safety with dignity and support to reduce the risk of them falling prey again to the traffickers which has happened too many times in the past.

Many countries in recent years have taken major steps to putting in place sensitive assistance schemes but there is more to be done. There is also a great deal more to do both at national and international level to crack down on trafficking, to free those held in modern day slavery and to bring those responsible to justice.

We now, in general, have the international agreements and domestic laws in place. Well over 100 countries including the UK have now signed and ratified the UN Trafficking Protocol which calls for co-operation and action to prevent, suppress and punishing human trafficking. The International Criminal Court has also made clear that it regards enslavement as one of the serious offences which will warrant investigation and prosecution.

We can also take heart from the recent landmark judgement by the Court of Justice in West Africa which remains one of the strongholds of slavery. The Court in October ordered the Government of Niger to pay compensation to Hadijatou Mani for failing to protect her from slavery. At the age of 12, Hadijatou was sold, like hundreds of thousands of others in the region, to a master. The historic decision of the court was a strong message to other Governments in the area that they must eradicate this evil in their midst – giving hope of overdue at last to their citizens.

In the UK, too, we have seen significant steps with the creation of the Human Trafficking Centre to improve co-ordination. This is linked to a national action plan to combat human trafficking in all its forms.

We now need to see the political will and the commitment of the police and other authorities in time and resources to use the weapons now at their disposal. But we also have to step up our efforts to tackle global poverty and conflict and the prejudice and practices which prevent women playing their full role in their societies and provide the climate in which the traffickers can operate successfully.

Our response to the appalling misery in our midst must not simply be sympathy for the victim. It must be indignation that such evil still exists. The indignation which fuelled Wilberforce and his fellow campaigners’ long battle against the vested interests whose wealth depended upon enslaving fellow human beings.

The transatlantic slave trade was abolished, as Kofi Annan said during the 200th anniversary celebrations, because thousands of people took personal responsibility for what was happening around them. Appealing for a similar campaign in the 21st century, he said: “We must approach today's abuses in the same spirit -- each of us seeking, not to blame somebody else, but to think what we can do to hasten their end. There is no evil so entrenched that it cannot be eradicated. Inspired by the abolitionists of two centuries ago, let us fight against exploitation and oppression and stand up for freedom and human dignity.”

The former UN Secretary-General rallying call should inspire us all. Our response to the scale of this crime and the depth of its depravity in the 21st century should not be despair but anger. We must show the same resilience and passion for our cause as William Wilberforce and his fellow campaigners. No matter how many disappointments and defeats – and there were many- they suffered, they never gave up, never stopped campaigning, educating and changing attitudes.

We need to mobilise public opinion in all our countries to see the legislation, domestic and international, is enforced. Trafficking is not something happening somewhere else. It is happening in every community, in our streets, on our doorsteps.

We will only succeed in rooting out this misery and menace when we stand up and are counted. When, in fact, the fight to end trafficking in our fellow human beings becomes a mass movement demanding change.

This is exactly the goal of STOP THE TRAFFIK – a global movement yes but one rooted, above all, in community action – which I am proud to support. There could be no more fitting tribute to the brave campaigners of history or the authors of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights than for you and I to step up our efforts to tackle trafficking.

Our goal must be to build a world in which everyone, men, women and children, are free, safe and have the chance to prosper.

And if we work hard enough, we can achieve it. Thank you.

1 Source : Global Report, ILO, 2005

2 Source : Global Report, ILO, 2005

3 UNESCO Institute for Statistics 2005

4 International Finance Corporation…Gender Equal Land Laws

5 UNICEF 2008

6 Cathy Zimmermann and others, Stolen Smiles; A summary report on the Physical and Psychological Health Consequences of Women and Adolescents Trafficked in Europe (London School of Medicine and Tropical Medicine. 2006)

Neither the Catt Center nor Iowa State University is affiliated with any individual in the Archives or any political party. Inclusion in the Archives is not an endorsement by the center or the university.

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His Eminence Pietro Cardinal Parolin Secretary of State of the Holy See Head of the Delegation of the Holy See to the Seventy-Fourth Session of the United Nations General Assembly   Fifth Ministerial Breakfast Meeting of the Group of Friends United Against Human Trafficking   New York Marriott East Side, Manhattan 26 September 2019   IMG

Your Excellencies, Distinguished Ministers and Panelists, Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,   I would like to express the sincere greetings of Pope Francis to the Member States comprising the Group of Friends United Against Human Trafficking as well as his gratitude for this Ministerial Meeting, as we focus together on one of the darkest and most revolting realities in the world today, ensnaring 41 million men and women, boys and girls.   Human trafficking is, as Pope Francis has repeatedly stressed, “an open wound on the body of contemporary society,” a “crime against humanity,” and an “atrocious scourge that is present throughout the world on a broad scale.” It is a global phenomenon, he has added, that “exceeds the competence of any one community or country. In order to eliminate it, we need a mobilization comparable in size to that of the phenomenon itself.”   The international community has indeed mobilized. There is the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, which entered into force in 2003; the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons; targets 5.2, 8.7 and 16.2 in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that commit us to eradicate forced labor, end modern slavery and human trafficking; and Security Council Resolution 2331. There are also various UN entities that have brought their infrastructure, leadership and expertise to the fight, like the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the International Labour Organization, the twenty other agencies in the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons, and United Nations University. Various Member States have, moreover, formed coalitions, like the 20 countries that comprise the Group of Friends United against Human Trafficking, or the 22 countries and 217 organizational partners involved in Alliance 8.7. These are all important signs of progress for which we must be grateful.   At the same time, we must state with candor, compunction and conviction that this mobilization has not been comparable in size to that of metastasizing cancer of human trafficking. Despite a clearer recognition of the dimensions of the problem, the resources needed to respond to it, and the commitment of governments, institutions and individuals to combat it, the number of those enslaved continues to grow. As Pope Francis said during his address to the General Assembly four years ago, “Solemn commitments,” although necessary, “are not enough.” We must ensure, he underlined, that our efforts are “truly effective in the struggle against” “human trafficking, the marketing of human organs and tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labor, including prostitution,” and other evils.1 Our efforts until now have not been anywhere near as effective as they need to be. For the sake of those presently subjugated, the international community — as well as individual and regional governments at all levels, non-governmental organizations and individuals — must do much better.   We must do better to prevent trafficking in persons by addressing what drives it. There has been significant progress in identifying and addressing many of the social, economic, cultural, political factors that make people vulnerable to human trafficking, in formulating comprehensive policies and programs, and in developing educational and awareness-raising campaigns. At the same time, however, several of the drivers of vulnerability have worsened, like armed conflicts and forced migration. Also there is a need for an honest and courageous examination of the cultural and ethical factors that augment the market demand to exploit other human beings, like the avarice that drives forced labor and the practices like pornography and prostitution that foster sexually addictive behavior and the commodification of other persons as objects of gratification.   We must do better to protect and assist victims. Thankfully, there is now greater awareness and legal recognition that those entrapped in modern slavery are indeed victims rather than “silent partners” or, even worse, criminals. More services are in place to identify and liberate victims, regularize their situation and put them on the path to recovery. Because of the deep traumas suffered, however, there is need for greater recognition that the work of rehabilitation cannot be a brief program but requires a long-term investment to provide the healing and training necessary for the victims to begin a normal, productive and autonomous life. That investment must include a considerable expansion in the amount of residential treatment facilities.   We must do better to prosecute those involved in the crime of trafficking. While there have been various advances in formulating adequate legal instruments to investigate, prosecute and punish traffickers, in unlocking the financial chains, understanding the connection to other forms of organized crime and corruption, and fostering cooperation at and across borders, there is, as we all know, still very few convictions, as the 2018 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons makes clear.2 Most traffickers still operate with impunity. Much greater sophistication and resources are required.   Finally, we must also do better to promote partnerships among governmental institutions, the private sector, academic institutions, the media, civil society, and faith-based organizations to eradicate trafficking and rehabilitate survivors.3 Here I would like to mention two such worldwide partnerships that have arisen within the Catholic Church. The first is the Santa Marta Group, an international alliance of police chiefs and bishops working together, at all levels, to promote coordination between law enforcement and faith-based organizations in combatting human trafficking according to the specific competencies of each. The second is the Talitha Kum, a network of Catholic religious sisters founded ten years ago, which coordinates 22 regional associations of sisters in 77 countries on five continents. The Talitha Kum sisters coordinate with many other stakeholders where they are to help victims of sex or labor trafficking be emancipated, rehabilitated and reintegrated.   Earlier this year, the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development published some “Pastoral Orientations on Human Trafficking” to guide and strengthen the work of the Catholic Church across the globe in the fight against this scourge.4 It illustrates various aspects of the approach that the Catholic Church is trying to take at the grassroots level worldwide. I would humbly recommend it to you as a resource in view of strengthening partnerships with ecclesial institutions in this global fight.   Your Excellencies, Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,   The only adequate response to the global phenomenon of human trafficking is a worldwide mobilization of fraternity, solidarity, and commitment capable of remedying the globalization of indifference in which human trafficking thrives. Those enslaved are desperate for our efforts to be commensurate to the challenge. Let us not let them down, by building on the progress we have made and urgently translating our words into action.   Thank you very much.    

1. Meeting with the Members of the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization, 25 September 2015.  

2. 2018 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, p. 23.

3. Political Declaration on the Implementation of the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, paragraph 24.

4.  Pastoral Orientations on Human Trafficking , Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, 2019.

Speech on Child Trafficking for Students and Children

Table of Contents

Speech on Child Trafficking: Child trafficking is one of the grave issues that the whole world is dealing with. Then, how can we as responsible global citizens should just take a back seat on this and do nothing, but retrospect? It’s high time that we unleash the power of language or words to influence the world and call for strict measures from the government. Child trafficking stands as one of the unique speech topics that demands urgent attention, shedding light on the harrowing realities faced by vulnerable children worldwide and urging collective action to safeguard their rights and future

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Besides, you can prepare a thought provoking speech on child trafficking, invite people’s opinion and create a stir in society. If you do not know how to begin with the speech on child trafficking and are struggling with words, then we are here to help you! Our both short speech on child trafficking and long speech on child trafficking are comprehensive, easy to understand yet impressive enough to move your audience. So do not wait more and sensitize people on this issue as much as you can in order to save the lives of young, innocent children from the abuses of society.

Long and Short Speech on Child Trafficking

Short speech on child trafficking 450 words.

Greetings of the Day Everyone – I welcome you all to today’s speech ceremony!

I, Pranav Kaushik, your host for today would like to deliver a speech on one of the most burning issues that our country and in fact the whole world is grappling with, i.e. Child Trafficking. First of all, let me know how many of you are aware about child trafficking? Trafficking of children, also known as Child Exploitation and Child Labor, implies the “transportation, recruitment, harboring, transfer and/or receipt” of a child for forced labor, slavery and exploitation.

We keep our children protected from every evil eye, but imagine what happen to those children who are orphans or are left destitute at such a tender age when they don’t even learn to walk properly. I am sure we all come across many such children on the roadside in tattered clothes begging for money and food. Do we not get moved by the pitiful condition of such small children when instead of going to school and enjoying their childhood, they are pushed on the roadside for begging? How many of us actually go out and take pro-active measures towards picking them from the roadside or helping them in their education? Rarely does it happen, right!

I therefore consider it appropriate to raise this issue today here and sensitize as much as people possible about this forced labor because the small children that we see begging on road are often the victim of child trafficking. Let’s now understand how many types of child trafficking actually exist!

• Forced Labor
• Child Begging
• Sexual Exploitation
• Children in Drug Trades

Forced Labor – It is often the aim behind child trafficking. Child labor particularly refers to children who are generally 14 at the lowest and are meant to work. Child labor in India gets manifested in various forms, such as work in farms, domestic servitude, manufacturing industries, etc. Besides, many children are made to forcefully perform cheap and controllable labor and work in farms, homes, restaurants, factories, including much more.

Child Begging – Child begging when done forcefully is a situation wherein both boys and girls below the age of 18 are compelled to beg through physical and psychological coercion. It is defined as an act of asking for money as charity on the road.

Sexual Exploitation – As per the International Labor Organization, child sexual abuse consists of the below mentioned activities and practices:

• “The trafficking of girls and boys and adolescents for the sex trade”
• “The use of children in sex shows (public or private)”
• “The use of boys and girls in sexual activities remunerated in cash or in kind (commonly defined as child prostitution) in the streets or indoors, in such places as brothels, massage parlors, discotheques, hotels, bars, restaurants, etc.”
• “The production, promotion and distribution of pornography involving children”
• “Child sex tourism”

Children in Drug Trades – Children are also involved in the illicit trade of drugs across the world. Particularly, children are trafficked into this business as either courier or dealer of drugs and in the form of ‘paid’ in drugs so that they get addicted to it and further trapped into this act.

We cannot probably imagine how and in what ways children are exploited by the anti-social elements in our society, but it certainly calls for strict government control and regulations over each and every activity that takes place in our country and we as responsible global citizens should also try to help uproot this evil from our society so that the lives of young, innocent children are not destroyed.

Also Read: Essay on Child Trafficking

Long Speech on Child Trafficking

Greetings of the Day Ladies and Gentleman! Today we have assembled here to discuss a very grave issue of our times for which our government unfortunately seems to be doing nothing whatsoever, i.e. Child Trafficking.

Even after completing 70 years of the official independence, India has not been able to practically achieve the same. Yes, we have certainly made progress in various fronts, but are still struggling to transform ourselves from developing to developed. We fight with different instruments of destructions like terrorism , corruption, unemployment and poverty etc. every day. But one such concern, which is not just making the country hollow, but is also putting a question mark on humanity, is child trafficking.

It is such an irony, a shameful irony that on one hand we say children are the angles of god and on another we are jeopardizing with their future; this is how we treat the angles! If we go and look at the statistics, there is a huge increase in the crimes against children over the last decades, which shows that our greed has not spared even the children.

Today, children are being trafficked from all parts of our country and sent not just all over the country, but across international borders. They are made to do all sort of things like begging, getting into prostitution, being sent to households as servants, used as the sources of organs, for the dirty illegal organ trade and even made involved in something as cruel as terrorism. This all, points at only one thing, which is that we are chasing our own records of committing more brutal murders of humanity every day.

Like any other problem in the world, child trafficking also has the root causes, which are again the grave issues we have not been able to find a solution for. Out of the list, unemployment, poverty and lack of education, top the list. They say, hunger can make you do anything, it certainly can which is the reason that in many cases, the parents themselves sell their children for money, to these trafficking groups.

In some cases, the parents are promised to provide suitable employment to their child and taken away but the child is forcefully pushed into prostitution, organ trade or other such heinous things and the parents never get to see their kids again. On the other hand, the people who indulge themselves in such inhumane activities are mostly those unemployed people who work for some big shot name just to earn bread for their family. Since we have miserably failed to provide employment to the second largest population of the world, this is what that population has got itself into.

Today, we talk about mid-day meals, we talk about the quality of education, we make schemes and claim big things but what about these children who are struggling with their lives, forget about the ‘luxuries” like education and quality of meal. If children are the future and this is the condition of the children in our country then our future definitely seems dark. If we cannot provide protection and the freedom to roam without fear to our children, if we cannot promise them a full stomach and cannot allow these little angles to dream, I think we have a long way to go before we say “we are free”. This is all I have to say.

Also Read: Speech on Organ Trafficking

Good Evening All! Today I am present here to address a very pertinent issue called Child Trafficking. Please allow me to share my thoughts on the same.

We talk about educational reforms, we talk about child labour, we talk about the rights of children and we talk about their future. But the only thing we do not do is to take action. Quite often we see children begging or selling something at every signal, we see them working on shops, we see them coming and working in our house as well, but we prefer to remain mute and blindfolded. This is the problem today that we just talk and feel that our job is done. This is the reason that even after putting so much brain into it, we have not been able to get even close to putting an end to something as hair raising as child trafficking.

Millions of children in our country are pushed into prostitution, organ trade, slavery and terrorism every year. These children are kept in an uninhabitable environment, thrown into hazardous and unsafe conditions and most of the time they are not even fed properly. This is the India we are giving to the children of our country after 70 years of independence. There is a group of children which cannot roam or play fearlessly as one can never know what might happen to them next and there is another group which has been made a thing to trade by their own parents so that they can survive and beat the hunger.

Some blame poverty for it, some blame unemployment, some others blame illiteracy and some blame the degrading morals. But I think there is no one reason for this inhumane act and these all are interconnected and leads to one another. In fact, there can be no justification for something as disgusting and dark as child trafficking.

Now, is the time when we need to stop waiting for others or the government to do something and open our own eyes! Rather than just talking about it for a while and then forgetting, we need to wake up our conscious. You might not be able to change the whole world alone, but you can be the beginning of change and a motivation for others to make their part of contribution.

You have to say no, every time you see a child coming to serve you at a restaurant, you have to say no every time you see a child is being sent to your house to work, ask a question every time you see a child picking up the rags from the street. Instead of doing those charities which you don’t even know if fulfilling the purpose, contribute to something you can witness, contribute to one child’s education, contribute to their meals and see the change happening in front of your eyes. Forward this legacy of awareness and change to your children so that the chain doesn’t stop.

Thinking about the issues, discussing them and collecting opinions are certainly important facets because this is how we spread awareness and understand the issues better. But, we also need to move beyond talking and need to take necessary steps towards the cure.

Respected Principal, Vice Principal, Teachers and My Dear Fellow Students – Warm Greetings of the Day!

I, Amrita Duseja from XI (B), feel extremely elated to have shared the stage with my class teacher and thankful to her for giving me the opportunity today on the children’s day to say a few words. Friends, today I am not going to talk about how much this day means to us and how it is celebrated in our country rather I would want to draw your attention towards the grim reality that we all at some time or the other hesitate to confront and choose to live in our own fairy tale world. Today, the whole nation is swept off by this rallying cry called beti bachao, beti padhao and there have been many more such campaigns in the past such as Shiksha har bache ka adhikar , but to our dismay what is actually happening in our country is exactly the opposite.

Yes friends, India is known to be a major transit destination or a chief source for child trafficking where small children are subjected to forced labour and sexual harassment. This problem of child trafficking mainly arises from the underprivileged section of our society, such as tribal communities, working laborers, lower caste Dalits, religious minorities as well as females from the excluded groups. Since they are the most vulnerable lot, they easily fall prey to such hostile elements in society which make them undergo child abuse and sexual exploitation.

Doesn’t all this reveal the hypocrisy and double-standard of our society that where on one hand the government talks about educating its youth and on the other hand it remains flaccid and does nothing to protect the future of poor and destitute children? Do we not as a society and as a nation own the responsibility towards those impoverished children who are forced to live a life of penury? If we cannot bless them with a good life, then we do not even have the right to take away the bliss of their innocent childhood. Are we not the ones who do not hesitate to employ small children as a servant in our house or work place at a meager amount? How many of us actually bother about sending them to school or approaching an NGO for their better future?

Unfortunately, our Indian children stand exposed to various vulnerabilities as hundreds and thousands of children continue to work in harsh conditions, such as wage laborers at construction sites, brick kilns, and agricultural farmhouses or else pushed into the sex trade. Young girls even about 8-9 years old are not spared. Even worse, the parents of such children themselves sell their children or are made to work in factories amidst the most dangerous toxic elements.

So if we sincerely wish to honor and celebrate this day, then it becomes extremely crucial to stand united and fight together to eradicate this evil from everywhere and build a safe haven for our children where their innocence and childhood are not take away, but is nurtured and embraced.

Thank you so much!

Related Topics to Child Trafficking

Child Trafficking FAQ’s

What is child trafficking speech.

A speech on child trafficking raises awareness about the illegal and harmful practice of exploiting children for labor, sex, or other purposes. It highlights the severity of the issue and the need for action to protect vulnerable children.

How do you explain child trafficking?

Child trafficking involves the recruitment, transportation, harboring, or exploitation of children for various purposes, including forced labor, sexual exploitation, child marriage, or involvement in criminal activities against their will.

What is child trafficking in short notes?

Child trafficking is the illegal trade and exploitation of children, involving their abduction, recruitment, or coercion into forced labor, commercial sexual exploitation, or other forms of abuse.

What are the solutions for child trafficking?

Solutions for combating child trafficking include: Strengthening laws and law enforcement, Raising awareness and education about the issue, Providing support and rehabilitation for victims, Empowering communities and ensuring access to education and economic opportunities.

How can we protect children from trafficking?

To protect children from trafficking, it's crucial to: Educate children about safety and risks, Promote awareness among families and communities, Advocate for policies protecting children's rights, Provide support services for vulnerable children, Collaborate with law enforcement and agencies to prevent trafficking and prosecute perpetrators.

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