The A21 Campaign

Last updated
The A21 Campaign
Founded2008;16 years ago (2008)
Australia
Founder Christine Caine
Type Non-profit
INGO
Headquarters Costa Mesa, California, United States
Location
  • Australia, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Denmark, Greece, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States
ServicesCombating human trafficking, slavery and bonded labor, involuntary domestic servitude, and child soldiery
CEO
Nick Caine
Website www.a21.org

The A21 Campaign (commonly referred to as "A21") is a global 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-governmental organization that works to fight human trafficking, including sexual exploitation and trafficking, forced slave labor, bonded labor, involuntary domestic servitude, and child soldiery. [1] [2] [3] [4] The organization was founded by Christine Caine, an international motivational speaker, in 2008. [5] One aim of A21's Campaign says, "We exist to abolish slavery everywhere. And with your help, we will." [6] their focuses are on combatting slavery around the world through educational awareness and prevention, the protection of survivors, the prosecution of traffickers, and various partnerships. [5] The A21 Campaign has branches in the Australia, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Denmark, Greece, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States and more. [7]

Contents

History

Christine Caine, a leader from Hillsong Church, founded The A21 Campaign organization in 2008 after she discovered what she believes to be insufficient action taken against human trafficking. [2] [3] [4] [5] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] Her husband, Nick Caine, is the organization's director. [14]

Work

The A21 Campaign develops global programs and initiatives to inform the general public about human trafficking, as well as encouraging the public to fight against trafficking in their own way. The A21 Campaign is one of few international organizations addressing the human trafficking problem in Europe. [8] [9] Recent UN findings show that the former Soviet Union, as well as other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, have replaced Asia as the main source of women trafficked to Western Europe. [8] [9] In addition, Western Europe contains many of the highest-ranking destination countries in the Human Trafficking Citation Index. [8] [9]

According to their mission statement, The A21 Campaign works towards:

Their efforts are focused in and supported by teams in Greece, Ukraine, Australia, US, Bulgaria, United Kingdom, Norway, South Africa, Thailand, and Spain, where trafficking is most active. [7] Greece, a destination country for human trafficking, and other Eastern European countries, including Ukraine and Bulgaria, are countries of origin, and increasingly countries of destination, for victims of trafficking. [8] The United States of America, Great Britain, and Australia are destination countries for trafficking victims, while South Africa and Thailand are both sources and destinations for trafficking victims. [8] [9]

Funding

The A21 Campaign is a non-profit, non-governmental organization. [2] [5] [13] [16] The organization is funded through donations from individuals, faith-based organizations, businesses and other partnerships. [5] [13] [16] One partner of The A21 Campaign is the Row for Freedom team. This all-female UK team rowed across the Atlantic Ocean, following an old slave trade route from the Canary Islands to Barbados, and crossed over 2,600 miles in a record-setting 45 days to raise awareness and funding for The A21 Campaign. [17] [18]

Recognition

The A21 Campaign was referenced in both the 2011 and the 2012 publications of the United States Department of State publication of the Trafficking in Persons Report. [19] [20]

The A21 Campaign partnered with recording artist Matt Redman and LZ7 to release a single titled Twenty Seven Million . The song was inspired by The A21 Campaign and was aimed at raising global awareness and was released on February 27 of 2012, in recognition of the estimated 27 million slaves throughout the world today. [8] [9] [21] [22] [23] The A21 Campaign was also featured on the Global Freedom Report to raise awareness of human trafficking, while A21 representative Phil Hyldgaard was named a 2012 TIP Report Hero by the U.S. Department of State. [20] [24]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking</span> Trade of sexual slaves

Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has been called a form of modern slavery because of the way victims are forced into sexual acts non-consensually, in a form of sexual slavery. Perpetrators of the crime are called sex traffickers or pimps—people who manipulate victims to engage in various forms of commercial sex with paying customers. Sex traffickers use force, fraud, and coercion as they recruit, transport, and provide their victims as prostitutes. Sometimes victims are brought into a situation of dependency on their trafficker(s), financially or emotionally. Every aspect of sex trafficking is considered a crime, from acquisition to transportation and exploitation of victims. This includes any sexual exploitation of adults or minors, including child sex tourism (CST) and domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST).

According to the United States Department of State, "Thailand is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking." Thailand's relative prosperity attracts migrants from neighboring countries who flee conditions of poverty and, in the case of Burma, military repression. Significant illegal migration to Thailand presents traffickers with opportunities to coerce or defraud undocumented migrants into involuntary servitude or sexual exploitation. Police who investigated reaching high-profile authorities also received death threats in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in the United Kingdom</span>

The United Kingdom (UK) is a destination country for men, women, and children primarily from Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe who are subjected to human trafficking for the purposes of sexual slavery and forced labour, including domestic servitude. In 2012 it was ranked as a "Tier 1" country by the US Department of State, which issues an annual report on human trafficking. "Tier 1" countries are those whose governments fully comply with The Trafficking Victims Protection Act's minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The TVPA is a federal statute of the United States.

Uzbekistan ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in August 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in Venezuela</span>

In 2011 Venezuela was a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. Venezuela's political, economic, and social concerns contributed to the factors and types of human trafficking in the country. In particular, the severe poverty in Venezuela has increased the rate of human trafficking. Venezuelan women and girls are trafficked within the country for sexual exploitation, lured from poor regions in the nation's interior to urban and tourist areas. Victims are recruited through false job offers and subsequently forced into prostitution or conditions of labor exploitation. Child prostitution in urban areas and child sex tourism in resort destinations such as Margarita Island appear to be growing. Venezuelan women and girls are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation to Western Europe and Mexico, in addition to Caribbean destinations such as Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, and the Dominican Republic. Men, women, and children from Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and the People's Republic of China are trafficked to and through Venezuela and may be subjected to commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking</span> Trade of humans for exploitation

Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation.

Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) is a Los Angeles-based anti-human trafficking organization. Through legal, social, and advocacy services, CAST helps rehabilitate survivors of human trafficking, raises awareness, and affects legislation and public policy surrounding human trafficking.

Human trafficking in Canada is prohibited by law, and is considered a criminal offence whether it occurs entirely within Canada or involves the "transporting of persons across Canadian borders. Public Safety Canada (PSC) defines human trafficking as "the recruitment, transportation, harbouring and/or exercising control, direction or influence over the movements of a person in order to exploit that person, typically through sexual exploitation or forced labour. It is often described as a modern form of slavery."

Afghanistan is one of the source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children who are subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and forced prostitution. Trafficking within Afghanistan is more prevalent than transnational trafficking, and the majority of victims are children. In 2005 the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) reported 150 child trafficking cases to other states. Afghan boys and girls are trafficked within the country and into Iran, Pakistan and India as well as Persian gulf Arab states, where they live as slaves and are forced to prostitution and forced labor in brick kilns, carpet-making factories, and domestic service. In some cases the boys and girls were used for organ trafficking. Forced begging is a growing problem in Afghanistan; Mafia groups organize professional begging rings. Afghan boys are subjected to forced prostitution and forced labor in the drug smuggling industry in Pakistan and Iran. Afghan women and girls are subjected to forced prostitution, arranged and forced marriages—including those in which husbands force their wives into prostitution—and involuntary domestic servitude in Pakistan and Iran, and possibly India. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) report that over the past year, increasing numbers of boys were trafficked internally. Some families knowingly sell their children for forced prostitution, including for bacha bazi - a practice combining sexual slavery and child prostitution, through which wealthy men use harems of young boys for social and sexual entertainment. Other families send their children with brokers to gain employment. Many of these children end up in forced labor, particularly in Pakistani carpet factories. NGOs indicate that families sometimes make cost-benefit analyses regarding how much debt they can incur based on their tradable family members.

Nicaragua ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in October 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in Costa Rica</span> Trade of people in Costa Rica

Costa Rica ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in September 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twenty Seven Million</span> 2012 single by Matt Redman and LZ7

"Twenty Seven Million" is a song released by English Christian worship leader, songwriter and author Matt Redman and English Christian electronic dance music group LZ7. The song was released in the United Kingdom as a digital download on 27 February 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking in Europe</span>

Sex trafficking is defined as the transportation of persons by means of coercion, deception and/or forced into exploitative and slavery-like conditions and is commonly associated with organized crime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue Heart Campaign</span> Anti-trafficking program by the UNODC

The Blue Heart Campaign is an international anti-trafficking program started by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Established in 1997, the UNODC supported countries in implementing three UN drug protocols. In 2000, after the UN General Assembly adopted the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, the UNODC became the “guardian” of that protocol and assumed the functions of fighting against human trafficking. The Blue Heart Campaign was launched in March 2009 by the Executive Director of the UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa, during his address to the World's Women's Conference meeting in Vienna. The campaign's symbol is a blue heart. The Blue Heart Campaign uses its website, as well as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr to communicate goals, objectives, and news with the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christine Caine</span> Australian activist, evangelist, and speaker

Christine Caine is an Australian activist, evangelist, author, and public speaker.

Hope for Justice is a global non-profit organisation which aims to end human trafficking and modern slavery. It is active in the United Kingdom, United States, Cambodia, Norway, Australia, Ethiopia and Uganda and has its headquarters in Manchester, England.

Global Centurion is a non-profit organization that works to combat modern slavery by focusing on demand. To date, efforts to combat human trafficking have focused on rescue and restoration of victims, and prosecution of traffickers. Few efforts focus on the buyers – those that fuel the market for human trafficking – whether its sex, labor or organ trafficking. Global Centurion believes that in order to combat human trafficking, a comprehensive approach is required, one that recognizes the "slavery triangle:" the supply (victims), demand ("buyers"), and distribution (traffickers). Global Centurion addresses the demand side in three ways: 1) Research on demand reduction and related issues; 2) training and awareness programs targeting demand; and 3) partnerships and collaboration. A key project is the creation of an international modern slavery case law database, with over 6,000 cases from around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in New York</span>

Human trafficking in New York is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced labor. It occurs in the state of New York and is widely recognized as a modern-day form of slavery. It includes, "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of 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. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking in Arizona</span> Overview of the situation of human trafficking in the U.S. state of Arizona

Human trafficking in Arizona is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced labor as it occurs in the state of Arizona, and it is widely recognized as a modern-day form of slavery. It includes "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of 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. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."

References

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