Hawai'i conference to focus on slavery
Advertiser Staff
Human trafficking — the illegal but profitable transport and sale of human beings for activities such as sweatshop labor and the sex industry — is on the increase along with rising trade between nations, according to organizers of a conference Wednesday through Friday at the Hawai'i Convention Center.
Academic types will mix with members of nongovernmental organizations and law enforcement groups this week at the conference to discuss how to combat what seminar organizers say is the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the Asia-Pacific region.
"Trading Women," a documentary about the trade in hill-tribe women from Burma, Laos and China into the Thai sex industry, will have its Hawai'i premiere as part of the conference. Filmed in China, Thailand and Burma, it is narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Angelina Jolie, goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Refugee Agency.
Panels will discuss human trafficking in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Nepal, the Pacific Islands, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The role played by U.S. locations, including Hawai'i, Florida, New York and Seattle, will also be considered.
"The Human Rights challenge of Globalization in Asia-Pacific-U.S.: The Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children" is sponsored by the University of Hawai'i's Globalization Research Center and the East-West Center.
The aim of the conference, organizers say, is to move beyond raising awareness and spur governments and agencies to put an end to human trafficking.
Some 300 anti-trafficking experts are expected to attend.
Hawai'i plays a role in human trafficking. Reports say women are transported in and out of the Islands for prostitution. That role will be examined at a Thursday session. U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo, Charles Beckwith of the FBI, Judith Clark of Hawai'i Youth Services Network and Georgia McCauley, executive director of Hawai'i Kids Watch will participate.
The Hawai'i discussion will include the possible initiation of a Hawai'i Trafficking in Persons Task Force.
Log on to www.globalhawaii.org/PDF/trafficking.htm for more information. Registration is available for $175 in advance or $225 at the door. UH and East-West Center faculty and students are eligible for a discount.
In a related event, Kevin Bales, author of "Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy," will give a free talk at 3:30 p.m. Friday in Schramm Room 405, John A. Burns Hall in the East-West Center.
Among Bales' recent efforts is working with the chocolate industry to remove child and "slave" labor from the product chain.
"Disposable People" was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Archbishop Desmond Tutu called it "a well researched, scholarly and deeply disturbing exposé of modern slavery."
A documentary based on Bales' work, "Slavery: A Global Investigation," won the Peabody Award for 2000 and two Emmy Awards for television in 2002.
Bales is director of Free the Slaves, the U.S. sister organization of Anti-Slavery International, which calls itself the world's oldest human rights organization.
He also will be a speaker at the trafficking conference.
