Word: humanity
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...This particularly gory testimony, used by the U.S. State Department to highlight the severity and widespread nature of human trafficking, is one of many alarming personal accounts included in its 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report. According to the State Department, at least 12.3 million adults and children worldwide are subjected to forced labor, sexual servitude and stolen organs, with the global financial crisis heightening the problem through the increased demand for cheap labor, services - and even body parts. (See pictures of crime in Middle America...
1.On defining human trafficking: "Human trafficking in essence is a modern-day form of slavery. It involves exploitation and forced servitude ... It is a crime that deprives people of their human rights and freedoms, increases global heath risks, fuels growing networks of organized crime, and can sustain levels of poverty and impede development in certain areas...
...Notably absent from the 2009 TIP report, as it has been every year, was an analysis of the U.S.'s own struggles with human trafficking. However, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted that for the first time, the U.S. next year would "rank its own efforts at combatting trafficking along with the rest of the world...
...Last week, concern burst into outrage. When the Justice Department filed a legal brief arguing against gay marriage, the head of Human Rights Campaign - the largest gay-rights group in the U.S. - accused the Administration of failing to recognize the "humanity" of homosexuals. Barney Frank called the White House to protest, and several other gay Democrats announced plans to boycott an upcoming fundraiser, forcing the treasurer of the Democratic National Committee, Andrew Tobias, who is also gay, to write donors saying that he understood "all the hurt and anger...
...Human-rights experts note that Gao, who was once named one of China's top 10 lawyers in 2001, also lost his legal license in 2005. They worry that the latest group of lawyers could be similarly ostracized and mistreated upon being disbarred. In that case, the authorities might lose as well. For all their work on cases that the Communist Party would rather have disappear, the lawyers are working within the system, rather than outside it. "These lawyers are not advocating a fundamental change to the political system. They are not asking the Communist Party to step down...