A main concern of the international community regarding human rights is the defence of human dignity.
Treating people in a humane way is the issue the international community has been trying to anchor for the last century and a half. A big part of human dignity was the treatment of all people as equal. One of the tools for institutionalize this notion was the statement within the Universal Declaration for Human Rights (UDHR) that “(a)ll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” (Article 1). Although slavery was officially abolished some centuries ago and became an illegal act, slavery is not extinct. Today it is transformed and it is being called human trafficking. Human trafficking is not a recent problem and has been around for many years. With not enough information on the subject and not enough political interest, human trafficking had become an illusive subject and launched many deliberations on what human trafficking actually is. On one statement there are no arguments: human trafficking is a serious violation of basic human rights. To begin with, it violates human dignity but also of the right to life and freedom because it denies entire generation from achieving their potential out of life and perpetuates their poverty and vulnerability. Women and children, mainly from under-developed parts of the world, are the main targets of human trafficking.
As such children are being prevented their basic human rights sets forth by the
1 989 Convention on the Rights of the Child such as; the right to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. As stated, women’s human rights are being violated as well. The 1994 Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women, not only sets forth the human rights entitled to women but the obligation of governments to protect and defend those rights.