We heed the horror stories of women who were forced or tricked into being slaves in the sex industry. Lured with clouds of dreams into a dark dungeon, women are doomed towards a path of complete violation. There is an abundance of goodness in this world; however, evil inevitably remains a permanent resident. So, what is human trafficking?

We are keenly aware of human trafficking as a mere transnational crime, which is completely true! It is a transnational issue since borders remain unregulated as traffickers keep winding up with more profit. Why is it that our current counter-trafficking strategies are just not working? Well, I did a little research and what I came up with really opened my eyes. According to the Article 3 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Human Trafficking is defined as "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the 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."

Professor Janie Chuang of American University explains in her journal "Beyond A Snapshot: Preventing Human Trafficking In The Global Economy," “trafficking lies at one extreme end of the emigration continuum, where the migration is for survival—that is, escape from economic, political or social distress, as opposed to opportunity, seeking migration—that is merely a search for better job opportunities.”Although people migrate for better job opportunities, most of the trafficked victims solely migrate for a better life as to escape from economic, political or social disadvantages in their home countries. This is a macro factor that propels people to migrate desperately, and women specifically to flee from social inequality.

Chuang mentions in her journal that women not only migrate in response to economic hardships but also gender-based repression. Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world, suffering from a crippling human trafficking issue. MacArthur explained in her journal that, "Pervasive social discrimination contributes further to women trafficking. Women in Nepal face discrimination stemming from cultural traditions, lack of education and little power politically or within the household. The estimated current numbers of Nepalese sex workers who were trafficked to India is between 150,000 and 200,000 and about 5,000 to 7,000 young Nepalese women are trafficked to India annually."

Sounds more like a problem rooted from society or a diverse effect of globalization? Globalization as we observe, has furthered technological advances as the time and cost for travel are made fairly easy. Along with the pros, the cons break through as a deadly surprise. Cyber Crimes, Drug Trafficking, Human Trafficking and many other crimes that benefit from globalization have skyrocketed. Human Trafficking sadly, was only recognized as an international problem much later than it should have been. International Law is a powerful conduit for countering human trafficking all around the world.

One of the reasons why our international counter-trafficking strategies fail is due to its inability of remaining on par with protecting the rights of citizens. This means that our rights are still not addressed like what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proudly stated through the efforts of United Nations and delegates from various countries. Our political rights, social rights, cultural rights and economic rights are constantly being hurt. We know that there is a presence of anarchy rather than a distinguished central authority in the international justice arena. The only smart move to eradicate human trafficking is through collective action. We need to form a community who cares and advocates for rights. We need to stand up together and demand our rights because if we don't, who else is going to? We must not let elites in authority take away the future of our children, women and men. We must ensure that our political, gender, social, economic and cultural equality are housed as the core foundational base of our society.

We must fight to save the daughters of this earth. We need to look at human trafficking in a completely new light. This particularly grave crime is to be taken very seriously as the majority of victims tend to be women and children. We must stop a trafficker from taking away another daughter into the dark. It should be noted that solutions are found in the society itself as raising awareness, providing equal opportunities to both genders, fighting corruption, etc, remain key strategies to fighting the modern slavery.