POSITION PAPER

COMMITTEE: United Nations Human Rights Council

TOPIC: Reduction of Human Trafficking
COUNTRY: Vietnam
SCHOOL: College
Slavery like practices in the modern society constitutes human trafficking in the forms of forced
marriages, forced labor, child labor, sexual slavery, and domestic servitude. More than 40 million
people across the world are trapped in modern day slavery, and East Asian countries top the list
of places that suffer human trafficking practices. Human trafficking is acknowledged as a gross
human rights violation and according to the United Nations Supplementary Convention of 1956,
defined modern day slavery practices as a crime that needs to be abolished. People living in
Vietnam are vulnerable to human trafficking practices, and are a source country for children and
women who are trafficked for forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Most of these
Vietnamese are trafficked to countries like Cambodia, Malaysia, China, Korea, Macau, and
Taiwan, and it is paramount that this vice to come to an end and respect the rights of human in
accordance with the universal declaration of protecting international law, regional standards, and
national constitution of Vietnam.
There are several vulnerability factors that promote trafficking in humans ranging from social
and economic integration issues, as well as mental and physical health issues. Increases in crime
and human rights violations, together with developments in technology and opening of borders
between nations are key factors that facilitate the inhuman movement of populations that permits
organized groups to perpetuate the exploitation of humans for capital gains. The many social and
economic disadvantages characterized in a country like Vietnam, and it is apparent that Vietnam
joined the human trafficking in Asian regional labor market quite lately as compared to other
regional countries. However, the government of Vietnam is not committed to wholly complying
with minimum international standards of eliminating trafficking of humans, although it is
making very little efforts to rescue victims and arresting human traffickers.
INICEF agrees that the main causes of human trafficking in Vietnam include poverty, lack of
awareness of human trafficking, little education, demand for wives by Chinese men, and family
conflict, as well as complexities of policing the shared borders between neighboring countries.
The United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking further agrees that the difficulty
of finding employment in remote rural areas and socio-economic issues constitutes the main
factors of human trafficking.
Vietnam is both a source and recipient of human trafficking, and human trafficking is an
important human rights issue to the potential victims. United Nations Protocol to prevent,

suppress, and punish human trafficking describes the vice as the application of coercion, force,
fraud, abduction, and deception with the sole purpose of exerting control over other people for
reasons of exploitation. Vietnam faces several challenges related to combating trafficking in
humans, and therefore it is important to have policies and international cooperation in
eliminating human trafficking as it infringes on the human rights of its potential victims.