Human Trafficking In Iran

According to the Department of Homeland Security, human trafficking is defined as a form of modern slavery, where victims are often either forced, coerced, or fooled by false promises for the purposes of labor or sexual exploitation (“Blue Campaign”). Human trafficking has continued to flourish in the 21st century. Men, women, and children are forced into situations synonymous with slavery across the world.

Laws are the catalyst for eliminating trafficking around the world. These laws serve as protections for vulnerable groups; compliance and enforcement provide justice to the victims. The importance of the codification of protections cannot be overemphasized. The actions of nongovernmental organizations and nonprofit organizations aid in

The TIP report gives a comprehensive assessment of trafficking of countries and ranks them according to their actions to resolve this issue. “The analyses are based on the extent of governments’ efforts measured against the TVPA’s minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking” (citation). Tier 1 is the highest ranking, but it does not mean that human trafficking has been completely eliminated. Some of the following are factors considered in the ranking system: laws outlawing trafficking, stringent criminal penalties, prosecution, funding for social programs, victim advocacy and protection, and government effort to prevent this issue.

The primary focus of this paper is on sex trafficking laws and enforcement in the following countries- Iran, Sudan, Brazil, and the United States of America. Each country provides a unique perspective on sex trafficking issues. There are clear distinctions between the amounts of effort put forth between the countries, but despite some proactive movements no nation has been completely immune to this

Particularly disturbing, there are no laws prohibiting child prostitution in Sudan. The term exploitation is not legally defined. Sudan has punishments of imprisonment for 3-10 for trafficking, 10-20 for aggravated trafficking, and capital punishment when victims dies as a result.

Although Sudan does not acknowledge sex trafficking, reform has been made recently in the area of rape law in Sudan.

The amendments to Article 149 (rape) to the 1991 Criminal Act expanded the range of acts deemed to constitute rape. Importantly, rape is no longer defined by reference to adultery or sodomy. The new Article 149 (1) replaced the vague reference to “sexual intercourse”… with a more precise and expansive definition of rape as sexual contact by way of penetrating any part of the body or any object into the vagina or anus in the victim. (citation)

Despite the amendment, discrepancies and confusion still remains on the application. The penalty for rape still remains under the old definition of rape. Because of the uncertainty in the law, there is an increase in charges of adultery for victims and “a lack of clarity concerning the evidence standards that will apply in rape cases”