Human trafficking and forced labor: a negative synergy

Abstract

The purpose of this article is discussing the negative synergy that co-exists within human trafficking and forced labor. Our starting point is a humanist conception of the necessity of safeguarding human rights in our society through the protection of the basic conditions for a decent work that will grant the individual emancipation in society. Therefore, our foundation is grounded on an emancipatory and critic perspective that humanizes the international law of human rights in order to guarantee the active protection of human dignity, considered under this grounds the central axis of human rights. This human dignity represents the possibility of human auto-determination and the legal authority of having a full life, with the right to physical and psychical integrity allowing the auto-realization as a social and individual being in the framework of a Welfare State. Key Words: Human trafficking; Forced labor; Contemporary slavery; Sexual exploitation; Human dignity.