At a discussion hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, former Iraqi Prime Minister and current member of Parliament, Ayad Allawi, describes the failures of the Parliament to create democracy. He says millions of Iraqis would not be fleeing their country if it was a free democracy. He says fourteen-year-old Iraqi girls fled the country to be prostitutes in Syria rather than remain in unstable Iraq. (1:03)

 

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At a Congressional Human Rights Caucus Briefing today, Ambassador Mark Lagon, director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. State Department, discussed human trafficking from conflict zones in sub-Saharan Africa. UNICEF estimates that conscription of child soldiers affects more than 300,000 children under the age of 18 in more than 30 armed conflicts worldwide.

In December 2007, the United Nations noted that evidence suggests refugee and internally displace person (IDP) camps are often prime recruiting grounds for child soldiers because of the concentration of vulnerable children. Lagon said that human trafficking is modern day slavery. (more…)