Human Trafficking of Romanian Street Children final

Rachel Wallace

Word count: 1878

June 27, 2014

Human Trafficking of Romanian Street Children

    Romania has become a modern day human trafficking hot spot. Here it is common, yet illegal, to purchase a man, woman, or child in Bucharest. Romania not only has a huge problem with its own citizens being trafficked, but also has become a layover destination for adults as well as children, being trafficked all over the world.  The huge volume of traffickers doing business in Romania have put  its many street children in exceptionally high risk of falling victim to their many manipulative ploys.  Here Meredith Gamble, a human right expert, states that, "Children from families or backgrounds lacking healthy affection and love are susceptible to traffickers and recruiters who will, perhaps for the first time in a child’s life, give them affection, praise, and attention though they are used at the same time for sexual abuse and trafficking." Here she is saying that if the traffickers give the children positive attention, they will yearn for it and in return do whatever the trafficker asks so they can stay in good graces.  This false love is a direct violation of the Universal  Declaration of Human Rights. These children are only looking for someone to love them, yet they're being taken advantage of in the worst way.  No one is to infringe upon another's rights, especially those who are so fragile. This is only one of the numerous ways these nieve children are lured.  They also are offered shelter, food, and even clothes or a hot shower.  Once taken,most never return. These reasons account for why 60% of all trafficking victims found in Romania were nationals.  Of the children trafficked 75% of them were used for sex trafficking.  The other 25% were used for labor, such as being forced to beg on the street, forced to commit petty theft, or made to pick pocket tourists. (U.S. Embassy in Romania, 2014 report). The romanian government has failed to act on its Human Trafficking of street children because of it's poor prioritizing in its past and present governments, and a severe predjuduce against its Roma nationals, who are the majority of street children today.

    The problem in Romania involving the trafficking of its street children is directly related to its past and present governments. From 1965 until 1989 Romania was ruled by a communist government.  This government felt the need to build up its workforce by implementing strict laws banning contraceptives and abortion. As well as implementing an additional 20% tax for all woman, single or not, who were childless.   Meanwhile, giving huge tax breaks to woman with large families, while giving huge exemptions for each additional childbirth documented.  Despite all this, the governments efforts to make a strong workforce was failing.  The income generated from the tax was not enough to supplement most families, especially while caring for countless children.  Because of this, a lot of Romanians were forced to give their children up, and by the fall of the communist regime over 100,000 Romanian children were in poorly run, low funded orphanages.  When the government change from communist to democratic happened, Romanian's currency plummeted, government jobs vanished, as did grants for public assistance. This caused an over pour of additional children being abandoned in government orphanages. The worst part being this number does not include the privately run orphanages, runaways or those abandoned on the street.  A large number of the children who are alone on the streets either broke out of their abusive orphanages or left home for similar reasons. Most of these children are left without any documentation.  Here a human rights expert from the University of Nebraska writes, "Street children who lack identification validating their citizenship in Romania are stateless persons, despite jus soli eligibility. Their human rights are not only violated by this status but they are at high risk of falling victim to multiple other forms of human rights abuses, including trafficking."  With no documentation, these children are not able to attend school, get real jobs, or become a productive member of society.  Some do not even know what their birth names are, if they were even given one,  now only going by what their friends have nicknamed them.  

    The Romanian government's efforts in stopping human trafficking have been dwindling since the new government came into reign in 1990. Their efforts in ending the human trafficking problem amongst its street children are non-existent.  They have put forth little to no direct efforts to stop this problem. Here Christina Andromache, a Stanford University student claims,"The government is letting these innocent children fall thru the cracks, leaving them undocumented, a national of no country, and a son or daughter to no one.  The police seem to be little to no help with the stations, often understaffed and struggling to attend to all sectors of law enforcement, police are overwhelmed, leaving street children ignored."  Without the proper resources the police are not able to attend to all of their citizens needs.  Authorities are forced to pick what are the most immediate needs of the country as a whole, and apparently the country's future is not as important as whatever the countries present needs are. These children are Romania's future, they are our world's future, yet they are viewed as nothing by those around them.   In the last five years, Romania's government chose to reinstate its government program to stop human trafficking.  In doing so they cut all public funding to GMO's who were the trafficked street children's major allies.  This caused over 33 GMO's to close or change focus.  Because of this the country as a whole, especially those in need, have been suffering greatly.  The number of arrests of human traffickers has been greatly reduced, in the last three years.  As is tsentencing of their crimes. Also because of the rampant STD epidemic that started in 1997 with syphilis, the government has been debating over the legalization of prostitution.  Being that the street children are the majority of the sex workers, the topic of street children came up recently in their congress.  Andromache states, "When the legalization of prostitution was being debated, many of Romania’s leaders argued that street children are an area which cannot be taken care of at the moment."  They are forever being put on the back burners of their legal system, as well as in society.  Andromache also states that, "...they are further abused by the people that abandoned them in the first place. Rather than taking the blame themselves for abandoning them, these people not only abuse the street children, but also—hypocritically enough—place the blame on the children themselves for ruining Romania’s image.  If people could look outside of themselves and see these poor innocent children for what they really are, abandoned by the world, then maybe they would be more sympathetic to those that are less fortunate.  How can a small child be blamed for being parentless, for being alone and scared?

      Roma or Romani is the correct term for what some once called gypsies.  They originated from northern India and have been "traveling" from one country to the next since the 11th century.  Because of their Roma blood,  Romanian citizens, as well as most of Europe, treat them as second class citizens.  Most choose to willingly do nothing to help them whether it be an adult or small children.  Some Romanian citizens have been known to abuse the small children, blaming them for Romanias negative political attention regarding its street children. These actions are in result of a severe ethnic prejudice as well as self denial. they are the reason these children are in their current situation.  If every romanianfamily sponsored one child from its abandonment or at least donated food to them if they were not allowed to keep them in their homes. That should be the governments policy, not only to help its street children, but it's Roma in general.  Although some government agencies and GMO's  feel that, "Roma street children are not favorable to pimps or clients because they are “dirty” and “unclean” and are therefore unfit for prostitution, the precarious socio-economic situation of Roma street children suggests that they are among the most vulnerable groups to sexual exploitation and abuse."  These people are oppressed by their society just for their race, making them an additional target for human traffickers.  When in a family unit they are usually "traveling", have had little to no medical care, and are almost always undocumented.  The Roma hold a gender bias against its woman and because of this the woman are more likely to be taken advantage of due to their lack of education.  Roma children are more likely to be street children because of the oppression and poverty their nationality endures.  As well as the fact that their families are usually poor, uneducated, and abusive.  Roma are also extremely prejudice towards their women, forcing them to marry early, and stay ignorant.  Because of this many Roma girls either already are, or eventually will become street children.  Once on the street they are swooped up quickly and trafficked for prostitution.  The most common street child in the world is a boy from 10-14.  Even though girls are way more likely to be given up, or abandoned. Because all of the girls are abducted and trafficked. 

    The Romanian government has failed its lost, displaced children.  It has turned a blind eye on those who need them the most, leaving outsiders watching to wonder... why?  The Romanian government, like many others, is filled with excuses.  Ones that use the past, as well as their newly formed government as a reason to do nothing.  But all excuses aside, this neglect boils down to ignorance, which is stripping these children of every basic right they should have, but don't.  The racial tension involved is thick to say the least, with most Romanian citizens not even willing to look at someone with Roma blood without disdain in their eye. This has got to stop. These poor innocents were born into this, never once did they choose to be abandoned or be born of Roma descent. Never once did they ask to be abused at home, and forced onto the streets. Imagine a life where it is better to be six and alone on the streets. When a small child knows it is safer outside and alone, parent less, it is completely terrifying. It is wrong. Romania's government needs to step up, if not them it's citizens. 

SOURCES

Gamble, Meredith, "Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Street Children in Romania: Catalysts of        Vulnerability and Challenges in Recovery" . Second Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking, 2010. Paper 17. 01 Jan. 2010. Web. 17 June 2014. 

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/humtrafconf2/17 

This source was extremely valuable because it was a very indepth look into 

Andromache, Christina. "Index of /class/e297c/trade_environment." Index of /class/e297c/trade_environment. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2014. <http://www.stanford.edu/class/e297c/trade_environment>.

"Embassy Of The United States." 2012 Human Rights Report. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 June 2014. <http://romania.usembassy.gov/mobile//2012_hrr_en.html>.

This source was amazing for statistics, as well as a legal view point from the US government.

Webzine reflection

1.) I participated in my group with extreme caution. I tried my very best to allow everyone to have their own creative freedom without becoming over bearing with my own ideas.  I tried to keep everyone in communication through email, and I also tried to back off when I needed too. When we first started this class you announced that for some participation is being quite and not taking over all discussions.  I have tried my very best this quarter to do that. Although I have misspoken and been misunderstood on more than one occasion, I have enjoyed this class as well as this group project.  I did the editing of the video as well as proofread and did some of the tumbles layout. 

2.) my major take away from the webzine and the class is that I have been taught things here that will forever change my life. I am emotionally invested in human rights now, even more than I was before this class started.  What I now know is that these topics need to be addressed and the only person that can start with in my world is me.  

3) I feel human rights is a major aspect of my life now. I can not let an hour pass without thinking or discussing globalization and or human rights. These have become staples in my day to day life now.  With people's everyday problems making me wonder how they can be so blind as to think that they have actual problems. When in reality their "problems" are nothing.  I can't stand that. People need to look outside themselves.

4.) I found this class to be amazing. I thought the focus was well chosen, as the layout. Personally I think that reading little bee was not that great, I prefer non fiction. Maybe a half the sky or something. Or an overview of human rights as a whole maybe.  I think the articles were a great aspect but you should make student print independantly, that will cut your costs. I think you should defiantly continue to educate on human rights. It is so important.

Destiny's webzine for proofreading

Women’s right in the Middle East has been a topic of debate for many years. Interestingly enough women’s rights have been a topic of debate for many places across the globe including America. A little over fifty years ago women in the United States were fighting for the right to use contraceptives. So why do we as westerners scrutinize countries that haven’t fully jumped on the pro women’s rights bandwagon? I personally believe it’s because western society has “evolved “in a multitude of ways. Because of all the rallying and women’s rights activism that occurred during the 1960’s we now allow women to vote, hold certain job positions, and take on other responsibilities besides cooking, cleaning, and looking after children. And if we can come to the realization that women deserve these basic rights why can’t other countries?
    In specific regard to the Middle East I think it’s important to note the strong religious and cultural values of the people. By doing some basic research I was able to find that western powers usually made up of men do a really good job of painting life for Middle Eastern women as miserable and repressive. Contrary to this popular belief this is not the case for many women living in the region.  The Middle East is filled with tons of different countries and although they all have the Islamic religion in common their system of life and cultural practices vary from country to country. Haartez.com, a website dedicated to informing its readers about current events in the Middle East dedicated an article highlighting all of the freedoms that women have in these various countries. For example they explain, “In Syria women are members of parliament, cabinet ministers, and one of the countries vice presidents”.  A woman having the opportunity to be involved in the government is a really big deal. Especially in comparison to the US who has yet to have a woman elected as vice president.
     Another key part of the culture is the restrictions of dress. We are often taught or hear that only women have to adhere to a strict dress code, when in actuality men and women of the Middle East practice dressing modestly.  In certain regions it is preferred that men are covered from head to toe just like many of the women. I also would like to make it known that most middle eastern women see nothing wrong with this dress code because it is a part of their culture and ultimately their religion. There have been instances in which women will personally tell foreigners that out of respect for their country and culture when visiting they should dress more modestly. As stated earlier these practices vary from region to region so, in some parts of the Middle East, although women are expected to dress modestly the outlook on the dress code  is not as strict as other places.
     A final perspective that relates to women which differs from those of the west is the importance of the education. Education is a basic right that all people should have no matter what their gender or ethnicity may be. Middle Eastern women are allowed to be educated and in most cases the literacy rates in Middle Eastern countries are much higher for women than men. The popular media website CNN World.com states, “In nearly two thirds of Middle Eastern countries, there are more women than men in university, according to united nations statistics”.  For example, the University of Tehran in Iran was one of the first countries in the Middle East to allow women to come and study and at one point women outnumbered men accepted at the university by 60%.  There may be huge cultural differences in how the women are educated and the type of experiences that they may have in comparison to women in the west but nonetheless they are still able to pursue higher education and obtain degrees in male dominated fields such as engineering, architecture and medicine.
Cut this out   In closing of this piece I would like to highlight that just because a country doesn’t follow the western paradigm of what life should be doesn’t mean that its system is oppressive or wrong. There are a lot of things that could be improved within Middle Eastern countries, but there are also a lot of things that could be improved right here on our own soil.

Citations:
  "A Look at the Rights of Women in Arab Countries - Middle East." Haaretz.com. N.p., 8 Mar. 2014. Web. 20 June 2014.

Davies, Catriona. "Mideast Women Beat Men in Education, Lose out at Work." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 20 June 2014.
Assassins

Revised webzine

Rachel Wallace

Word count: 1384 w/o sources

June 20, 2014

I change a lot in each section, plus I added the actual efforts made by the government.  I also added another source.

WEBZINE

Romania has become a modern day human trafficking hot spot. Here it is common, yet illegal to purchase a man, woman, or child on a backstreet in Bucharest. Romania not only has a huge problem with its own citizens being trafficked, but also has become a layover destination for adults as well as children, being trafficked all over the world.  Yes it seems Romania has become a modern day hot spot for human trafficking.  The huge volume of traffickers doing business in Romania have put  it's street children in exceptionally high risk of falling victim to their many manipulative ploys.  Here Meredith Gamble, a human right expert, states that, "Children from families or backgrounds lacking healthy affection and love are susceptible to traffickers and recruiters who will, perhaps for the first time in a child’s life, give them affection, praise, and attention though they are used at the same time for sexual abuse and trafficking." Here she states that if the traffickers give the children positive attention, they will yearn for it and in return do whatever the trafficker asks.  This false love is a direct violation of the Universal  Declaration of Human Rights. These children are only looking for love, yet they're being taken advantage of.  No one is to infringe upon another's rights, especially those who are so fragile.  The problem of human trafficking in Romania is one of huge proportion.  60% of all trafficking victims found in Romania were nationals.  Of the children trafficked 75% of them were used for sex trafficking.  The other 25% were used for labor, such as being forced to beg on the street, forced to commit petty theft, or pick pocket tourists. (U.S. Embassy in Romania 2014 report)

GOVERNMENT

    The problem in Romania involving the trafficking of its street children is directly related to its past and present governments. From 1965 until 1989 Romania was ruled by a communist government.  This government felt the need to build up its workforce by implementing strict laws banning contraceptives and abortion. As well as implementing an additional 20% tax for all woman, single or not, who were childless.   All the while giving huge tax breaks to woman with large families, giving huge exemptions for each additional child documented.  The governments ploy to make a strong workforce was failing.  The the income generated from the tax was not enough to supplement most families while caring for countless children.  Because of this, alot of Romanians were forced to give their children up, and by the fall of the communist regime over 100,000 Romanian children were in poorly run, low funded orphanages.  When the government change from communist to democratic happened, Romanian's currency plummeted, government jobs vanished, as did grants for public assistance. This caused an over pour of additional children being abandoned in poorly funded orphanages. Worse part is, this number does not include the privately run orphanages,runaways or those abandoned on the street.  Most of the children who are alone on the streets either broke out of their abusive orphanages or left home for similar reasons. These children are left without any documentation.  Here a human rights expert from the University of Nebraska writes, "Street children who lack identification validating their citizenship in Romania are stateless persons, despite jus soli eligibility. Their human rights are not only violated by this status but they are at high risk of falling victim to multiple other forms of human rights abuses, including trafficking."  With no documentation, these children are not able to attend school, get real jobs, or become a productive member of society.  Some do not even know what their names are, only going by what their friends have nicknamed them.  

GOVERNMENT EFFORTS

The Romanian governments efforts in stopping human trafficking have been dwindling since the new government came into reign in 1990. Their efforts in ending the human trafficking problem amongst its street children are non-existent.  They have put forth little to no direct efforts to stop this problem. Here Christina Andromache, a Stanford University student claims,"The government is letting these innocent children fall thru the cracks, leaving them undocumented, a national of no country, and a son or daughter to no one.  The police seem to be little to no help with the stations, often understaffed and struggling to attend to all sectors of law enforcement, police are overwhelmed, leaving street children ignored."  Without the proper resources the police are not able to attend to all of their citizens needs.  Authorities are forced to pick what are the most immediate needs of the country as a whole, and apparently the country's future is not as important as whatever the countries present needs are . These children are their future, they are our worlds future, yet they are viewed as nothing.  In the last five years, Romania's government chose to reinstate its government program to stop human trafficking.  In doing so they cut all public funding to GMO's who were the trafficked street children's major allies.  This caused over 33 GMO's to close or change focus.  Because of this the country as a whole, especially those in need, have been suffering greatly.  The number of arrests of human traffickers have been greatly reduced, as is the sentencing of their crimes. Also because of the rampant STD epidemic that started in 1997 with syphalis, the government has been debating over the legalization of prostitution.  Being that the street children are the majority of the sex workers, the topic of street children came up recently in their congress.  Andromache states, "When the legalization of prostitution was being debated, many of Romania’s leaders argued that street children are an area which cannot be taken care of at the moment."  They are forever being put on the back burners of their legal system, as well as in society.  Andromache also states that, "...they are further abused by the people that abandoned them in the first place. Rather than taking the blame themselves for abandoning them, these people not only abuse the street children, but also—hypocritically enough—place the blame on the children themselves for ruining Romania’s image.  If people could look outside of themselves and see these poor innocent children for what they really are, abandoned by the world, then maybe they would be more sympathetic to those that are less fortunate.  How can a small child be blamed for being parentless, for being alone and scared?

ROMA

Roma or Romani is the correct term for what some once called gypsies.  After hours of research I could not report on this topic without including this group of people.  They originated from northern India and have been "traveling" since the 11th century.  Because of their Roma blood,  Romanian citizens as well as most of Europe, treat them as second class citizens.  choose to willingly do nothing to help them.  This is in result of a severe ethnic prejudice.  Although some government agencies and GMO's  feel that, "Roma street children are not favorable to pimps or clients because they are “dirty” and “unclean” and are therefore unfit for prostitution, the precarious socio-economic situation of Roma street children suggests that they are among the most vulnerable groups to sexual exploitation and abuse."  These people are oppressed by their society just for their  race, making them an additional target for human traffickers.  When in a family unit they are usually "traveling", have had little to no medical care, and are almost always undocumented.  The Roma hold a gender bias against its woman and because of this the woman are more likely to be taken advantage of due to their lack of education.  Roma children are more likely to be street children because of the oppression and poverty their nationality endures.  As well as the fact that their families are usually poor, uneducated, and abusive.  Roma are also extremely prejudice towards their woman, forcing them to marry early, and stay ignorant.  Because of this many Roma girls either already are street children, or eventually will become street children.  Once on hype street they are swooped up quickly and trafficked for prostitution.  The street most common street child in the world is a boy from 10-14.  Because all of the girls are taken to be trafficked. 

SOURCES

Gamble, Meredith, "Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Street Children in Romania: Catalysts of        Vulnerability and Challenges in Recovery" . Second Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking, 2010. Paper 17. 01 Jan. 2010. Web. 17 June 2014. 

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/humtrafconf2/17 

Andromache, Christina. "Index of /class/e297c/trade_environment." Index of /class/e297c/trade_environment. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2014. <http://www.stanford.edu/class/e297c/trade_environment>.

"Embassy Of The United States." 2012 Human Rights Report. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 June 2014. <http://romania.usembassy.gov/mobile//2012_hrr_en.html>.

Webzine first draft

Rachel Wallace

Word count: 677 w/o sources

June 18, 2014

WEBZINE

Romania has become a modern day human trafficking hot spot. Here it is common, yet illegal to purchase a man, woman, or child on a backstreet in Bucharest. This is known as the Romanian "Black Market".  The market was made around its street children.  To either sell to them, or worse sell them. The problem of human trafficking in Romania is one of huge proportion.  60% of all trafficking victims found in Romania were nationals.  Of the children trafficked 75% of them were used for sex trafficking.  The other 25% were used for labor, such as being forced to beg on the street, petty theft, or as pick pockets.  

GOVERNMENT

    The problem in Romania involving the trafficking of its street children is directly related to its past and present governments. From 1965 until 1989 Romania was ruled by a communist government.  This government felt the need to build up its workforce by implementing strict laws banning contraceptives and abortion. As well as implimenting an adittional 20% tax for all woman, single or not, who were childless.   All the while giving huge tax breaks to woman with large families, giving huge exemptions for each additional child had.  The governments ploy to make a huge workforce was in full effect, yet the income generated was not enough to supplement most Romanians incomes for caring for multiple children.  Because of this alot of Romanians were forced to give their children up, and by the fall of the communist regime over 100,000 Romanian children were in poorly run, low funded orphanages.  When the government change from communist to democratic happened, Romanian's currency plummeted, government jobs vanished, as did grants for public assistance. This caused an over pour of additional children being abandoned on the streets or runaway children, who either  broke out of their abusive orphanages or left home for similar reasons. Most of these children are left without any documentation.  Here a human rights expert from the University of Nebraska writes, "Street children who lack identification validating their citizenship in Romania are stateless persons, despite jus soli eligibility. Their human rights are not only violated by this status but they are at high risk of falling victim to multiple other forms of human rights abuses, including trafficking."  The government is letting these innocent children fall thru the cracks, leaving them undocumented, a national of no country, and a son or daughter to no one.  The police seem to be little to no help with the stations "Often understaffed and struggling to attend to all sectors of law enforcement, police are overwhelmed, leaving street children ignored."  

 

ROMA

Roma or Romani is the correct term for what some once called gypsies.  These are a group of people who originated from northern India and have been "traveling" since the 11th century.  Because of their Roma blood,  Romanian citizens, choose to willingly do nothing to help them.  This is in result of a severe ethnic prejeduce.  Although some government agencies and GMO's  feel that, "Roma street children are not favorable to pimps or clients because they are “dirty” and “unclean” and are therefore unfit for prostitution, the precarious socio-economic situation of Roma street children suggests that they are among the most vulnerable groups to sexual exploitation and abuse."  These people are oppressed by their society just for their race, making them an additional target for human traffickers.  When in a family unit they are usually "traveling", have had little to no medical care, and are almost always undocumented.  The Roma hold a gender bias against its woman and because of this the woman are more likely to be taken advantage of due to their lack of education.  Roma children are more likely to be street children because of the oppression and poverty their nationality endures.  Also because, "Children from families or backgrounds lacking healthy affection and love are susceptible to traffickers and recruiters who will, perhaps for the first time in a child’s life, give them affection, praise, and attention though they are used at the same time for sexual abuse and trafficking."

SOURCES

Gamble, Meredith, "Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Street Children in Romania: Catalysts of        Vulnerability and Challenges in Recovery" . Second Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking, 2010. Paper 17. 01 Jan. 2010. Web. 17 June 2014. 

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/humtrafconf2/17 

Andromache, Christina. "Index of /class/e297c/trade_environment." Index of /class/e297c/trade_environment. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2014. <http://www.stanford.edu/class/e297c/trade_environment>.

Buffalo girls webzine

    The documentary Buffalo Girls may seem like a simple portrayal of rural adolescent life in Thailand.  But it all actuality it is a unbiased look at the exploitation of children. These children are being used not only for the money they make engaging in traditional Mui Tai fighting, but for immoral entertainment purposes. This "entertainment" seems to bring the main focus off of the children and onto their money, the Baht. These young children's families get a taste of the fallible success and quickly become dependant upon the uncertain income generated by their child's winnings as well as the bets placed on their fights. Quickly turning a once fun hobby into an intensely pressured career.  Buffalo Girls focuses on two adolescent girls named Pet and Stam.  At first glance they both seem to enjoy fighting but once the documentary progresses it is obvious that they are enjoying it for reasons most would not find morally or ethically right. They do not like to do it for the same reason yor child likes to go to gymnastics class, they get pride from feeding their families.  These girls, who are under ten, would be considered "Head of Household" on any United States tax form. The once fun sport has turned into a job for them. One unfortunately, where if you don't win the fight, your family doesn't eat.  That is a harsh reality with extraordinary amounts of pressure to be placed on two small children.  These girls should be having fun, they are children.  They should be able to go out and play.  They shouldn't have to intensely train from dusk until dawn, or put fighting before their schooling.  But they both do, both girls are put in dangerous situations, both are treated poorly if and when they loose, and both feel sorrowfully guilty when they loose because like Stam sobbed after a loss, "My family needs money".  

    Although their families are in need for different reasons, This directly violates Article 19 (protection from all forms of violence) Under the convention on the rights of a child.  That article clearly states that all children deserve to be free of emotion or physical harm.  Thailand ratified this into their government in 1990, yet nothing has been done to help these poor children.  The emphasis on these children's income is too great, and without a watchful eye from the government their families have taken advantage of their temporary "wealth".  This has been a running theme with parents of children involved  in the entertainment industry.  It seems that most of the cases involved, where a family is reliant soley on a childs income, follow a steady pattern. All the cases are ones where these children's very own parent or family member squandered their independently earned fortune.  This not only is happening in Thailand, but all over the world.  A brief local example would be the children who worked in Hollywood, CA shooting motion pictures during the begining to mid 20th century.  The pressure to be successful was so great many child stars reported to have been abused by parents if they were not seemingly perfect at their craft.  Were these not cases of children's rights being taken advantage of, or even away? The similarities are all to scary once one takes into account that these parents once reliant on  their children's income will seemingly do anything to keep the money train rolling.  They become reliant on thier child, creating immense pressure on a fragile growing mind and body.  They may do this because they can't find work or they don't want to.  Or because they can only see money at the moment.  The really scary part is that because of their parents actions, in some cases,  if these children can not provide for their families they will all go hungry.  This problem has got to be solved.

Lab exercise 6/13/14

(0) Some might say that human rights have done little for these children. (1) Even though the human rights agreements may seem to have little immediate effect in the short term, they may still have value in the case of child labour. (2)+(3) As stated by Jack Donnelly the author of  International Human Rights, "Human rights initiatives that bring no direct change in a government’s practices may nonetheless have positive effects by supporting local human rights advocates or delegitimating repressive regimes." (143). (4) Here Donnelly is saying that although it may be too soon since the initial drafting of the initiatives to see any drastic changes in human rights, they are still beneficial because the initiatives support local human rights movements as well as suppressing negative governmental regimes. 5) Because of this the advocates in Calcutta benefit in a more subtle way.

Annotated bibliography

Rachel Wallace

Professor Jordan Hayes

English 1A

June 13, 2014

Word count: 954

I have chosen to study street children worldwide and investigate how this will affect our world's future as well as globalization.

1. North Korean street children

Park, Madison. "Orphaned and Homeless: Surviving the Streets of North Korea." CNN.  Cable    

   News  Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 12 June 2014.  

   http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/13/world/asia/.  north-korea-orphans/

This piece discusses children who are homelessness originally from North Korea.  It discusses their migration mainly to China although some make it into South Korea. This article also discusses shortly life while homeless in North Korea. It also discusses what happens to the children once they leave. This is an article that talks of abandoned children, giving personal accounts of their family stories as well as stories of survival in a sometimes fatal transformer shed through the harsh winters.

This information is useful because it gives in depth details on the children once they leave North Korea. Also of their lives in North Korea.  It discusses some dangers that are involved with these children's everyday survival.

2. Overview on street children's common rights violations

"Orphans." Humanium for Childrens Rights. N.p, d. Web. 13 June 2014.

   <http://www.humanium.org/en/orphans/>.

This website consists of recent statistics such as the estimate of around 120 million street children worldwide. With 30 million children being in Africa, the same amount in Asia, and 60 million in South America. It also discusses the amount of orphans, the numbers being, 31 million orphans in India, 71 million in Asia, 59 million in Africa, and 9 million in Latin America and the Caribbean combined. The amount of orphans caused by AIDS/ HIV is 15 million. HIV kills a parent every 15 seconds worldwide. This information is crucial to my project because it holds a lot of valuable, reliable statistics which are extremely helpful and informative.

3. Romanian Street Children

Andronade, Christina. Romanian Street Children. N.p, d. Web. 12 June 2014.  

    <Http://www.stanford.edu/class/e297c/trade_environment/wheeling/hromania.html>.

  In this essay it gives a detailed history of Romania.  The street child epidemic that happened there is directly related to the countries somewhat recent history.  It gives details of the government structure and really spells out for you why this happened from a few different viewpoints.  The essay also gives an analysis to what should be done, as well as a description of the children and prostitution. These children are homeless and sleeping outside because of laws placed on the people.  They were forced to have at least four children to keep the work force strong, as well as the outlaw of abortion and contraceptives.  The government's regulation on so many children and the outlaw on abortion and contraceptives led to many children being born who could not be taken care. The ones born after the regulated four were given up as well as numerous other children, once the government collapsed in the end of the 80's. Not all children were given up though a lot flee their families because of hunger, abuse (both sexual and physical) , and poverty. But all is not lost, the new government launched a "strategy for protection of children's rights".  Romanian street children were what led me to become passionate about this topic.  Their government has failed them in the worst way.  This has led me to research all street children. The Romanian "angels" are the perfect example of what happens when a country's government fails and how it's citizens suffer.

4. Street children homelessness / world statistics

"Street Children and Homelessness." Street Children and Homelessness. N.p, p. Web. 13 June     

   2014. <http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0904-Homelessness.html>.

This group discusses child poverty around the world but it connects everything to children's Rights. It talks about article 27 of the CRC.  Talks of India and Latin America being known for having the largest populations of street children.  It discusses that a lot of children are abandoned because of a disability, and around 90% of all street children use narcotics (includes alcohol and cannabis) most huff glue or paint.  An interesting thing this article brought to my attention was that in 1996, 5.5 million children were considered homeless living in the U.S. And that these children were worse off than homeless in other western societies because the U.S. Is less generous with social programs, the huge income gap between the rich and poor, and the high percent of immigrants and teen mothers. This information is important because it gives me a more in depth look at the rights of a child and how they correlate to the world today.  Also it gives me a bigger picture of the huge problem that is street children today.

5. Indian street children

"Charity for Street Children (Kids), Based in Jaipur, India - Teaching, Volunteer, Voluntry Work -

   Jewellery Making." Charity for Street Children (Kids), Based in Jaipur, India - Teaching,

   Volunteer, Voluntry Work - Jewellery Making. N.p, d. Web. 13 June 2014.

   <http://www.i-indiaonline.

This Indian based group discusses the many problems of Indian street children. It offers personal accounts of children they have personally helped, which is over 3,000 children daily. They cover the topics of child labour, gender discrimination, health, homelessness and poverty.  They also provide an extensive list of programs one of which is a child rights program made just for the street kids. The topics covered by this organization are perfect examples of why these children face what they do. It gives an inside, clear view of what is going on in the life of Indian street children, but with a solution, since it is a NGO.  

Sentence craft

The paragraphs were not indented because it was taken from the blog. It becomes unformatted in doing so.

1) wrong word-benefactors turns into factors

Wrong: These forms of slavery exist because of three major benefactors,

Right: These forms of slavery exist because of three major factors,

2) sentence level error- redundant

Wrong: all the while

Right: cut out 

3) sentence level error- all need to end in ing

Wrong: sharing, offers, presents

Right: sharing, offering, presenting

4) sentence level error-  not sure 

Wrong:gaining a more intimate knowledge of slavery in the 21st century, which he expresses in his speach. All the while backing it up with data from seasoned professionals.

Right:

5) grammar- no noun?

Wrong: Gives an example of when it hasn't, and moves on.

Right: she gives an example of when it hasn't , and moves on.

6) punctuation

Wrong: audiences 

Right: audience's

7) spelling

Wrong: promising

Right: promising

I usually take a whole day to proofread, when I can. Sometimes it can take hours, because I go over the same paragraph repeatedly.  I find proof reading to be a very crucial step in writing an essay. It is where you fix all errors and fing the best way to order and phrase your essay.