Lecture on Human Rights and Human Trafficking at IATA’s Amman Office

What does human rights and human trafficking have in common? This was the question for Danny Casprini and Morten Hansen, both members of the International Relations Unit at the Amman Center for Human Rights Studies,

as they this Monday gave a lecture in the Amman office of the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) on the importance of human rights and the international laws against human trafficking. The lecture was a part of IATA’s new program ‘Mosaic’, which is a three-year strategy about diversity and meritocracy. This event featured, in addition to the lecture on human rights and human trafficking, a lecture on HIV/AIDS to commemorate both the international Human Rights Day and the Worlds AIDS Day.

Morten Hansen, having a degree in History, began the lecture by giving a historical introduction to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was adopted by the United Nations in 1948. He stressed how the optimistic view of the human development and the nations as the guardians of their rights was crushed by the two world wars, and how this cemented the need to acknowledge that every human being is inherently free and equal in dignity and rights. He then laid out the basic ideas behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and how they are implemented and regulated on a practical level through different UN institutions.

Danny Casprini, having both a Master’s degree in Law and International Laws, then explained the different groups of human rights and how they together constitute an important fundament for democracy. He also described on how the they human rights are being used as a framework for future development through the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Danny then explained the basic legal concept of the laws on human trafficking, as well as explaining the different victims and the perpetrators. He explained the dynamics of the most prominent areas of human trafficking, especially how forced labor targets women and children. He then turned to the fight against human trafficking and international conventions, as well as how national and regional initiatives can help combat human trafficking.                                             

At the Amman Center for Human Rights Studies we would like to thank IATA for their interest in human rights. We acknowledge the power of private initiatives to combat injustice and we fully support IATA’s Mosaic initiative. We call on other actors in the private sector to follow the footsteps of IATA on to join us in the struggle to ensure that all humans are free and equal in dignity and rights.