From Hostage to Human Trafficked — Part Two

An Analysis of the Human Trafficking Paradigm

1. What is Human Trafficking?

            Captured, kidnapped, and prostituted for sex: these three elements are often what individuals think of when they hear the term ‘human trafficking.’[1] In reality, however, these elements are just a scratch on the surface of the variety of activities encompassed by the term human trafficking. According to the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime, the definition of human trafficking is “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of people through force, fraud, or deception, to exploit them for profit.”^[2] “Traffickers utilize violence or fraudulent employment agencies and fake promises of education and job opportunities to trick and coerce their victims.”^[3] By promising an opportunity for higher education, jobs, financing their families, or housing accommodations, traffickers lure or capture victims and force them to work under dangerous and unsanitary conditions for little to no pay.^[4] Once a victim is in the hands of a trafficker, that trafficker often takes away any identification papers, passports, visas, and documentation so that they are unable to escape, or if they do, the application process for asylum would be virtually impossible with no documentation to authenticate the victims’ claims.^[5] Traffickers may also use abduction as a means to an end.[6]

            In her identification of the Human Trafficking paradigm, Jennifer O’Neil Richards sets forth five elements to identify when human trafficking has taken place. These include: (1) recruiting (which can take place through abduction), (2) abducting, (3) transporting, (4) harboring, and (5) transferring (including the sale or receipts of persons and exploitation of those persons).^[7] The exploitation aspect of the human trafficking paradigm is unique in the Hamas-Israel conflict because the hostage is being used as a bargaining chip in a variety of ways, including political and sexual exploitation. These elements will be re-evaluated later in direct relation to hostages taken by Hamas terrorists on October 7^th. However, the five trafficking elements are important to note in identifying the methods and schemes of the human trafficking paradigm and their relation to the October 7^th attack.

1. What is Hostage-Taking?

            According to the “International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages,” the definition of hostage-taking is “the offense as the seizure or detention of a person (the hostage), combined with threatening to kill, to injure or to continue to detain the hostage, to compel a third party to do or to abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the hostage.”^[8] The definition of hostage-taking has a specific intent requirement. This intent requirement “forces another person or entity to engage in or refrain from particular acts because of a threat to harm or continue to harm the person being held.”^[9] Interpreted broadly, the term “hostage” means a person.[10] It does not distinguish between a civilian, someone in government or military, or someone of a high-ranking capacity. The development of the hostage-taking definition was established through the Geneva Convention previously referred to.

            There is no formal distinction for the definition of hostage-taking in an everyday setting versus in wartime. According to the Geneva Convention, the taking of hostages is prohibited at any time, at any place, and for any reason.^[11] It is necessary, however, to distinguish between a hostage and a prisoner of war. Hostage-taking includes a ransom demand. This ransom demand can include various needs such as money, release of prisoners, land, etc.^[12] Whereas a prisoner of war is an actual soldier who is captured by an enemy throughout the war or during battle and is likely used for intimidation tactics, information gathering, or exchange during or after the war.^[13] Short of a war declaration, the United Nations has seven qualifiers to determine an act of aggression which include:

“(a) The invasion or attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory of another State, or any military occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion or attack, or any annexation by the use of force of the territory of another State or part thereof,

(b) Bombardment by the armed forces of a State against the territory of another State or the use of any weapons by a State against the territory of another State;

(c) The blockade of the ports or coasts of a State by the armed forces of another State;

(d) An attack by the armed forces of a State on the land, sea, or air forces, or marine and air fleets of another State;

(e) The use of armed forces of one State that are within the territory of another State with the agreement of the receiving State, in contravention of the conditions provided for in the agreement or any extension of their presence in such territory beyond the termination of the agreement;

(f) The action of a State in allowing its territory, which it has placed at the disposal of another State, to be used by that other State for perpetrating an act of aggression against a third State;

(g) The sending by or on behalf of a State of armed bands, groups, irregulars, or mercenaries, which carry out acts of armed force against another State of such gravity as to amount to the acts listed above, or its substantial involvement therein.”^[14]

What is interesting regarding the United Nations’ definition of aggression is that aggression is determined by actions committed against a State by another State. However, on the October 7th attack on Israel, the attack was by a politically motivated terrorist organization, Hamas, not by the State of Palestine.[15] This raises the question of the appropriate level of intervention on the international scale since this is not a State vs. State aggression, therefore not necessarily rising to the appropriate definition of “war.”

Under these distinctions identified by the UN, several sections unequivocally represent the actions of Hamas on October 7^th and in its aftermath. Particularly under sections (f) and (g), Palestine (a participating UN member) is allowing, whether intentionally or inadvertently, Hamas to utilize its territory for the act of perpetrating aggression against Israel since Hamas trained and is currently operating out of it.[16] Palestine may also be financially and politically supporting Hamas. In 2006, Hamas infiltrated the Palestinian Authority election and became the de facto government.[17]The State of Palestine has the Palestinian National Security Forces, which operate under the Palestinian National Authority’s control.[18] The question then arises: that since Hamas has infiltrated the representative government of Palestine, is Hamas also operating the government’s defense forces to advance Hamas’ agenda? If so, would Hamas then formally and accurately embody all forms of aggression identified by the United Nations above?

[1]Human Trafficking Prevention Month: Common Myths About Human Trafficking, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (Jan. 29, 2024), https://refugees.org/human-trafficking-prevention-month-common-myths-about-human-trafficking.

[2] Human Trafficking, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (Oct. 12, 2024, 12:38 PM), https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-Trafficking/Human-Trafficking.html#:~:text=FAQs,every%20region%20of%20the%20world.

[3] Id.

[4] Resources: Identifying and Interacting with Victims of Human Trafficking, Dep’t of Health and Human Services, (Mar. 17, 2025, 7:15 PM), https://acf.gov/sites/default/files/documents/orr/tips_for_identifying_and_helping_victims_of_human_trafficking.pdf

[5] Id.

[6] Brooke Hathaway, The Myth of Abduction, End Slavery Now (May 19, 2016), https://www.endslaverynow.org/blog/articles/the-myth-of-abduction?__hstc=12409899.2f3f33a24b44870ec4a577029c49e44b.1732579200132.1732579200133.1732579200134.1&__hssc=12409899.1.1732579200135&__hsfp=2637229211

[7] Frank Laczko, et. al., Data and Research On Human Trafficking: A Global Survey, International Organization for Migration (Oct. 4, 2024, 2:44PM), https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/global_survey.pdf.

[8] Rule 96. Hostage-Taking, International Committee of the Red Cross (Oct. 12, 2024, 2:33 PM), https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule96.

[9] Id.

[10] Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hostage.

[11] International Committee of the Red Cross, supra note 13.

[12] Id.

[13] The Question of Israeli Hostages, The iCenter for Israel Education, (Oct. 9, 2024, 11:15 AM), https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://theicenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Hostages-FAQs-010824.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjI5Oz3npOJAxU0FFkFHfmcCl8QFnoECBYQAw&usg=AOvVaw2LP2M9POGJarD7JZHB9Lqf.

[14] Definition of Aggression, United States General Assembly Resolution 3314 (XXIX), University of Minnesota Human Rights Library (Oct. 14, 2024, 2:15 PM), http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/instree/GAres3314.html.

[15]Jamil Hilal, Where Now for Palestine?, New Eng. J. on Pub. Pol’y, 185 (2017), https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=UPFJEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA188&dq=hamas+is+not+representative+of+state+of+palestine&ots=mapCt2EmDl&sig=S29eoB6-fPILmTGbbVC5IydJSsU#v=onepage&q=hamas%20state%20of%20palestine&f=false.

[16] Kali Robinson, What is Hamas?, Council on Foreign Relations, (Oct. 2, 2024, 4:56 PM), https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-hamas.

[17] Id.

[18] Id.