Mercy Global Concern - 2003

Report on the Commission on the Status of Women 3-14 March 2003

Sisters Lynda Dearlove RSM (Institute GB) and Tina Geiger RSM (Americas) attended 47th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women held at the UN in New York.

The commission addressed...

" Women's human rights and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls as defined in the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome document of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly (of the UN)."

The two Mercies joined non- governmental organizations (NGO's) caucus group created to influence the Commission on Women to deal with and eliminate all forms of sexual violence against women and girls including pornography, prostitution and trafficking. The caucus called for member states (i.e. all countries of the UN) to "criminalize the demand" for sexual services, that is to criminalize those -usually men- who are part of the demand side of these issues, as well as decriminalize the "supply side of the issues" -the victims/survivors of sexual violence. With regard to the victim/survivors of trafficking, the caucus further asked the Commission on Women to stipulate offering "trauma specific treatment and services" as well as ensuring "the safe and voluntary settlement of trafficked persons in either their own country, the country they were trafficked to or a third country."

Let me put some flesh to these requests. The following is a true story.

"13-year-old Maria, a waitress in Mexico, is approached by a customer who tells her that she can make ten times her salary in the USA waiting on tables. He tells her it's wonderful employment in a safe neighborhood, and if she's homesick he'll bring her back to Mexico. She can't lose! Being one of nine children and wanting to help her family, she discusses the work prospect with her parents who flatly refuse to let her go and forbid her to speak to this man ever again. But, Maria, thinking she knows better than her parents, speaks to the man again and makes plans to meet him outside his hotel to further discuss the offer. At the hotel, he drives up in a van, and tells her to hop in, and she is taken to the boarder miles away, where she joins dozens of other girls gathered there. They are told to pick up a backpack and a water bottle and follow the men guides as they commence to walk for days through the desert. Finally, exhausted and hungry, they are picked up in yet another van and transported to a trailer camp in Florida. There, they are met by a man who tells them he purchased them; he now owns them, and they are his property. To gain their freedom they must pay their debt by working it off sexually servicing men - 10-20 men on weekdays, 30 men on weekends. If they refuse, they are refused food, shelter and are physically beaten until, at some point the girls succumb to their captors will. Maria, now a prostitute in a Florida brothel is one of the 40,000 women and girls trafficked into the USA each year for a sex trade as lucrative as drug and arms dealing.

In one of the caucus sessions, Dr. Joyce Barak who led the Task force on Violence against women, shared her research on survivors of trafficking for sexual exploitation:

'Survivors of trafficking have experienced multiple trauma events, often including repeated rapes, gang rape or other forms of sexual torture and violence; imprisonment; threats of violence and death; prostitution, witnessing torture and murder; isolation and threats against family members. Women and girls forced in to pornography or prostitution experience the additional trauma of psychological humiliation, which may be exacerbated by social norms and values. Numerous trafficking victims /survivors suffer from complex posttraumatic stress syndrome: a large-scale break down in social emotional physical and cognitive functioning with severe impairments that may last a lifetime. Effective measure to rescue girls and women from the slavery of human trafficking require effective trauma rehabilitation.'

(Statement on Trafficking in Women and Girls: International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, March 2003)

After days of meeting in caucus, listening to the commissions deliberations and lobbying the delegates of the commission with the caucus stated positions, the resulting document will most likely not include any statement asking member states to eliminate all forms of sexual violence against women and girls including pornography, prostitution and trafficking. There are some member states in which pornography is not considered harmful, and there are three member states including Australia where prostitution is legalized. The document will most likely state sexual exploitation as a form of violence against women and "suggest" member states "curb the demand " or "discourage the demand" for sexual exploitation. At the end of the two weeks, member states will most likely be charged with providing "services" to victim survivors although those service will not be delineated...which of course leaves a loophole for member states to wiggle out of any specified mandated services. With regard to the future fate of victim/survivors of trafficking the simple addition of the word preferred still keeps the future of those women and girls quite precariously dangling in the discretion of member states migration/immigration laws/or whims as the Commission most likely will pass the following wording: "Ensure the safe and preferably voluntary return of trafficked persons to their State of nationality or permanent residence...."

The final debates about the exact wording of the final document are still being negotiated.

You'll find The Commission on the Status of Women's outcome document can be found at www.un.org/womenwatch/daw

Suggestions for Action:

Please read it carefully and write your ambassador or delegate to the Commission lobbying on the following points....

1. The clear link between trafficking in women and girls and prostitution and pornography. Without male demand for pornography and prostitution there would be not trafficking of human persons. Governments must address this demand by decriminalizing the supply side-prostituted girls and women and criminalizing the demand side-criminalizing traffickers and any purchaser of sexual services, using the Swedish government which has criminalize demand and decriminalized the victim/survivor resulting in a 50% decrease both prostitution and trafficking in only 4 years, as a global model.

2. Citing the research above, member states must create, and implement that is provide trauma specific services and rehabilitation for victims / survivors of pornography, prostitution and trafficking.

Submitted to Deirdre Mullen by Tina Geiger, RSM in gratitude and accountability for being selected to attend the 47th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

Lynda Dearlove RSM

The United Nations General Assembly has acknowledged that:

"Sexual exploitation through prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation and contemporary forms of slavery are serious violations of human rights"...

and yet we Mercy women present at Commission On The Status Of Women, have found ourselves sitting in a room with member states debating this from polarized positions e.g. from Australia, Netherlands where all aspects of prostitution are legal and seen as "not to represent a harmful practice" through the various spectrums to where all aspects are illegal and the woman is likely to be stoned.

Within the international debate there are several clearly stated perspectives concerning the links between prostitution and trafficking. The pro-prostitution lobby, mainly from within countries with legalized prostitution argues that prostitution is work and can be chosen freely, as such women should be free to pursue their choice in the name of self-determination and integrity, over their lives and their bodies. And yet the concept of free will requires the existence of several possible options to choose from and the control of the person in making a choice. Further to this they argue that prostitution and trafficking in women should be discussed separately and that trafficking in women is only a serious problem when women have been trafficked by force or coercion.

In reality what kind of "choice" do these women ands girls have?

Jo is 18, since the age of 12 she has supported herself by exchanging sexual services to meet her basic needs... at various times this has included for her...food, protection, shelter (albeit in a car), clothing and a variety of drugs. She was introduced to survival sex whilst in a children's home...she had a daughter at 14 (the father was her 'boyfriend/pimp/drug-dealer), who has since been adopted. She is currently attempting to remain drug free and not "work" whilst exploring the possibility of getting some sort of education. She desperately desires to work with children but her past history compounded by her criminal record for 'prostitution' militates against this.

We know that a number of oppressive conditions increase the likelihood of women and girls being drawn into prostitution by pimps and traffickers, such as living in poverty, being homeless and being drug dependent, gender inequality, sexual and racial discrimination as well as sexual, physical and psychological violence by male relative, boyfriends, husbands, pimps and others. When a woman has been used as an object for male sexual satisfaction since she was a girl, she will eventually believe what they keep repeating; that the only value she has is her sex. Her body no longer belongs to her, and the perpetrators have destroyed her self-respect and self-confidence. To talk about choice in this context becomes both cruel and meaningless. When we allow the prostitution defenders to blame the victims of prostitution for their victimization, we collaborate with them, male violence is thus obscured and focus is taken off the perpetrators. Instead of talking about prostitution as choice, we must ask ourselves; "If prostitution is a free choice, why is it that it is always the women and girls who have the fewest alternatives who are the ones who end up in prostitution?"

They further argue that women have been exploited and violated by men only if they did not "consent " to the violation, with the unwritten assumption that "prostituted women', by accepting the money handed to them by their buyers, have given consent to whatever violation their buyers subject them to. This analysis puts the responsibility for "prostitution" on the prostituted women and girls and does not take into consideration the systemic oppression and subordination of females by males and men's eroticisation of females as objects for their sexual "pleasure".

Like all forms of male violence against females, "prostitution" is carried out by men (pimps, traffickers and buyers) who use their inherent power to dominate and control comparatively powerless women and girls, using the same manipulative tactics as violent and abusive male partners and relatives do. Both battered and prostituted women sometimes enter abusive situations seemingly "voluntarily". They may stay in or return to violent men, and they may deny the abuse, and defend the abusers. And yet no one will argue that women, who stay in relationships with abusive men for economic or other reasons, for the children etc are exercising free will or pursuing their liberation. Pimps, traffickers and buyers subject women in prostitution to brutal rapes and physical abuse to break down their resistance and to "season" them into "prostitution". They had to endure all kinds of bodily violations and invasions and must "service" many buyers - anonymous males - every day while pretending that they enjoy it. Also, many have acquired sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS from the buyers and pimps. The pimps, traffickers and buyers also often film and photograph the violation, and sell the films as pornography and post these photos on Internet web sites.

The effects on prostituted women's physical, mental and emotional health are, of course, grave and cause serious long-term physical and emotional harm. International studies show that prostituted women suffer similar serious psychological injuries; as war veterans and survivors of torture such as flash backs, anxiety, depressions, sleep disturbances and stress. Suicide and suicide attempts are common and murder is a fact if life for all prostituted women and girls (e.g. in Canada their mortality rate is estimated to be 40 times higher than the national average). Additionally they are the most routinely searched-out victims of male sexual murders, who take advantage of their vulnerability, knowing that they can commit these rapes and murders relatively undisturbed.

As previously mentioned, in recent years, the pro-prostitution groups and countries where prostitution is regulated or legalised have made many attempts to disconnect trafficking in women and children from prostitution and the prostitution industry. Because these groups argue for the right of women to "prostitute themselves", and because these countries have created a profitable local prostitution market, they want to redefine trafficking and leave out all mention of prostitution. They suggest that trafficking should be given a broader definition, in which all transport of "people" by force or coercion over national borders should be included. By focusing only on the abusive conditions of trafficking, which they see as human rights violations, rather than on its purpose, they effectively play down the violence of prostitution. Further more, women and girls who are trafficked for other purposes such as domestic labour or as mail order brides often end up being sexually exploited and, in some cases, put into prostitution. In fact, the actual existence of prostitution renders possible and demands the trafficking and trade in women's bodies. This reasoning takes the seriousness out of trafficking in women and children for purposes other than prostitution. By maintaining that the link between trafficking and prostitution is the most tenuous, these groups and counties contribute to the separation between women who "deserve" to be protected from serious human rights violations: the women who have been trafficked across national borders under severely abusive conditions, and women who suffer the same atrocious violations and extreme violence, but who are in local prostitution. One of the most important prerequisites for the sale and trafficking in women is the existence of local prostitution markets, where men are willing and able to by women and girls from there own country. These markets are easily expandable and there is always room for the traffickers, pimps and procurers to create new demands.

Is there any other possibility?

On January 1, 1999, the Swedish law that prohibits the purchase of sexual services entered into force. This law recognises that it is the men who buy women for sexual services who should be criminalized and not the prostituted women. In July 2002, a new law against trafficking in human beings for the sexual purposes entered into force in Sweden. This means that all the links in the prostitution and women-trafficking chain have been made a criminal offence in Sweden: the buyers of women and children in prostitution, pimps and traffickers in women. Women are no longer criminalized and funding and services are in place to enable women to make real choices, alongside of this the demand is now firmly criminalised and all buyers are prosecuted, for the first offence they are fined but they can be imprisoned for up to six months. Effective enforcement of the law is dependent on the police, most of whom are men and identify with male values and stereotypes, this has effected successful implementation of this law in some localities but much work is being done to change attitudes an practices.

Does the law live up to its expectations?

1. To enable women to get out of prostitution
2. To get common view that prostitution is always violence against women.

60% of women have now left prostitution, they report that the legislation provides both the incentive and the support to escape. Additionally the normative function is also evident, 80% of the population supports the new legislation, giving a clear collective message that woman and children are not for sale in Sweden! As for trafficking, over the last 3-5 years, the numbers of trafficked women has not increased (unlike the rest of the European Countries), it seems that the fall in demand caused by the increased risk to buyers has ceased to make it a viable financial option for traffickers.

In summary....

There is a clear link between prostitution and the trafficking in women and girls both of which are fueled by men's demand! Without the demand for prostitution there would be no trafficking in women and girls for prostitution. Governments must address this demand by decriminalizing prostituted women and girls and by criminalizing the traffickers and purchasers of sexual services. e.g. the Swedish model, which has enacted a law that criminalizes the purchasers of sexual, services and protects the survivors of prostitution. Victims of trafficking and prostitution should be provided with opportunities to work free of sexual exploitation. Further to this whilst providing both training and education to enable women to make alternative choices, support services need to be put in place (including trauma specific counseling services) thus enabling the women to move beyond the confines of sexual exploitation and into economically viable work.

The extract quoted earlier refers to a young woman I worked with for the past 6 years (since she was infact still a child. I am a Mercy Sister working in the East End of London with Providence Row Charity, which has had a connection with Mercy for 140 years. We are currently expanding our services to women by developing a project for women fleeing cycles of abuse, paying particular attention to the needs women involved in survival sex, that will embrace outreach, drop in facilities, access to specialized services providing accommodation, advice and information, medical, counseling, training and volunteer opportunities etc.

ldearlove@providencerow.org.uk