Mercy Global Concern - 2003

Trafficking in Women and Girls - Today's Problem

The 47th session: Commission on the Status of Women3 - 14 March 2003

Theme: Women's Human Rights and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls as defined in the Beijing Platform of Action and the outcome document of the Special Session for the General Assembly entitled " Women: gender equality, development and peace in the twenty-first century".

Trafficking in Women: The Secretary General received a statement from the Sisters of Mercy/The Good Shepherd Congregation and the Elizabeth Seton Federation. (See MGC briefing paper number: 3, December 2002)

As a follow up to the paper submitted a group of NGO's prepared the following:

Trafficking in women and girls "results in gradual and total destruction of a women's personal identity, and her right to live as a free human being". Trafficking denies:

• The right of liberty and security of person

• The right to freedom from all forms of torture, violence and cruelty

• The right to education and employment

• The right to healthcare

Causes are varied: so Reponses need to be multifaceted and holistic.

EDUCATION - TODAY'S SOLUTION

Education for Women and Girls

Trafficking of women and girls flourishes in supply countries because of the vulnerabilities arising from women's access top resources, including education. Nations need to increase access to educational programs for women and girls.

• FIGHT POVERTY

Education programs, including job training, are powerful instruments for reducing poverty and inequality, improving health and social well being, and laying the basis for sustained economic growth.

• FIGHT VIOLENCE

Lack of access to education contributes to the self-perpetuating cycle of constant social discrimination and the low status of women, which can contribute to the violence against women. Education programs are needed to modify and the social and cultural customs of men and women, and to eliminate the prejudices and practices based on the idea of inferiority or superiority.

• FIGHT IGNORNACE

Lack of education not only denies women and girls a realistic opportunity to earn income while keeping them in a discriminating class; it keeps them ill informed and ignorant about the risks and realities of migrating to the unknown. It is important that at- risk populations be made aware of the realities of the dangers associated with trafficking. Women and children need to know what to look for, and how to protect themselves from falling victim to trafficking.

EDUCATION FOR POLICE AND PROSECUTORS - Fight compliance and Apathy

Either by passive acceptance or active complicity, authorities on all levels of government, are often part of the trafficking scheme. Prosecutors and police must be aware that the customer is a criminal, an integral part of the trafficking of women and children. Authorities must take proactive approaches to law enforcement and human rights protection in general.

EDUCATION FOR DEVELOPED NATIONS: Fight Politics

Merely providing funds for educational capital is not enough; nations must address root causes of educational gender discrimination. Addressing the problem of trafficking is more than building a school for girls, it must eliminate non-educational obstacles: poverty, legal barriers and discrimination.

EDUCATION FOR MEN: Fight Demand

"To see women and girls lined up at a brothel, numbered and available to any man than picks them, is to see them dominated and humiliated, stripped of their power to 'withhold' sexual access that such men imagine is so central to their own well-being."2 Nations must "introduce actions aimed at helping and motivating perpetrators to break the cycle of violence".

MALE CUSTOMERS HAVE MISCONCEPTIONS OF WOMEN PROSTITUTES.

Women are viewed as objects offering a service, and not as a prisoner, victim or even a person. Participating in sexual exploitation is often an expression of misogyny and racism.

Men must be taught the true nature of prostitution.

MALE CUSTOMERS HAVE MISCONCEPTIONS OF HIV/AIDS AND OTHER STDs.

Customers fearing infections of HIV/AIDS demand younger and younger girls, some as young as seven. These girls are erroneously perceived as too young to be infected. No girl is too young to be infected. Participating in prostitution is never risk free.

MEN NEED TO GET REAL, AND STOP ACTING ON MISINFORMATION, STEREOTYPES AND MISCONCEPTIONS.

Male customers education programs are not only a shift in resources, but also a paradigm shift from simple prosecution of prostitution with high recidivism rates to targeting customers and providing a continuum of education, prevention, early intervention and rehabilitation for prostitutes and customers alike.

NATIONS SHOULD:

1. Increase access to basic education for women and girls, especially in developing countries, by addressing the societal, political, economic and cultural barriers to education.

2. Consider gender issues, effects and solutions in all aid programming, providing more than targeted funds for educational curriculum and buildings.

3. Take particular care to educate authorities on the true nature of trafficking, (i.e. the victim status of trafficked women and girls, and the adherence to human rights in proposed solutions); and

4. Develop programs to educate the male sex customer, similar to the First Offender Prostitution Program in San Francisco that shifts the combat paradigm from weak prosecution at best to education and prevention.

Source: Human Rights Advocates: USF Law Clinic, San Francisco, CA 94117