Mercy Global Concern - 2003

Trafficking in Women and Girls

Facts to consider:

• Trafficking is first and foremost a human rights issue because it involves slavery-like treatment of women.
• Trafficking is also a multi-faceted issue that involves crime, economics, migration, and labour.
• Though trafficking in women is a long-standing issue globally, it is relatively new for policy makers. In essence, trafficking in women is the use of force and deception to transfer women and girls into situations of extreme exploitation.
• Trafficking in human beings for the purpose of services, prostitution, domestic servitude, debt bondage or other slavery like practices is one of the fastest areas of international criminal activity - behind only drugs and guns in its profitability. Girls between the ages of 13 and 18 years of age constitute the largest group within the sex industry.
• Virtually every country in the world, both developed and developing is affected. Estimates say that 500,000 girls below 18 are victims of trafficking each year.
• With the fear of HIV/AIDS traffickers are recruiting younger victims, some as young as 7 years old, thinking erroneously that they are too young to have been infected.
• An estimate 1 million women and girls of various nationalities are being trafficked in Thailand.

Positive Initiatives:

U.N Secretary General Kofi Annan called on countries to ratify U.N. treaties on human trafficking and to step up national and international efforts against the phenomenon.

In a message delivered by U.N. Vienna head, Antonio Maria Costa to a three day conference in Abuja, Nigeria, Annan said trafficking has grown at an "alarming rate", with about 700,000 women and children now trafficked yearly and the annual value of the industry, according to Europol, reaching several billion dollars. " No region is immune," he added, naming poverty, unemployment, "disruption of traditional livelihoods" and "economic disparities among countries and between men and women" as factors driving the practice.

Annan said combating the practice begins with treaties such as the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its trafficking protocol; the optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography;

"These conventions will not end trafficking on their own, but they are part of the legal framework necessary for our effort. Policies and practices must also be strengthened at national level," Annan said. He also called for " mechanisms for cooperation between source, transit and destination countries", "strong penalties for traffickers and those who enslave and exploit human beings."

Thailand:

In Thailand girls are now protected under the purview of the Prevention and Suppression of Trafficking in Women and Children Act, 1996

USA:

In 2000, the US passed The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act which criminalizes all forms of trafficking in persons; doubles the sentence for persons convicted of operating slavery-like practices in the US to a maximum of 20 years; and adds the possibility of life imprisonment when violations result in death or involve kidnapping or sexual abuse. It also embraces cooperation and assistance with law enforcement agencies in foreign countries for the prosecution of international trafficking, and for drafting and implementing legislation.

Sweden:

In 1999, the Swedish Parliament put into effect a law that criminalizes the buying of sexual services but not the selling of sexual services. This is a compassionate, social interventionists legal response to the cruelty of prostitution.

Prostitution has clear links with...

• gender inequality
• incest, childhood sexual assault
• poverty and homelessness
• racism and colonialism and sexism
• drug, alcohol addiction
• global business
• the erosion of traditional ways
• the ways diverse cultures normalize prostitution

Accurate data is difficult to obtain, however anecdotal evidence, discussions with practitioners, and agreed estimations suggest that trafficking, particularly in women and children, has increased in scope and magnitude, especially for prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation.

Women and Girls are more vulnerable to being trafficked because of:

FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO DEMAND …

women and girls perceived suitability for work in labour-intensive production and the growing informal sector, which is characterized by low wages, casual employment, hazardous work conditions and the absence of collective bargaining mechanisms;

the increasing demand for foreign workers for domestic and care-giving roles, and lack of adequate regulatory frameworks to support this;

the growth of the billion-dollar sex industry, tolerated as a "necessary evil" while women in prostitution are criminalized and discriminated against;

the low risk-high profit nature of trafficking encouraged by a lack of will on the part of the enforcement agencies to prosecute traffickers (which include owners/managers of institutions into which persons are trafficked);

the ease of controlling and manipulating vulnerable women.

lack of access to legal redress or remedies for victims of traffickers; and devaluation of women and children's human rights.

FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO SUPPLY:

unequal access to education that limits women's opportunities to increase their earnings in more skilled occupations

lack of legitimate and fulfilling employment opportunities particularly in rural communities.

sex-selective migration policies and restrictive emigration policies/laws are instituted often as a "protective" measure, but instead limit women's legitimate migration. Most legal channels of migration offer opportunities in typically male-dominated sectors (construction and agriculture work);

less access to information on migration/job opportunities, recruitment channels and a greater lack of awareness of the risks of migration compared to men;

disruption of support systems due to natural and human created catastrophes; and traditional community attitudes and practices, which tolerate violence against women.