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WHO WILL OPEN THE CAGES? INTERNATIONAL TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN AND CHILDREN By Shoma A. Chatterji WORD-COUNT: 1127 Are women and girls more vulnerable to trafficking than men and boys? Yes, they are more vulnerable to being illegally bought and sold as slaves and prostitutes in the illicit, yet widely acknowledged and internationally publicized sex trade market of the world. The first reason for their being more vulnerable is the framework of patriarchy they live and work within where their destinies are decided people other than themselves – parents, husbands, relatives, employers, boyfriends and pimps. Secondly, they have no voice of their own and even if they do, they are unaware of the right to their freedom of expression. Thirdly, all female members of any family are considered to be expendable whenever the family is under crisis. For example, when people live in famine conditions, the females in the family are the first to die of starvation. More than a decade ago, a Muslim family based in Kanpur was arrested for murder. The father had diabolically planned the murder of his seven girls, ages ranging from 16 to six. The only male child was shifted to another place before the murder took place. He explained that since he could not afford to pay dowry for the girls, he had thought it fit to eliminate them! Socio-economic evils like dowry, economic ills like poverty, sociological evils like patriarchy and historical precedents of sex slavery of women at all times that were never questioned till recently, could be summed up as the root causes for this vulnerability among girls and women to end up as victims of the international sex trade. Human trafficking, slavery, and child labor are inhumane and unacceptable. One cannot close one’s eyes because it’s too painful to see and to understand. One might not, in an individual capacity, hope to ever completely eradicate the problem. But conscience demands that one does everything one can to stop it. Free trade, established so that goods and services can flow freely, is actually one of the causes of slave labor. We need an equitable system because we are now favoring the rich nations who can go out and take advantage of desperately poor people. The promotion of these basic rights of women and children is urgently called for. It is a question of health, not just economics. According to Nancy Ely-Raphel, director of the U.S. State Departments’ Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons and former Ambassador to Slovenia, more than 700,000 people worldwide, mostly women and children, are trafficked annually across international borders against their will or through deception, and as many as 50,000 people are smuggled into the United States. In 2000, over 700 children were trafficked to San Diego from all parts of the world. Ely-Raphel feels that trafficking has persisted globally into the twenty-first century due to political instability, civil war, and an overall lack of responsibility on the part of the human race. She reminded attendants that the struggle against repression and exploitation continues. The human trafficking industry has a reported annual income of $8 billion, and the UN estimates that it may employ as many as 40 million women, despite its abusive practices and notorious disregard for basic human rights. Although human trafficking is illegal in almost every country, thousands more girls each year become sexual slaves, writes Laura Cass in an article on human trafficking. Poverty and lack of employment, education, and vocational skills are some of the top reasons that attract many young women to the world of sexual slavery. “If everybody had an economically viable job, there would be no reason to enter into [prostitution],” says Anne Hoiberg, Director of Women’s Equity Council and past President of United Nations Association of San Diego. 2 One organization considered to be the most responsible for the enormous popularity of the sex industry in such countries as the Philippines, Japan, Thailand, and Bosnia, is the United States military. During the Vietnam War, former Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara persuaded many Southeast Asian nations to sign a contract allowing soldiers to see “rest and recreation” in those countries. Soldiers were given time off to travel in what were essentially “sex tours,” although they were technically illegal in the US. Special clinics were set up to make sure that venereal diseases were kept in check. As a result, the number of girls that became sexual slaves in those countries skyrocketed. In Thailand, over 1.5 million women and girls, one-third of them children, are involved in prostitution, pornography, massage parlors, etc. Thailand’s sex industry has even become four to five times more lucrative than the country’s agricultural sector. Educated, professional women are often tricked into being trafficked to other countries. Valentina, a psychologist and social worker, was given the opportunity to move to Israel, where there were better professional opportunities than in her economically devastated country, Ukraine. She didn’t know that the man who offered her the trip was a trafficking operator, and upon arriving in Israel, Valentina was trapped into prostitution for two months. When the authorities found out, Valentina refused to testify against the man because he knew where her family lived. Although Ukraine has anti-trafficking laws, the country is still one of the biggest income sources for the human trafficking industry. Hundreds and thousands of women in Asian countries, forced by socio-economic circumstances, have been sexually exploited. They are working as prostitutes, social escorts, dance hostesses and waitresses in nightclubs and cocktail lounges. Sex tourism is the most dehumanized form of sex and economic exploitation of women. It has its roots in a Western decaying urban life, where society is alienated and deculturalised, and where the need to consume has become compulsive, stripped of any real meaning. Fortunately, there are many laws and treaties that exist to help in human trafficking and sexual slavery. Among them are The Convention on the Rights of the Child, and The Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. However the US government opposes both documents. The US government’s objection to the Convention on the Rights of the Child is that the document contains an article stating that children can be sentenced to neither capital punishment nor lifetime imprisonment, both of which some US states allow, and an article stating no person under the age of 18 will serve in a military, while the US military accepts 17 year olds. To help, young people like students and volunteers with NGOs can support poverty alleviation programs, volunteer at community outreach centers, spread the word, and be on the alert—“this can take place right in your own backyard.” Students can also follow the strategy of the three P’s: Prevention of trafficking, Prosecution of traffickers, and Protection of victims. No matter their age, sex, or country of citizenship we need to promote the well being of people. ****************************** Tuesday, June 03, 2003 3