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1 GLOBALIZATION OF UKRAINE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANIZED CRIMINAL NETWORKS AND THE EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN IN THE SEX TRAFFICKING INDUSTRY By: Juan Ponce de Leon December 2008 SEMINAR 900 WOMEN, LAW AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY PROFESSOR ELVIA R. ARRIOLA NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW 2 INTRODUCTION Since the early 1990s organized criminal enterprises have been responsible for increasing fears in women being used as migrants in sex trafficking schemes.1 In Ukraine and throughout other Eastern European countries, organized criminal networks have used tactics such as coercion, force and exploitation to force women into prostitution.2 Sex trafficking, specifically, refers to the practice of moving women within a country or across a country’s borders to meet demands for sex.3 Among the numerous patterns of migration, human trafficking, resulting from globalization and the economic and gender disparities it creates, creates a successful and profitable criminal enterprise.4 Typically, the migration of women to meet sexual demands begins with broken promises and lies regarding available job opportunities and work conditions. Additionally, kidnapping occurs and Ukrainian women are forced into a life of sexual servitude. Next, the migrant women are subjected to threats, forced labor, violence and imprisonment.5 In an era of globalization human trafficking thrives on its economic successful6. Just how successful can sex trafficking be? Today, there are about 200 million migrants living in territories outside their homeland.7 It is estimated that the value of women in sex trafficking generates anywhere from seven to twelve billion dollars per year.8 Of the estimated one million people trafficked for sexual exploitation or prostitution, 500,000 of them are estimated by the 1 Celine Nieuwenhuys & Antoine Pecoud, Human Trafficking, Information Campaigns, and Strategies of Migration Control, 50 American Behavioral Scientist 1674,1678 (2007). 2 Id. 3 Donna M. Hughes, The “Natasha” Trade – The Transnational Shadow Market of Trafficking in Women, 53 Journal of International Affairs (2000). 4 William Finnegan, The Countertraffickers; Rescuing the Victims of Global Sex Trade, 84 The New Yorker 44 (2008). 5 Id. 6 Id. 7 Id. 8 Hughes, supra note 3. 3 United Nations to be victims from the European Union.9 The Ukraine Ministry of Defense estimated that number to be at 400,000 from Ukraine in the last decade.10 Today, sex trafficking is responsible for displacing roughly 200,000,000 people as a result of human trafficking. To what do we attribute this drastically large number to? The era of globalization.11 In regards to Ukraine, its female citizens have been displaced, as migrant workers in the human trafficking scheme, from their home country to European countries such as Turkey and Greece.12 But what exactly does it mean to discuss globalization in terms of sex trafficking schemes which victimize Ukrainian women? Broadly speaking, globalization refers to the expansion of capital and capital relations of production throughout the world.13 Thus, globalization moves developing countries to move away from isolation by allowing them access to resources from already developed countries in the global economy.14 Although the concept of globalization might seem glamorous, several areas of the globe, such as Ukraine and other Eastern European countries, experience adverse results. Since the end of the Cold War sex trafficking has become a concern resulting from the globalization of Ukraine.15 Trafficking, in this sense, refers to recruiting and transferring people, by threat or coercion, using an abuse of power to gain vulnerability for the purpose of exploitation of the victims. Although trafficking may occur for several types of labor, our present purposes concern sexual exploitation or prostitution.16 When dealing with vulnerability and sexual exploitation, I am referring to the vulnerable state that Ukrainian women have been placed into and are, thus, 9 Hughes, supra note 3. Id. 11 Finnegan, supra note 4. 12 Hughes, supra note 3. 13 Berch Berberoglu, The Impact of Globalization on Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union: Prospects for Post-Soviet Development in the Age of Globalization, University of Nevada, Reno, Department of Sociology, Discussion Paper, 3. 14 Joseph Stilglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents, 4 (W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., ed., 2003) (2002). 15 Nieuwenhuys, supra note 1. 16 Raimo Vayrynen, Illegal Immigration, Human Trafficking, and Organized Crime, United Nationals University, Discussion Paper 2003, 1 (Oct. 2003). 10 4 being sexually exploited throughout Europe. Therefore, when analyzing the globalization of Ukraine, along with the resulting sex trafficking that occurs, human rights violations on Ukraine’s female citizens arising out of the attempt to expand the capital into and out of Ukraine are implicated.17 Therefore, the notion of globalization, women and law in the global economy, referring specifically to the case of Ukraine, refers to a moral human rights violation which must be taken into consideration and remedied by powers and institutions attempting to globalize Eastern European countries.18 To successfully globalize, or to globalize without victimizing women in the sex trafficking industry, the international financial institutions and other powers pushing Ukraine in the direction where capital and capital resources are expanded throughout the globe in an effort to promote economic stability and welfare, must consider more than loosening border restrictions and increased access to other countries engaged in the global economy. These driving powers must also consider the human rights violations of Ukrainian females that have been and currently are being exploited as a result of the movements towards globalization. Therefore, these powers must implement educational and border policies and establish legal reforms in order to: educate women about the dangers that human trafficking poses in Ukraine, allow for safer Ukrainian borders where trafficking females would not be easy and to punish criminals for their attempts to trafficking females to meet the demands for sex in European countries, respectively. Since the end of the Cold War in Europe, human trafficking has brought about many political concerns.19 Although migration policies have been implemented, undocumented migration, in the form of human trafficking, still exists. A major problem in Ukraine that aids to female sex trafficking is that they exist in an era of globalization.20 Namely, Ukraine’s existence 17 Vayrynen, supra note 16, at 1. Nieuwenhuys, supra note 1, at 1678. 19 Id. at 1675-6. 20 Nieuwenhuys, supra note 1, at 1675-6. 18 5 in an era of globalization comes with the dilemma that they must keep their borders open to international trade while their own female citizens are being trafficked for sex in and out of those borders by organized criminal networks, whose jobs of trafficking women in and out of the borders are made easy because of the fact that the borders must remain open or adhere to flexible restrictions.21 Overall, what do we attribute the migration of Ukrainian women in the sex trafficking industry to? The impacts of globalization in Ukraine, namely, the flexibility of regulations regarding access inside and outside of its borders and increased access to the global market are to blame for making Ukrainian females victims in the sex trafficking industry. The forces driving Ukraine towards globalization failed to take into account the need for legal regulations and enforcement of organized criminal organizations, which grew out of shadow economies established during the former Soviet Union’s communist regime, taking advantage of vulnerable women living in poverty; migrating them into other European counties via deceit and coercion; and satisfying the demand for sex in those European countries, during and after the Ukraine’s control under the former Soviet Union. This analysis of the globalization of Ukraine and the sex trafficking will be divided into three parts. Part I will discuss the globalization of Ukraine and how the process, whose roots date back to Ukraine’s control under the former Soviet Union, brought about wage discrepancies and led to the emergence of organized criminal networks and the continuation of females being viewed as the inferior sex. Part II will discuss how the organized criminal networks function in the lucrative industry of sex trafficking and how Ukrainian women are obtained. Finally, Part III will offer a solution to the problem of sex trafficking, consisting of economic and social policies that must be 21 Id. at 1676. 6 implemented by the European Union if there is to be hope for Ukrainian females not having to enter a life of sexual servitude. I. GLOBALIZATION OF UKRAINE What is one significant factor that led to Ukraine becoming a breeding ground for female migrant workers who are exploited in the sex trafficking industry? The process of globalizing Ukraine before and after the fall of the Soviet Union led to this tragic result. In fact, it was the fall of the Soviet empire and the treatment of its former territories that gave human traffickers a new recruitment tool which would later lead to Ukraine becoming the second largest European country for female prostitutes.22 Currently, world globe is in a position to operate on a “planetary level,” a global economy.23 However, since states are becoming less territorial and more globalized, migration in the form of human sex trafficking seems to prosper on a greater level.24 Before discussing the manner in which sex trafficking continues to thrive as a lucrative enterprise, we must first analyze globalization, specifically in the context of Ukraine, by examining: who actually benefits from the globalization of Ukraine; the development of shadow economies and how they led to the creation organized criminal networks and, finally, how globalization is responsible for wage and gender inequalities in Ukraine. A. The actual beneficiaries of globalization are not the citizens of globalizing states, but those who have investments in the international financial institutions who push for states to become globalized. The globalization of capital in Europe has had an adverse impact in countries, such as Ukraine, who have been integrated in the global economy due to the expansion of capital worldwide.25 In response to this phenomenon, scholars and policy makers, in analyzing the 22 Hughes, supra note 3. Vayrynen, supra note 16, at 1. 24 Birgitte Young, Globalization and Gender: A European Perspective in Gender, Globalization, and Democratization 28 (Rita Mae Kelly, Jane H. Bayes, Mary Hawkesworth & Brigitte Young., eds 2001). 25 Berberoglu, supra note 13, at 1. 23 7 adverse impacts in the context of globalizing capital, have centered their research around economic policies implemented in European states as a means to bring those states into the global economy.26 The polices integrated into Eastern European countries, such as Ukraine, to bring those territories into the global economy have produced harsh results for the production of goods, the distribution of goods and services, and have lowered the standards of living and quality of life.27 If brining a country into the global economy was supposed to benefit the production and distribution of goods and services and strengthen living standards of the native populations, then why does the globalization of Eastern European countries produce harsh results? One explanation for these effects centers on who is benefitting under these implemented economic policies. Based on the objectives of globalization, bringing a state into the global economy for the betterment of its capital, businesses and citizens, one would be rational in thinking that globalization should be benefitting a state itself. However, in practice, this has not been the case. Global financial institutions are the entities responsible for using modern technology, such as the internet, to bring more and more states into the global economy at a very quick rate.28 Among these international financial institutions are the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).29 The question now becomes: how are the international financial institutions responsible for the adverse results described above? Simply put, leaders of the international financial institutions are protecting their own interests instead of securing the interests of the residents of Ukraine and other Eastern European states. The decision makers of these international financial institutions include: the largest stockholders of the institutions/entities, bureaucrats, politicians and military officials. In implementing economic policies on such a rapid basis, these interested 26 Id. at 2. Berberoglu, supra note 13, at 2. 28 Id. at 3. 29 Id. at 3. 27 8 parties are merely securing their own financial interest in entering Eastern European states into the global market.30 To say, however, that only leaders of the international financial institutions benefit from globalization, at the expense of a state’s population, would not be entirely accurate. We must remember that the larger and more efficient commercial and financial firms economically thrive at the expense of smaller competitors and their associated classes, who are eventually forced out of business.31 When Eastern European states are globalized, the policies implemented reflect capitalism, which throughout recent history have been expanding globally. The expansion of capitalism, which has favored the larger commercial and financial firms, has forced out of business inefficient and small competitors, leading to larger profits for medium to larger sized firms. Necessarily following was the creation of two economic classes, those who were able to stay in business and thrive from globalization and those who were forced out of employment, with large gaps of wealth between the two.32 Those who remained in business quickly learned a new way to generate even more profit: the exploitation of wage labor. Namely, the larger firms lowered their salaries for labor, thus being able to invest a small amount of money for a larger return of profit. Therefore, classes of peasants and small self-employed business owners, who were not strong enough to compete with the larger firms, were isolated into a class with a significant disparity from those strong enough to stay in business and forced to take on jobs with low wages.33 Low wages, in turn, lead to a decline in the standards of living for countries transitioning into the global economy. Furthermore, with globalization isolating so many people in the lower economic class, high rates of unemployment followed. Eastern European countries undergoing the economic changes of globalization face these very same problems and have been 30 Berberoglu, supra note 13, at 3. Berberoglu, supra note 13, at 4. 32 Id. at 4. 33 Id. at 5. 31 9 since the fall of the Soviet Union.34 Described below is how low wages leads Ukrainian women desperate to find promising employment beyond the Ukrainian borders, which is usually a camouflage for pimps seeking to obtain sex slaves in the sex trafficking industry. B. Shadow Economies, which arose during the Soviet regime, led to the creation of organized criminal networks. While economic wage disparities in Ukraine, and other parts of Eastern Europe, have been an adverse effect of globalization, shadow economies play a significant role. It is important to understand, as will be demonstrated in parts II and III of this paper, that the criminal networks that emerged from globalized states took advantage of increased migration and loose border restrictions, necessary policies of globalization, as a way to hide females being trafficked out of Ukraine to satisfy the demand for sex in other globalized states. Before the fall of the Soviet Union, while it controlled Ukraine, the state economy failed to provide goods and services needed by the general population. Shadow economies, operating similarly to black markets, emerged in attempt to gain a profit by satisfying those demands for goods and services. In fact, shortages in goods and services were occasionally created to benefit those operating the shadow economies.35 Towards the end of the Soviet Union’s regime, the political and economic system was failing. Thus, the shadow economies were able to jump at the opportunity to fill even more demands, while implementing corruptive measures, that the Soviet Union failed to provide. As time went on, independent states began to emerge from the Soviet Union. However, they faced two problems: a lack of experience of deterring criminal networks and a lack of self-sustained economic experience. Thus, as the states became unable to pay salaries to their workers, these workers turned to criminal networks for survival. In Ukraine, those working on very low salaries 34 35 Berberoglu, supra note 13, at 6. Hughes, supra note 3. 10 and seeking additional employment, had no other choice but to turn to the organized criminal industry. Organized crime refers to the agencies operating on a transnational level whose intentions are purely profit from illegal opportunities where opportunities are high and risks of prosecution or other legal ramifications are low.36 The organized criminal industry, in turn, became so powerful that by 1995 it accounted for 50% of Ukraine’s gross domestic product. 37 States throughout the world, some who have or are currently globalizing, are dominated by organized criminal networks, commonly known as mafias. Today, one state must notorious for being dominated by organized criminal networks is Ukraine.38 C. The Soviet Union’s regime created gender inequalities which are further sustained through Globalization in terms of wage disparities and cultural stances on women Another impact of globalization, aside from wage disparities, division of economic classes and the birth of criminal networks, is gender inequalities. Due to the wage disparities caused by globalization, gender establishments are said to have become “feminized” and women have been forced to abandon their households and join the work force in the global economy.39 Based on these happenings, some critics claim that globalization has had a positive and liberating effect on women due to the fact that females in developed countries have prospered. However, the effects are clearly oppressive for those females who have become poorer from the effects of globalization in non-developed parts of the world. Territories that have become poorer from globalization experience reductions in housing, food and health. Impoverished women are forced to crowd urban areas or migrate across borders. In some cases, migratory actions include women 36 Vayrynen, supra note 16, at 2. Hughes, supra note 3. 38 Finnegan, supra note 4. 39 Jane H. Bayes, Mary E. Hawkesworth & Rita Mae Kelly, Globalization, Democratization, and Gender Regimes in Gender, Globalization, and Democratization 3 (Rita Mae Kelly, Jane H. Bayes, Mary Hawkesworth & Brigitte Young, eds., 2001). 37 11 and children forced into slavery, prostitution and sex trafficking.40 Even when women are able to find employment, the jobs are not very attractive. For example, Eastern European cultures appear to favor males as the dominating gender. Based on this social inequality, while males are subcontracted for more attractive jobs, women are primarily present in sweatshops of the global factories.41 The social inequality that exists to the disadvantage of women is present in Ukraine. Namely, 60% of unemployed Ukrainians are females. At the same time, 80% of Ukrainians who lost their jobs between 1991 and 2000 were female.42 Aside from the impacts of globalization, as described above, why are Ukrainian women seen as an inferior sex? The answer to this is 300 years of Russian governance and seventy years of Soviet oppression. Communist ideology, under which Ukraine was dominated by, promoted gender equality. Specifically, communist ideology promoted gender equalities in employment and in education. Thus, Ukrainian females became main labor force for tractor drivers, builders or factory workers and other dangerous jobs, despite the fact that such dangerous occupations were hazardous to women’s reproductive health. On the other hand, in terms of academics and prestigious positions, communist ideology created a society where only a small percentage of women obtained academic grants, obtained prestigious jobs or became political leaders.43 Moreover, while Ukrainian women were treated unequally in practice, despite communism’s ideology of gender equality, Ukrainian females became a sex symbol in the entertainment industry. While females were supposedly seen as equals under the communism under the Soviet Union, Ukrainian culture, through filmmakers, exploited women with images of sexuality on 40 Id. at 7. Young, supra note 24, at 33. 42 Hughes, supra note 3. 43 Tamara Vornik Govorun, Challenges In the Ukraine, 25 Choice-Sexual Health and Family Planning in Europe 13 (1996). 41 12 television programs. Namely, filmmakers fill programs depicting a naked female merely as a sex object available for men.44 II. UKRAINIAN WOMEN HAVE EMERGED AS A SOURCE TO STAISFY DEMANDS FOR SEX IN EUROPE Now that we have an understanding of the impact globalization has in Ukraine and how women were placed at a disadvantage by virtue of their gender, we can begin to analyze the emergence of women as a source used to satisfy the demand for sex in Europe via sex trafficking schemes. Sex trafficking is a very dangerous and lucrative industry.45 This notion, coupled with the high demand for sex in European countries, gives rise to organized criminal networks that prey on the vulnerability of Ukrainian women by taking advantage of the loose Ukrainian border restrictions and exploit the country’s females into the sex trafficking industry. Calculating how many Ukrainian women have been exploited in and out of Ukraine’s borders for the purposes of sex trafficking is difficult.46 Part of this uncertainty can be credited to the fact that not many government agencies are monitoring the problem.47 Fears have been increasing centered around migration of trafficked women by means of coercion and exploitation used by crime organizations forcing women into prostitution.48 These crime organizations consist of transnational crime networks that take advantage of the open borders in Ukraine, opened up as a result of the movement to globalize Ukraine, to traffic women into the sex industry.49 The organized criminal organizations take advantage of the open borders by identifying patterns of regular migrations in and out of the Ukraine to hide their efforts of trafficking women in the sex industry. For example, after 1989, numerous Soviet Jews migrated to Israel. About 800,000 new 44 Govorun, supra note 43. Hughes, supra note 3. 46 Hughes, supra note 3. 47 Hughes, supra note 3. 48 Nieuwenhuys, supra note 1, at 1678. 49 Hughes, supra note 3. 45 13 immigrants moved to Israel. Organized criminal network leaders in Ukraine used these patterns in migration to move 10,000 Ukrainian women into Israel for sex trafficking purpose.50 Such trafficking movements have been deemed to be a modern day slave trade.51 Unfortunately, many impoverished females in Ukraine, those of which are women who are at the highest risk of being trafficked, tend to view trafficking as a experience that will never happen to them.52 A. Sex trafficking is a lucrative business with a high demand for Ukrainian women. Countries with large sex industries create the demands. The demanding countries are known as “receiving countries” and they obtain women from “sending countries,” such as Ukraine. These demands in “receiving countries” for women in brothels, massage parlors, bars and stretches of streets and highways where women are sold to men in prostitution leads crime networks in newly independent states, such as Ukraine, to fulfill this demand for high profits at a low risk. Recently, Ukraine has become a major source of young women for “receiving countries.” In “receiving countries,” men create the demand for a young female supply. With little attention paid to the legality or legitimacy of this demand, from either the perspective of Ukraine or the “receiving country,” men are able to use trafficked women for entertainment, sexual gratification and acts of violence.53 The high demand created by men in “receiving countries” raises opportunities for criminal networks to engage in the highly lucrative sex trafficking. According to the United Nations, human trafficking is currently considered to be the third most profitable criminal enterprise in the world (behind weapons and narcotics), thus giving it its appeal to the criminal society.54 Among the players involved in this highly lucrative criminal scheme, the transnational trafficking criminals consist of pimps that take advantage of poor and impoverished Ukrainian women 50 Finnegan, supra note 4. Nieuwenhuys, supra note 1, at 1678. 52 Finnegan, supra note 4. 53 Hughes, supra note 3. 54 Finnegan, supra note 4. 51 14 possessing dreams of future employment. The actions of these criminal networks, aside from degrading the status of Ukrainian women, are threatening the social, political and economic stability of Ukraine in an era of globalization.55 Just how lucrative are sex trafficking criminal schemes to the pimps in Ukraine? The Chief of Criminal Investigations for the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior, Mikhail Lebed, does not give an exact estimate, but sheds light on how lucrative the position can be. According to Lebed, gangsters, pimps, mafia leaders, and other criminals make more money by putting impoverished Ukrainian women into the global sex trafficking scheme in only one week than what is budgeted for the Ukrainian law-enforcement in a year. Taking into account the easy access given to migrants in and out of Ukraine’s borders, as described above, criminals in Ukraine are given the ability to engage in an industry, sexual trafficking and exploitation, carrying a very low risk of criminal punishment or sanctions.56 What is to be said about globalization in terms of these transnational criminal enterprises in Ukraine? Before answering that question it is important to remember that one of the objectives of globalization is to improve the economic wealth of a country, which includes its local communities, and its citizens. In effect, however, the exact opposite result is achieved. The globalization of Ukraine led to loosened restrictions of the Ukrainian borders for free trade to take place in the global economy. Therefore, two results display how the globalization of Ukraine achieves the opposite results desired. First, Ukrainian women who are trafficked for sexual exploitation end up taking home next to none of the money they earned while employed by pimps as sexual objects. Moreover, Ukrainian females suffer in terms of health, emotional well being and standing in their communities as a result of their employment experiences. Second, Ukraine and its local communities do not gain prosperity from sex trafficking criminal 55 Hughes, supra note 3. Id. 56 15 schemes, which were made possible via loose border restrictions. Namely, none of the money made by organized criminal networks from sex trafficking profits goes towards improving Ukraine’s wealth. Instead of going to improve poor communities in Ukraine, the profits of criminal networks are laundered through bank accounts of crime bosses in financial centers in the United States or Western Europe or deposited in off-shore savings accounts.57 B. Tactics and recruitment tools used to obtain Ukrainian women in the sex trafficking industry Being presented with such a profitable opportunity, carrying little risk of legal implications, criminals are encouraged to devise tactics for recruiting and holding on to Ukrainian women for sex trafficking, which a growing number of women are vulnerable to.58 These factors include: force, coercion, manipulation, deception, abuse of authority, initial consent, family pressures, family or community violence, economic hardships or, more significantly for present purposes, gender inequality.59 Gaining an understanding of how and why Ukrainian women enter the sex trafficking industry allows us to develop a greater appreciation of the barbaric tactics employed. Although some Ukrainian women voluntarily enter the sex industry, seventy-five percent of these women do not realize that they will be forced into a life of servitude and prostitution.60 Trafficking Ukrainian women for sex in and out of the country’s border can sometimes be attributed to kidnapping. However, transporting women across the Ukrainian borders to satisfy sex demands in other European countries usually results from breached promises of employment, work conditions, employment destinations, or combinations thereof. As far as tactics are concerned, female Ukrainian victims of sex trafficking endure threats, violent treatment, forced labor and 57 58 Hughes, supra note 3. United States Agency of International Development, Ukraine Initiative, Gender Matters Quarterly, Feb. 1999 at 6. 59 Hughes, supra note 3. Id. 60 16 imprisonment from their pimps.61 Just to make matters worse, immediately upon arriving at their employment destination, victims have their travel documents confiscated and are held in physical and economic slavery until their debts to their employers/pimps are satisfied.62 After these tactics are employed, pimps and those who control the sex labor of trafficked Ukrainian women use beatings, rapes and torture to control their new sex workers. Moreover, these pimps threaten a women’s family living back in Ukraine. Very few of these victims confront the horrors associated with sex trafficking ready to put up a fight.63 To aid their efforts, organized criminal networks utilize technological advances to avoid detection and criminal prosecution. Computer communication technologies have increased the complexity of international financial transactions. As a result, criminal network leaders are able to use complex transactions to transfer their profits and launder the money they make. In terms of recruiting their victims, criminals are using the advertising industry to obtain victims for the sex trafficking industry. Criminal enterprises employ newspapers to advertise phony profitable job opportunities in foreign countries with very little skill required. In fact, an inspection of Ukrainian newspapers indicates that each newspaper investigated found anywhere between five to twenty suspicious advertisements. Although these findings only suggest that the advertisements are suspicious, recruitment via media advertisements accounts for roughly twenty percent of Ukrainian woman who fall prey to sex traffickers. These recruiting efforts are also known to take place at social events and photo auditions.64 Although media advertisements account for a significant percentage of Ukrainian women trafficked into the global sex industry, the majority of Ukrainian women, around seventy percent, are introduced to the sex trafficking industry via “happy trafficking.” Happy trafficking is a 61 Finnegan, supra note 4. Hughes, supra note 3. 63 Finnegan, supra note 4. 64 Hughes, supra note 3. 62 17 technique traffickers have used which entails recruiting Ukrainian women through friends or acquaintances.65 Specifically, previous Ukrainian prostitutes work off their debts, which are designated by their pimps and arbitrarily increased with fines and costs, and are released back to Ukraine subject to their ability to obtain replacements. Through “happy trafficking” we see how deception is a factor that causes Ukrainian females to enter the sex trafficking scheme. The former prostitutes must employ persuasive tactics and demonstrate to the potential victims that the employment opportunity is positive and profitable. Not only is “happy trafficking” a tactic used to victimize friends and acquaintances, but it is also used to victimize friends, cousins and daughters of a former prostitute.66 Although the former prostitute does not always deny the fact that she was in fact a prostitute, she will still employ deceptive tactics by failing to mention the beatings, rapes, threats and the degrading qualities of the job, such as having no choice about how many clients they would be required to entertain in one night or whether any protection could be used.67 In sum, globalization negatively impacts the status of women in Ukraine. A high demand for females for sex, mixed with loose Ukrainian border restrictions and a highly lucrative business enterprise, criminal networks jump at the opportunity to traffic Ukrainian females with very little risks attached. Upon being trafficked, these Ukrainian victims fall prey to a pimp’s control through beatings, rapes and family threats. Regardless of this harsh reality, governmental organizations are doing little to account for these victims. Moreover, little governmental effort is being exerted to control the recruitment efforts criminal enterprises utilize, such as media advertisements and “happy trafficking,” to combat these efforts. Given the circumstances, in my opinion the Ukrainian government and world governments need to be held accountable for all aspects of Ukraine that lead to females becoming victims in the sex trafficking industry if the 65 Hughes, supra note 3. Finnegan, supra note 4. 67 Id. 66 18 country’s borders are to remain open and flexible so that free and open trade can continue on a global level. I do not mean to say that Ukraine should not be a player in the global market. However, if Ukraine is to remain a player in the global economy, other global markets and international financial institutions, who push for or benefit from the globalization of Ukraine, must be held accountable for the fact that a human rights violation is occurring. Namely, the globalization of Ukraine is making it easier for criminals to use and exploit Ukrainian females to satisfy the demand for sex in other global economies. Globalization seems be providing aid to Ukraine. Business such as travel agencies, hotels, tour-bus companies, night clubs, accountants, lawyers, doctors, landlords, forgers and corrupt police officers and political leaders seem to be profiting from the movement of Ukraine into the global economy. However, Ukrainian women are suffering from being forced or coerced into an enduring a career as prostitutes.68 Globalization is partially responsible for this movement because of the increased demand for low-wage workers in jobs offering few advancements.69 Due to this movement, there has been an increase of women migrating across borders who seek better employment.70 In the case of Ukraine, as just described, migration across borders carries with it a strong probability that the women migrating are destined to a life of prostitution and slavery.71 III. 68 PLANS FOR THE FUTURE AND NECESSARY POLICIES TO HALT OR SLOW THE MOVEMENT OF OBTAINING UKRAINIAN WOMEN FOR THE SEX TRAFFICKING INDUSTRY Finnegan, supra note 4. Saskia Sasses, Global Cities and Survival Circuits, in Global Dimensions of Carework and Gender 31 (Mary K. Zimmerman, Jacquelyn S. Litt & Christine E. Bose Eds., 2006). 70 Id. at 33 71 Hughes, supra note 3. 69 19 As described above, migration in the form of human trafficking of Ukrainian women has become an issue in the European Union.72 Although trafficking is a result of globalization, in terms of economics and loose border restrictions, we must remember that at the outset we are dealing with human rights violations of women.73 To recap, briefly, we have seen that Ukrainian women are being sexually exploited in an underground, secretive and lucrative industry and that keeping an exact estimate of how many females are exploited is difficult since not many governmental and non-governmental agencies are not keeping track.74 Difficulty also arises in monitoring sexual exploitation due to the fact that Ukrainian females are shipped out to destinations where prostitution is legal, thus not giving much incentive for anyone to monitor.75 That is not to say that no action is taking place. Members of the European Union has begun to take more aggressive stances against sex trafficking. For example, some member states of the European Union have taken steps to prevent illegal migration, as will be described in greater detail below, and integrate already existing immigrants into the societies they already live in.76 This section deals with three primary objectives: first, outline the problems dealing with corruption that make the sex trafficking of Ukrainian females difficult to monitor; second, provide details of what movements exist in Ukraine to combat the efforts of criminals in the sex trafficking arena; and third, provide details indicating that preventative education, protection, prosecution and other movements that need to be undertaken by Ukraine and other members of the European Union to combat the efforts of criminals furthering the existence of sex trafficking schemes. A. Difficulties Involved with Corruption 72 Govorun, supra note 43. Vayrynen, supra note 16, at 1. 74 Hughes, supra note 3. 75 Hughes, supra note 3. 76 Vayrynen, supra note 16, at 10. 73 20 The corruption in Ukraine is not a complicated concept. Simply put, Ukrainian governmental law enforcement officials, either in individual or collective capacities, receive bribes from criminals. These bribes enable criminals to gain protection and avoid law enforcement authorities to migrate women outside Ukraine’s borders into the sex trafficking industry. Criminal networks are allowed to illegally exploit Ukrainian women into forced prostitution without fear of being caught for their illegal acts. Therefore, cooperation between criminal and corrupt governmental officials, through bribes and agreements, ensures that sex traffickers can operate their lucrative business and exploit Ukrainian females with little to no interference.77 Regardless of whether or not sex trafficking criminals in the Ukraine fear getting caught for their illegal actions, legal ramifications do not serve as a deterrent for illegally migrating Ukrainian women. The laws that are enacted to deter human sex trafficking do not serve their purpose. In fact, the laws established in Ukraine help criminals carry on their business, thus achieving the opposite effect for two reasons: first, prostitution is legal in many places and, second, the laws against human sex trafficking carry very light punishments and ramifications.78 B. What is being done to stop the movement of obtaining and integrating Ukrainian women into the sex trafficking industry Although law enforcement and legislative officials are contributing to the human rights violations taking place in Ukraine, there still exist efforts and programs implemented to help prevent sex trafficking of Ukrainian women. Such efforts and programs would be very beneficial especially for women migrating to destinations where sex trafficking is accepted. For example, Germany and the Netherlands, two countries where prostitution is legal, are two popular destinations for Ukrainian females to migrate to and become wrapped up in the sex trafficking industry. The programs described in the next section would greatly benefit those Ukrainian 77 Hughes, supra note 3. Id. 78 21 females who have become victims of the sex trafficking industry and migrated into countries such Germany and the Netherlands.79 1. Policies Against Trafficking Regarding governmental actions to halt the exploitation of Ukrainian and other European women in the sex trafficking industry, the European Union has collaborated to advocate several objectives. First, one advocated measure deals with stricter border controls and increased cooperation between countries within and outside of the European Union.80 Moreover, these European Union measures include setting up measures to directly fight the trafficking of women. For example, such measures include policies to establish training programs for migration officials, technical assistances and reinforcement of criminal legislation so that punishments for illegal human trafficking become more severe.81 2. Aiding Victims and Potential Victims Also intriguing are the efforts being taken directed to the victims or potential victims of sex trafficking schemes. Such efforts are primarily interested in aiding sending countries, such as Ukraine.82 Moreover, policies are being advocated to provide assistance for victims of sex trafficking. Namely, under these advocated measure of the European Union, sex trafficking victims would be provided with legal and medical counseling, reception centers and assistance for returning and reintegrating into their home towns.83 These efforts to help victims or potential victims in Ukraine involve education projects and hotlines for victims or women seeking 79 Id. In 1995, the Netherlands obtained more Ukrainian women for prostitution than anywhere else in the world. In 1996, the Netherlands was second in how many Ukrainian females it obtained for prostitution. 80 Nieuwenhuys, supra note 1, at 1678. 81 Id. 82 Hughes, supra note 3. 83 Nieuwenhuys, supra note 1, at 1678. 22 accurate information about the risks associated with job offers outside Ukraine. Thus, Ukrainian females are beginning to have access to hotlines that would investigate or provide useful information about job opportunities in those two countries regarding how legit the employment opportunity is.84 Informational campaigns are using their efforts in central and eastern Europe to combat the human rights problem of human sex trafficking.85 Campaigns throughout Europe are targeting you.ng females, those who are at the greatest risk becoming victims of sex trafficking, express their messages using multimedia projects such as moves, music and the internet These informational campaigns either exist on their own or combine efforts with partnerships, governmental leaders or civil leaders. The messages informational campaigns include: “Open Your Eyes,” “Don’t Get Hooked,” “Your Are Not For Sale” and “Human Beings Are Priceless.”86 Informational campaigns also use printed materials as a means to further convey their messages. One important means of communicating with young females are posters on billboards or on the sides of city buses. Many posters display a young, beautiful and half-naked female living in a state of despair that reflect the harsh characteristics of being a prostitute. Posters, similar to the multimedia efforts, also express messages and sentiments combating sex trafficking by taking a typical job advertisement appearing to offer good employment opportunities and labeling it with slogans such as: “The Return Home Won’t Be Easy,” “Are You Sure You Know What’s Waiting For You,” “Blind Faith Opens Its Eyes Too Late” and “Do You Think It Could Never Happen To You”87 Other posters may portray females in cages or other vulnerable situations coupled with the slogan: “Do You Want To Trade Your Dignity, 84 Hughes, supra note 3. Nieuwenhuys, supra note 1, at 1679. 86 Nieuwenhuys, supra note 1, at 1679. 87 Id. at 1679. 85 23 Your Freedom And Your Health For A Cage” or posters may display a female in the hands of a man exchanging her against money with the slogan: “You Will Be Sold Like A Doll. In Ukraine, specifically, informational campaigns created posters representing passports with pictures of young women and stamps reading “Sold” on all the posters. Each poster offers phone numbers to hotlines providing information to potential victims of sex trafficking who are considering crossing European borders for employment or that might be unsure about the employment information they have already received. Informational campaigns have also distributed leaflets, flyers, postcards, stickers, fact sheets or pocket calendars providing potential victims with information and hotline phone numbers to Ukrainian females.88 C. What Needs to be done: Prevention, Protection, Prosecution, Institutional Building, Judicious Regulation of Markets and Social Policies in the Government Budget Now for the most important question: After taking into account all information known about the sex trafficking of Ukrainian females, what is to be done to put this human rights violation on Ukrainian females to a halt? To end or begin to decrease sex trafficking in and out of Ukraine, the European Union must adopt and adhere to six policies; three of which are from the United States Agency of International Development (USAID) and three involving improvement of the workings of the market economy, which involve prevention, protection, prosecution, institutional building, judicious regulation of markets and social policies in the government budget. 1. USAID Policies The first set of polices the European Union must adhere to if they are going to end the practice of sex trafficking Ukrainian arise from the USAID efforts to create an anti-trafficking campaign in Ukraine. In the late 1990s, the Ukrainian government invited the USAID to assist them in developing a national anti-trafficking campaign. The USAID in turn proposed a plan to 88 Nieuwenhuys, supra note 1, at 1679. 24 implement prevention, protection and prosecution. Namely, the USAID campaign sought to prevent trafficking through public education campaigns, extended legal protections and relief to already victims of sex trafficking and strengthen the law enforcement and justice system to catch, prosecute and punish criminals involved in sex trafficking schemes.89 The first policy of the USAID is prevention. As described above, many young Ukrainian females become victims of sex trafficking through misleading employment opportunities. To combat these misleading tactics educational programs, such as the ones implemented by informational campaigns, must be implemented to prevent Ukrainian females from becoming sex trafficking victims. The surest way to avoid females becoming sex trafficking victims would be to provide Ukrainian females with legitimate employment opportunities in other European countries and point out which opportunities might lead one into a trap – becoming a victim of sex trafficking. Such information would be provided at Trafficking Prevention Centers that, in accordance with the USAID policies, provides funding for non-governmental organizations wishing to participate in informational campaigns. Finally, prevention also includes the incorporation of anti-trafficking materials in the school systems of European countries which would include training manuals and literature warning young females of the dangers associated with sex trafficking and how easy it is to fall prey to this dangerous scheme.90 Next, members of the European Union must implement protective measures for those who have already suffered as victims in the sex trafficking industry. Protection must be given to female victims if they are going to cooperate with law enforcement authorities and turn against their former employers/pimps. Furthermore, establishments must be designed to aid victims and provide medical care. For example, in Ukraine, a non-governmental organization known as La Strada, which is supported by the USAID, provides clinical and social services and operates a 89 90 United States Agency of International Development, supra note 58. United States Agency of International Development, supra note 58. 25 hotline to obtain information about human trafficking activities throughout Ukraine. Clinics such as La Strada are necessary measures to be taken so that Ukrainian female victims are going to be able to return to their homes and continue to live a normal life.91 Finally, in accordance with USAID’s initiative in Ukriane, prosecution of criminals is necessary to end sex trafficking. First, the protective measure listed above must be implemented because prosecution depends on a victim’s willingness to testify against her former employer/pimp. Second, members of the European Union, specifically Ukraine, must be willing to prosecute the actual criminals in the sex trafficking schemes and not the victims for violating immigration, employment and prostitution laws. At the same time the USAID initiative calls for the training of law enforcement officials and training of border-control officers to detect patterns of when criminals are migrating Ukrainian females for the purposes of sex trafficking.92 2. Policies Improving the Workings of the Market Economy Aside from preventative, protective and prosecutorial measures necessary to end the sex trafficking of Ukrainian females, the market economy must undergo changes. Globalization increases wealth but is slow to do so with the poor. Economic growth of globalized states is attributable to globalization. However, the reduction of poverty in globalized states is very slow. Thus, one negative drawback of globalization is that the poor citizens of globalized states do not share in the increased wealth. This notion has taken effect in Ukraine.93 In fact, the decline in income and production since Ukraine became free from the former Soviet Union has been steeper than in other economies that undergo globalization.94 Thus, with a slow reduction of poverty in Ukraine, young female citizens become desperate to seek employment 91 Id. United States Agency of International Development, supra note 58. 93 Henri Ghesquiere, Senior IMF Resident Representative in Ukraine, Presentation at the Conference on Economic Security in Market Reform Strategy: The Case of Ukraine: Making Globalization in Ukraine Work for the Benefit of All 3 (Oct. 26-27, 2000). 94 Id. at 6. 92 26 and end up being misled or forced into the sex trafficking industry, as described above, which further decreases the speed at which poverty is being reduced since the lucrative business profits the criminals and corrupt law enforcement officials. Therefore, three categories of policies, which would improve the workings of the market economy, are necessary for impoverished Ukraine citizens to take part in the distribution of wealth attributed to globalization. These three categories of policies are: institution building, market building and social reformation. As a result, Ukrainian females would be less likely to seek employment outside their country and run the risk of falling prey to deceptive criminal sex trafficking schemes.95 The first policy is institution building. Well-functioning market economies will help countries like Ukraine capture all the benefits of globalization. This requires, first, Ukraine keep its borders open to the world market in order to compete and attract investors so that income may be made and allocated resourcefully. Second, institution building requires the private sectors of Ukraine and the rest of the global economy to invest and expand so that employment for millions of job seekers may be fulfilled. Third, institution building requires a strong legal structure to support the transactions taking place in the global economy that might deter investors. For example, Ukraine is notorious for breaching contracts. Investors are then turned off from investing in Ukraine resources since the breach their contracts and the law is not enforced. Thus, Ukraine should honor its contract laws and keep the judicial system independent, professional and available to all. Improvements in the judicial system would then encourage investment and economic growth. As a result, Ukraine would appear attractive to outside investors and economic progress would ensue.96 The second policy that would improve Ukraine in the market economy is market regulation. Simply put, the Ukrainian markets should be supervised and regulated so that consumers would 95 96 Ghesquiere, supra note 93, at 3. Id. at 4. 27 be protected and monopolies do not occur. Moreover, economic growth must be achieved at a steady rate so as to avoid inflation. To achieve this status, regulations must be placed on financial systems to avoid extraordinary large withdrawals leading to severe macroeconomic consequences. In essence, financial institutions must implement policies that allow them to always account for their assets and remain solvent.97 Finally, social policies in the government budget would improve Ukraine status in the market economy. Namely, the Ukrainian government must realize that not every attempt by individuals to gain wealth from the impact of globalization (Ukraine’s involvement in a market economy) will be successfully. Therefore, the Ukrainian government should take precautionary measures to increase competition and market exposure as a country while protecting its citizens against unemployment and income loss.98 CONCLUSION As we have just observed, the movement to globalize Ukraine has resulted in a tragedy. Loose border regulations created so that increased access to the global market could be achieved with ease has been taken advantage of by organized criminal networks who migrate Ukrainian women outside the country’s borders so that the women may be put to work as sex slaves so that the criminal leaders could make a profit. The institutions pushing for the globalization of Ukraine have failed to recognize that in order to successfully aid a country through globalization, there must be consideration for the middle and lower class populations of the country and not a primary focus on larger more profitable economic firms. Such considerations to all economic classes, along with strictly enforced territorial border regulations and social welfare programs would have the effect of reducing females who would otherwise be potential victims in sex trafficking schemes. As described above in Parts I and II, the globalization of Ukraine has placed 97 98 Ghesquiere, supra note 93, at 4. Id. at 4-5. 28 the country in the market economy. However, by virtue of the failure to take into consideration law enforcement and regulations necessary to protect the citizens of Ukraine, while those who have interests or are leaders in the international financial institutions pushing Ukraine towards globalization, human rights violations have occurred – illegal smuggling and sex trafficking of Ukrainian females outside of the Ukrainian borders.99 Implementation of the policies discussed in Part III would place more of an emphasis on the citizens of Ukraine, especially those who are vulnerable and susceptible to victimization of the sex trafficking, becoming a sex slave for a pimp obtaining women via organized criminal networks. As a result, placing legal consequences on sex trafficking, providing victims with support and legal aid, and implementing policies to obtain security and control over the market economy would lead to a decline in the number of organized criminal networks exploiting Ukrainian females as sex slaves in exchange for a profit. 99 Vayrynen, supra note 16, at 1.