Issue date: 1/29/10 Section: News
[Photo] Media Credit: Courtesy of www.uri.edu
1/29/10 - University of Rhode Island women's studies Professor Donna Hughes has researched and documented the trafficking of women and children internationally for the past 25 years.
Hughes discovered her passion for the topic while studying for her graduate degree from Pennsylvania State University.
"I think it's important to be an advocate for women's rights [and] to generate knowledge that can be used to further freedom in the world," Hughes said. "I try to convey that in my teaching."
Hughes said people typically start at the "grassroots" of the issue and work their way up to the state, national and international levels. She, however, started working immediately on the subject on an international level.
Post graduation, she worked with The Coalition Against Trafficking and Women, an organization that focuses on creating change internationally by means of conducting and supporting anti-trafficking projects.
"Sex-trafficking is nothing but serial rape," Hughes said.
Her focus was on Southeast Asian women, and she worked with the organization for 10 years.
She also conducted research projects about women in Ukraine, Russia and Korea, where she worked with other academic researchers.
"My goal was to document the problem," she said.
Hughes set up interviews with women from these countries, which helped her learn more about the issue. She was given grants to continue this research and her work was eventually sent to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Hughes also documented two reports for the Council of Europe (Eastern and Western), where she found places on the Internet in which women were being advertised and recruited by men.
From her work on educating people about sex trafficking through the Internet, she was invited to Hilary Clinton's speech about the topic just last week.
Hughes has written documents on trafficking of women in the U.S. as well, and is also an advisor on the topic.
Although much of her work has been focused on the national and international levels, she recently supervised a URI undergraduate with her honors thesis regarding sex trafficking in Rhode Island. Melanie Shapiro graduated from URI last May, and she provided testimony to the Rhode Island General Assembly.
Hughes said Shapiro focused on Asian massage parlors in her research.
She said the goal was to pass a new human trafficking law.
"[There was] no law concerning prostitution behind closed doors," Hughes said.
Three bills were passed in October with supporting evidence from Shapiro and Hughes' testimony and research. The bills criminalize prostitution in the state wherever it takes place, and protects minors from being forced into labor and sex trafficking.
Hughes has been teaching at URI since 1996, and taught women's studies at the University of Bradford in England for two years prior.
"It was a very interesting experience," Hughes said.
While in England she witnessed women being abused. Many of her students were forced into arranged marriages and battered by family members. They tried to stay in college as long as possible to keep them from the arranged marriages, Hughes added.
Women in England were forced to go to Pakistan for arranged marriages at age 14 and 16. She said one woman was killed for refusing.
Hughes has experienced sex trafficking throughout the world, and she is focused on the freedom of the Internet. China in particular has a firewall, in other words, their Internet is blocked from interacting with other countries.
"We need internet freedom to communicate," Hughes said. "The only way people can learn about trafficking is if they communicate with other people."
Professor helps pass sex trafficking bills - News
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