By Anika E Kentish - Tuesday, March 6th, 2012.
Yasmin Solitahe Odlum (left), a Caribbean specialist at the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM), believes tourism-dependent countries are not quick to acknowledge the realities of human trafficking. She was speaking along with her CIM colleague Hilary Anderson during a media tour in Washington, DC (Photo by Anika Kentish)
WASHINGTON, DC – A spokesperson on women’s affairs within the Organisation of American States (OAS) has called for a comprehensive study of the presence of human trafficking and its subsequent effect on the region.
“I think there is need in the region for serious empirical studies to determine the scope, the breadth, the depth, the mapping of what we consider trafficking in the region,” Yasmin Solitahe Odlum, a Caribbean specialist at the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) told a team of journalists on a tour focused on women’s empowerment.
Odlum, who once served as a diplomat for St Lucia, acknowledged that while human trafficking is monitored by various international agencies, including the OAS, there is still a gray area where a definition as concerned.
The OAS, like the United Nations, views human trafficking as a means of exploiting human beings for revenue through sex, forced labour and human organs. However other organisations and governments may vary their definition.
Odlum explained that tourism-dependent countries, like those within the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), are not quick to acknowledge the presence of trafficking in the sub-region.
“We know that these exotic bars etc, etc, are cover-ups for some very brutal existences that women are undergoing as sex workers, as exotic dancers, as people who are in massage parlours and things like that. So I think there is a whole discourse which needs to be had honestly and sensitively where the OECS Caribbean nations are concerned,” she said.
CIM, as an organ of the OAS, has specific responsibility for women’s issues. Established in 1928, it was the first inter-governmental agency established to ensure recognition of human rights of women. Though the agency no longer has direct oversight for human trafficking, it remains a relevant organisation in the overall campaign against the illegal activity. Oversight now rests with the OAS’s public security division.
“CIM actually pioneered the work in trafficking at the OAS and that is a major feather in the cap for CIM …,” Odlum said.
“CIM no longer had exclusive rights to that topic and that, in effect, has impacted the work that CIM could have continued doing in that area. However having said that, I have to say that we have very tight connections with the public security department and so we are usually included in terms of the direction the public security is doing in trafficking.”
The issue of human trafficking is particularly topical as the March 8 observance of International Women’s Day approaches. This year’s theme is: “Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures.”
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