IRIN Asia | Analysis: Sex workers bear brunt of war on trafficking | Bangladesh | Indonesia | Nepal | Thailand | HIV/AIDS (PlusNews) | Human Rights

Source: IRIN Asia 

KATHMANDU, 3 September 2013 (IRIN) - Laws and interventions aimed at reducing human trafficking by targeting commercial sex workers can, whatever their good intentions, actually endanger their health and result in human rights violations, experts say.

Continue reading:
http://www.irinnews.org/report/98689/analysis-sex-workers-bear-brunt-of-war-on-trafficking

U.N. Commission Calls for Legalizing Prostitution Worldwide | CNSNews.com

U.N. Commission Calls for Legalizing Prostitution Worldwide | CNSNews.com

By Amanda Swysgood

July 23, 2012

CNSNews.com) - A report issued by the United Nations-backed Global Commission on HIV and the Law; recommends that nations around the world get rid of “punitive” laws against prostitution – or what it calls “consensual sex work” -- and decriminalize the voluntary use of illegal injection drugs in order to combat the HIV epidemic.

The commission, which is made up of 15 former heads of state, legal scholars and HIV/AIDS activists, was convened in 2010 by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and is jointly backed by the United Nations Development Programme and UNAIDS – the Joint U.N. Programme on AIDS/HIV.

The commission recommends repealing all laws that prohibit “adult consensual sex work,” as well as clearly distinguishing in law and practice between sexual trafficking and prostitution.

The report--“HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights & Health”--cites a recommendation by the International Labour Organization, which recommends that “sex work” should be recognized as an occupation in order to be regulated “in a way that protects workers and customers.”

Specifically, the commission wants to:

-- “Decriminalise private and consensual adult sexual behaviours, including same-sex sexual acts and voluntary sex work.”

-- “Reform approaches towards drug use. Rather than punishing people who use drugs but do no harm to others, governments must offer them access to elective HIV and health services, including harm reduction programmes and voluntary, evidence-based treatment for drug dependence.”

-- “Work with the guardians of customary and religious law to promote traditions and religious practice that promote rights and acceptance of diversity and that protect privacy.”

The commission calls laws against prostitution “bad laws,” and said criminalizing injecting drug use and prostitution stands in the way of “effective HIV responses.”

“Laws that criminalize and dehumanize populations at the highest risk of HIV--including men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people and injecting drug users--drive people underground, away from essential health services and heighten their risk of HIV,” the commission said in a July 9 press release announcing the report.

The commission says 116 countries and territories have punitive laws against sex work and 80 countries or territories have some legal protections for sex workers.

According to the report: “Some governments deploy anti-human trafficking laws so broadly that they conflate voluntary and consensual exchanges of sex for money with the exploitative, coerced, often violent trafficking of people (primarily women and girls) for the purposes of sex.”

The report quotes Secretary-General Ban, who stated his support in 2009 for removing all laws which criminalize “sex workers” – or prostitutes.

“I urge all countries to remove punitive laws, policies and practices that hamper the AIDS response,” Ban said. “Successful AIDS responses do not punish people: they protect them. We must ensure that AIDS responses are based on evidence, not ideology, and reach those most in need and most affected.”

Other recommendations include: abolishing national drug registries and mandatory HIV testing, and shutting down all compulsory drug detention centers and replacing them with voluntary services for treating drug abuse.

The commission specifically recommended that the United States should also repeal its federal ban on funding of needle and syringe exchange services that inhibit access to HIV services for people who inject drugs.

Dr. Janice Crouse, the director of the Beverly LaHaye Institute at Concerned Women for America in Washington, D.C., says the proposal to redefine and decriminalize prostitution worldwide is not new.

“(L)iberals have always used the term ‘sex work’ instead of prostitution,” Crouse told CNSNews.com.

“They like to legitimize the whole industry that way so that it can be regulated and so that it can be considered a ‘legitimate option’ for women and give it more respectability. But, the sad fact is in every instance where prostitution has been legalized, illegal prostitution has flourished,” she said.

“The pimps all want prostitution legalized; they like that. The sex traffickers want it legalized because they gain far more traction with their own illegal activities anytime that is the case – it’s happened in Germany, it happened in Amsterdam, it’s been shown over and over again.”

Linking the elimination of laws against “sex work” with AIDS is a cop out, according to Crouse, because it ignores the role of behavior change and personal responsibility.

“It’s fascinating to me the way they (the report’s authors) dance around to avoid addressing the issue of behavior and to avoid the issue of consequences of promiscuity,” Crouse said.

“This is an example; they don’t want anything that would suggest to anybody that they ought to curb their sexual behavior. They don’t want anything to curb anybody’s enjoyment of sexual activity without consequences and all of this is an attempt to mainstream behaviors and then deal with the consequences -- and that plan does not work.”

The U.N.-backed commission interviewed prostitutes, activists and public health advocates in 140 countries across the world to come to its conclusions.

The study received funding from the governments of Canada, Norway, Australia, the U.S. (through USAID) and from billionaire Geroge Soros through his Open Society Foundations.

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5 Ways to Fight Sex Trafficking and HIV on World AIDS Day | End Human Trafficking | Change.org

by Amanda Kloer December 01, 2010 07:14 AM (PT) Topics: Child Prostitution, Prostitution, Sex Trafficking

Today is World AIDS Day, and around the world, sex trafficking victims are some of the people most vulnerable to HIV infection. But eradicating HIV can actually help eradicate sex trafficking and vice versa. This World AIDS Day, check out what you can do to fight HIV/AIDS and sex trafficking at the same time.

Sex trafficking and HIV are linked in two important ways: sex trafficking victims are more vulnerable to HIV than many other groups and sex trafficking spreads and exacerbates HIV and AIDS. While all people in the commercial sex industry are vulnerable to HIV infection, sex trafficking victims are often at the highest risk. Since trafficking victims -- by definition -- cannot control their situation, they cannot insist on safer sex practices, like condoms. Even if condoms are available in the brothel where a trafficking victim is held, she may not have the power to insist upon, or even suggest, their usage. Trafficking victims are frequently raped and exposed to violent sexual behavior, which can cause tissue tears that make HIV transmission more likely. And once a trafficking victim contracts HIV, it is highly unlikely she will be tested, diagnosed, and treated for the disease, thus allowing the AIDS to develop. Additionally, women and children widowed or orphaned by AIDS are at increased risk for trafficking.

Sex trafficking also proliferates the global AIDS epidemic. Since trafficking victims are rarely tested and treated for HIV infections, they may continue to be forced to have unprotected sex with hundreds or thousands of men before exhibiting any symptoms. The cross-border transportation which sometimes accompanies sex trafficking operations also spreads the disease, as one infected victim can infect the men who buy her in several different regions or countries. Those men may go on and infect other partners, both in and out of the commercial sex industry. Furthermore, some cultural myths about AIDS, like the idea that sex with a virgin will cure an HIV infection, cause infected men to seek out unprotected sex with young trafficked women.

Because of these deep connections, a reduction in global HIV infections means a reduction in people vulnerable to trafficking and one less harm experienced by sex trafficked women and children. And a reduction in global sex trafficking means one fewer way HIV can be spread across the globe. So this World AIDS Day, take action to fight trafficking by fighting AIDS. Here are some ways to take action:

1. Sign the UNICEF petition to stop the the global pediatric AIDS epidemic and pledge to stand for programs that provide care and education for millions of HIV–positive children, as well as those who are orphaned by the disease. These children are at high risk for human trafficking.
2. Support a National AIDS Strategy for the U.K., where recent reports have found that as many as 1 in 10 women in the commercial sex industry are trafficked, and many others have additional vulnerabilities to HIV.
3. Participate in Facing AIDS, a photography project that uses Flickr to demonstrate how America is facing the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Make a sign that says you're facing AIDS to end sex trafficking.
4. Join the ONE Campaign's initiative to ensure no child is born with HIV after 2015. When HIV destroys families and communities, members become more vulnerable to trafficking and other abuses.
5. Save a celebrity from digital death and a child from a real one by donating $10 at Digital Death or texting a "BUYLIFE" to 90999. When children have access to medical care, they're less vulnerable to abuse.

If everyone did something to fight AIDS today, we'd be a whole lot closer to eradicating two epidemics -- modern day slavery and HIV. Will you do your part to take out these two insidious ills? It only take a mouse click, snapshot, or text message, but together we can be the social change needed to finally beat AIDS.

Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic

Source: End Human Trafficking

5 Ways to Fight Sex Trafficking and HIV on World AIDS Day | End Human Trafficking | Change.org

Uncovering the facts about human trafficking - Opinion - Rome Observer

Image by Getty Images via @daylifePublished: Wednesday, November 24, 2010

BY TIM BATES

Columnist

Human trafficking is a crime that occurs all around the world, but many of us really do not know exactly what human trafficking is, or for what purpose this crime is committed. Several countries recognize that human trafficking is a huge problem, and many have enacted laws against this practice. Although it may seem that this is a crime that happens in other parts of the world, it is estimated that this offense happens in at least 20 states, and is currently one of the fastest growing crimes.

In fact, it is said to be the third most profitable crime in the world after drugs and arms trafficking. Thankfully, there are several organizations around the world who are working to increase awareness of this problem by providing education and statistics to the public and law enforcement agencies as an aid in their fight against this terrible crime.

The United Nations defines human trafficking as "…the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation."

Exploitation can mean several different things, but mainly these crimes are perpetrated for the purposes of forced prostitution or creation of pornography, forced slavery or services, or for the removal of organs. The estimates vary, but most experts agree that the vast majority of victims are forced into the sex trade in one form or another; some estimates put that number as high as 80 percent of the victims.

So who are the victims of human trafficking? For the most part, victims are comprised of women and children (more than 80 percent are female), around half of whom are under the age of 18. Shamefully, the average age of a young woman when they are first trafficked is from 12 to 14 years old.

Many American children who fall victim to this crime had run away from homes where they were physically or sexually assaulted. More than two-thirds of sex trafficked children suffer additional abuse at the hands of their traffickers, and are significantly more likely to develop mental health problems. They are also much more likely to abuse illegal (and legal) substances, engage in prostitution as adults, and commit or be victimized by violent crimes. Women trafficking victims experience a significantly higher rate of HIV and other STDs, tuberculosis, and permanent damage to their reproductive systems. Many victims suffer from malnutrition, which can lead to health issues such as heart damage, anemia and severe tooth decay. As unbelievable as it may sound, the average price of trafficking victims is about $90.

There are many reasons why traffickers engage in this crime, but usually only a few reasons why victims do not run away, even when given the opportunity. Many times the victims have been brutalized by their captors, and are told that if they run away their families will be hurt, deported, or even killed. Some are led to believe that they owe a debt to their captors, and they will be jailed if they do not stay to work off their debt. Perpetrators also generally move their victims every 15-30 days to prevent the victims from becoming too comfortable in their surroundings, and with the intention of keeping them from contact with others or obtaining the information they would need to help them escape.

Many of these victims are wholly unfamiliar with the American legal system, so they are more easily persuaded by their captors that if they do flee they will be considered the criminal. Even if the victim was able to contact others in a cry for help, trafficking is very closely associated with organized crime, so it becomes very dangerous for anyone who offers aid as well.

All of this information may lead you to wonder how big of a problem this really is here in the United States. The United States Department of State began monitoring human trafficking in 1994, and has continued to gather data which is provided in its "Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices". Initially it focused on trafficking of women and girls for purposes of sexual exploitation, but soon expanded as it was quickly determined that there is a very high number of victims being trafficked for labor, including agriculture, domestic service, construction work, and sweatshops It is estimated that between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the US every year. The US Government has enacted many acts to combat this crime, such as the "The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000" which enhances pre-existing criminal penalties, affords new protections to trafficking victims and makes available certain benefits and services to victims of severe forms of trafficking. It also establishes a Cabinet-level federal interagency task force and establishes a federal program to provide services to trafficking victims.

There is good news in that around the world and here at home, the number of traffickers who are arrested and successfully prosecuted has steadily increased year after year. Anti-violence and anti-crime acts have also helped to address this issue, and many policy advocacy organizations continue to lobby for stronger legislation against this crime as well as setting up funds to help the victims. If you or someone you know has been affected by this crime, you can contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center 365 days a year, 24 hours a day at 1-888-373-7888, or the Trafficking in Persons and Worker Exploitation Task Force at 1-888-428-7581 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST.

Tim Bates is the Commander of the Detective Division of the Rome, New York Police Department. For questions or comments, he can be reached at (315) 339-7715 or via email at:

batest@romepd.com

Source: Rome Observer

Uncovering the facts about human trafficking - Opinion - Rome Observer

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Salford theatre premieres tale of modern day slavery | World news | The Guardian

Play tells story of Mende Nazer from Sudan who was abducted when she was 12, sold into slavery and then brought to Britain

• Helen Carter
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 November 2010 15.44 GMT
• Article history



Mende Nazer was involved in the production of Slave – A Question of Freedom, making sure it was authentic. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

A theatre in Salford is premiering a harrowing play telling the true story of a Sudanese woman who was sold into slavery at the age of 12, finally finding asylum in the UK after a long struggle.

Mende Nazer had a carefree childhood near the Nuba mountains of Sudan. It was shattered when her village was attacked and she was abducted and sold into slavery.

Her story is told at the Lowry theatre this week in the Feelgood Theatre production of Slave – A Question of Freedom. The performance ends with the actor playing Nazer crying as she receives a letter from the Home Office informing her that her asylum application has been rejected "as slavery does not constitute persecution".

Nazer's story is told through music, dance and film celebrating the Nuba culture. The production shows her challenging the horror and inhumanity of the contemporary slave trade.

Nazer served for a family in Khartoum and was eventually brought to London, where she escaped 10 years ago with the help of another Sudanese. Her family in Sudan thought she had been murdered by traffickers, but she was working 18 hours a day without payment or time off.

The Home Office turned down her initial application for asylum, but a campaign was launched to support her claim. She was finally granted asylum in November 2002, based on information provided by her supporters, including Anti-Slavery International.

Extracts from the play will be performed at the House of Lords on 30 November, supported by Lord David Alton.

Nazer said she found it difficult to watch the play and felt nervous revisiting her experiences.

"But by telling the story it is enlightening other people to what is going on," she said. "It is not like a great weight on my shoulders."

She was involved in the production process, helping to choose the actors' costumes and ensuring that it was authentic as possible.

Nazer said freedom was just the beginning of her journey. She has set up a foundation in her name that plans to raise money for a school in her village. "I hope that it can make a difference to other peoples' lives by providing education," she said.

She is now a British citizen, living and working in London as a hairdresser, and campaigns internationally against slavery.

The play's director, Caroline Clegg, said she felt a huge sense of responsibility in telling Nazer's story and it was important to get it right.

"Although it is one person's story, many people do not know that trafficking goes on because they think slavery was something that was outlawed 200 years ago," she said.

"We are taking the blinkers off and opening people's eyes to what is going on in secret. There is another world out there but you just have to dig a bit deeper."

Clegg said she had met people who had been trafficked from Darfur, forced to work in prostitution, then thrown on to the street when they were HIV positive. They had no passport and nowhere to go.

Official statistics showed millions of people were enslaved, she said.

Source: guardian.co.uk

Salford theatre premieres tale of modern day slavery | World news | The Guardian

UNESCO (2007): Human Trafficking in Lesotho: Root Causes and Recommendations

Country Profile

Independence: 4th October 1966, former British protectorate
Head of state: King Letsie III (Non-Executive)
Political System: Multi-party democratic system
Capital: Maseru
Other major cities: Mafeteng, Qacha’s Nek, Teyateyaneng, Hlotse
Area: 30 355km2
Population: 2.1 mil. (1998)*
Languages: English and Sesotho (both official)
Currency: Maloti (the SA rand is also legal tender in Lesotho and
is equivalent to the local currency).

Lesotho is a small country entirely surrounded by South Africa.

It relies heavily on migrant worker remittances (although declining),
its share of income from the Southern Africa Customs Union, and manufactured
products mainly for the South African market. Furthermore, income
is generated by the supply of water to South Africa from the Lesotho
Highlands Water Project. Other revenues accrue from the taxes mainly
contributed by textile exports to the USA (now declining) and internal tax
collection which has improved markedly under the recently established
Lesotho Revenue Authority (established in 2002).

The Government of Lesotho has committed itself to sustainable
economic growth and human development through institutional and
regulatory reforms in order to attain maximum levels of investment and
export opportunities. In addition, the prevailing political stability in Lesotho
is the key foundation for economic growth and foreign investment.

In order to reach the targets for Lesotho’s development strategy on
poverty reduction, there are vigorous programmes followed for poverty
alleviation as contained in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.**

Executive Summary

Lesotho is mainly a country of origin and transit for human trafficking
activities and the country experiences internal and international human
trafficking flows. The main actors involved in this crime are the trafficked
persons, the traffickers and the users of trafficked victims. These people
end up being part of the human trafficking chain because of various
reasons that are either push or pull factors. Pull factors might include
a demand for domestic and sexual services, economic differentials that
make even relatively poor neighboring cities, regions or countries seem
a likely source of livelihood. Push factors mainly include poverty, gender
discrimination, lack of information and education, HIV and AIDS, violence
against women, harmful socio-cultural practices and lack of legislative and
policy frameworks. The infrastructure and trends associated with a rapidly
globalizing world – like increasingly open borders, better transport, and
increased overall migration flows – complement the forces of supply and
demand that underlie trafficking. Globalization has provided the impetus
to both those who wish to migrate and those who traffic the unwilling.
Women and children tend to be the most vulnerable to human trafficking
as they very often carry the burden of poverty.

The laws that are currently in place in Lesotho are inadequate. It is
not helpful to enact laws without giving the law enforcement agents the
capacity to do so. The Child and Gender Protection Unit, which should
play a key role in the fight against trafficking, is under-funded, understaffed
and lacks sufficiently trained personnel to deal with this specialized
area of law enforcement. There is also a need for policies or projects that
are directly geared towards eliminating the push and pull factors of human
trafficking to accompany adequate legislation.

In order to eradicate trafficking of women and children there is a need to
address its main root cause: poverty. Women are vulnerable to trafficking
because they have less access to employment, resources and other means of
earning a livelihood. Lack of access to education and means of livelihood
expose children to situations of trafficking. It is critical that development
policies are targeted at poverty alleviation.

There is a lack of information and knowledge about trafficking because
of the silence surrounding the problem. Public acknowledgement and
creation of awareness of the problem would contribute significantly
towards its eradication. If policy makers, law enforcers and communities
are aware of the existence and evils of human trafficking, it will be easier to
identify, prosecute and punish all actors in human trafficking. Legislative,
political and economic measures must be undertaken at national, regional
and international levels to eradicate human trafficking.

* The Government of Lesotho conducted a national census in 2006. However, the official
results of the census have not been released.

**See Government of Lesotho, Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, 16 December 2003. The
Ministry of Development Planning spearheaded this paper and contributions thereto
came from government, civil society organizations, the private sector and development
partners. It is a comprehensive document setting out, inter alia, indicators and monitoring
mechanisms for measuring poverty in Lesotho. Currently, Lesotho is ranked 137 out
of 173 countries and is classified by UNDP amongst the 49 Least Developed Countries
(LDCS).

Nomi Network: The Agony of Cambodian Female Victims of Sex Trafficking and Exploitation

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Nomi Network

Friday, January 29, 2010
The Agony of Cambodian Female Victims of Sex Trafficking and Exploitation

By Sopheap Chak

I first became aware of prostitution in Cambodia when I was 10. On the way home from the Phnom Penh Airport, we drove down Tol Kork Street. I was puzzled to see so many ladies wearing short skirts and heavy make-up. They were standing in front of their small cottages and waving at us. It was explained to me that they were prostitutes. Yet, I became even more puzzled. Why did they choose to become prostitutes? Will I end up like them? Are there other choices?

The word for prostitute in the Cambodian language is, “Srey Khauch,” or, “Srey Phaka Meas.” The phrase indicates a bad lady who chooses to earn income by having sex with men. It does not acknowledgement the vulnerability of women to sex trafficking. Yet, the reality is that given a choice, they would not become prostitutes. Events, circumstances, and conditions force women into prostitution, and I prefer to call them victims instead of prostitutes.

Factors that Make Women Vulnerable to Sex Trafficking and Exploitation

In the search for economic opportunities, many migrants become victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation, labor exploitation, begging, or forced marriage. In Cambodia, many people migrate from the poorer rural areas into the cities for work. The International Organization for Migration conducted a survey of returned trafficking victims and found that 62% reported that the main reason for migration was to find jobs to help support their family. They are often exploited by co-workers, relatives, friends, or in some cases by their boyfriends, who sell them to brothel owners or other men. A survey of Cambodian sex trafficking victims in Thailand reported that 25% of victims were trafficked by a stranger, while two-thirds of the victims were trafficked by someone that they knew.

According to, “Traffick report: Cambodia,” from World Vision, other factors that contribute to trafficking are gender discrimination, physical and sexual violence, family dysfunction, impact of HIV/AIDS, and indebtedness. The following are examples taken from the World Vision report. Their real names have been changed.

Nary: She came from a small village. Five armed men raped her when she was 13 years old. The shame and guilt from this attack stigmatized her, and she drifted from family to family until one family sold her to a Phnom Penh brothel. Nary was trapped there for over two years as a sex worker. She tried to escape but was caught, beaten and forced to work again. Finally, the police raided the brothel, found Nary, and placed her at World Vision’s Trauma Recovery Centre. She is receiving trauma counseling plus healthcare advice. Nary is HIV positive.

Srey: She borrowed money from a broker to come to Phnom Penh and work as a domestic servant. One day, after she came home later than she should have, the family who had employed her threw her out. She was too afraid to tell her mother that she had lost her job, but she still owed the broker a substantial amount of money. The broker placed her into a brothel to pay off the debt to him. She was never able to do so. Srey contracted HIV and AIDS at the brothel, where she was forced to have sex with clients without protection.

Sopheap: Now 16, she quit school when she was in the third grade because her family needed her to work. She would scavenge for garbage to sell on the nearby Thai border. As an illegal immigrant, she was imprisoned in Thai custody many times. When a young woman flattered her beauty and told her how much she could earn working in a karaoke bar, she decided to go, without informing her parents. She did not expect that her employer would force her to have sex, or that they would not allow her to leave. She was rescued by her father. He filed a complaint against her trafficker, but the young woman who tricked her had already fled.

Pross: Pross was kidnapped when she was 13 and sold to a brothel in Phnom Penh. She was beaten and tortured until she agreed to have sex with customers. You can read more detail in the New York Times story by Nicholas D. Kristof, “If this isn’t Slavery, What is?”

The Suffering of Victims of Sex Trafficking

Girls who are forced to work as sex slaves are controlled by beatings and torture. They are electrocuted or have parts of their body cut off. In Pross’ case the brothel owner gouged out her right eye with a piece of metal. Torture, fear and degradation are employed to make the girls compliant, to get them to accept their fate, and not try to escape.

Somaly Mam is a former sex slave who escaped from a brothel and who has transformed her suffering into courage to fight the evil of sex-trafficking. She founded the Somaly Mam Foundation and became the leader of AFESIP (Agir Pour les Femmes en Situation Precaire). Her story reveals much about the terror and fear of being a sex slave. When she was 15, a man posing as her grandfather sold Somaly Mam to a brothel in Phnom Penh. In an interview with Time Magazine, she described that time as a decade of horrific rape and torture. She simply said "I was dead. I had no affection for anyone."

While a smaller percentage of rescued victims can rebuild their strength on their own and assimilate back into society, the majority of girls are very traumatized by their experience. They also find it difficult to return home due to social stigma and shame. Sadly, some accept their fate in life as sex workers, with some resigned to waiting for death from HIV/AIDs.

Does the Current Economic Crisis make Females More Vulnerable?

With the current economic crisis, many female workers in the Cambodian garment sector have lost their jobs. As a result, many have sought work in the entertainment business where there is a great risk of becoming entrapped in sexual exploitation and trafficking.

Singapore Reuters reported that recently, HE Mrs. Chou Bun Eng, Secretary of State for Ministry of Interior of Cambodia, in a meeting in Singapore warned that "More women and more girls will be entering the entertainment business and will face issues of sexual exploitation," A survey by The United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP)estimated between 15 and 20 percent of former garment workers who have lost their jobs during the global economic crisis have joined the capital’s entertainment sector. According to statistics from the Ministry of Labor, more than 30,000 garment workers lost their jobs in the first three quarters of 2009, meaning that, at least 4,500 women have entered the entertainment sector this year alone. In November 2009, Mom Kunthear, a journalist with the Phnom Penh Post reported that an additional 30,000 garment worker jobs have been suspended.

Hope and Motivation from Anti-sex Trafficking Activists

The only hope for the reduction of sex trafficking comes from the anti-sex trafficking activists and the government. Under the leadership of Somaly Mam, AFESIP employs a holistic approach that ensures victims not only escape their plight but provide therapy and education so that they have the emotional and economic strength to face the future with hope.

She launched the Somaly Mam Foundation in 2007. It is a funding vehicle to support anti-trafficking organizations and provides victims and survivors with a platform from which their voices can be heard around the world. She has earned much respect, recognition, and accolades because of her efforts, including being honored as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2009, being featured as a CNN Hero, and being the recipient of the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation, The World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child (WCPRC), Glamour Magazine's 2006 Woman of the Year Award, and accolades from the US Department of Homeland Security.

However, her efforts have resulted in death threats to herself and her family. Even worst, in 2006, her 14-year-old daughter was kidnapped by brothel owners, who drugged and raped her. This has not stopped Somaly Mam, but motivated her even more. Once, when asked why she continued to fight in the face of such fierce and frightening opposition, she resolutely responded, "I don't want to go without leaving a trace."

She established a model for addressing the sex-trafficking issue and has already helped more than 4,000 women escape the brothels. In turn, some of them have also become activists fighting against sex trafficking.

Sex trafficking in Cambodia is against the law. The government of Cambodia must enforce the law and arrest sex-traffickers. They have raided many brothels and prosecuted many sex-trafficking cases. The government should also monitor sex trafficking and make an effort to minimize the conditions which make women vulnerable. In response to the economic crisis, the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training has plans to create regional job centers aimed to provide vocational training for unemployed workers. It was reported that one job center has already opened in Phnom Penh, and six more are expected to be opened by the end of 2010. This effort by the government is an excellent effort by the government to help people that are vulnerable to sex-trafficking. Never the less, the government needs to drastically increase its law enforcement efforts.

(Sopheap Chak is a graduate student of peace studies at the International University of Japan. She runs a blog, www.sopheapfocus.com, in which she shares her impressions of both Japan and her homeland, Cambodia. Meanwhile, she is also running the Cambodian Youth Network for Change mobilizing young activists around the country. Sopheap is currently the contributing author for Global Voice Online and UPI Asia Online. She was previously advocacy officer of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights.)
Posted by kabloona at 4:49 PM
Labels: Cambodia sex-trafficking Somaly Mam Phnom Penn

Nomi Network: The Agony of Cambodian Female Victims of Sex Trafficking and Exploitation

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World Education - Feature Stories - Cambodia: Using Education to Combat Child Trafficking in Cambodia

Life changed for Chhiv Ya when she was separated from her family during a community celebration. "There were hundreds of people from outside our village at the celebration and I got separated from my family," relates Chhiv Ya, a 15-year old girl. "At lunch time, a strange man sat next to me and asked me questions about my family. I told him that life was very difficult, that we were very poor. He said that if I went with him, he would help me find some money, but I told him I did not want to go. A little later, he brought me food and it was only after I finished eating it that I started to feel really tired… he had drugged me and I found myself following him. He took me to the ferry about 25 miles away and when we reached the other side, he took me to a little house. I stayed outside and he went in. When the drugs began to wear off I was very, very scared."

Cambodia is a country of origin, transit, and destination for both domestic and international trafficking networks. It is not known exactly how many children fall victim to trafficking each year but what is known is that many victims of trafficking end up in the commercial sex industry, where approximately 30% of sex workers are under 18 years of age. Conditions of poverty and high unemployment make teen girls—and their families—extremely vulnerable to the promises of work in the city, not realizing the realities of what awaits them.

Chhiv Ya was fortunate. Two older women found her sitting outside the trafficker's house and realized she did not live in the community. Once she explained her situation, the women recognized that she had been kidnapped and that her captor intended to exploit her. The women told Chhiv Ya that she had to escape. She summoned her courage, and began the long trek back to her family.

When Chhiv Ya finally returned to her village, she was initially met with scorn. Her parents and other community members did not realize she had been kidnapped but assumed she had left of her own will. After a brief time, her parents and neighbors came to understand what happened to her and embraced her return.

Girls learn how to protect themselves
from trafficking in World Education's
OPTIONS Program. [PHOTO]

Today, Chhiv Ya goes to school with the support of World Education's OPTIONS Program. The OPTIONS Program uses education as a strategy to combat child trafficking and exploitation through scholarship support, literacy training for out-of-school girls, practical life-skills education, livelihood development support, and community awareness and mobilization. OPTIONS helps girls, in particular, learn relevant, practical skills including basic and reproductive health, nutrition, hygiene, and HIV prevention, as well as reading, writing, critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Girls are directly involved in awareness-raising activities in communities where they live and speak out about trafficking issues during public events.

Chhiv Ya is one of nearly 11,000 girls who will learn about the dangers of trafficking through World Education's OPTIONS Program. She talks to families about the dangers that exist in their village or beyond, and tells them how they can help protect their children. Because of the open atmosphere that has been created by the OPTIONS Program, parents and community leaders have become less fearful of discussing child trafficking issues in public and have embraced the leadership demonstrated by the girls.

Chhiv Ya is also learning skills to help her family and others better understand how to change conditions of poverty. The students interview business owners, community leaders, and families to learn about the realities facing their communities, and then meet as a group to brainstorm how families might be able to improve their conditions. She also talks about the dangers of trafficking and the tricks traffickers can use to get young girls to leave their villages under the promises of good employment. She explains, "I feel very safe now, but I want people to know that trafficking is here, even in our little villages. I want to tell everyone about the dangers and how we can avoid being trafficked just by understanding how we get tricked. I am not scared anymore and I am learning so much in the OPTIONS Program. When I grow up I want to be a teacher and help people in my village learn how to read and write and make their lives better."

World Education - Feature Stories - Cambodia: Using Education to Combat Child Trafficking in Cambodia

Mission Network News

Image via Wikipedia

Posted: 7 December, 2009

* Topics in this story:
* human trafficking
* , India
* , India partners
* , refuge
* , safe haven
* , sex workers

India (MNN) ― Last week, the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery reminded nations of their commitment to end modern-day slavery. Through national ministries, India Partners provides the resources to get India's sex workers off the streets.

According to the United Nations International Labor Organization, 12.3 million people are engaged in forced labor and sexual servitude at any time. Children compose up to 2 million of these statistics. India Partners provides shelter, medical attention, vocational training and hope for victims of this global tragedy.

Savitha and Sula* benefited from help provided by India Partners-assisted ministries. SCS, a partner agency, assisted Savitha and encouraged her to leave the sex trade. SCS aided her throughout multiple episodes of sickness and hospital visits, and obtained custody of Savitha's two children before she passed away. Through SCS, these children have hope and opportunities for full lives.

Sula was trafficked into a brothel in Mumbai, the chief human trafficking destination in Asia, according to India Partners. Through their partner agency, India Partners built a relationship with Sula through medical care and counseling. Despite her baby's still-birth, Sula remained firm in her decision to leave the sex trade. She entered India Partners' rehabilitation center and enrolled in the vocational training program. Sula received Christ and chose to be baptized in October; she faces her new future with hope.

India's HIV/AIDS epidemic stems from the commercial sex trade and exploitation of enslaved children. Click here to find out how your donations to India Partners can help free more imprisoned innocents.

Ask God to protect national ministries as they rescue sex slaves from society's darkest fringes. Pray also for female sex workers who decide to leave the trade; they're extremely vulnerable in terms of health and potential exposure to HIV.

India Partners
About this Organization
India Partners
Phone: (877) 874-6342
Alt. Phone: (541)-683-0696
Fax: (541) 683-2773
Web site
P.O. Box 5470 Eugene, OR
97405

About India

* Population: 1,161,869,000
* People Groups: 2,500
* Unreached Groups:
2,190 (88%)
* Primary Language: Hindi
* Primary Religion: Hinduism
* Evangelical: 1.8%

http://www.mnnonline.org/article/13585

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51% founders: Trafficking humans is a grave concern for women

Image via Wikipedia

By Tryce Czyczynska & Lisa N. Sanders

The worst of human behavior is subjective. Is it violence? Crime? War? What and who is to blame? Greed? Consumerism? Totalitarianism?

Certainly we can agree that our most sordid behavior is money motivated and includes criminal conduct. Worldwide the illegal drug trade is the single most lucrative, underground trade in current history. The second largest industry, wrought with profit, is the illegal trade of weaponry, the arms trade. What was once a distant third now explodes in a close tie for second. The third most prevalent and lucrative illegal industry is the trade of enslaved humans. Many see it as the fastest growing illegal industry in the world and already rate it as second only to illicit drugs.

It’s different than the smuggling of humans. Smuggled individuals usually pay someone to transport them into a foreign country and most have their personal freedom once they arrive. In the illegal sale of people and their services, the traffickers intend to exploit their victims, the victims never a choice to leave and none volunteered to the conditions of forced servitude for no compensation.

Many trafficked individuals are brought from one country into another, although crossing borders isn’t a requirement to be considered trafficking. Most are coerced into thinking they will be given a decent job in exchange for the fee of transportation. Once they are separated from their original communities, they are held captive for the purpose of exploitation, usually being sold into forced prostitution where they share none of the profits. The practice is commonly labeled as human trafficking, sex trafficking and it is - modern day slavery.

Human trafficking is a system of profit for the few, yet no socio-political system can be held responsible. Every continent and race suffers from some of its citizens being enslaved. However, we can chart that the flow of humans is overwhelmingly from places of dire poverty to more affluent communities. This might be from the Ukraine into the U.S., with Mexico as the point of entry.

Although anyone can be a victim to trafficking, it’s most common for victims to be young and female. Developing countries, and those under the hand of war, are the most common countries exploited. Geographies that experience extreme natural disasters, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, in areas of poverty, are the most common targets of those seeking new recruits. Some abandoned people and children are kidnapped outright - others are starving and desperate to believe there is a better life elsewhere. Professional traffickers normally work in small groups, but many are controlled by organized crime. In both instances, victims are sold and enslaved.

Roughly 80 percent of those trafficked are female. Since many victims are never again found alive, it’s impossible to know the true numbers, but it’s estimated that at least 17,500 foreign nationals and well over 17,500 U.S. citizens are trafficked annually in the U.S. alone. It’s estimated that $9.5 billion are generated worldwide from the sale and forced labor of trafficked humans.
Unlike drug busts or stings that uncover illegal arms, human trafficking rings are harder to find. Victims are moved frequently, often every few weeks, through numerous countries or cities, and in complete hiding, without a trace as to where they came from or where they’re going. Victims sometimes die before being found. Those that escape may not be able to identify their captors in order to prosecute them. Some are so physically and psychologically damaged from the enslavement that they fear testifying because of threats to them and their families - especially when powerful mafias are part of the mix.

And, the cost is high. Many sex slaves are forced to service 10-50 men a day, with no health care or protection from STDs, HIV or birth control. Forced pregnancies often result in forced births, with surviving children groomed to endure the same servitude. Countless victims pay with their lives.

The trafficking of humans is largely an issue of protecting women and children. As a voice for all that affects the success of women in our midst, we, of 51%-A Woman’s Place Is In Politics, will continue to examine the complexities of this alarming issue. We will look to the international dilemmas involved, and expose the local occurrences within San Diego and across to our Mexican neighbors. It may be disheartening. But as one of the quickest growing illegal industries in the world, it is with grave concern that we look into the problem.

Tryce Czyczynska & Lisa N. Sanders are the founders of 51%

http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-10-07/news/51-founders-trafficking-humans-is-a-grave-concern-for-women

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Court of Women

Unprecedented Court of Women hears testimonies from the trafficked and sexually exploited

Nusa Dua, Bali (Indonesia), August 7

The jury deliberating on a most unusual trial - the first South East Asia Court of Women on HIV and Human Trafficking in South East Asia - here have urged the governments, UN agencies, civil society organizations and others to urgently to address the vulnerabilities of women to trafficking and HIV.

However, these responses should be rights and gender-responsive and should not "re-victimise" the women who have been trafficked, they said. What is required are joint-efforts based on human rights principles rather than inappropriate law enforcement.

This was no typical court proceeding, but was instead a symbolic court held in conjunction with the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), which opens here on 9 August.

"The vulnerabilities of women to trafficking and HIV are rooted in the disproportionate human insecurity, poverty, illiteracy and disempowerment that they face in their daily lives," the Jury said in a statement issued at the end of the Court. In several countries, women who are trafficked are chased by the same law that is meant to protect them: they are treated as "illegal migrants" and "criminals" and are often denied their rights and choices.

The jury of six eminent legal and human rights experts heard real-life testimonies in the Women's Court, including harrowing stories of trafficking, violence and exploitation. The Court provided a forum for women across SE Asia to share their personal survival stories and to create further awareness about trafficking, sexual exploitation, bonded labour, and HIV in the region.

Alongside the powerful and poignant testimonies of women who suffered at the hands of traffickers, "expert witnesses" presented data and powerful analyses to highlight the intense violation of dignity and rights of thousands of other women from South East Asia. The Court brought together leaders, politicians, activists and communities who are working to make a difference to empower women and reduce their vulnerability to trafficking and HIV in the South East Asia region.

The event was organised by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Asian Women's Human Rights Council (AWHRC), and Yakeba, a Balinese NGO , with financial support from the Japanese Government and in partnership with UNODC and others.

Opening the court, Ms. Meutia Hatta, Minister for Women's Empowerment of Indonesia, said: "of the total number of people trafficked globally, one-third is from South East Asia and gender inequality and unequal power relations are the main fuelling factors for this phenomenon." In view of the seriousness of the issue, the Government of Indonesia enacted the anti-trafficking law in 2008. The spread of HIV in the region is increasingly impacting women 2-3 times more at risk of contracting HIV than men in the same age group.

In her key note address, Dr. Nafis Sadik, UN Secretary General's Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific region, said that trafficking was matter of legislation alone, though laws were essential. They should be drafted with due respect for human rights and there must be even-handed enforcement. "Too often, we find double or triple standards at work." She added: "the sex workers are endowed with the same rights as other human beings; and that coercion in all its forms, including trafficking, has no part to play".

Image via Wikipedia

The testimonies heard by the Court included:

* Wanta, a young Cambodian woman selling sugar care juice on the streets of Phnom Penh couldn't resist the lure of an overseas job that promised her a decent salary. Smuggled out of her country through the Cambodia-Thai border, she ended up in Malaysia as a bonded sex worker. After months in several brothels and a jail, she is now back in Phnom Penh, thanks to the intervention of an NGO. But with a battered past and HIV, life is a daunting struggle for her.

* Nitha from Indonesia took a job in the Middle East as a domestic worker, but faced extreme hardship and escaped, ending up in a detention centre in Jakarta. Unable to make both the ends meet, she tried for another job in another country. This time, the working conditions were worse. "They forced me to work without a break and withheld my pay frequently. I fell unconscious often. I was raped several times."

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. El Mostafa Benlamlih, UN Resident Coordinator for Indonesia and UNDP Resident Representative, said: "there are no borders between human trafficking, violence and HIV/AIDS as there are no borders between nation states. When human insecurity and poverty thrive; migration, human trafficking, violence against women and HIV breed on each other." "Behind the voices of the testifiers at the Court, there is suffering of human beings, men, women and children; misunderstood, victimized, exploited, raped, infected, imprisoned, blamed and thrown at the margins of society."

"The timing of the Court is significant in that the current economic crisis has narrowed the opportunities for formal migration, making women in particular vulnerable to various forms of exploitation including trafficking. What is needed is collective and inclusive responses, given the diversity of views that exist on the issue," said Mr. Jeff O'Malley, Director, HIV/AIDS Practice, UNDP, New York said. The Court has brought together these critical views and has made an affirmative move towards joint efforts against trafficking and HIV that build on human rights principles and empowerment strategies, rather than inappropriately using only law enforcement, he added.

"In addressing the dual challenges of human trafficking and HIV, we need to ensure that the voices of women who are most affected are heard. The Regional Court of Women in attempting to bring such unheard voices to the public domain is laudable," said Christian Kroll, Global Coordinator of HIV/AIDS, UNODC.

"We need to urgently shift the deeply embedded norms, attitudes and behaviours that socially sanction unspeakable forms of violence against women. Rampant human rights violations, gender inequality, severe deprivation and unsafe migration; which create a fertile environment for trafficking of women are the same factors that increase their vulnerability to HIV, Ms. Caitlin Wiesen, Regional HIV Practice Leader, Asia Pacific, UNDP, said.

Ms. Corinne Kumar, International Coordinator, Courts of Women, said: "in its experience of a new imaginary, the Courts of Women are finding different ways of speaking truth to power; but also speaking truth to the powerless, seeking the conscience of the world, creating other reference points than that of the rule of law, returning ethics to politics."

The eminent jury included Hon. Mieke Komar Kantaatmadja (Supreme Court Justice, Indonesia), Prof. Vitit Muntarbhorn (Prof. of Law and Former UN Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Thailand), Marina Mahathir (Steering Committee Member, Asia Pacific Leadership Forum on HIV/AIDS and Development, Malaysia), Annette Sykes (Lawyer, New Zealand), Sylvia Marcos (Director, Center for Psycho-ethnological Research, Mexico), and Esperanza I. Cabral (Secretary, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Philippines).

For more information, please contact: G. Pramod Kumar ( pramod.kumar@undp.org); Kazuyuki Uji ( kazuyuki.uji@undp.org) Ph: +94114526400

http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/court-of-women.html