Trafficking Survivors Tell UN: Strengthen Families To Protect Women and Girls - CatholicCitizens.org

"Women who were trafficked or mistreated for their reproductive organs told the UN this week that to successfully combat modern-day slavery, countries must respect and empower the family."

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UN Urges Businesses to Aid Fight Against Human Trafficking | Asia | English

 July 26, 2011

Ron Corben | Bangkok

Photo: AP

Women rescued by STOP, a group that rescues women from Delhi brothels, run a cafeteria for students at a Delhi University in New Delhi, India (File Photo)

Businesses are being urged to play a greater role in reducing international human trafficking, as a new United Nation initiative to combat trafficking is being introduced in Asia.

Human trafficking syndicates and the use of forced labor generate as much as $32 billion a year globally - almost a third of that in Asia. Labor and crime analysts forecast that profit could reach over $100 billion within the next half decade.


In Bangkok Tuesday, Noeleen Heyzer, the executive secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, introduced a new campaign to end trafficking.
“The scope and magnitude of human trafficking in fact is so huge that unless we change the way we do business, not as business as usual, but a different way of doing business we’re not going to be able to address this serious transnational crime,” she said.

At a regional economic conference, Heyzer said the private sector needs to play a role, because traditional partners such U.N. agencies and law enforcement organizations are no longer able to address the magnitude of the crime.

Human trafficking in Asia ranges from women and children forced into the sex trade to fishermen from Cambodia forced to work unpaid on boats in the region, to factory workers laboring with little pay.

UNESCAP urges businesses to sign the Athens Ethical Principles, in which companies pledge to help educate the public about trafficking and to avoid any use of trafficked labor. Some 10,000 companies globally have signed the protocol, but few of them are Asia.

David Arkless is president of corporate affairs of the Manpower Group, an international labor management and recruiting company. He sits on the board of the End Human Trafficking Now organization. He told the conference economic forces are pressing the international community to better deal with cross-border labor mobility.

"We’ve got a whole set of layered issues here," he said. "Humanitarian, economic, human and the way the demographics is driving the economic world. We’re going to have to get this thing under control sooner rather than later. It is overwhelming."

UNESCAP and other groups also call for reforms in the use of migrant labor, including in countries such as Bangladesh, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, which rely on remittances from workers employed overseas.

Arkless notes that fighting human trafficking benefits companies. He says both businesses and their employees see higher productivity and staff retention if workers are well treated. And companies fear a consumer backlash if they are found to exploit workers.

Source: voanews.com

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Trafficking victims should have legal redress and compensation – UN rights expert

Special Rapporteur Joy Ngozi Ezeilo

1 June 2011 –

Victims of human trafficking have the right to seek legal redress and compensation for the violation of their rights, a United Nations expert said today, voicing concern that those trafficked were often treated as “instruments” of criminal investigation, rather than people with rights.

“In many States, trafficked persons do not receive remedies in a holistic manner as a matter of right, but are only provided with ad hoc measures which are predominantly aimed at facilitating criminal investigation,” said Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, the UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children.

She criticised such measures as temporary residence permits, which are granted on the condition that the victims cooperate with law enforcement authorities.

“Trafficked persons are rarely known to have received compensation, as they are often not provided with the information, legal and other assistance and residence status necessary to access it,” said Ms. Ezeilo when she presented her report on the right to effective remedy for trafficked person to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“At worst, many trafficked persons are wrongly identified as irregular migrants, detained and deported before they have an opportunity to even consider seeking remedies,” she added.

In her report, Ms. Ezeilo recommends that States “ensure that adequate procedures are in place to enable quick and accurate identification of trafficked persons” to prevent any misidentification of trafficked persons as irregular migrants, which often leads to detention and deportation, effectively precluding a chance to seek compensation.

“States should ensure that trafficked persons are equipped with access to information, free legal aid and other necessary assistance such as interpretation services, and regular residence status during the duration of any legal proceedings,” Ms. Ezeilo recommended.

She also advised States to provide trafficked persons with temporary or permanent residence permits “where a safe return to the country of origin is not guaranteed or a return would not otherwise be in the best interests of the trafficked person for reasons related to his or her personal circumstances, such as the loss of citizenship or cultural and social identity in the country of origin.”

Trafficking victims should have legal redress and compensation – UN rights expert

Insidecostarica.com | Proposal to Go after Clients of Sex Trafficking Victims

Monday 28 February 2011

By Marcela Valente BUENOS AIRES (IPS) - An Argentine government proposal to crack down on clients benefiting from the trafficking of persons for the purposes of sexual exploitation has unleashed a heated debate between feminist organizations that support the idea and sex workers who are opposed to it. The proposal by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights has the support of organizations whose aim is to abolish the commercial sex trade. These groups want prostitution to be condemned as a form of exploitation, and are calling for measures like the promotion of alternative sources of employment. The concept of going after the client has received the backing of the United Nations and the Organization of American States (OAS), which will study it to recommend its inclusion in the national laws of each country. The idea is to discourage demand by sending clients convicted of hiring the sexual services of a trafficking victim to prison. Women's rights and human rights groups seeking to abolish the sex trade back the idea, although they express doubts because of the difficulties of implementing it. Monique Altschul with the Fundación Mujeres en Igualdad (Women in Equality Foundation) told IPS that her organization agrees with the government's proposal, which is similar to Sweden's law against the purchasing of sex services, and said "it would be difficult to implement, but not impossible." In Altschul's view, which she shares with many other members of feminist groups, prostitution is not decent work, especially in the case of sexual exploitation resulting from trafficking, a modern-day form of slavery. Trafficking in persons is "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion…for the purpose of exploitation," according to the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, which has been signed and ratified by Argentina. "Prostitution is not decent work, because people are subjected to humiliation, and they never know what to expect in each transaction," Altschul said. "And in the case of trafficking, it is obvious that sexual exploitation is involved." Many women's rights groups thus believe that not only the clients of trafficking victims should be penalised, but anyone who pays for sex. But the Association of Women Prostitutes of Argentina (AMMAR), which has more than 4,000 members, is opposed to the proposal and has promised to make its voice heard at the next OAS General Assembly, to be held in June in El Salvador. "This confuses trafficking, which we condemn, with sex work, which is an option followed by some women, as consenting adults," Elena Reynaga, president of AMMAR, told IPS. She also complained that the "abolitionist" groups have not listened to their concerns. "They don't respect us, they don't listen to us," Altschul said. "Bans only hurt us and expose us more than we already are." The groups that want to abolish the sex trade argue that no woman really chooses prostitution of her own free will, and that women fall into it because of a history of violence and abuse, and a lack of opportunities. But Reynaga rejects that argument. "Domestic workers or women who are scavenging for cardboard on the streets didn't have opportunities either, but no one is going after them. There are many women who did not have the chance to study, and we had to make choices." The problem is that in Argentina trafficking in women is a hot issue. In its annual report, the U.S. State Department warns every year of the lack of effective measures to combat human trafficking in this South American country. The organizations working against trafficking say women are lured or seized in other countries in the region, mainly Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Peru, as well as in Puerto Rico and the provinces of northern Argentina, the poorest parts of the country. The media periodically report on raids of brothels in provinces in central Argentina, which turn up women from Paraguay or the impoverished northern provinces who denounce that they were deceived with promises of a good job, and ended up being sexually exploited. There are also hundreds of reports filed of missing girls and women, who are assumed to be victims of trafficking rings. In 2008, Congress passed a law to prevent and criminalize the crime of trafficking. But the legislation has many flaws and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, called for its "urgent" reform. In a statement issued after her fact-finding mission to this country in September 2010, the special rapporteur said the current law stipulated that victims over the age of 18 had to prove they did not initially consent to engage in the activities they were subjected to. Ngozi Ezeilo also called for stiffer sentences for convicted traffickers and improved assistance for and follow-up of victims, including adequate witness protection before and after trials. "Trafficking in persons in Argentina is unfortunately growing in scale and repercussions. It is complex, dynamic and hugely underestimated, especially internal trafficking," the special rapporteur said in her statement. In the meantime, other measures have been taken. The Attorney General's Office recommended that prosecutors seek to cancel the operating licenses of businesses that offer prostitution services, and some newspapers have stopped carrying sex-oriented ads. Classified ads run in the main national and provincial newspapers frequently refer to the women's place of origin, young age or youthful looks, such as "hot Paraguayans," "blonde Brazilians," "new bunny fresh from the countryside," "just in from the north," "erotic little doll," or "wild university girls." Both the abolitionist groups and the sex workers' associations agree that the underlying problem is corruption among politicians, judicial workers and police, who boycott and stymie measures aimed at cracking down on trafficking. For example, when prosecutors show up at a brothel, they find that the place is "clean" because the police who were supposed to cooperate in the raid have already tipped off the owners. Reynaga also said the laws are used to harass sex workers. "The police haul us in and bring charges against us, and force our clients to pay them bribes." She also questioned the concept of clients being able to distinguish between sex workers in the trade of their own accord and victims of trafficking. "What, do they expect the clients to ask the women? "The problem is corruption -- that is why the networks are mushrooming. The police already have tools and don't use them -- or rather, they use them against us."

Source: insidecostarica.com

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UN calls for immediate stop to human trafficking as Pinoy victims hit 80,000

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Written by Estrella Torres / Reporter
Monday, 07 June 2010 21:50

WITH human-trafficking victims in the Philippines hovering around 80,000, the call of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights gains much urgency and cries for immediate solutions, such as the strengthening of state and private agencies that deal with the “trafficking chain.”

The UN call marks the world celebration of International Migrant Workers’ Day, and focuses on human trafficking and the protection they are entitled to under international human-rights law.

Experts, led by the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navanethem Pillay, highlighted the need to effectively implement the guidelines on human rights and human trafficking to safeguard the rights of the victims of trafficking in a forum sponsored by the Philippines and Germany with over 200 participants from governments, experts from international organizations and civil society.

The need is patently urgent, particularly on the victimization of women and children, as Denis Lepatan, chargé d’affaires and Philippine Deputy permanent representative to UN in Geneva, revealed that hundreds of thousands of persons from many nations are trafficked for purposes of exploitation each year, with 70 percent of victims being women and children.

The Philippines is the third largest source of migrant workers next to China and India, with over 8 million deployed in more than 180 countries. Lepatan said the sheer number of Filipino migrant workers in almost all member-countries of the UN—some of them poor and undemocratic—make them especially vulnerable to trafficking.

He urged member-governments to implement a rights-based approach in combating human trafficking. “It focuses on the needs of individuals at each step in the trafficking chain and, therefore, it can help save and repair more human lives which are being daily destroyed by trafficking.”

UN experts and key participants in the forum agreed to pursue specific measures on combating human trafficking that include enhancing training for government officials and service providers on the various dimensions on human trafficking and primacy of human rights.

The UN meeting also recommended the need to strengthen capacity of stakeholders in identifying victims of trafficking, provide them with services and assistance, and engage the media, civil society and private sector in the effort against trafficking.

The UN experts, at the same time, highlighted the importance of state ratification and adherence of states to the UN Protocol on Combating Trafficking in Persons and other international human-rights treaties.

Lepatan said responses to trafficking have traditionally concentrated on the law enforcement and criminal-justice aspects. “These fail to take into account the special needs of victims, especially women and children, who are lured by false promises into sexual and commercial exploitation.”

He stressed that the majority of victims are not properly identified and do not receive the protection they are entitled to under international human-rights law. “Most are often too scared to come forward for fear of prosecution as criminals or deportation as irregular migrants. Such stark realities make the application of a human rights-based approach to combat the trafficking ever more relevant and urgent.”

UN calls for immediate stop to human trafficking as Pinoy victims hit 80,000

Human trafficking fuels violence against women

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

25 November 2009 - As the world marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, UNODC is drawing attention to how human trafficking fuels violence against women.

In its Global Report on Trafficking in Persons UNODC revealed that two thirds of the identified victims of trafficking were women.

In his message for the day, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed that whether the crime against women is rape, domestic violence, genital mutilation or trafficking for sexual exploitation, it is inexcusable and must be stopped.

Human trafficking is, indeed, one of the worst forms of violence against women and girls. Traffickers may use violence to intimidate and subdue the victims. Once recruited, the women usually find themselves in situations with severely curtailed freedoms. Many times they suffer extreme physical and mental abuse, including through rape, imprisonment, forced abortions and physical brutality at the hands of their so-called "owners". The victims become isolated, losing ties with their former lives and families.

With a better understanding of why women in particular are vulnerable to trafficking and how traffickers operate, and by providing the necessary legal and technical assistance to ensure that effective countermeasures are in place, this crime can be stopped.

Violence against women does not only concern women. It concerns everyone, and the work to combat it must be done by all. Women around the world are the linchpin keeping families, communities and nations together. Eliminating gender discrimination and gender-based violence will enhance the dignity and human rights of women and girls and help prevent their being trafficked.

Addressing human trafficking cuts across all fundamental issues. It is about human rights, peace and security, development and family health. In the most basic sense, it is about preserving the fabric of society. We all have a role to play, either in raising awareness, building partnerships, providing information, protecting victims or bringing the criminals to justice.

In 2008, Secretary-General Ban launched the UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign, which aims to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls in all parts of the world. UNiTE calls on Governments, civil society, women's organizations, young people, the private sector, the media and the entire United Nations system to join forces in addressing the global pandemic of violence against women and girls.

This year, as part of the UNiTE campaign, the Secretary-General started the UNiTE Network of Men Leaders to End Violence against Women. The Network consists of men - young and old - who have pledged to work to end violence against women and girls. These men will add their voices to the growing global chorus for action, and each has pledged to take concrete steps in his community of influence and create partnerships with women to end this violence.

http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2009/November/human-trafficking-fuels-violence-against-women.html

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Anglican consultation addresses horrors of human trafficking

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By Margaret S. Larom, November 09, 2009

[Episcopal News Service, Hong Kong] Women and men from around the Anglican Communion gathered in one of the most beautiful cities in the world Nov. 2-6 to focus on the ugly billion-dollar trade in children.

The trafficking of human beings, though banned by international and national laws, is flourishing, about 40 participants learned at a consultation in Hong Kong. A seemingly insatiable desire for young women and girls, and boys too -- for sex, for labor, for organs -- is fueled by evil, by greed, by ignorance, by unbearable choices made in the name of love, or as a last resort from desperate need.

The participants faced a barrage of statistics gathered by experts, and listened with broken hearts to stories shared by wounded healers. Sometimes aghast, sometimes inspired, they grew steadily more familiar with the "what" and the "where" and the "who," but still could not fathom the "why."

The consultation, organized by the Office of the Anglican United Nations Observer, Hellen Grace Akwii-Wangusa, in New York, was funded by a grant from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the generosity of Archbishop Paul Kwong of Hong Kong, who covered room, board, and ground transportation for all.

Overcoming jet lag and information overload with cheerful determination, the participants worked steadily all week in the hospitable YMCA Hotel on Salisbury Road, with sweeping views of Hong Kong's busy harbor shipping traffic and the magical laser lights show at night. They were treated to a 10-course restaurant dinner with Kwong one evening, Holy Eucharist in the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist another, and a morning visit to one of the province's many social welfare projects -- the 13-story Providence Garden rehabilitation center for physically and mentally handicapped people.

Delegates to the consultation included Anglicans from 12 provinces – Korea, Japan, Philippines, England, Canada, USA, Mexico, Kenya, North India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Hong Kong. A significant number were young women who have attended meetings of the annual U.N. Commission on the Status of Women in New York, thanks to the efforts of the AUNO, AWE (Anglican Women's Empowerment), and the Episcopal Church. They and others delivered country reports utilizing research in the U.S. State Department's TIP (Trafficking in Persons) reports and other sources.

According to the June 2009 TIP report, available here, the U.N.'s International Labor Organization "estimates that there are at least 12.3 million adults and children in forced labor, bonded labor, and commercial sexual servitude at any given time. Of these victims, at least 1.39 million are victims of commercial sexual servitude, both transnational and within countries, and 56 percent of all forced labor victims are women and girls."

Various U.N. agencies have documented that human trafficking is one of the three largest international crimes (along with illegal trading in arms and drugs), and is one of the fastest growing, earning billions of dollars each year for its perpetrators.

The current economic crisis is fueling an increase in trafficking, warned key international experts at the consultation, including:
• Amalee Rae McCoy of Bangkok, the UNICEF regional child protection consultant for East Asia and the Pacific;
• Ohnmar Ei Ei Chaw of Myanmar, the national project coordinator of the U.N. Inter-Agency Project (UNIAP) on Human Trafficking in Myanmar; and
• Mark Peter Capaldi, deputy director of ECPAT International, based in Thailand. (ECPAT stands for End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes; the movement has chapters around the world.)

Some heartening stories were shared during a day focusing on the church's response.

Miryoung (Magdalena) Kim of the Diocese of Taejon, Korea, described her work with prostituted women as president of the Women Survivors Community in essays that revealed not only the prophetic nature of her ministry but also the heart and mind of a spiritual poet.

Subhro Prakesh Tudu, coordinator for the Anti-Trafficking Project and Development and Justice Wing of the Diocese of Eastern Himalaya, Church of North India, told the heart-breaking story of Susana, who was taken aged 14 -- with her father's permission -- to work in another town but now, the victim of predatory practices and an unwanted pregnancy, is praying for death at 16. Subhro showed how the diocese has created a series of "vigilant cells" in villages throughout the district, training bus drivers and persuading police to watch for vulnerable girls, with the result that half the missing girls in a two-year period have been rescued and brought home.

Edwina Antonio Santonio, executive director of Bethune House Migrant Women's Refuge in Hong Kong, told of the services they are able to provide to abused domestic workers, mostly from Philippines but also other Asian countries. A Young Adult Service Corps volunteer from the Episcopal Church, Maegan Collier of the Diocese of Alabama, is working at Bethune House as part of her year's commitment to the Cathedral of St. John's ministry for migrant workers.

The Rev. Dr. Sirirat Pusurinkham of Thailand, a UCC pastor who is founder and director of My Thai Kids Orphanage at Prattachisuk Presbyterian Church, described how at the age of 9 she lost some of her friends -- sold into the sex trade by parents overtaken by poverty. Feeling so sad, angry and helpless then, she has worked ever since to save children from a similar fate. Yet a tidal wave of greed and gross appetite threatens to swamp her efforts. She works in the so-called Golden Triangle of Thailand, a "paradise" of opium, prostitution, trafficking and slavery.

Legal issues and legislative advocacy were highlighted in several ways. Efforts in Hungary, a member of the European Union but still a "young democracy," were described by Andrea Ferenczi, president of the Association for Women's Career Development in Hungary.

The Rev. Dr. Carrie Pemberton of the Church of England, founder of CHASTE (Churches Alert to Sex Trafficking across Europe) and author of Not for Sale and The Real Scandal of Sex Trafficking, noted that while churches may say there is no money for an anti-trafficking campaign, church leaders can offer their blessing (as Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has).

Laura A. Russell of the Diocese of Newark, a Legal Aid attorney in New York City and co-drafter of the New York State anti-trafficking legislation, offered definitions, debunked myths, and described ways to help victims as she led participants through a description of the realities that govern her work. A newly appointed member of the Episcopal Church's Committee on the Status of Women, she is particularly interested in the links between the feminization of poverty, migrant workers, and prostitution.

The consultation was undergirded with prayer and worship, personal visioning and stress reduction techniques including a Christian tai chi. The Rev. Maylin Biggadike, Diocese of Newark, and Phoebe Griswold, Diocese of Pennsylvania, provided theological reflections that grounded participants in Scripture and Christ's redeeming love, but also challenged them to see and name as evil the sinful slave trade of the 21st century -- and not to rest until it's stamped out. Bishop Naresh Ambala of Eastern Himalaya Diocese, Church of North India, gave a powerful testimony citing the many biblical mandates for protecting children from harm.

The faith-based approach to the subject of trafficking, as well as the various best practices described, made an impression on the representatives of non-church agencies. ECPAT's Capaldi said he was sure that he and other "secular" agencies in the fight against trafficking would invite faith-based organizations into their planning and implementation efforts henceforth.

Another positive outcome came when Anglican UN Observer Wangusa noted her desire to organize an Anglican Communion-wide conference on trafficking in the future. Nine persons -- Anglicans/Episcopalians as well as outside experts – volunteered to serve on a planning committee. (This initial consultation was planned for Wangusa by Alessandra Pena, Beth Adamson, Christina Hing and Maylin Biggadike, AUNO/AWE volunteers; Peter Ng, the Episcopal Church's partnership officer for Asia and the Pacific; Anna Gula, AUNO intern in New York; and the Rev. Peter Douglas Koon, general secretary of the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui.)

The Anglican Communion, situated in 165 countries, is well situated to "get done what must be done," said Griswold. "This conference can make that difference by what we decide here to speak boldly, truthfully and with great love to the church and the world." Noting that "we are people who love life, who sustain the work through love, and who will not give up," she issued a call to bring "life-giving energy" to the work.

"Joining with suffering -- in this case the human suffering of poverty, loss of freedom of self and body -- is the stuff of being with God and being empowered, truly and miraculously empowered, to make the world whole and lovely once again."

Documents from the consultation, including country reports, theological reflections, examples of churches' best practices and U.N. and ECPAT experts' presentations, are available here.

-- Canon Margaret S. Larom is the Episcopal Church's interim director of the Advocacy Center and program officer for international justice and peacemaking. Larom, a longtime member of the Presiding Bishop's staff at the Episcopal Church Center, attended the Hong Kong consultation and addressed participants on the importance of church policy-building in accomplishing advocacy with the government as well as civil society. Using the human trafficking resolution brought by the Committee on the Status of Women to this year's General Convention as an example (A167), Larom pointed out that the efforts of a few can be leveraged into the voice of many.

http://www.episcopal-life.org/79901_116550_ENG_HTM.htm

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