The Truths of the Human Trafficking Industry

The reality of human trafficking? 

• USA is the #1 destination for Americans who seek to have sex with children
• There are over 636,000 registered sex offenders in the USA
• Child marriage is legal in 20 countries, and 15 million girls will be sold as brides before they are 18
• Trafficking is a $99 billion industry
• The sexual exploitation of children is driven by the Internet
• In the Bolivian context, human trafficking has increased 900% in the past nine years

This is a small list of the harsh truths of human trafficking shared at one of the first panel sessions of the 60th NGO Commission on the Status of Women (NGO CSW) Forum on March 15, 2016. The panel was titled “What Will It Take to END Human Trafficking? The Role Media Plays & A Rarely Heard Voice from the Trafficker’s Perspective,” sponsored by Pathways to Peace, The Fyera Foundation, and Operation Big Sister, as well as panelists from The Nest Foundation, Media Impact, and GWEN.

“Where drugs are being sold, children are being sold,” one of the panelists remarked. This reality is incomprehensible, yet it exists. Another panelist reflected on her position in the world, growing up in the United States, middle class, well and highly educated. In her experience, she was under the impression that we, here in the USA, have achieved almost full gender equality. Her first experience at the NGO CSW Forum three years ago changed her understanding. As it very well did many conference participants attending the panel. It brought her here, three years later, leading NGOs and advocating for the end of human trafficking. 

Recognizing the role media has to play in perpetuating the human trafficking industry across the world, the panelists urged us, as members of civil society, to be the “hands and feet of policy makers,” and transform the media we create. The only way to change the status of women, it was stated, is to change the perceptions of boys and men. 

Upon finishing this blog, Google image search “women in advertising.” Reflect on what populates on your browser. 

Making of Non-Violent Societies for Women: Reflections on Post 2015 Agenda

In a panel sponsored by Centre for Social Research India, Dr. Ranjana Kumari and a few women's rights activists and gender experts from across Asia and Pacific discussed the progress towards building a safe space for women and its inclusion as one the most important agenda post 2015.

This session is called "Making of Non-Violent Societies for Women: Reflections on Post 2015 Agenda". This event underlined the critiques raised o the Political Declaration on the 20th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women. The Panel commented on the inclusion of women's rights in the declaration along with the usage of appropriate language in the draft.

Dr. Ranjana Kumari addressed that violence against women is still a huge issue considering it affects the lives of millions of women worldwide even today. Violence against women takes various forms, from domestic abuse and rape to child marriages and female circumcision. Dr. Ranjana and her team have tried to work on those issues through making practical and tangible change on a grassroots level in Indian context through political empowerment, economic empowerment, and social-legal empowerment of women in India.

To address issues of violence, "bring men in" is the key factor here. A male representative from ManUp shared an incredible insight about engaging men and boys to stop violence against women and girls. Through the universal platforms of sport, music, technology and the arts, ManUp Campaign is trying to build and develop new role models for young boys, which activates youth to stop violence against women and girls.

Feminist Sociological Perspectives: Gender-Based Violence and the Continued Struggle for Equality in a Post 2015 Agenda

In a penal sponsored by Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS), active scholars gathered together to have conversations about gender-based violence and the continued struggles for equality in a post-2015 agenda from feminist sociological perspectives.

Dr. Manisha Desai from the University of Connecticut examines the relationship between feminisms and globalization when it comes to gendered-based violence. She suggests that feminism is an important force to shape globalization, which requires us to see changes in the shifting contexts to analyze gender-related issues. She reminds us to pay attention to the shifting context from a transnational feminist perspective. She argues that transnational feminism has shaped spaces of global politics by providing theoretical frameworks, organizational structures, and strategies. For example, the sex worker's movement since 1990s has created a space for sex workers to develop a union to negotiate their rights and to react to rescue discourses. They are new actors who are developing new strategies in the new contexts, rather than victims of sex trafficking who do not have any agency waiting to be rescued.

One scholar from this penal revisited the 1994 Rwanda Genocide to examine the relationships between genocide and gender. During 1994 Rwanda genocide, over 250,000 women were raped. Because of gendered dynamics, such as women are primarily care providers for their children, most women were killed with their children. After the genocide, there are still a lot of challenges for women survivors in Rwanda right now. A lot of them are poor and traumatized. Due to lack of awareness of assistance, they are disconnected. Besides, women who were raped are less likely to report and ask for help from large institutions.

Women Ending Racism

The penal started with a beautiful song. "Keep on moving forward, never turning back..." Representatives from this panel began to be emotional at the very beginning of this session.

The title of this penal is called "Women Ending Racism." This event is sponsored by No Limits For Women, which is an international organization of women (with men as allies) dedicated to eliminating sexism and racism throughout the world. Using the tools of Re-evaluation Counseling, No Limits For Women offers a system of ongoing mutual support in which women can help free each other from the emotional harm done by sexism and racism. It also provides distinctive perspectives on issues facing women worldwide, such as violence against women, young women and girls in leadership, women ending racism, and women in partnership with men. Representatives engaged a lot of interactions with attendees. 

This penal addressed that it was important for us to situate women's experience in a multilayers oppression system. Often, we fail to account for and explain how overlapping systems of advantage and disadvantage affect individuals' opportunity structure, lifestyles, and social hardships. The idea of intersectionality implies that we cannot understand the lives of poor White single mothers or gay Black men by examining only one dimension of their lives-class, gender, race, or sexuality, Indeed, we must explore their lives in their full complexity, examining how these various dimensions come together and structure their existence. We must keep in mind that racism and sexism always work hand in hand to produce and reproduce the subordination of women, especially women of color.

In the end, representatives mentioned that we should not ignore the power of emotion sharing and story telling. It is a healing process, which would free our mind, and let the whole world understand who we are and what we can be capable of. The true liberation lies in there.

Real men are allowed to cry

Amongst a conference bustling with thousands of women debating about female struggles amongst other women, it was more than refreshing to assume a different perspective in the session, “Real Men Do Not Hurt Others: Ending Sexual and Gender Based Violence by Working with Men and Boys on Positive/Transformative Masculinities”, where I was greeted by an enthusiastic all-male panel. It was both a comforting and morale boosting experience for all the women in the room to be reassured that they are not fighting the feminist fight alone, but rather backed by the strength and support of many influential men also devoted to their cause.

Panelists included a president of a Canadian-based NGO focused on youth empowerment and violence prevention, a South African minister raised by a single-father, and an English-Anglican priest working for Christian Aid International. Together, these men from colored backgrounds all agreed that a major underlying threat to women’s empowerment is the way in which the idea of ‘masculinity’ is socialized in society. Universally, men are expected to uphold a degree of masculinity that is characterized as being successful in their finances and careers, emotionally and physically strong, and exercising power and dominance in whatever they do. Images of these ideals are inescapable, persisting in traditional family dynamics, societal judgments, and media. Many times, as we are familiar, these pressures of socialization initiate a need that men experience to display, or prove their masculinity to others when they feel as though they are frustrated, vulnerable, or being challenged - which often results in aggression towards others, especially women and girls in their lives.

Therefore, the panelists argued, women will never be able to be fully empowered until this harmful, discriminatory concept of masculinity is broken down. With this understanding, it is men too that need to be targeted through education and empowerment in a movement towards an equal society. Specifically, we need to transform the definition of what it means to be a “real man” into a concept that acknowledges and accepts men’s ability to feel, empathize, lose, and cry, to ultimately delineate the idea of masculinity and domination. The strength associated with masculinity should be interpreted as a strength to love, care, help, and protect rather than hurt. We also need to recognize that while striving for positions of leadership and power, whether official (president of a company) or unofficial (patriarch of a household) is natural, that it no longer becomes a positive attribute when such power is used to injure, hurt, or undermine the rights of others – and be able to identify when such abuse of power is occurring. In this way, these panelists insist that gender issues are not solely about women, but also involve and affect everyone. Not only will achieving gender equality help women escape societal oppression and domestic violence, it will also save many male lives, such as the seven men for every one women who die a violent death in an attempt to defend their “alpha-male” qualities. 

Organizations such as NGOs have the power to bring together men, women, boys and girls from around the world and unite them under the universally beneficial goal of challenging dominant patriarchy. This can be done through empowerment of both sexes by raising the self-esteem of both men and women to be comfortable in challenging gender-norms and standing up to defend their individual feelings, opinions, and societal roles regardless of their biological sex. Camaraderie, rather than competition, should be the desired relationship amongst males and respect, rather than control, should be the desired relationship between males and females. While feminism roots itself in female empowerment, this socially transformative goal cannot be achieved without willing collaboration between both sexes - for if the socialization of masculinity continues to “project a fragile male ego, and women continue to submit themselves to protecting this ego”, this oppressive system will remain unbroken.  

An attempt to challenge patriarchy

Development in Practice and Christian Aid Nigeria sponsored an event called “GEADOR: Breaking Down Gendered Barriers in a Patriarchal Society”, an inspiring panel focused on the organizations’ attempts to work together to challenge existing social structures and give voice to women in rural Nigeria, a society where they are traditionally excluded and oppressed.

This approach was called GEADOR (Gender Empowerment And Development Organizing Resource), and worked at local, village levels with both sexes in order to improve gender equity perspectives and empower women in a nation where women constitute merely 6.4-6.9% of the country’s government. These NGOs believed that the key to improving women’s degrading conditions under traditional patriarchy lay in promoting female statuses within Nigerian communities along with encouraging greater contributions of women and girls at all levels of development. 

Specifically, the approach tried to work together in unity with older men, older women, younger boys, and younger girls in order to tackle barriers upholding inequality of opportunity for female achievement such as the absence of women in decision-making positions, the poor accountability of the state to implement and support women’s rights, and underlying traditional customs such as the inability for women to inherit land or property of their own. Such obstacles were self-identified by focus groups separated by age and gender, since it was assumed that such controversial topics would be more easily discussed among peers. Later however, these groups were brought together for an open discussion as a cohesive group in order to analyze participants of all ages and genders in their ability to listen to and accept different perspectives on gender issues and challenge the accepted, yet oppressive, norms of their society. 

These organizations were thrilled to report that open dialogue among village men and women of all ages had positive consequences for the communities in which GEADOR was implemented. Since the approach was put into practice in 2013, more women have been invited by village members and chiefs to participate in community practices and public meetings than ever before. Additionally, threats facing women are increasingly brought up in discussion and are being addressed by the village community, such as the traumatic customary practice of exiling widows for three months following their husband’s passing being reduced to just one week.

 The organizations attribute this monumental success to their realistic approach, such as agreeing to avoid certain “no-go” topics as discussion of women becoming King, or the questioning of non-harmful traditions such as the women offering male guests sacred fruit. This is also helped along with the support offered by community leaders who back the GEADOR programs and volunteer specific male participants from their villages that they believe would best be open to gender equity ideas, and best be willing to share what they have learned with the rest of their community. In this way, GEADOR has allowed NGOs to defiantly create safe spaces for women and girls to capture their voices and build a strong sense of self-esteem in a region where females are often the least seen and the least heard.

“Let’s criminalize sex purchases!”

Perhaps the most powerful panel I attended at the 59^th annual Commission on the Status of Women was entitled “Criminalizing Sex Purchase: A Method to Combat HIV/AIDS?”. This session was sponsored by National Organization for Women’s Shelters, Young Women’s Shelters in Sweden, and Unizon, and its impressive panel included women physicians/healthcare workers, activists (such as Rachira Gupta, recipient of Clinton Global Initiative Award and an Emmy Award), and retired sex workers themselves from around the globe.

Boldly, these women began their presentation challenging the stance of the United Nations/UN Women in their effort to legalize prostitution. This, they argue, does not at all help protect or empower sex worker women for many reasons, the most important of which being that most women do not want to be sex workers at all. It is impossible to delineate prostitution from human trafficking and as long as prostitution continues to take place, so too will women being forced, captured, or sold into sex work because the demand for their services remains no matter where, why, or what conditions the women workers come from. Therefore, decriminalization of prostitution more times than often ends up decriminalizing pimping and brothels, and giving sex purchasers impunity while leaving sex workers alone with no support of the law behind them.

Furthermore, legalizing prostitution is flawed, the panel insisted, because it assumes that women possess equal status and opportunity to exercise choice in the matter of involving themselves in sex work in the first place, which disregards whether they are trafficked, monitored by pimps, or left with no other options to support their family. Additionally, it also disregards these women’s ability to exercise choice in the critical decisions that are part of such work such as using condoms, untraditional/violent penetration, or knowing whether their partners are infected with sexually transmitted infections. Unfortunately, many sex workers perceive their status as subordinate to their pimps and their purchasers, or are in desperate financial situations that lead them to silence their opinions, no longer consider their own health, and accept more money for riskier clients/behaviors.

Optimistically, the “Nordic Model” approach to prostitution has shown promising results in Europe after widespread enforcement of laws decriminalizing sex workers themselves, but criminalizing sex buyers for their purchases. Here, legislation attacks the overwhelming demand for prostitution by assigning punishment and accountability to purchasers, scaring them away and leading to less instances of prostitution altogether – a step towards the ultimate goal of total abolishment of sex work. Specific data on Nordic societies with this legislation, such as Sweden, compared to similarly cultured societies that legalized the transaction of prostitution, such as Germany, is striking. There is a steep decline in instances of sex work in Sweden where buyers are targeted, but a blooming industry in Germany under open purchase laws, with about 4,000 women catering to about one million men each day, with an increasing amount of those 4,000 women being trafficked into the industry.

Ultimately, the panel acknowledged that the eradication of prostitution is a long, hard battle, but they emphasized the importance of absolutely terminating such work, and offered a few strategic steps towards achieving this lofty goal. Firstly, they asked that more data, and more recent data be gathered on prostitution and its effects. This is important because current decisions to legalize prostitution are being made based on outdated and overall minimally available information on the trends and consequences of the industry. Secondly, the panel begged for the true lack of agency women are able to express to be acknowledged, and that these fundamentally unequal grounds in which they stand against men do not allow them a fair opportunity to exercise choice in sexual matters. And further, they called for the recognition that it is this societal inequality that causes the legalization of prostitution to continue to cultivate a culture where men believe women are items that can be used and bought under their own demand. Lastly however, the panel underscored the fact that the fight against prostitution should most importantly be recognized as every person’s battle that is in every person’s best interest, since it not only the sex workers and the sex purchasers that are at risk for adverse consequences such as sexually transmitted infections, but also these people’s own spouses and other partners that remain oblivious and not considered in the decision-making of such risky behaviors.