Underground Movement to Destabilize Human Trafficking

Operation Big Sister

The 60^th meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women highlights NGOs and civil society’s involvement in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The sessions showcased a variety of viewpoints and the work that is being done towards eradicating major issues we still face today while addressing them within the context of the SDGs.

The interactive panel discussion entitled What Will It Take to End Human Trafficking? The Role Media Plays & A Rarely Heard Voice for the Trafficker’s Perspective offered a unique perspective on the impact media has on perpetuating gender inequality through sexual oppression, human trafficking, and child marriage, and ways to help reverse the impact by utilizing media to make a difference.

An empowering project, led by session moderator and film producer Sheva Carr and co-producer Fred Fauchs, offers an innovative grassroots approach that opens the door for media coverage, in the form of a film and documentary putting a “spotlight” on trafficking in efforts to help stop it worldwide.

The story of the underground movement called “Stóra systir” (Big sister) begins with women in Iceland organizing themselves and taking on the issue of human trafficking. Icelandic women fought for 10 years to decriminalize women and criminalize the traffickers. In 2009, a law was put in place, but the argument was always the same when it came to implementation, “It’s the oldest profession in the world, it will not easily change”. The woman decided that if normal vectors of change do not want to budge, then they needed to do something else. They took out ads as sex workers, and when “johns” called, the voice on the other end responded with “This is your big sister watching you”. Soon this underground movement of women, and even men, responding to calls, taking down names, phone numbers, and sending “johns” to the home addresses of police officials became widely known. Gaining major attention, this story of heroic, creative and forward thinking women, helped bring this topic to the forefront, which led to the idea of making it a feature film, accompanying it with a documentary and an educational curriculum.

We are at a point in human history where technology, media, in particular, takes on a very important role in influencing people’s perceptions and educating many on issues that they either know little of or were not aware existed. The message highlighted in this session is that media and technology can and should be utilized as powerful tools that help destabilize the sex industry. These types of projects, movies, and educational platforms can inspire and empower millions of people.

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. 

Transformation of a Sex Trafficker

“I brainwashed the women that I trafficked … You make them fall in love with you, and then you start taking them to the strip bars and to the clubs where the pimps and the prostitutes hang out so they get intrigued with the lifestyle.”

This is how a former sex trafficker explained what sex traffickers do to young women to convert them from fun-loving children to sex workers.

In the NGO CSW session of March 14, 2016, “From the Trafficker’s Perspective: What Will It Really Take to End Human Trafficking?” a former trafficker shared his spirit-rending story. After a period of abuse at home “in all dimensions,” he ran away and then suffered from a lack of food and shelter. In this period of vulnerability, at age 14, he was enlisted into the deep, dark world of human trafficking. He spent the next 35 years trading in human souls around the globe - in Colombia, Iceland, Holland, Italy, Canada, and the United States. The reach of traffickers is further and wider than one might think.

Then, came his story of transformation. He ended up in Colombia after spinning the globe to decide on a vacation spot.

“I wanted to have vacation, have fun. I had sex with girls and made them come to Canada on a visa to work … to the strip bars.”

But, then, something strange happened as he was on his way to a strip bar in downtown Bogota.

“I saw a friend and asked him where the strip bars are. I met up with him that afternoon and went downtown in Bogota. I said we’re going to the strip bar … I was going to cut through the church. I went inside the church and I saw people praying. I looked around and saw lots of saints. It was called the Church of San Francisco. I felt something in the church. I started crying. And I felt the Holy Spirit. That happened in 2003. I didn’t go to a strip bar ever again. I told the people I worked with in human trafficking that I’m done with that.”

And he was. He has not turned back.

The moderator, with Pathways to Peace and Operation Big Sister, highlighted the experience of many traffickers, themselves enticed into the lifestyle after experiencing abuse, abandonment, and manipulation. Indeed, the goal is not just to lay blame, but rather to seek out viable solutions for such scourges on society. She said that men need to be included in this conversation. Finally, as the former trafficker’s story conveys, there is hope for change and for real transformation.

Holding the Real Criminals Responsible; Prostitution and Sex Trafficking

The question was posed... what is prostitution?

• "Commercialization of sexual deeds and the cornerstone of gender inequality"
• "Paid rape, involuntary servitude. It is not about sex to the person being sold, it is an ask of desperation for her as a result of the lack of alternatives"
• "Buying and selling of women and girls, sexual torture"

This is how the panel members defined and discussed prostitution. Despite these terrible descriptions, people often argue that prostitution and sex trafficking offer women in poverty a chance to make a living and a chance at a better life. It can be argued that they have more power and control than the men buying their services by taking advantage of their circumstances to make a living. This is the foundation for arguing that by legalizing prostitution, the women would be safer and have more control over the industry. It also allows them to take men and pimps to court that violate them. This panel argued, legal or not, these women are being violated which is demonstrated by their definitions. They do not have a choice and sex cannot be bought. It is only being bought by one person, the man, and the women is basically an object men can violate in whatever way they please.

The women on this panel felt very strongly that prostitution is not a choice, its not sex and it results in lifelong physical and psychological damage. Legalizing prostitution, as has been done in many countries, has not improved the situation at hand. In fact, violence in Germany increased and an illegal industry grew as a result. The panel agreed that the best way to go about legislation regarding sex trafficking and prostitution is the Nordic Model. The Nordic Model ensures that the women are not criminalized, focuses on punishing the sex buyers and provides exit services for the women. The police are trained not to detain these women in prisons for more then 48 hours because they are not the criminals. The sex buyers are sanctioned by more then just a slap on the wrist that equivalent to a violation for j walking. The exit services are extremely important so that women receive the psychological treatment they need, find out who she is and keep their records clean from criminal activity that allows them to move forward in life.

It is important the UN and the world recognize this model is the only model that makes sense and criminalizes the right individuals when it comes to sex trafficking and prostitution. A version of this model has been exemplified in Minnesota, through a non-profit called Breaking Free. The main goal is to provide a better way to deal with criminalizing sex buyers and taking care of the women upon exiting the industry. Additionally, the organization helps  educate society about the reality of violence against women and help young girls understand there is an alternative.


The panel moderator was from the Coalition Against Trafficking and in Women (CATW) and more information can be found here http://catwinternational.org/. Vednita Carter's foundation, Breaking Free, can be found here http://www.breakingfree.net/.

“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.