Working Together to Combat Human Trafficking

What is Human Trafficking? World Economic Forum on the Middle East Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt May 21, 2006 Human trafficking is the third largest growing organized criminal activity in the world, with 2.5 million people trafficked across borders each year. No region of the world has been bypassed by this alarming trend. Opening remarks by Suzanne Mubarak, First Lady of Egypt Topics to be discussed by panel: 1) How can governments, regional organizations, the private sector, civil society and government work together to combat human trafficking? 2) What initiatives exist to address this issue? How efficient are they and how can their work be replicated? 3) How can the international community and regional organizations measure the progress in national legislation to reflect the requirements of the Palermo Protocol? Worki g Together to Co at Hu a Traffi ki g Comments by Donna M. Hughes, Professor & Carlson Endowed Chair University of Rhode Island, USA Understanding the Dynamics of Supply of and Demand for Victims of Sex Trafficking Each year, hundreds of thousands of women and children around the world become victims of the global sex trade. They are recruited into prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation, often using tactics involving force, fraud, or coercion. They may be trafficked across international Page 1 of 6 borders or be exploited and enslaved within their own country. Criminals working in organized networks treat the victims like commodities, buying and selling them for profit. The sex trafficking of women and children is based on a balance between the supply of victims from sending regions and the demand for victims in receiving regions. Sending regions are those from which victims can be relatively easily recruited, usually with false promises of jobs. Receiving or destination regions are those with sex industries that create the demand for victims. Where prostitution is flourishing, pimps cannot recruit enough local women to fill up the brothels, so they have to bring in victims from other places. Analyzing trafficking and prostitution as parts of an interlocking system reveals how the components are linked, and studying the dynamics of supply of and demand for victims reveals what keeps the system working. When these components are identified, we can begin to devise strategies to combat them. 1. Factors Creating the Supply a. Poverty b. Unemployment c. Lack of opportunities d. Activity and tolerance of criminals who recruit victims, corruption of officials who facilitate and profit from trafficking e. Devaluation of target victims groups based on gender, race, ethnicity, caste, or religion 2. Factors Creating and/or Facilitating the Demand a. Tolerance, even legalization, of prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation b. Flourishing sex industries c. Cultural acceptance of men buying sex acts d. The profitability of trafficking attracts criminals and organized crime groups. They expand their activities and engage in related criminal activities, such as money laundering e. The profitability of trafficking leads to the corruption of law enforcement and offi ials who do ’t see a ythi g wro g with aki g o ey fro so ething that is culturally tolerated Page 2 of 6 Ways to Combat Trafficking 1) Combat Corruption and Promote the Rule of Law As a result of the U.N. Palermo Protocol and the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, every country has been under pressure to pass a comprehensive anti-trafficking law. There has been tremendous progress over the past six years in getting countries to adopt an anti-trafficking law. With a few exceptions, lack of laws is no longer a problem. Now, we need enforcement of laws. Trafficking is enabled by corruption of officials and law enforcement who permit and often profit from trafficking of women and children. Often, even in countries with well established rule of law, such as the U.S. and European countries, prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation are tolerated, even when it explicitly violates existing laws. All laws and policies should be aimed at ending the sexual exploitation and enslavement of women and children, by criminalizing the purchasing of sex acts, and smashing the markets where women and children are bought and sold. 2) Promote cultural change that ends the tolerance of the sexual exploitation of women and children. As long as sex industries flourish, even where there are attempts to regulate them through legalization, women and often girls will have to be recruited from somewhere to fill up all the brothels. As we are witnessing now in Germany, prostitution and facilities to accommodate it are rapidly expanding in anticipation of the World Cup games. There are estimates that tens of thousands of women and girls will be recruited and brought to Germany during the games. No doubt, many of them will be trafficked. We need to encourage governments to adopt zero tolerance policies for the sexual exploitation and enslavement of women and children. 3) Promote the freedom, equality, and empowerment of women and girls. Girls should have equal access to education and employment. Laws that discriminate against women and girls should be repealed. Women and girls should be treated with respect and get protection when they are abused within their families and communities. When women and girls are subjected to harassment, violence, and harsh punishment, they become vulnerable to traffickers who offer them escape to another city or country. Women Page 3 of 6 in Eastern European countries who face sexual harassment in the workplace or domestic violence at home, may accept an offer to go abroad to work as a way to escape their present situation and look for better opportunities. Initiatives to Combat Trafficking There are a number of initiatives around the world to reduce the trafficking of women and girls. Some aim to reduce the supply of vulnerable women and girls through awareness education and or providing economic opportunities through micro-credit. 1) Demand Reduction Sweden has led the world in reducing the demand for victims by criminalizing the buying of sex acts and providing services for women to leave prostitution. The head of an antitraffi ki g u it i “wede told e that his jo is to s ash the arket, ea i g he ai s to destroy the business of trafficking and prostitution. In December, the U.S. Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. It includes provisions to reduce the demand for victims of domestic trafficking (U.S. citizen victims in the U.S.) by encouraging local law enforcement to arrest and prosecute men who buy sex acts and pimps who recruit, exploit, and enslave victims. 2) Annual U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons Report Each year, following the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000, the U.S. State Department has issued an annual report on trafficking in the world. Each country is evaluated on whether it has met minimum standards for combating trafficking. Countries are ranked according to compliance. Those on the bottom tier risk sanctions, which result in the loss of non-humanitarian aid, if they do not make corrections within a 90 day period after the release of the report. This annual report has raised global awareness of the human trafficking and brings the issue home to many people, who think that trafficking happens somewhere else, but not their country. Although threatened sanctions receive publicity, most of the effort to get countries to comply with minimum standards to combat trafficking is done with diplomacy. Page 4 of 6 How Do We Measure Progress? Having a law against trafficking is the first step, then it has to be enforced. We can measure progress in combating trafficking by asking each government: How many investigations of trafficking and corruption related to trafficking have you done in the last year? How many arrests for trafficking and corruption were made? How many prosecutions for trafficking and corruption were there? How many convictions for trafficking and corruption were there? What were the sentences for convicted traffickers and corrupt officials? Did the traffickers and corrupt officials serve the sentenced period of time? Considering that trafficking is known to exist in every country and region, we should expect to see these numbers significantly increase each year. In time, the numbers may decline because the amount of trafficking has decreased, but we will worry about that in the future. We can ask: How many victims were rescued from trafficking situations? How many victims were assisted? How many victims were (voluntarily) repatriated or integrated into society? Again, considering the known existence of trafficking, we should expect these numbers to increase for the foreseeable future. We can also ask: Has the tolerance or acceptance for buying sex acts decreased? Have the markets in which victims are enslaved disappeared? These are simple questions that give a strong indication of whether progress is being made to combat trafficking. Page 5 of 6 Conclusion In the last six years, the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the U.N. Palermo Protocol have initiated global efforts to combat human trafficking. I think a lot of progress has been made around the world since then. We need to find a way to keep the momentum going. There is a global abolitionist movement against contemporary forms of slavery that is the human rights struggle of our time. Looking back at history, it is obvious that at some point in time a standard of individual rights, freedom, equality, and human rights is set. I believe we are living in such a time, when soon, the sexual exploitation and trafficking of people is no longer acceptable. Page 6 of 6