Policies on Trafficking - Essay Example

Policies on Trafficking Throughout history, the policies on trafficking in persons, particularly concerning sexual exploitation, have undergone considerable changes influenced by the varying ideologies and attitudes towards prostitution. The dawn of feminism, the increasing experiences of abusive behavior directed towards women, industrialization and society’s response have all made an impact on the creation of each trafficking policy. Abolitionists and sex workers get caught up in endless debates before and after each policy is implemented. Modifications to the policy are subsequently made in an attempt to adapt the policy to the clamor of society for equal rights & varied perceptions on trafficking. The issues of migration, consent, and working conditions of all trafficked persons are among the concerns pointed out by both sides of the debate. Interestingly, “while the understanding of trafficking and its definitions have expanded, discussions of trafficking are often still limited to its most salacious aspects, verging at times on voyeurism.” (Ditmore, 2005a) “Laws on prostitution vary significantly from one country to another but generally fall into 3 categories: prohibition, which makes all prostitution illegal; regulation, which legalizes and regulates prostitution; and abolition, which decriminalizes prostitution.” (Barry, 1995) Nevertheless, given all these policies and their good intentions, the human rights of the trafficked person are still ignored. As one author put it responsive action to the problem of human trafficking is still better than new laws, national or international. (Barry, 1995) In the 19th century, the military was often ineffective due to venereal disease. Not surprisingly, this was traced to their sexual activities with prostitutes. As a result, the immediate focus of the government was to prevent the contamination but without impinging on the soldiers’ sexual behaviors. A place was set up where public prostitutes were registered and required to have semi-weekly examinations. Trafficking, which was synonymous to prostitution that time, was to be regulated because it was a way of passing on the disease to the military personnel. However, the Act only applied to women. (Barry, 1995, p.93) “The Contagious Diseases Acts were designed to protect the health of the military men by subjecting any woman whom the special Morals Police identified as a prostitute to a “surgical examination,” which involved the use of crude instruments for special vaginal examinations by often cruel doctors.” The whole process was found to be degrading, humiliating and a blatant violation of a woman’s human right. Male doctors recently took over the midwives. An amendment in 1864 left the identification of prostitutes to the Morals Police. Women they identified were subject to check-up and, if found clean, were given a certificate. The government decided who were safe prostitutes and, in effect, available for the military. Women were entrapped by the regulation as depicted in the Percy case. (Barry, 1995) The Act was in control of the prostitutes and was a warning to non-prostitutes that being outside of their homes would make them subject to medical examination. Under the leadership of well-known feminist Josephine Butler, campaigns were put in motion for the repeal of the Acts. In the end, the Contagious Acts are said to have made prostitution even more prominent and prevalent by consequently classifying females as prostitutes. Three long-lasting impacts were accomplished by the official state sanction of prostitution of brothels: the treatment of prostitution as normal and legitimate, the covering up of other abuses and the traffic in women and finally, the introduction of a new distinction between forced prostitution and “free” prostitution. (Barry, 1995) As the world developed and life became harder, the growth of migration and trafficking figured on a worldwide scale. (Outshoorn, 2005) Eventually, the concept of trafficking ceased to focus on regulating prostitution to keep military men healthy. It now encompassed the more serious issues of migration, the violation of the woman’s human rights, consent and child exploitation. “The term ‘trafficking’ is most commonly attached to international conventions that addressed the early-twentieth-century emergence of women as cross-border migrants on the world stage along patriarchally and racially defined gendered divisions of labor.” (Kempadoo, 2005) Transporting women across state lines “for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose” (KNOCKOUT, 2005) was considered a crime according to the Mann Act of 1910. Named after its author James Robert Mann, it was also known as the White Slave Traffic Act because single and sheltered young women came looking for work in the city and became exposed to worldly temptations found in the work environment of that time. “The ever-growing number of women traveling abroad for work and new life opportunities caused great anxiety and suspicion among middle-classes and elites, reinforcing ideologies about the entrapment and enslavement of, particularly, white, Western European, and North American women in prostitution.” (Kempadoo, 2005) The Mann Act was a result of a bill drafted to show that the government was in control of the situation. Although it was meant to address the problem of prostitution, it was applied against other forms of sexual behavior because of its ambiguous wording. This language was ultimately limited by the politically and socially conservative Meese Commission in 1986 to activities that were illegal in the location in which they were committed. (Ditmore, 2005b) It was also amended in 1978 to protect children of both genders who were being used in pornographic materials. Apparently, trafficking whether for sexual exploitation or other forms of labor also encompassed children. “Reportedly, millions of children and women are said to be trafficked across borders and within countries.” (Sanghera, 2005) According to data gathered for the United States Trafficking in Persons Report in 2005, of the estimated number of trafficked persons each year “approximately 80 percent are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors”. (Trafficking in Persons Report, 2006) In Bombay, “it is estimated that 15% of the prostitutes are below the age of 18.” (Barry, 1995) In Taiwan, “the central figure in the initial formation of the anti-trafficking cause was the politically militant Presbyterian Church of Taiwan whose workers noted the string of girls, 13 to 16 years of age, sold into city brothels.” (Ho, 2005) Worth noting is the fact that, in Taiwan, earlier efforts to eradicate trafficking has evolved into movements of social and moral change to protect the children. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, deemed as a “universally agreed set of non-negotiable standards and obligations,” is the most recent example of such consolidating efforts that work to identify national laws and practices that need to be brought into conformity… with the UN’s definition of children.” (Ho, 2005) Article 34 of the Convention (1989) mandates that states should “undertake to protect the child from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.” Although there is no explicit definition of trafficking pertaining to children in the Act, pertinent articles in the document present the proper conduct in dealing with the young as they are not completely in control of their lives. Local NGOs are continuously working together with international agencies to promote children’s welfare. “Trafficking of children violates the inherent right of a child to grow up in a protective environment and the right to be free from all forms of abuse and exploitation.” (Trafficking in Persons Report, 2006) As women became more liberal-minded, the debate on trafficking developed two views. One saw trafficking as demeaning for women who are innocent victims of the trade. Trafficking -in this view, prostitution -brought physical & sexual abuse to women against their will. Abolitionists claim consent is irrelevant as no one can consent to such violence and degradation. They maintain that “women are reduced to their bodies, and in the case of sexual exploitation to sexed bodies, they are treated as lesser, as other, and thereby subordinated.” (Barry, 1995) A woman’s right to dignity and equality are thus violated. Moreover, there was a demand to make the customers of prostitution responsible for their actions. The other perception, however, is that prostitution was just another means for women to feed their families. Viewed this way, policies abolishing prostitution or regulating migration prevented these women from making a living and were thus considered violations of their basic human right to autonomy and mobility. The women “need equal access to travel and to seek work independently.” (Pong, 2003) Some of them do consent to be sex workers and do not want change. They just “require assistance within the framework of the sex sector- for example, empowerment, health services and labour rights – rather than as a means to exit the sector.” (Surtees, 2003) Sex workers demand recognition of the needs to a safe working environment. “The violent experiences that affected the trafficked women more deeply were the threats and assaults from the traffickers themselves.” (Thurkal, 2005, p. 6) They also insist on a distinction between trafficking and prostitution so as not to be affected by policies that abolish the latter. According to them, sex workers just form part of the many trafficked workers. These two different approaches had a major effect on the drafting of subsequent international policies. Consent was a big issue as it distinguishes between forced and voluntary prostitution. The human rights of the trafficked person, not only of the sex worker, seemed to be ignored. As far as anti-traffickers were concerned, trafficking was still synonymous to prostitution. On the other hand, advocates for sex workers continued to push for the rights of all trafficked persons. Succeeding international policies were not spared of criticism by both parties. The early international definition of trafficking, as exclusively attached to activities in the global sex trade, lead to the 1949 Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. (Kempadoo, 2005) According to Balos, (2004, p. 8) the Convention, “lacks explicit definitions on trafficking or prostitution.” However, it legislates against pimping, brothels and trafficking. (Barry, 1995, p.17) It punishes any person who leads another to prostitution, brothel owners and any person who engages in trafficking. It also mandates the states to find ways to prevent prostitution and to rehabilitate the victims. It does not accept the consent of the woman a defense against the crime of trafficking or prostitution. Even if many states did not approve it, the 1949 Convention set the standards on trafficking partly because of its anti-prostitution tone. In an attempt to better address the issues of human rights for both sex workers and trafficked persons, the U.N. Optional Protocol on Trafficking was drafted to replace the 1949 Convention. Inasmuch as the Protocol was open to different interpretations, it has therefore not ended the debates on trafficking and its relationship to migration, slavery, or prostitution. (Outshoorn, 2005) Following a number of legislations focused on advocating the human rights of women, the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women was drafted and implemented. It “calls on states to suppress all forms of trafficking in women and the exploitation of prostitution.” (Outshoorn, 2005) The Convention, or CEDAW, is “often described as an international bill of rights for women [as it] defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination.” (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 2000-2009) After its implementation, anti-prostitution groups still felt it did not completely address the issue of human rights. Worse, it limited the violation to just another form of discrimination. “Although broad in scope, and a significant gain for women who otherwise had almost disappeared from the generic “human” of human rights, this Convention stops short of actually encompassing the full meaning of human rights.” (Barry, 1995, p. 310) An amendment to the act, the U.N. Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, was made in the 1990s with the intention of expanding the scope of the CEDAW. Disappointingly, its definition of violence against women did not cover prostitution. A proposed Convention Against Sexual Exploitation which supposedly covered human rights violation in prostitution was subsequently omitted from the World Conference on Human Rights. Educational campaigns to delegitimize violence were prioritized instead of criminalization of crimes against women because of varied perceptions surrounding sexual assaults. (Barry, 1995) All these policies share (at least in their intentions) stiffer penalties for traffickers and failure to realize that life becomes harder for migrating sex workers because they are increasingly identified as illegal migrants. (Outshoorn, 2005) Women who flee from Burma to Thailand cannot get refugee status. Their illegal status means their work options are limited and their working conditions largely left up to chance. (Pong, 2003) Participants in a study “who did not have legal immigration status or proper documentation, the ability to settle, find housing, and support themselves was compounded by fear of deportation and a lack of employment authorization.” (Thukral, 2005) Sex work was their easiest option. Until the 2000 UN Protocol, the policies on prostitution also failed to ensure the protection of trafficked persons. Since definitions on human trafficking were almost always interpreted to be referring to sexual exploitation and the morally bad effect it has on society, the plight of trafficked persons, including the sex worker’s, is ignored. Migrant workers continue to work in depraved conditions and deprived of their basic human rights. References Barry, K. (1995). The Prostitution of Sexuality. New York: NYU Press. Balos, B. (2004). The wrong way to equality: Privileging consent in the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation. Harvard Womens Law Journal, 27, 137-175. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. (2000-2009). Retrieved on November 28, 2009 from http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/ Convention of the Rights of the Child. (1989). Retrieved on November 28, 2009 from http://untreaty.un.org/English/TreatyEvent2001/pdf/03e.pdf Ditmore, M. (2005b). New U.S. funding policies on trafficking affect sex work and HIV-prevention efforts worldwide. SIECUS Report, 33, 26-29. Ditmore, M. (2005a). Trafficking in lives: How ideology shapes policy. In K.Kempadoo (Ed.), Trafficking and Prostitution Reconsidered: New Perspectives on Migration, Sex Work and Human Rights (pp. 107-126). Boulder: Paradigm Press. Ho, J. (2005). From trafficking to social discipline: Or, the changing role of "womens" NGOs in Thailand. In K.Kempadoo (Ed.), Trafficking and Prostitution Reconsidered: New Perspectives on Migration, Sex Work and Human Rights (pp. 83-106). Boulder: Paradigm Press. Kempadoo, K. (2005). From moral panic to global justice: Changing perspective on trafficking. In K. Kempadoo (Ed.), Trafficking and Prostitution Reconsidered: New Perspectives on Migration, Sex Work and Human Rights (pp. vii,6). Boulder: Paradigm Press. KNOCKOUT (2005). Unforgivable Blackness. Retrieved on November 28, 2009 from http://www.pbs.org/unforgivableblackness/knockout/mann.html Outshoorn, J. (2005). The political debates on prostitution and trafficking in women. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society, 12 (1), 142,149 Pong, P. (2003). "We dont want rescue, We want our rights!" Experiences on anti-trafficking efforts in Thailand. Research for Sex Work, December, 8-9. Sanghera, J. (2005). Unpacking the trafficking discourse. In K.Kempadoo (Ed.), Trafficking and Prostitution Reconsidered: New Perspectives on Migration, Sex Work and Human Rights (pp. 3-24). Boulder: Paradigm Press. Surtees, R. (2003). Brothel raids in Indonesia – Ideal solution or further violation? Research for Sex Work, December, 5-7. Thukral, J. (2005). Behind Closed Doors: An Analysis of Indoor Sex Work in New York City. SIECUS Report, 33, p. 3-9 Trafficking in Persons Report (2006). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Undersecretary for Global Affairs. Pages 7. Read More