The Trafficking Of Women

The Trafficking of Women

The trafficking of women and girls for the purpose of prostitution is big business. It has been and still is one of the biggest industries worldwide. These unfortunate women and girls do not lead normal lives, but rather they are bought and sold as commodities. They also usually have no control over their lives and live in conditions of extreme poverty and abuse. Trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor, and other abuse is suffered by women all over the world and it is a violation of human rights. The problem is one of international proportion. United States feminists as well as many nongovernmental organizations acknowledge that this is a huge problem that needs to be tackled with greater proportions. We exist in a global political economy, which acknowledges the common mechanisms of sexual oppression and class exploitation which could ultimately eliminate the gulf between there being an "us" and a "them" in society. In Mexico alone, in Juarez and Chiuahua, Mexico over 400 women and girls are lives are lost. More than 70 remain missing, but lives are lost to all of the people involved. There have been recent measures taken, but the response still remains inadequate.

Gale Rubin speaks of trafficking in her article The Traffic in Women. She says that sex has always been a desired product and always will be. It is a social activity that has been around since the beginning of time and always will be around. "The "exchange of women" is a seductive and powerful concept. It is attractive in that it places the oppression of women within social systems, rather than in biology. Moreover, it suggests that we look for the ultimate locus of women's oppression within the traffic of women, rather than within the traffic in merchandise. Women are given in marriage, taken in battle, exchanged for favors, sent as tribute, traded, bought, and sold (175)". Even when men are trafficked they still receive a social status that goes along with it. Women are in a more helpless situation where the end result can be murder or suicide. Rubin distinctly points out how the sex and gender system affects our global economy against women.

The nongovernmental organization (CATW) The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women that promotes women's human rights internationally by working to combat sexual exploitation in all forms. They were founded in 1988 and it was the first international organization to focus on human trafficking, especially that of women and girls. CATW works all over the world to help educate and prevent this horrible phenomenon. "It is a fundamental human right to be free of sexual exploitation in all forms. Women and girls have the right to sexual integrity and autonomy (CATW)." In a handbook that CATW produced, it estimates that some of 80% of persons trafficked are trafficked for sexual exploitation. They are mostly women and children with an estimated 120,000 in Western Europe alone each year. The U.S. Department of State considers that globally some 600, 00 to 800,00 people are trafficked within and across borders, 80% being women and girls and some 50% of these are minors. Part of this problem is poverty which creates and sustains trafficking. It is necessary to raise consciousness and awareness about the methods that these recruiters use to try to lure mainly poor and unsuspecting women into exploitive situations, particularly prostitution.

A few years ago was when I first heard of the problem in Juarez, Mexico. It is a town right on the border of Mexico and Texas and is full of extreme poverty. Over a decade has gone by since these murders have started and dozens have seen their daughters turn up missing or dead. The main connection of these murders is that almost all of these women were Maquiladoras, the factories on the border in Mexico that produce electronics and automotive products. Almost all of the cases remain unsolved, with a great deal of the evidence missing or burnt. Mexican federal officials have conceded negligence due to the lack of resources and investigative or technical skills. There have been recommendations from international and national organizations, such as the government's own Special Commission for the Prevention and Eradication of Violence against Women in Ciudad Juarez, to ensure that the crimes are analyzed from a gender perspective, in order to determine the role that the victim's gender played in the motive and commission of the crime (Amnesty International).

The right to fair wages and reasonable working hours and days to rest are all recognized by International on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (IICESCR). According to the Human Rights report entitled "Owed Justice" the women interviewed were "given no compensation at all for months or longer, while they worked excessively long hours - without days off for rest or, in some cases, denied them access to health services, and medication; compelled them to accept physically abusive clients; and coerced them into performing sexual services without condoms, exposing them to the risk of contract HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases." Women were constantly under surveillance and due to the threats of some type of retaliation if they tried to escape from their captors the frightened women. The women in Juarez need the work badly and will work in any type of condition necessary to sustain employment. Many of the theories held in the murders come from the women being photographed for their ID card and then being picked from those photos for trafficking or even death.

In Paola Monzini's book Sex Traffic she speaks of how as with many criminal activities, out understanding of human trafficking is piecemeal and often based on anecdotal information. It is very complicated to have a good understanding