Invitation for CSW 2007 Collaborative Sign-On Statement on Trafficking, Prostitution +
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: November 13, 2006
Attachments: CSW 07 Statement Trafficking and Prostitution
final.doc
INVITATION FOR CSW 2007 COLLABORATIVE SIGN-ON STATEMENT
ON TRAFFICKING, PROSTITUTION +
Please see the attached NGO statement that will be
submitted to CSW 2007 by CATW, Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good
Shepherd, and UNANIMA .
We would be happy if you review the attached and if you
would like to add your organization’s signature.
Please send to anorejko@sffny.org
*Your full official organization
name
*Your exact status with
ECOSOC
*Please send this on to any ECOSOC NGOs in your network
whom you think may be interested, especially if you serve as secretary or
communications person for a group that has a “list” of any
kind.
*Send to me on or before December
8, 2006.
*The statement will be submitted by December
15th.
Thank you,
Amanda Norejko – anorejko@sffny.org
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
___________________________________________________________________
United
Nations
Economic
and Social Council
Distr.:
General
Original: English
Commission
for Status of Women
Fifty-first
session
Relevant
to the Theme of the Commission:
The
elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl
child
Statement submitted by: _____________, non-governmental organizations in general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, and Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, and UNANIMA International, non-governmental organizations in special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council.
We, NGOs working toward the
realization of gender equality for women and girls and the elimination of all
forms of male violence against the girl child, affirm the need to protect and
ensure the human rights and equality of girls. To attain this goal, we must eradicate
sexual violence and exploitation of girls.
One
of the most severe, devastating, and escalating practices of gender-based
violence is the commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls of all ages,
including prostitution, sex trafficking, the Internet bride industry,
pornography, and sex tourism.
The impact of commercial sexual
exploitation on the girl child
Two million girls, aged 5 to 15,
are initiated into the commercial sex industry each year. [1]
Trafficking, prostitution and
other forms of commercial sexual exploitation are inextricably linked: the demand for prostituted girls and women is
the engine that drives the worldwide crisis of sex trafficking. The demand is fueled by such factors as
gender inequality and female poverty; the presence of the military in many parts
of the world; racial myths and stereotypes; national and international economic
policies favoring globalization; and countries in financial and political
crisis. Under these conditions, the girl child is increasingly vulnerable
to the growing reach of the global sex industry. Traffickers and pimps exploit girls
seeking to improve their lives through employment, migration or other
opportunities. They treat them as
commodities to be bought and sold over and over, and to be repeatedly raped by
the countless buyers they are required to “service” in prostitution.
The negative impact of sex
trafficking on the health and human rights of girls around the world is
enormous. Sexual violence is one of
the leading factors of the spread of HIV/AIDS among girls. UNAIDS, UNFPA, and UNIFEM have
identified gender inequality as the core cause of the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS
among women and girls, citing their inability to exercise control over their
bodies and their lives. Demand for
prostitution and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation of girls
increases with the buyers’ belief that younger girls are less likely to be
infected with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Victims of prostitution often suffer
severe health consequences including physical injuries from beatings, rapes, and
unwanted sex; psychological trauma; HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted
diseases; and alcohol and drug abuse induced by pimps or by victims’ attempts to
self-medicate. Women and girls
suffering from these severe and often long-term health problems are hindered in
attaining and advancing their human rights.
Further, girls’ education is
disrupted when they are trafficked into prostitution or other sexually
exploitative situations such as early marriages. Without access to school, girls fail to
develop their potential, often perpetuating their sexual exploitation into
adulthood. Without the knowledge and training available to other youth,
prostituted girls grow up to be women with few opportunities to improve their
lives. Moreover, while most
governments recognize girls as victims of the sex trade, they often fail to see
the harms they face when they continue to be exploited after they reach
adulthood.
Rather than recognizing
women’s human rights, some governments have adopted development policies
effectively normalizing and, in some places, even legalizing the sexual violence
and exploitation of prostitution and pornography. Legal legitimation of prostitution gives
men moral and social permission to purchase, use and abuse women and girls,
which in turn increases the demand that fuels sex trafficking. As the demand for prostituted women and
girls escalates, so does the risk of sexual exploitation for girls.
Governments’ obligations to eliminate sex
trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation, particularly of the girl
child
International law
requires governments to protect the girl child from commercial sexual
exploitation and sex trafficking.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), for instance, which has
been ratified by 192 countries, requires that States parties protect children
from all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse, and take all measures possible
to ensure that they are not abducted, sold or trafficked. (Articles 34 & 35). Further, the Convention’s Optional
Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, to
which over 100 governments are parties, provides more extensive requirements to
end commercial sexual exploitation of children. The Optional Protocol recognizes that
penalizing the demand for commercial sexual exploitation is important, since it
requires punishment not only for those offering or delivering children for the
purposes of sexual exploitation, but also for anyone accepting a child for such
purposes. (Article 3). Additionally, the Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
supplementing the Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime recognizes
that all children under eighteen who are sexually exploited are trafficking
victims (Article 3). [2]
Despite these and other
mandates under international law to protect victims of sex trafficking and
prostitution, many States parties frequently abdicate their obligations. For instance, the prostituted and
trafficked girl child is routinely arrested for prostitution or other related
offenses and treated as a criminal, while her trafficker, pimp and buyers remain
free and unpunished.
Recommendations
In order to ensure the human rights of the
girl child, governments and civil society must take action to eradicate
sexual violence and exploitation of girls.
We urge government policy and action in the following areas:
- Implementation
of preventative measures such as public education campaigns which describe the
risks of trafficking, prostitution, and related forms of sexual exploitation
to potential victims, and which challenge the attitudes and practices of
potential perpetrators of sexual exploitation and confront the social
tolerance and acceptance of prostitution and the sex
industry;
- Development
of educational curricula, including in the lower grades, that raise awareness
about the harm of gender stereotypes and sexual objectification of women and
girls;
- Elimination
by governments of structural and patriarchal factors that push women and girls
into trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation such as poverty,
systematic violence against women and girls, gender discrimination, harmful
traditional practices, and other forms of discrimination such as
racism;
- Increased
support and holistic services for survivors of both international and domestic
sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation;
- Promotion
and implementation of effective laws against trafficking, prostitution, sex
tourism and related forms of sexual exploitation, including provisions
criminalizing the demand for trafficking and prostitution and prosecuting
buyers for extraterritorial offenses such as sex tourism
abroad;
- Development
of training programs for government bodies such as law enforcement to hold
perpetrators, including traffickers, pimps and buyers, accountable rather than
criminalizing victims;
- Strong
and effective prosecution of perpetrators of gender-based violence, including
buyers and sellers of women and girls in prostitution and related practices of
sexual exploitation. In all cases
involving the girl child, buyers must be recognized and penalized as child
abusers and rapists under applicable local laws;
- Rejection
of government policies promoting prostitution, whether through legalization,
decriminalization or tolerance of the sex industry;
- Rejection
of the dangerous use of the misguided term “sex worker, ” which minimizes the
abuses and exploitation of prostitution as if it were an ordinary job,
particularly when referring to sexually exploited children and youth;[3]
- Effective
monitoring and prosecution of the sellers and buyers of sexual exploitation of
the girl child via the Internet and other media;
- Ratification
and implementation of the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in
Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others; the Convention on
the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women; the Convention
on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol on the sale of children,
child prostitution and child pornography; and the Convention Against
Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.
The
effects of commercial sexual exploitation on women’s and girls’ education,
health and work are severe and long-lasting. Sexual exploitation of girls is a
violation of their fundamental human rights and all governments must take action
to eradicate these destructive practices. Governments and civil society must
recognize that the commodification and sexualization of the girl child has a
profoundly negative impact on human dignity and the achievement of human rights
and equality.
[1] UNFPA, Chapter 3: Ending Violence
Against Women and Girls in State of World Population 2000 at
http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2000/english/ch03.html.
[2] With respect to child victims under the UN Trafficking
Protocol, “The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a
child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered ‘trafficking in
persons’ even if this does not involve [force, coercion, abduction, fraud,
deception and other enumerated means].” Article 3.
[3] The Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery
recently deplored the use of the term “child sex worker”. United Nations Economic and Social
Council, SPECIFIC HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES CONTEMPORARY
FORMS OF SLAVERY: Report of the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery
on its twenty-ninth session
(July 20, 2004) E/CN.4/Sub.2/2004/36.
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