Trafficking in Women

The following is an excerpt from Refuge "New Cargo : The Global Business of Trafficking in Women", written by Marilou McPhedran. The IWRP is currently working on a companion issue to be entitled "Big Business : Economic Incentives for Global Traffickers of Women".

INTRODUCTION

By the time you read this issue of Refuge, much of the effort that is evident in the reams of email, Internet searches, international courier deliveries and good old-fashioned editing will have disappeared within these pages. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to work on this issue. I have been immeasurably supported by many, but special appreciation must go to those who volunteered so much time and expertise to see this project through: Stefanie Gude, Kelly Mannix, Emma Rhodes, Ayesha Shamim, and Peter Madaka. I have learned so much from our contributors - they have been generous with their knowledge and tenacious in their commitment to justice.

I first had the idea of doing this special issue of Refuge while attending an excellent international workshop co-sponsored by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Resettlement Section with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, entitled "Evolving Approaches to the Protection of Women at Risk". Several participants, from different countries, articulated concerns about the narrow nature of the definitions of "refugee" and "women at risk". As the discussion developed, it seemed to me that economic forces were being cited more often as the cause of refugee-producing situations than forces of war. Indeed, the fledgling "women at risk" refugee programs, which originated in Canada, now also operating in Australia, New Zealand and the USA were designed, in good faith, to save women in danger yet are failing to protect many of the women refugees who are "at risk" - largely due to gender.

The discussion about how "genuine" refugees are created underscored for me how attribution to "forces of war" can obfuscate understanding how larger, deeper forces drive the desperate quest for economic and social rights. It is this quest that nurtures trafficking in persons as a sophisticated multinational trading enterprise.

As the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery has observed, " the same families and groups of people are often victims of several kinds of modern slavery - for example, bonded labour, forced labour, child labour or prostitution - with extreme poverty as a common linking factor" Slavery is predicated on the commodification of human beings; hence the title of this issue - "New cargo". Sadly, the title reflects an age-old practice abetted by modern technology, transportation and the global economy.

In the lead article for this issue of Refuge, anthropologist/filmmaker, David Feingold, analyses the economic and social forces that produce women who are at risk of being trafficked and the systems that sustain this industry. Many of the articles in this issue do not read like typical academic essays - because they have not been written by academics. Much of the meaningful work is being done by people with a base in a university, but they are connected with "on the ground" organizations and individuals closely connected to the daily reality of those being trafficked. These are the voices - from Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Guatemala, Israel, Japan, Nepal, and Thailand - that we have tried to bring to this issue. The majority of refugees are women and the majority of those trafficked are female. For example, the article from Nepal illustrates some of the direct action strategies to counter trafficking at the local level and notes the concern that, as their living conditions worsen, girls in the Bhutanese refugee group in Nepal are "next" on the list of the profiteers.

I hope that you will be moved by some of what you read here, that you will even be enraged. Since the majority of Refuge readers are in North America,

I also hope that you will use this issue of Refuge as a resource guide (see, for example, the excellent online bibliography on trafficking) for action that can be taken from your home base to support work being done in other countries, as well as your own.

No doubt influenced by my legal training, I found myself asking how trafficking fits within the United Nations treaty system and whether international law is of any use in countering the contemporary form of this lucrative trade, where the majority of those trafficked are female. The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 ended 2 decades of United Nations conferences to develop strategic priorities in the quest for Women's equality. Obligations to stop trafficking have been part of the earliest United Nations precedents in international human rights law. Many of the leaders in this field, well represented by the thoughtful points made by Ali Miller in the final article, advocate for more effective use of the laws we already have because, when combined and given effect, they can serve as a "comprehensive bill of rights of women and girls".

Although the Geneva Conventions addressed trafficking some fifty years ago, more recent conventions and treaties have been better informed by gender analysis. With appreciation for the work of Donna Sullivan done for UNIFEM and UNICEF, here are some examples of the links between strategic objectives in the Beijing Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 (which is not a legal instrument) and related United Nations legislation.

"The ratification and enforcement of international conventions on trafficking In persons and on slavery" is a key aspect of the strategic objective in the Beijing Platform for Action to "promote and protect the human rights of women, through the full implementation of all human rights instruments, especially the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women"

The 1993 World Conference on Human Rights generated the Vienna Declaration which "appeals to states that have not already done so to accede to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and the Protocols thereto, and to take all appropriate national measures, including legislative ones, for their full implementation" Participants at the Vienna conference also urged "the Commission on the Status of Women and the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women should quickly examine the possibility of introducing the rights of petition through the preparation of an optional protocol" to the Women's Convention, CEDAW. The value of an optional protocol as a key strategy in the struggle against trafficking is explained in more detail in the Miller interview that concludes this issue of Refuge.

Article 6 of CEDAW, the "Women's Convention", calls for "all appropriate measures, including legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution in women", while Article 35of the Convention on the Rights of the Child requires the commitment of States Parties "to take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent the abduction of, the sale of or traffic in children for any purpose or in any form."

There is ample evidence to demonstrate that preventive measures taken by Governments are less than comprehensive. As a result, assistance to the victims of trafficking is a necessary response. Article 19 of the 1949 Convention obligates States Parties to make suitable provisions for the "temporary care and maintenance" of trafficking victims "so far as possible", to repatriate them "only after agreement Éwith the State of destination," and to bear the costs of repatriation for victims without the means "as far as the nearest frontier or port of embarkation or airportÉ"

The Vienna Declaration and Programme for Action calls on States Parties to "strengthen the implementation of all relevant human rights instruments in order to combat and eliminate, including through international cooperation, organized and other forms of trafficking in women and children, including trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, pornography, prostitution and sex tourism, and provide legal and social services to the victims; this should include provisions for international cooperation to prosecute and punish those responsible for organized exploitation of women and children"

The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women identifies trafficking as a manifestation of violence, calling on States to take preventive and rehabilitative actions. Similar statements are in the Programmes and Plans of Action from the International Conference on Population and Development, the Fourth World Conference on Women, the World Summit for Social Development, and Habitat-Istanbul.

So, as an international community, we do not lack for laws that address the global business of trafficking and the resulting damage to human beings. As the articles in this issue will illustrate, there is no further need for "head office" diplomacy or drafting of new legal instruments. It is time for implementation of the human rights principles that abound in the United Nations treaty system, for protection for those who have been trafficked, and for punishment of the traffickers and the purchasers.

Marilou McPhedran C.M., LL.B., LL.D. (Hon.)
Founding Director, International Women's Rights Project

With thanks: original site created by Kelly Mannix. Maintained and updated by Nina Cherington.

Marilou McPhedran - Recent Works and Publications