For all the talk about human trafficking and violence against women, action seems in short supply

[redqueen]

Just read an interview of Kathryn Bolkovac which highlights the fact that although things are starting to change on this front, we still have a very long way to go.

And some people whine that human trafficking isn't a real issue, or it's not that serious...

...

The New York-based Somaly Mam Foundation, set up by a Cambodian woman who was trafficked as a child, estimates there are 2.7 million people enslaved globally, 85 per cent of whom are women and girls in forced prostitution.

The most recent figure for England and Wales is 12,000, which Abigail Stepnitz of the British anti-trafficking organisation Poppy Project, calls 'a tip-of-the-iceberg number’.

'For me the idea is to go after the demand end, to stop focussing on the victims,’ says Bolkovac. 'We have to focus on prosecution of the perpetrators.’

...

And, as Ariel Siegel at the Somaly Mam Foundation says, 'Men have to realise that the women they have encounters with might not be willing, despite appearances.’ In Britain it is illegal to pay for sex with someone who is being coerced.

...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/9041974/What-the-UN-Doesnt-Want-You-to-Know.html

I love that euphemism, "women they have encounters with", isn't that nice?

[DURHAM D]

1. In some ways

I hope that Hillary does not run for President in 2016 and instead stands up a global foundation working on issues of importance for women and girls. She might decide it is time to do a work around of the entrenched patriarchy and go straight to the women. In fact her two speeches this week suggest she is already doing just that.

Human trafficking will be at the top of the list of her agenda items and I have no doubt Madeline Albright will join in the effort as she has spoken out many times on the subject.

It is time to dust off my feminist anger and focus it on something that really matters instead of the disruptors and right wing trolls on DU.

If Hillary calls a summit I will be there.

PS - I will be fully clothed.

[redqueen]

3. +1

[CrispyQ]

6. I would love to see her focus her energy outside of politics.

on the PS.

[BainsBane]

8. She can draw attention to that as President as well.

[seabeyond]

12. thank you for this awesome post. i had not looked at it from this position. but, those two women

site on a specific focus. that would be so awesome.

i love you ps

[niyad]

2. I don't know how it is other places, but the primary groups here that deal with human trafficking

Last edited Sat Apr 6, 2013, 08:37 PM - Edit history (1)

have a decidedly fundie viewpoint. Several years ago, the ED of a non-profit that deals with this issue and I went to a seminar on HT. We had flown over a police officer from thailand who specializes in this area. I knew we were in trouble when we arrived, to see 18 year olds from y-wam (youth with a mission, linked to c street and the family) acting as "security" The organizers did not let the thai cop speak. and when I tried to point out that, until they addressed the underlying cause of patriarchy,they could talk all day and not get anywhere, they practically threw me out of the meeting (this was after I had suggested that ignoring the military component in this town was not helpful). And their suggestions about how to approach women one assumes to be at risk were foolhardy beyond imagining.

[redqueen]

5. Yes, religious groups historically seem to do most of the work on this kind of issue.

It's a sad, disappointing situation.

It seems to be changing now, thankfully.

[ismnotwasm]

16. This is true

I was in a second hand store when I heard about a 'march" against sexual trafficking. First reaction was astonishment that the topic was even mentioned, the second was the realization it was a Christian radio station.

What concerns me as well, are ill- advised "rescue" attempts without providing protection, cultural sensitivity and means of alternative income. This is an horridly ugly as well as enormous problem; that its just fairly recently making it mainstream news outside of feminist and human rights workers is a hint how much.

[JI7]

18. i remember something about some religious group that tried to get kids out of HAiti

i think the leader was arrested.

but it's really the Govts that need to be involved .

[CrispyQ]

4. These two statements really got to me.

Nevertheless, Bolkovac believes trafficking is still not taken seriously.

'You should see the amount of money that’s put into training for anti-terrorism and gun-smuggling,’ she says. 'But when it comes to human trafficking and violence against women you don’t see the same resources being generated.’

DynCorp continues to win multimillion-dollar military contracts with the American government in Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti among other places

Yet we think that as a country we have the right to lecture others on human rights.

[redqueen]

7. In practice, women's rights are separate and distinct from human rights.

The status of women as human beings is pretty much not a given. Our healthcare is treated like a policy issue. Our right to control our own bodies is a struggle. Our right to free access to education is treated like an afterthought (though now, at least, Title IX is being brought to bear against the shameful policies colleges and universities have been using to deal with crimes of sexual assault and rape). I could go on and on, as you know.

[galileoreloaded]

9. I have been watching to see if you or sea would openly verbalize this point

and i'm too lazy to search back.

How do you reconcile the statement "women's rights are separate and distinct from human rights" with the stated goal of equalism: additionally, should not men be able to make the corollary statement without recrimination?

Finally, my view is that statements like this seek to cement and broaden victimhood to a larger social sample in order to drive an underlying agenda (which I cannot for the life of me extrapolate other than to guess it may be about misery manufacturing it's own company).

Please help me understand your thought process when you wrote that.

Thanks!

[redqueen]

10. Too lazy? So you're pulling the 'educate me' card and not even the least bit ashamed, huh.

Nice.

I'll do this. If you truly give a shit you'll do your own goddamn research.
http://www.unfpa.org/rights/women.htm

"victimhood"... fuck that shit. I'm talking about reality.

"Please help me understand..."

[galileoreloaded]

11. I'm not fearful of judgement, no. A valuable tool in killing ego and it's defenses,

defenses IMO that sacrifice service to the subject population at the alter of individual persona and reflected world view.

I am asking YOU to explain how you can make a statement that segregates humans by gender and advocates for un-equal treatment.

By definition this is either Misogyny or Misandry, depending on the gender of the enforcer of this logic.

Yes, I am quite nice, thank you.

[seabeyond]

13. we are still climbing up to reach male status quo. when we are seen as human, then we can address

that issue of equalities.

having to continually repeat what you are now asking once again, when we have a whole group full of articles which date back to may, that continually address this, allows us the understanding that we are not there yet.

[galileoreloaded]

14. thats one way to look at it. n/t

[ismnotwasm]

17. Lets look at some facts

You're ignoring or are unaware of, an incredible amount of actual history there partner; this is one reason institutionazed misogyny is difficult to explain. If you have no historical frame of reference, and I mean very little to none, it's also difficult to understand.

But back to trafficking;

1 Approximately 75-80% of human trafficking is for sex.

2 Researchers note that sex trafficking plays a major role in the spread of HIV.

3 There are more human slaves in the world today than ever before in history.

4 There are an estimated 27 million adults and 13 million children around the world who are victims of human trafficking.

5 Human trafficking not only involves sex and labor, but people are also trafficked for organ harvesting.

6 Human traffickers often use a Sudanese phrase “use a slave to catch slaves,” meaning traffickers send “broken-in girls” to recruit younger girls into the sex trade. Sex traffickers often train girls themselves, raping them and teaching them sex acts.

7 Eighty percent of North Koreans who escape into China are women. Nine out of 10 of those women become victims of human trafficking, often for sex. If the women complain, they are deported back to North Korea, where they are thrown into gulags or are executed.

8. Approximately 30,000 victims of sex trafficking die each year

9 An estimated 30,000 victims of sex trafficking die each year from abuse, disease, torture, and neglect. Eighty percent of those sold into sexual slavery are under 24, and some are as young as six years old.

10 Ludwig “Tarzan” Fainberg, a convicted trafficker, said, “You can buy a woman for $10,000 and make your money back in a week if she is pretty and young. Then everything else is profit.”l
A human trafficker can earn 20 times what he or she paid for a girl. Provided the girl was not physically brutalized to the point of ruining her beauty, the pimp could sell her again for a greater price because he had trained her and broken her spirit, which saves future buyers the hassle. A 2003 study in the Netherlands found that, on average, a single sex slave earned her pimp at least $250,000 a year.

11 Although human trafficking is often a hidden crime and accurate statistics are difficult to obtain, researchers estimate that more than 80% of trafficking victims are female. Over 50% of human trafficking victims are children.


http://facts.randomhistory.com/human-trafficking-facts.html

[galileoreloaded]

19. The merits of protecting people from abuse aren't in dispute

but the now stated (by RedQueen) agenda of elevating a specific gender for special protection is.

It smacks of "separate but equal" and it's where for many, it comes off the rails. But if its working for you, then by all means, its a free country.

[smirkymonkey]

15. K&R, Thank You!

Great post, thanks. So depressing though.