Sexual Livelihoods

Armed Conflict, War Rape, and the Commercial Trade in Women and Children’s Labour

Citation:

Farr, Kathryn. 2009. “Armed Conflict, War Rape, and the Commercial Trade in Women and Children’s Labour.” Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies: Alam-e-Niswan 16 (1 & 2): 1-31.

Author: Kathryn Farr

Abstract:

This research examined militarized sexual violence and the commercial trade in women and children in twenty three countries with ongoing or recently- ended civil wars. Findings indicate a progressive connection between assaultive violence against women during armed conflict and the commercial trade in women and children for sexual and other labour. Today’s armed conflicts target civilian in their homes and towns, in flight from violence, and in refugee and IDP settlements which are largely populated by women and children. In these wars, women suffer severe declines in their economic and security positions, and are at severely increased risk of sexual assaults by military combatants and numerous other war-related groups. Rebel and militia groups’ demands for sexual and other labour lead to both sexual enslavement and the trade of enslaved women and children. War-traumatized women and girls fall prey to traffickers, and trafficking across borders is carried out with relative impunity. With the expansion of supply and demand, sex industries gain a foothold in developing and transitioning civil- war-torn countries, and retain their prominence in traditional trafficking destination countries in the economic North, the Gulf states, and parts of South and Southeast Asia.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Combatants, Displacement & Migration, Refugee/IDP Camps, Gender, Women, Girls, Gender-Based Violence, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Militias, Non-State Armed Groups, Security, Sexual Violence, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women, Trafficking, Labor Trafficking, Sex Trafficking, Violence

Year: 2009

Noise Over Camouflaged Polygamy, Colonial Morality Taxation, and a Woman-Naming Crisis in Belgian Africa

Citation:

Hunt, Nancy Rose. 1991. “Noise Over Camouflaged Polygamy, Colonial Morality Taxation, and a Woman-Naming Crisis in Belgian Africa.” The Journal of African History 32 (3): 471-94.

Author: Nancy Rose Hunt

Abstract:

This essay concerns the peculiarities and contradictions of colonial morality taxation and legislation in Belgian Africa, and especially highlights analytical and historical commonalities between anti-polygamy measures and the unusual Belgian practice of taxing urban unmarried women. More generally, it is about colonialism and moral crisis, historical evidence and camouflage, popular memory and silence, colonial name-giving, and name-calling. I cannot be the first to notice that where women most often appear in the colonial record is where moral panic surfaced, settled and festered. Prostitution, polygamy, adultery, concubinage and infertility are the loci of such angst throughout the historical record of Belgian African colonial regimes, and one sometimes feels hard pressed to find women anywhere else. Yet moral crises did not always emerge due to the (perceived) customs and actions of the colonized. They also erupted from colonial policy and law itself, from the insight (or hindsight) that colonial policy was misconcerived or bred dangerous contradictory consequences. I begin in the midst of one kind of colonial noise: an historically shifting crisis in Belgian Africa over plural wives, and loud colonial debates over moral taxation and how best to preserve 'custom' while eradicating polygamy. This will serve as the context for considering another related, though temporally and geographically more confined crisis: the rebellion in the 1950s of Swahili women against the single women's tax in colonial Bujumbura. This local crisis also became noisy. Yet here the noise erupted as volatile African outrage, and its contrast betrays the embarassed silence and muted debates among colonial authorities over the contradictions and failings of moral taxation and policing measues. 

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Governance, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Political Economies, Political Participation, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Europe, Western Europe Countries: Belgium

Year: 1991

Military Prostitution: How the Authorities Worldwide Aid and Abet International Trafficking in Women

Citation:

Talleyrand, Isabelle. 2000. "Military Prostitution: How the Authorities Worldwide Aid and Abet International Trafficking in Women." Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce 27: 151-76.

Author: Isabelle Talleyrand

Keywords: prostitution, military sexual assault, militaries, sex trafficking

Annotation:

Through an examination of prostitution in the military, Talleyrand questions whether these prostitutes are voluntarily employed or victims of sexual exploitation through international trafficking. Treaties that address trafficking in women are outlined, and forced prostitution is discussed as a human rights violation. The author concludes that when the sex trafficking industry is aided by local officials and military authority, treaty law is considerably deficient, and therefore “the only way to save the lives of these women is to create an international system that renders direct and immediate aid to victims of international trafficking in women.”

Topics: International Law, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking

Year: 2000

The US Approach to Combating Trafficking in Women: Prosecuting Military Customers. Could It Be Exported?

Citation:

Noone, Michael. 2005. "The US Approach to Combating Trafficking in Women: Prosecuting Military Customers. Could It Be Exported?" Connections: The Quarterly Journal 4 (4): 81-9.

Author: Michael Noone

Abstract:

This paper discusses changes to the US "Manual for Courts Martial" with respect to prostitution. Whereas previous guidelines targeted suppliers rather than customers as part of an anti-trafficking effort, recent changes call for the criminalization of the patronage of a prostitute. The author discusses whether the US model could be transferred to other countries and concludes that before doing so, the respective countries should consider the peculiar legal environment in which the US proposal was developed.

Keywords: prostitution, accountability, military sexual assault, sex trafficking

Annotation:

Noone discusses the U.S. military’s approach to combating human trafficking by criminalizing the customers of a prostitute, rather than focusing on the suppliers. Under this law, a member of the U.S. military would be subject to criminal prosecution even if seeking sex from a prostitute in a country where prostitution is legal. Noone questions whether this same policy could be adopted by other countries, and advises that “before other countries propose similar laws, they should consider the peculiar legal environment in which this proposal was developed, and they should reflect on the difficulties that they would face if they were to try to transplant it” (82).

Topics: Gender, Women, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2005

Sex Among Allies: Military Prostitution in US-Korea Relations

Citation:

Moon, Katharine H. S. 1997. Sex Among Allies: Military Prostitution in US-Korea Relations. New York: Columbia University Press.

Author: Katharine H. S. Moon

Abstract:

Drawing on a vast array of data - archival materials, interviews with officials, social workers, and the candid revelations of sex industry workers - Moon explores the way in which the bodies of Korean prostitutes - where, when, and how they worked and lived - were used by the United States and the Korean governments in their security agreements. Weaving together issues of gender, race, sex, the relationship between individuals and the state, and foreign policy, she shows how women such as the Korean prostitutes are marginalized and made invisible in militarily dependent societies both because of the degradation of their work and because of their importance for national security.

Keywords: prostitution, governance, military sexual assault, national security, sex trafficking

Topics: Gender, Women, Governance, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Race, Security, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Americas, North America, Asia, East Asia Countries: South Korea, United States of America

Year: 1997

Monitoring the Status of Severe Forms of Trafficking in Foreign Countries: Sanctions Mandated under the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act

Citation:

Mattar, Mohamed Y. 2003. "Monitoring the Status of Severe Forms of Trafficking in Foreign Countries: Sanctions Mandated under the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act." Brown Journal of World Affairs 10: 159-78.

Author: Mohamed Y. Mattar

Abstract:

This article discusses human trafficking from a U.S. foreign policy perspective and examines its growing recognition as a human rights issue. Mattar’s article examines the use of sanctions against countries that do not meet “minimum standard” to combat trafficking. The report makes brief contextual references to the link between armed conflict and trafficking of persons:

Instability, hostile occupation, armed conflict, and civil unrest create social vulnerability of an insecure population that becomes disintegrated, displaced, and easily subjected to trafficking for illicit sexual purposes or forced labor. The collapse of the Soviet Union in particular led to an increase of trafficking activities. Women are trafficked from the former Soviet Union to countries of Western Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. Children are being trafficked for military purposes, and recruited to engage in armed forces as young as eight years old, and become subject to forced labor and sexual abuse. (USAID 2004)

Keywords: child soldiers, conflict, global governance, human trafficking, human rights, U.S. foreign policy

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Child Soldiers, Gender, Globalization, Governance, Livelihoods, Militarized Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Rights, Human Rights, Security, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2003

Gender, Migration and Civil Activism in South Korea

Citation:

Lee, Hye-Kyung. 2003. "Gender, Migration and Civil Activism in South Korea." Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 12: 127-53.

Author: Hye-Kyung Lee

Abstract:

Since the late 1980s, Korea has experienced an influx of migrant workers from neighboring Asian countries. The total number of migrant workers in 1990 was less than 20,000, but rose to 340,000 in 2002. International migration in South Korea shows less extensive feminization than in comparable receiving countries in East Asia. This paper examines why female migration, which accounts for only 30-35 percent of all migrant workers, is less extensive in South Korea, and why domestic work, the major occupation which has accelerated female migration in the region, is not popular in South Korea. It also assesses the current state of migrant and civil society movements providing assistance to migrant women in South Korea. Although the number of these NGOs is small, their activities have highlighted the problems and issues in international marriages and the entry of foreign female entertainers in the sex industry. The paper argues that civil movements for migrant women have contributed to reconsiderations of notions of nationality and citizenship in Korea.

Keywords: immigration, migrant workers

Topics: Citizenship, Civil Society, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Women, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Nationalism, NGOs Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: South Korea

Year: 2003

Modern-Day Comfort Women: The U.S. Military, Transnational Crime, and the Trafficking of Women

Citation:

Hughes, Donna M., Katherine Y. Chon, and Derek P. Ellerman. 2007. "Modern-Day Comfort Women: The U.S. Military, Transnational Crime, and the Trafficking of Women." Violence Against Women 13 (9): 901-22.

Authors: Donna M. Hughes, Katherine Y. Chon, Derek P. Ellerman

Abstract:

The trafficking of women has been a lucrative moneymaker for transnational organized crime networks, ranking third, behind drugs and arms, in criminal earnings. The U.S. military bases in South Korea were found to form a hub for the transnational trafficking of women from the Asia Pacific and Eurasia to South Korea and the United States.
This study, conducted in 2002, examined three types of trafficking that were connected to U.S. military bases in South Korea: domestic trafficking of Korean women to clubs around the military bases in South Korea, transnational trafficking of women to clubs around military bases in South Korea, and transnational trafficking of women from South Korea to massage parlors in the United States. 

Keywords: military sexual assault, sex trafficking, organized crime, US military bases

Topics: Gender, Women, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Americas, North America, Asia, East Asia Countries: South Korea, United States of America

Year: 2007

Modern-Day Slavery? The Scope of Trafficking in Persons in Africa

Citation:

Fitzgibbon, Kathleen. 2003. "Modern-Day Slavery? The Scope of Trafficking in Persons in Africa." African Security Studies 12 (1): 81-9.

Author: Kathleen Fitzgibbon

Abstract:

Hundreds of thousands of African men, women and children are being forced into situations of labour and sexual exploitation both on the continent and abroad every year. Internationally, trafficking in persons has been identified as a serious threat to human security and development by governments, pressure groups and the UN. But for many African governments, the problem has only recently been acknowledged. This article, the first in a two-part series on the issue, outlines the types and extent of trafficking in Africa, with a focus on West and Central Africa. Contributing factors, in particular the high profit margins and low risk of arrest and conviction, are reviewed as well as the impact on human rights, public health, community and family development and the growth of organized crime. The second article in the series will consider successful strategies and international programmes, with a focus on the lessons learned for Africa from West Africa. 

Keywords: child soldiers, conflict, internally displaced people, Africa, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, organized crime

Annotation:

  • Fitzgibbon makes note that civil unrest and internal armed conflict are often to blame for human trafficking in Africa, as populations grow increasingly vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, and trafficking when they are destabilized and displaced. She points to such examples as the Sudanese civil war, the Lord’s Resistance Army, and civil wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, Burundi, Rwanda, Congo-Brazzaville, the DRC, Uganda, Somalia, and Sudan, all of which involve the abduction of men, women, and children for combat, forced labor, and/or sexual exploitation.   

Topics: Armed Conflict, Development, Gender, Women, Men, Girls, Boys, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Rights, Human Rights, Security, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Sexual Slavery, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Africa, Central Africa, West Africa

Year: 2003

Peacekeepers and Prostitutes: How Deployed Forces Fuel the Demand for Trafficked Women and New Hope for Stopping It

Citation:

Allred, Keith J. 2006. "Peacekeepers and Prostitutes: How Deployed Forces Fuel the Demand for Trafficked Women and New Hope for Stopping It." Armed Forces & Society: An Interdisciplinary Journal 33 (5): 5-23.

Author: Keith J. Allred

Abstract:

On numerous occasions in the past fifteen years, U.N. peacekeepers have been accused of sexually assaulting or abusing the populations they serve. A Comprehensive Review of peacekeeper misconduct completed in 2005 identified significant problems and recommended numerous changes to address them. The U.S. Army and NATO, in a response to the possibility that their deployed troops will be engaged in or facilitate human trafficking, have enacted new policies intended to remove their troops from the demand for women trafficked for sexual services. The Department of Defense and NATO initiatives are similar to those being considered by the United Nations for preventing sexual misconduct by its peacekeepers. Because the United States, NATO, and the United Nations are all addressing the problems of sexual misconduct by deployed troops, their efforts should be mutually reinforcing. The examples of American and NATO armed forces offer hope that the United Nations will also enact strong measures to prevent future misconduct by its peacekeepers.

Keywords: United Nations, human trafficking, military sexual assault, US Army, NATO, peacekeeper misconduct

Topics: Gender, Women, International Organizations, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Peacekeeping, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking

Year: 2006

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