Sex Trafficking

Citation:

Zimelis, Andris. 2009. “Human Rights, the Sex Industry and Foreign Troops: Feminist Analysis of Nationalism in Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.” Cooperation and Conflict 44 (1): 51-71. 

Author: Andris Zimelis

Abstract:

This article explores the relationship between prostitution, nationalism and foreign policies using a feminist analysis framework. Although scholars have dealt with the theoretical role of women in nationalist projects, there is little work factually supporting these theories. There is also a paucity of works demonstrating the role of prostitution in national security policies. This article rectifies these shortcomings and demonstrates that, although prostitution is illegal in Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, these governments have played an active role in supporting and maintaining the prostitution industry geared at servicing US troops. The US troops, in turn, have protected the national security of each of these countries for all of the post-Second World War era. In this context, it seems clear that `national security' does not include the physical, economic, legal and social insecurity of Japanese, Korean and Filipino women despite their contribution to the most quintessential Realist policy — national security.

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Nationalism, Political Participation, Rights, Human Rights, Security, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Japan, Philippines, South Korea

Year: 2009

Citation:

Gershuni, Rochelle. 2004. “Trafficking in Persons for the Purpose of Prostitution: The Israeli Experience.” Mediterranean Quarterly 15 (4): 133-46.

Author: Rochelle Gershuni

Topics: Gender, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Israel

Year: 2004

Citation:

Oosterveld, Valerie. 2003. “Sexual Slavery and the International Criminal Court: Advancing International Law.” Michigan Journal of International Law 25: 605-51.

Author: Valerie Oosterveld

Abstract:

Sexual slavery is an unfortunate fact of armed conflicts around the world. For example, during World War II, more than 200,000 girls and women were enslaved in so-called "comfort stations" associated with the Japanese Imperial Army located throughout Asia. In more recent armed conflicts, girls and women have been forced into sexual slavery in East and West Timor, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and other countries. Sexual slavery is also prevalent during peacetime, in the form of trafficking for sexual purposes. 700,000 human beings - mostly women and girls - are trafficked into sexual exploitation and forced labour every year. They are bought and sold, kidnapped, deceived and coerced into being trafficked within and across borders in all regions. While clearly a global problem, sexual slavery was not recognized under international law as a crime against humanity, nor as a war crime, until 1998, when it was explicitly included in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The finalization of the ICC's Elements of Crimes in 2000 resulted in another important step forward in international law, as the specific elements of the crime of sexual slavery were enumerated for the first time.

Topics: International Law, International Criminal Law, Sexual Violence, Sexual Slavery, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking

Year: 2003

Citation:

Punyarut, Nunlada. 2006. “Violence Against Women, Sex Industry and The Business of United Nations Peace Operations.” Thai Journal of Public Administration 4 (1–2549): 81–99.

Author: Nunlada Punyarut

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, International Organizations, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Peacekeeping, Sexual Violence, SV against Women, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Thailand

Year: 2006

Citation:

Stone, Marjorie. 2005. “Twenty-First Century Global Sex Trafficking: Migration, Capitalism, Class, and Challenges for Feminism Now.” English Studies in Canada 31 (2-3): 31-8.

Author: Marjorie Stone

Topics: Class, Displacement & Migration, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking

Year: 2005

Citation:

Ekberg, Gunilla. 2004. “The Swedish Law That Prohibits the Purchase of A Sexual Service: Best Practices for Prevention of Prostitution and Trafficking in Human Beings.” Violence Against Women 10 (10): 1187-218.

Author: Gunilla Ekberg

Abstract:

After several years of public debate initiated by the Swedish women’s movement, the Law that Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual Services came into force on January 1, 1999. The Law is the first attempt by a country to address the root cause of prostitution and trafficking in beings: the demand, the men who assume the right to purchase persons for prostitution purposes. This groundbreaking law is a cornerstone of Swedish efforts to create a contemporary, democratic society where women and girls can live lives free of all forms of male violence. In combination with public education, awareness-raising campaigns, and victim support, the Law and other legislation establish a zero tolerance policy for prostitution and trafficking in human beings. When the buyers risk punishment, the number of men who buy prostituted persons decreases, and the local prostitution markets become less lucrative. Traffickers will then choose other and more profitable destinations.

Keywords: prostitution, Swedish law, trafficking in human beings

Topics: Gender, Women, Girls, Gender-Based Violence, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Europe, Nordic states, Northern Europe Countries: Sweden

Year: 2004

Citation:

Corrin, Chris. 2004. “Traffic in Women in War and Peace: Mapping Experiences in Southeast Europe.” Journal of Contemporary European Studies 12 (2): 177-92.

Author: Chris Corrin

Abstract:

How concerns around prostitution and migration are politically framed  can decide and formulate policy strategies, with neighbouring countries taking radically different approaches to legislation. Traffic in women entails situations of violence and social control, where the lines between migration, human trafficking and smuggling become blurred. This article considers the growth of trafficking in women for prostitution across Central and South Eastern Europe over the last decade in the context of human rights policies. The brief mapping of trafficking in women in southeast Europe (SEE) focuses primarily on Albania and Kosova, to assess the diverse developments and the impact of militarisation, alongside increasing research and policy expansion. Practical changes to legislation with regard to human rights and migration are considered by some feminist analysts to create conditions that will limit the negative impacts of key aspects of women trafficked into prostitution.

Topics: Gender, Women, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Rights, Human Rights, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking, Violence Regions: Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe

Year: 2004

Citation:

Beyrer, Chris. 1998. War in the Blood: Sex, Politics and AIDS in Southeast Asia. London: Zed Books.

Author: Chris Beyrer

Abstract:

This engaging and vivid book investigates the course of the HIV epidemic in seven countries of South East Asia: Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam and China’s Yunnan Province. Emphasising the impact of the cultural and political landscapes of these countries on the progress of the disease, the book is the product of both working and travelling in the area. Not merely a commentary on obfuscating government statistics, the author draws upon his encounters with people dealing with the effects of the epidemic and opponents of the regimes of the countries he describes. The epidemic is seen as being vitally linked to the general condition of human rights in the societies.

In the first part of the book the author travels to each country in turn chronicling the different approaches adopted to the epidemic. The second part covers issues involving specific groups at risk - among other topics, women and contraception, prostitution and the traffic in women, HIV and the US military, the Heroin trade, gay sex workers, prisoners, and the work of local activists. The third part of the book looks at policy and the general effect of culture on public health care, stressing the need for local empowerment of populations, and in particular women, to effect social changes that would go hand in hand with improvements in the handling of the HIV epidemic. Both passionate and well-informed, this book is a labour of love that discusses the HIV epidemic while giving an intimate, and ultimately celebratory account of South East Asia and asserting the real possiblity for affirmative action. (Amazon)

Topics: Governance, Health, HIV/AIDS, Reproductive Health, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Rights, Human Rights, Sexuality, Trafficking, Drug Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam

Year: 1998

Citation:

Amar, Paul. 2009. “Operation Princess in Rio de Janeiro: Policing ‘Sex Trafficking’, Strengthening Worker Citizenship, and the Urban Geopolitics of Security in Brazil.” Security Dialogue 40 (4-5): 513-41.

Author: Paul Amar

Abstract:

This article develops new insights into the gendered insecurities of the neoliberal state in Latin America by exploring the militarization of public security in Rio de Janeiro during 2003-08 around campaigns to stop the 'trafficking' of sex workers. Findings illuminate the intersection of three neoliberal governance logics: (1) a moralistic humanitarian-rescue agenda promoted by evangelical populists and police groups; (2) a juridical 'law and rights' logic promoted by justice-sector actors and human-rights NGOS; (3) a worker-empowerment logic articulated by the governing Workers' Party (PT) in alliance with social-justice movements, police reformers, and prostitutes' rights groups. Gender and race analyses map the antagonisms between these three logics of neoliberal governance, and how their incommensurabilities generate crisis in the arena of security policy. By exploring Brazil's fraught efforts to attain the status of 'human security superpower' through these interventions, the article challenges the view that the reordering of security politics in the global south is inevitably linked to desecularization, disempowerment, and militarization.

Keywords: security, Gender, human trafficking, race, Brazil

Topics: Gender, Women, Governance, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Race, Security, Human Security, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Brazil

Year: 2009

Citation:

Achebe, Nwando. 2004. “The Road to Italy: Nigerian Sex Workers at Home and Abroad.” Journal of Women’s History 15 (4): 178-85.

Author: Nwando Achebe

Abstract:

In an attempt to navigate the contours of the unique Nigerian institution of commercial sex work, Achebe provides two short cases that are various in ethnicity (the Igbo and Edo), locality (rural Nigeria and international prostitution), and in the very way the practitioners define and construct their work. He claims that the realities of Nigerian prostitutes vary considerably depending on geography, ethnicity, and levels of dislocation from community and family.

Topics: Gender, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2004