Sex Trafficking

Citation:

Soderlund, Gretchen. 2005. "Running from the Rescuers: New US Crusades Against Sex Trafficking and the Rhetoric of Abolition." NWSA Journal 17 (3): 64-87.

Author: Gretchen Soderlund

Abstract:

This article analyzes recent developments in U.S. anti-sex trafficking rhetoric and practices. In particular, it traces how pre-9/11 abolitionist legal frameworks have been redeployed in the context of regime change from the Clinton to Bush administrations. In the current political context, combating the traffic in women has become a common denominator political issue, uniting people across the political and religious spectrum against a seemingly indisputable act of oppression and exploitation. However, this essay argues that feminists should be the first to interrogate and critique the premises underlying many claims about global sex trafficking, as well as recent U.S. -based efforts to rescue prostitutes. It places the current raid-and-rehabilitation method of curbing sex trafficking within the broader context of Bush administration and conservative religious approaches to dealing with gender and sexuality on the international scene. 

Keywords: accountability, feminist perspectives, national interest, sex trafficking, prostitution, Bush administration

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Justice, Sexual Violence, Sexual Slavery, Sexuality, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2005

Citation:

Smith, Heather, and Charles Anthony Smith.  2011. "Human Trafficking: The Unintended Effects of United Nations Intervention." International Political Science Review 32 (2): 125-45.

Authors: Heather Smith, Charles Anthony Smith

Abstract:

International relations literature is replete with work on the effects of United Nations intervention on global crises, generally concluding that UN intervention either intensifies or ameliorates the crisis. Yet, the global human rights community has attempted to expose the more subtle and unintended effects of UN intervention, namely, substantial increases in the human sex trafficking trade into crisis areas. In this paper we attempt to bridge these two literatures. We evaluate increases in human trafficking in light of UN involvement in Kosovo, Haiti, and Sierra Leone. We argue that UN involvement has the unfortunate and unintended effect of increasing the rates of human trafficking in these crisis areas. We consider Nepal, where the UN did not intervene, as a control case. Our work concludes that the UN should proceed with caution into crisis areas and have plans in place to avoid the potentially devastating externalities of otherwise well-intentioned efforts.

Keywords: United Nations, military sexual assault, intervention, human rights, human trafficking

Topics: Economies, Humanitarian Assistance, International Organizations, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Peacekeeping, Rights, Human Rights, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Africa, West Africa, Americas, Caribbean countries, Asia, South Asia, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Haiti, Kosovo, Nepal, Sierra Leone

Year: 2011

Citation:

Rathgeber, Corene. 2002. "The Victimization of Women Through Human Trafficking - An Aftermath of War?" European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law, and Criminal Justice 10 (2-3): 152-63.

Author: Corene Rathgeber

Abstract:

This paper investigates the trafficking of women and girls in a post-conflict society, specifically Bosnia and Herzegovina, from a victimological perspective. The trafficking of women and children into Bosnia and Herzegovina for sexual purposes is a highly profitable business for organized crime syndicates. The United Nations estimates that four million people a year are trafficked, resulting in over seven billion dollars profit for criminal groups. Unlike the trafficking of drugs or arms, there is no overhead, women are coerced or kidnapped and then sold for a high profit. These women are deprived of their most basic human rights, and are in this situation trying to improve their lives. In Bosnia and Herzegovina women are trafficked from South-Eastern Europe, but the reasons these women are trafficked are the same globally. Women are trafficked because of the world-wide feminization of poverty, the unequal rights and access to formal labour, and the restricted abilities to gain power over their own lives in their home countries. The trafficking of women and children to and through Bosnia and Herzegovina will continue if only band-aid solutions are applied to the problem. Not only does the local government need to take responsibility for this issue, but also there needs to be education and awareness at all levels. 

Keywords: post-conflict, women's rights, sex trafficking

Annotation:

This paper looks at the trafficking of women and girls in post-conflict societies, specifically Bosnia and Herzegovina. The author takes a victim-centered view of the issue, discussing the increase in organized crime that flourishes in conflict areas, counter-trafficking activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the country specific conditions that fuel trafficking in these areas. Rathgeber concludes by examining the legislation and government response to the issue, and calls for more support and assistance for the victims of trafficking.

Topics: Gender, Women, Girls, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Post-Conflict, Rights, Women's Rights, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina

Year: 2002

Citation:

Parsons, Brian. 2005. "Significant Steps or Empty Rhetoric? Current Efforts by the United States to Combat Sexual Trafficking near Military Bases." Northwestern University Journal of International Human Rights 4 (3): 567-89.

Author: Brian Parsons

Keywords: prostitution, education, sex trafficking, US military bases, activism

Annotation:

This paper examines the sexual trafficking that commonly occurs near U.S. military bases and the legal steps being taken by the U.S. to deal with this issue. Parsons discusses the history of the U.S. military’s involvement with prostitution near its bases, as well as international efforts to combat trafficking, and the strengths and weaknesses of the measures being taken to combat sexual trafficking near military bases. The recommendation is made for better education about the effects of sex trafficking for military personnel, as well as more aggressive policies that will stop civilian contractors from both engaging in trafficking activities and soliciting prostitutes. 

Topics: Governance, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2005

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

Citation:

Moon, Katharine H. S. 1999. "South Korean Movements Against Militarized Sexual Labor." Asian Survey 39 (2): 310-27.

Author: Katherine H. S. Moon

Abstract:

The suffering that many South Korean women experienced under the Japanese military's sexual slavery (chongsindae) practices has been properly noted not only in South Korea but in other nations as well. The chongsindae movement (CM), however, was preceded by a similar group, the kijich'on movement (KM). KM was formed in the mid-1980s to recognize and publicize the plight of Korean prostitutes servicing American soldiers in the US military camptown, or kijich'on. A comparison of the two movements' ideology, leadership, and organization is presented to provide a rationale for CM's success in making the 'military comfort women' a universal women's rights concern, even as KM has remained localized and less recognized as a group.

Keywords: prostitution, Japanese military, US military, chongsindae movement, sex trafficking, kijich'on movement

Annotation:

• The chongsindae movement (CM) addresses the problem of the military “comfort system” in South Korea which resulted in women being trafficked to military bases and forced to work as sex workers, beginning with the Japanese colonial rule. Since the mid-1980s, the kijich’on (KM) movement has also been formed, protesting the issue of U.S. military camptown prostitutes who became “victims of debt bondage and objects of foreign domination” (311). Moon discusses these two movements in connection with each other, comparing the ideology, leadership, and organization of each in the context of the changing civil in South Korea since the late 1980s. The author’s goal is to account for the relatively localized and less recognized status of the KM movement as opposed to the overall success and publicity gained by the CM movement. She ultimately concludes that the CM movement has overshadowed rather than supported the kijich’on problem.

Topics: Gender, Women, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Militarization, Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: South Korea

Year: 1999

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

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

Citation:

Lehti, Martti, and Kauko Aromaa. 2006. "Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation." Crime and Justice 34 (1): 133-227.

Authors: Martti Lehti, Kauko Aromaa

Abstract:

Current estimates of human trafficking for sexual exploitation underestimate rather than overestimate the volume. They exaggerate the role of trafficking in international prostitution of adults but underestimate trafficking in minors. About 60–80 percent of the crime is domestic, and the bulk of cross-border trafficking is regional. The major flows run from rural areas to cities and from economically depressed regions to affluent ones. Traffic to industrialized countries is 10–20 percent of the whole; most takes place within and between third-world countries. Prevention should concentrate on the main source countries and the most important junctions. This requires efficient police and intelligence cooperation both regionally and internationally. It is also crucial to harmonize national legislation. 

Keywords: migration, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, prostitution, prevention

Topics: Economies, Economic Inequality, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking

Year: 2006

Citation:

Lee, June JH. 2005. "Human Trafficking in East Asia: Current Trends, Data Collection, and Knowledge Gaps." International Migration 43 (1-2): 165-201.

Author: June JH Lee

Keywords: militarization, human trafficking, data collection, Filipina women

Annotation:

• The goal of this paper is to “examine the general trends in human trafficking reported in East Asia from rather disparate sources, identify the main issues and problems raised in the existing information sources, and discuss data collection, research activities, and knowledge gaps” (166).
• The link between trafficked Filipina women and the Rest and Recreations facilities of U.S. military bases in South Korea is discussed, and the author notes that the connection between the sex trade and militarization in South Korea is a recurrent theme in studies of the issue. 

Topics: Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Militarization, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: China, Japan, Philippines, South Korea

Year: 2005