Links
The Global Persecution of Women
Glossary
Human Rights
UDHR.
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7.
All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 5, CEDAW
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures:
(a) To modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women;Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime
Article 3. Use of Terms
(a) “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;
(b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used;
(c) The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article;
(d) “Child” shall mean any person under eighteen years of age.
Article 5. Criminalization
1. Each State Party shall adopt such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to establish as criminal offences the conduct set forth in article 3 of this Protocol, when committed intentionally.2. Each State Party shall also adopt such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to establish as criminal offences:
(a) Subject to the basic concepts of its legal system, attempting to commit an offence established in accordance with paragraph 1 of this article;
(b) Participating as an accomplice in an offence established in accordance with paragraph 1 of this article; and
(c) Organizing or directing other persons to commit an offence established in accordance with paragraph 1 of this article.
Albania
Written testimony of A, 15, originally from Albania, trafficked in Albania, before U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, downloaded from Polaris Project, http://us.oneworld.net/external/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.polarisproject.org%2Fpolarisproject%2Ftrafficking_p3%2Ftrafficking.htm, 4 Dec. 2006.
I am 15 years old, and I became a sex worker when I was 13. I am writing my story for you.
When I was a little girl, I had a good family, but later on everything in my life changed because my mother fell in love with terrible man. After having a relationship with this man for some time, my mother decided to leave my father for him. When we were leaving, my mother fell from the mountain where we were passing because we were in such a hurry. Fortunately, my mother survived the fall and we were able to send her immediately to a hospital. One day the doctor said that she couldn't be treated adequately there, and she must go to Tirana for medical care. My mother told me that I should not tell my father that she was being sent to Tirana. We went to Tirana in an ambulance, and one day my grandmother came to the hospital. My mother told me to go and live at her house until she was better.
When my mother was released from the hospital, we had to leave my grandmother's house because my grandmother didn't accept my mother's boyfriend as her husband. We didn't have any house, so sometimes we lived in the houses of others, and sometimes we lived on the street. My mother and I were begging because we didn't have any income. We did this for several years.
Once we went to the house of a friend of my mother's, but she was poor, too, and we couldn't stay there permanently. One of the neighbors was economically better off and asked my mother to let me live with them and later on marry their son. My mother didn't think anything bad would happen and thought I would be safer there, so she let me live there. I was only 9 years old.
At the beginning, they treated me very well, but later on they began to mistreat me and not give me enough food to eat, etc. I was really in a very bad condition. They told me to tell my mother that her boyfriend raped me. I did as I was told, even though it wasn't the truth because I was afraid of them, so I hurt my mother. She had trusted her boyfriend, and she started crying and left me. I felt so bad to lie to my mother, but I felt I was forced to lie.
I stayed almost one year at that house, and the marriage promised from them was not realized because my mother saw their son one day kissing another girl. My mother then understood that I shouldn't stay anymore in that house, and she came and got me and took me to her house. Thanks to God she helped me leave from that hell.
My mother was living in a very bad house with her boyfriend. All the rain always came inside, but I felt very happy because I was with my mother. My mother was begging. One person whom my mother knew promised my mother a better house. He seemed like a good person, but he lied to my mother about better work, and he exploited her. My mother had to work in the streets as a sex worker for his interests.
But something else even worse happened during that time. My mother's boyfriend raped me during the time when my mother wasn't in the house. He told me not to tell my mother what happened, and I didn't dare to tell my mother because I was so ashamed. I just couldn't find the ability to tell her.
Later on we left from that place, and went to stay in S. at the house of another friend of my mother's. His name was C. We stayed there for some days and then left together with my mother's friend to come to D. to his house. S.'s nephew fell in love with me. He was 21 years old, and I was 12. I told S. all the problems I had passed in my life and that my mother's boyfriend raped me. He then told my mother that her boyfriend raped me. During this time, my mother's boyfriend was in Tirana, and when he came back, S. quarreled with him because my mother and I didn't want to stay with him anymore. S. hit my mother's boyfriend with a car, and he died.
After this unfortunate situation, we went to my grandmother's house to live. My grandmother was living in an apartment which had been a hotel, but many families were living there. We got a room there. I met a friend, Z., but Z. and her mother were working as sex workers there. I found out I was two months pregnant. I aborted my baby because of these terrible conditions. I was 12 years old.
Later on, I worked as a sex worker with Z. and her mother because my mother was ill, and I didn't want to see her always suffering. When my mother heard about what I was doing, she told me not to do that work, but I said to her that I was doing this thing for her. I didn't know anything about my future, but God helped me, and I survived that time. I went to Italy with a guy I met, and he sent me to a convent. The Mother Theresa sisters there helped me very much, but I wanted to come back to Albania to my mother.
They referred me to the shelter here, and I was able to see my mother again. She was in a bad condition and told me that my father was dead, so I was so sad. Her leg was cut badly, and it was hard for me to see her.
She is now living in the same house and begging again as before. I have stayed two years in the shelter now, and I learned how to read and write here. I know how to use the computer now and can speak English and Italian. I have also successfully completed two vocational training courses, one on cosmetology and one on cooking. I feel good about myself, but I am sorry for my mother. I want to help my mother in the future, when I will be able to work.
This is my story.
Fiji
"Fiji," DOS Report 2005.
There were reports of children trafficked within the country during the year. Many observers cited poverty as the underlying reason for multiple reports of sexual exploitation of children. Urban migration and the subsequent breakdown of community structures, children from outer islands living with relatives while attending high school, and homelessness all appeared to be risk factors that increased a child's chance of being exploited for commercial sex.
Pakistan
"Pakistan," DOS Report 2005.
Child abuse was widespread. According to child rights NGOs, abuse was most common within families. In rural areas, poor parents sold children as bonded laborers (see section 6.d.) and at times sold daughters to be raped by landlords.
United States
Testimony of Rosa, 14, before U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, downloaded from Polaris Project, http://us.oneworld.net/external/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.polarisproject.org%2Fpolarisproject%2Ftrafficking_p3%2Ftrafficking.htm, 4 Dec. 2006.
When I was fourteen, a man came to my parents' house in Veracruz, Mexico and asked me if I was interested in making money in the United States. He said I could make many times as much money doing the same things that I was doing in Mexico. At the time, I was working in a hotel cleaning rooms and I also helped around my house by watching my brothers and sisters. He said I would be in good hands, and would meet many other Mexican girls who had taken advantage of this great opportunity. My parents didn't want me to go, but I persuaded them.
A week later, I was smuggled into the United States through Texas to Orlando, Florida. It was then the men told me that my employment would consist of having sex with men for money. I had never had sex before, and I had never imagined selling my body.
And so my nightmare began. Because I was a virgin, the men decided to initiate me by raping me again and again, to teach me how to have sex. Over the next three months, I was taken to a different trailer every 15 days. Every night I had to sleep in the same bed in which I had been forced to service customers all day.
I couldn't do anything to stop it. I wasn't allowed to go outside without a guard. Many of the bosses had guns. I was constantly afraid. One of the bosses carried me off to a hotel one night, where he raped me. I could do nothing to stop him.
Because I was so young, I was always in demand with the customers. It was awful. Although the men were supposed to wear condoms, some didn't, so eventually I became pregnant and was forced to have an abortion. They sent me back to the brothel almost immediately.
I cannot forget what has happened. I can't put it behind me. I find it nearly impossible to trust people. I still feel shame. I was a decent girl in Mexico. I used to go to church with my family. I only wish none of this had ever happened.
Links
The Global Persecution of Women
Glossary
