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Sexual Slavery in the 21st Century:
An Overview
B. Fueling the Trade: Globalization, Capitalism, Sexism, and
Racism
Women have been bought, sold, and sexually exploited for all of
recorded history, but only within the last few decades has the sex
trade developed into a large-scale, industrialized enterprise. Experts
stress that the growth in the sex trade cannot be understood apart
from the larger context of social, economic, and political marginalization
in which it occurs. Fundamentally, there are four inter-related
forces-globalization, capitalism, sexism, and racism-that have combined
to increase both the demand for prostitution and the supply of "sex
workers." [8] On the supply side, women
have long been the quiet victims of globalization. Even as supranational
corporations, international banking institutions, and organized
crime syndicates grow in size, wealth, and power, women in many
regions of the world find themselves with no means of supporting
themselves or their families. Systematically excluded from lucrative
jobs, denied access to educational opportunities, and lacking a
social safety net to fall back on, they leave their homes in search
of work. Ironically, at the same time, global market forces have
penetrated into even remote rural areas, where they increase demand
for consumer goods. Traffickers prey on women's real or perceived
poverty and desperation, luring them with false promises of lucrative
job opportunities and entrapping them in slavery-like conditions.
Victims, typically aged 16 to 35, are often beaten and raped, have
their passports confiscated, and are threatened with harm to themselves
and their families if they try to escape. On the demand side, sexist
and racist values and the "consumer culture" have combined
to foster the sex trade by promoting a view of women-and minority
women in particular-as commodities to be bought, sold, and consumed
on the world market.
In her 2001 report on trafficking in women, Radhika Coomaraswamy,
the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, expands on
these ideas:
[T]he lack of rights afforded to women serves as the primary
causative factor at the root of both women's migrations and trafficking
in women. The failure of existing economic, political and social
structures to provide equal and just opportunities for women to
work has contributed to the feminization of poverty, which in
turn has led to the feminization of migration, as women leave
their homes in search of viable economic options. Further, political
instability, militarism, civil unrest, internal armed conflict
and natural disasters also exacerbate women's vulnerabilities
and may result in an increase in trafficking…
[W]omen…continue to be denied full citizenship because Governments
fail to protect and promote the rights of women. In the home,
in the community and in State structures, women are discriminated
against on numerous, intersecting levels. The most extreme and
overt expression of such discrimination is physical and psychological
violence against women. Violence is a tool through which discriminatory
structures are strengthened and the more insidious and subtle
forms of discrimination experienced by women daily are reinforced.
By failing to protect and promote women's civil, political, economic
and social rights, Governments create situations in which trafficking
flourishes.
Gender-based discrimination intersects with discriminations based
on other forms of "otherness", such as race, ethnicity,
religion and economic status, thus forcing the majority of the
world's women into situations of double or triple marginalization.
Not only are women discriminated against as women, but as ethnic,
racial or linguistic minorities and as ethnic, racial or linguistic
minority women. Because discrimination based on ethnicity, race,
religion, etc. is imbedded in State and social structures, such
discrimination decreases the rights and remedies available to
women and increases women's vulnerability to violence and abuse,
including trafficking. For example, the Rohingya women, in northern
Arakan State, Myanmar, have been rendered stateless by the fact
that Myanmar denies the Rohingya citizenship. Owing to their undocumented
status, they are unable to move freely across borders. For this
reason, the Rohingya rely on facilitated migration. The women,
in particular, become victims of traffickers
who prey on their predicament.
The failure of the State to guarantee women's rights leads to
sexual and economic exploitation of women in both the home and
the community and within the local, national and global economies.
Economic, political and social structures and the models of development
that arise from such structures have failed women. They have failed
in their attempts to provide basic economic and social rights
to all people, particularly to women, and have further entrenched
sex-based divisions of education, labour and migration. Basic
rights, such as to food, shelter, education, employment, a sustainable
living and peace have been denied to a large percentage of the
world's population, of which women comprise a large portion.
Trafficking in women flourishes in many less developed countries
because the vulnerabilities arising from women's lack of access
to resources, poverty and gender discrimination are maintained
through the collusion of the market, the State, the community
and the family unit. Traditional family structures, which are
based on the maintenance of traditional sex roles and the division
of labour that derives from such roles (for women, housekeeping,
care-taking and other unpaid or underpaid subsistence labour),
support the system of trafficking. Further, feudal and exploitative
social structures have given rise in many countries, such as Nepal
and Bangladesh, to consumerism and a skewed, gender, caste and
class based resource. This in turn legitimates discrimination
against women at the community level, as represented by uneven
division of wage labour and salaries, citizenship rights and inheritance
rights; and at the family level through the high preference for
male children and the resulting discriminatory practices against
girls that are perpetrated throughout their life cycle. The preference
for male children and the culture of male privilege deprives girls
and women of access to basic and higher education and, consequently,
illiteracy rates among women remain high. In addition, certain
religious and customary practices, reinforced by government policies,
further entrench and validate discrimination and perpetuate the
cycle of oppression of women.
Women's lack of rights and freedoms is exacerbated by external
factors such as the ever-widening gap between rich and poor countries,
and within those countries, between rich and poor communities.
The economic, social and political inequalities that exist between
rural and urban, majority and minority, and industrialized and
industrializing, increasingly are leading to internal as well
as international political instabilities and violent upheavals
such as those that were witnessed in Albania in 1997 and in Indonesia
in 1998, during which women are targeted by particularized forms
of violence, such as rape. The failure of existing economic, political
and social structures to provide equal and just opportunities
for women to work has contributed to the feminization of poverty,
which in turn has led to the feminization of migration, as women
leave their homes in search of viable economic options.
Globalization may have dire consequences for human rights generally
and women's human rights particularly, in terms of eroding civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights in the name of
development and macro-level economic restructuring and stability.
In the countries of the South, structural adjustment programmes
have led to increased impoverishment, particularly amongst women,
displacement and internal strife resulting from the political
instabilities caused by devaluing national currencies, increasing
debt and dependence on foreign direct investment. The crisis in
ASEAN countries is an indicator that globalization policies can
result in disaster if not properly managed. The economic crisis
in East Asia has resulted in many women being trafficked to escape
from sudden poverty. In some countries, development policies and
practices have led to large-scale displacements of local populations.
The Narmada Valley dam project in India, which is being protested
by thousands of villagers in the Narmada Valley who will be displaced
by the project, is an example of the destabilizing capacity of
"development". The destabilization and displacement
of populations increase their vulnerability to exploitation and
abuse through trafficking and forced labour. Political instability,
militarism, civil unrest, internal armed conflict and natural
disasters also exacerbate women's vulnerabilities and may result
in an increase in trafficking. [9]
[8]OPTIONAL READING: For more on this idea,
see Brina Milikowsky, "From 'Comfort Women' to 'loveme.com': The
Commodification of Women in Global Capital Markets," (2001). Click
here to read the full article.
[9]OPTIONAL READING: The full article is available
online at http://www.inet.co.th/org/gaatw/SolidarityAction/HRECN4200068.pdf.
Go on to Part C - Case Study: The Phillippines
Return to VAW Module III
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