Trafficking of Girls

Moving children away from their normal environment in order to exploit them is called trafficking. Girls are an overwhelming majority among trafficked persons, especially those trafficked into prostitution. The trafficking of girls, as with boys, almost always involves a degree of deception, coercion or agreement between adults. Trafficking is not only recruitment and transportation, but also the exploitative and abusive living and working conditions in the wide range of situations into which children are trafficked. All of this leads to the violation of fundamental human rights of girls.

Facts to consider:

· Girls between 13 and 18 years of age constitute the largest group within the sex industry into which 1 to 2 million women and children are trafficked each year, from less economically developed to industrialized countries.

· Virtually every country in the world, both economically developed countries from the north and economically developing countries from the south, is affected, with estimates of 500,000 girls below 18 as victims of trafficking.

· A majority of victims are women under the age of 25. With the fear of HIV/AIDS, customers soliciting sex have driven traffickers to recruit younger victims, some as young as 7, thinking erroneously that they are too young to have been infected.

· With estimates of 1 million women and girls of various nationalities being trafficked into Thailand, reports indicate 20,000 to 30,000 women and girls from Myanmar (Burma) are trafficked into brothels in Thailand and 5000-7000 Nepali girls are trafficked into India every year.

Positive initiatives:

· In Thailand girls are now protected under the purview of the Prevention and Suppression of the Trafficking in Women and Children Act, 1996.

· In 2000, the U.S. passed The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act which: criminalizes all forms of trafficking in persons; doubles the sentence for personsconvicted operating slavery-like practices in the U.S. to a maximum of 20 years.

· In Cambodia, psycho-social intervention and skills training is being provided to young victims of commercial sex.

· The Nepal Cabinet adopted a National Policy to Control Trafficking and Prostitutionof Girls recommended by the Ministry of Women and Social Welfare, 1998.

· In India, a great deal of media attention has been directed to issues of trafficking and prostitution.

· NGOs are directing their energies toward programs for girls with a focus on recovery, repatriation, and reintegration.

Needs:

· The public needs information, education on the issue of violence against girls - particularly trafficking, prostitution, and sexual exploitation in order to advocate for them.

· Doctors and health professionals need to identify and respond appropriately to child victims of gender-based violence.

· Adolescent girls need to be taught about the nature of gender violence; they need to develop self-confidence, self-esteem, and an awareness that accepting violence is not part of being female.

Prepared by: S. Ethel Howley, SSN

Sources:

· Today’s Child, Tomorrow’s woman, Deepa Grover on behalf UNICEF Eapro & UNICEF Rosa , Thailand, 2000.

· U.S. Congressional Research Service Report 98-649C, Francis T. Miko,

Specialist in International Relations, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade

Division, May 10, 2000

· www.un.org/law/treaties

Tim Dewane
School Sisters of Notre Dame
13105 Watertown Plank Road
Elm Grove, WI, 53122-2291
(262) 787-1023
tdewane@ssnd-milw.org

School Sisters of Notre Dame

SHALOM NORTH AMERICA

March, 2002

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