Human trafficking through gender lens

Rina Sen Gupta
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Trafficking in persons is not a new phenomenon but addressing it from a gender perspective is a contemporary view. This change in perspective flows from three fundamental arguments:

Men migrate and women are trafficked - this is one of the gravest misconceptions existing today. This preconceived idea that is encountered every where and in every aspect of dealing with trafficking feeds on the gender stereotype constructed by the societies. In most societies men are the main breadwinners but with more and more women coming into the workforce this notion is being challenged.

The causes of trafficking are applicable to both men and women but women are faced with an additional vulnerability that flows from the social discriminatory practices towards women. This discrimination is faced before, during and even after trafficking. There is a proverb in Bangladesh the gist of which is, men are copper, no matter how much dirt you get on it you can rub it away, but women are made of clay and once chipped it is marked for life.

Starting from the country of origin, transit, country of destination and even integration, women have to bear with this extra burden of vulnerability. The initiation, the process, the outcome are different for men and women. And so it is vital to bring in the gender perspective when looking at trafficking in persons.

The present human trafficking paradigm nearly always relates to women and children, never to men. While many women and children are trafficked into exploitative circumstances, there are also many men who go abroad and suffer a similar fate (abusive and exploitative labour condition). Thus, when women or children go overseas and exploited, they fall into the category of human trafficking and for women and girls the additional burden of losing their purity is automatically imposed on their shoulders. On the other hand, the same term is almost never used to describe what happens to men. When a man goes overseas and is abused and exploited, it continues to be called "migration".

The trafficking of women and children must be seen in a broader context of labour migration and the movement of people from conflict zones and crisis situations as refugees and internally displaced persons. These movements in turn interact with structures of gender equality at every level - national and global, in families and communities. As one of the unique causes of peoples' movement is escaping crisis situation, it is important to note that disaster and other crisis situations are not gender neutral.

In Bangladesh, we found that generally people move one place to another due to lack of basic needs, lack of economic security, social considerations (for female marriage with dowry), escape from crisis/violence or stigmatizing situations, seeking emotional stability, opportunity abroad. When we analysed the issue of who takes or influence the decision of why people move, we found that for women it is mainly the male family members or male community leaders. Women who do not have male guardians or who try to escape the family crisis take their own decisions.

Gender stereotypes that present man as powerful and in control, and woman as passive and primarily assigned to private sphere domestic roles, feed the misconception in many societies that 'men migrate, but women are trafficked'. However, what is often not recognized is that man too is trafficked, and that woman is not only trafficked, but also migrate.

The dramatic growth in migration and trafficking flows has resulted from a combination of push, pull and facilitating factors. Push factors include uneven economic growth and the breakdown of economic systems, an increase in war and armed conflict, environmental degradation, natural disasters, and increasing levels of family violence.

Growth in the industrialised economies has been accompanied by a quantum leap in low-cost transportation and communication technologies, which facilitates all aspects of migration and trafficking. But the major facilitating factor is the involvement of organized crime, for whom trafficking is a growing source of profits. United Nations

Human Development Report 1999 estimated that globally trafficking and smuggling are worth US$7 billion annually. However, due to coercion and exploitation, the profits are much greater for trafficking.

Although the profits reaped by traffickers has been the main concern, particularly since it has been identified with organized crime, employers who hire trafficked workers and the clients of trafficked sex workers, as well as corrupt officials involved all gain significant financial benefits. The magnitude of these financial gains and the low risks involved for those who stand to make the greatest gain, traffickers, corrupt officials and employers make the prevention of trafficking especially difficult.

Women and girls may be pushed toward trafficking as an alternative to the drudgery, danger and exploitation inherent in the traditional lot of women in poor countries--especially in rural areas. Young women may literally be running away from the prospects of marriage and a large family, the dangers of high maternal mortality, the trauma of high infant mortality, and the drudgery involved in fetching fuel and water, caring for their families, and contributing to the family income through labour intensive agriculture or the other kinds of low paid and unskilled jobs available locally.

To date, the international human rights framework has not fully caught up with globalisation. Thus, while persons are deemed to have an inherent human right to cross border mobility as well as a basic human right to decent work or source of livelihood, the two remain separated in space. To the extent that the right to work or livelihood is recognized, the obligation for the realization of that right is placed on the nation state in which the individual resides, and not on other states or the global community. Similarly, so long as capital moves more freely across borders than does labor, vulnerabilities will be created in some countries and demand created in others, thus encouraging trafficking.

A gender-responsive approach is necessarily also a rights-based approach, since gender discrimination is now recognized as a fundamental denial of human rights. Women's human rights must therefore lie at the core of any credible anti-trafficking strategy, for violations of human rights are both a cause and a consequence of trafficking in persons. Conversely women are human beings, although differently and inequitably situated in relation to men in terms of their gender roles and the impact of gender stereotypes. They thus have different needs. Therefore, a human rights orientation to trafficking must also be responsive to gender differences and disparities, and focused on realizing human rights equally for women and men, girls and boys.

Rights cannot be given, but must be actively claimed by those who hold them. For this reason, women's individual and collective empowerment is an essential prerequisite for a rights-based approach. Empowerment involves both a structural dimension legal, policy, institutional elements and State accountability--and an individual dimension, one designed to equip individuals and groups to claim their rights.

Under International Human Rights Law, States are obliged to respect and ensure those private persons and institutions respect, protect, promote and ensure practical realization of human rights according to the principle of non-discrimination. In relation to trafficking, this includes preventing violations through appropriate laws, policies and programs, investigating violations, taking appropriate actions against violators and providing remedies and reparation to those trafficked, regardless of their immigration status.

With the development of international consciousness and efforts to concretise and operationalise the "Human Rights Framework" to address the many issues facing human kind, trafficking in persons has emerged as a complex, but clear issue involving multiple violations of basic human rights. The legal frameworks that typically come to mind in the context of human trafficking are criminal laws against "trafficking" or related criminal activities such as kidnapping, wrongful confinement, slavery or forced labor, and rape or sexual assault.

According to the recommendation of the UN High Commission for Human Rights, the human rights of trafficked persons should be at the center of all efforts to prevent and to combat trafficking and to protect, assist and provide redress to survivors.

Trafficking is a moral problem, a legal problem, a social problem, an economic problem and a health problem. Therefore, we all have to work together -- the academicians, the researchers, the teachers, the students and the professional from diverse field -- to address this organized million-dollar heinous business to pay respect to human dignity, to ensure equality and to maintain a non-discriminatory society.
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The author is National Program Officer, International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Dhaka.