The Sex Trade
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THE SEX TRADE: WHAT IS IT?
Traffick Jam:
"I
was kidnapped in Nepal and sold to a brothel in Mumbai when I was 12. Upon
arriving in the brothel, five men took turns raping me and shoving red peppers
in my genital area. Nobody listened to my cries except the madam who told me
I was her slave. Fifteen years later I am still a slave forced to have sex,
but now am dying from AIDS."
-- Woman in
prostitution from Kamathipura's Lane 4
What is human trafficking?
"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 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.
Source: Article 3,
paragraph (a) of the
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and
Punish Trafficking in Persons,
Women and Children, which supplements the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime
Jurisdiction:
The UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocol
to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and
Children are designed to prevent and combat trafficking, to protect and assist
victims and to promote international cooperation. Victims and witnesses are
also dealt with in the parent Convention, but the protection of, and
assistance to, victims is specified as a core purpose of the Protocol in
recognition of the acute needs of trafficking victims and the importance of
victim assistance, both as an end in itself and as a means to support the
investigation and prosecution of trafficking crimes.
[read more]
Facts on
Human Trafficking:
Trafficking in Human Persons:
2006 Report
Prostitution is increasing in
India where there have been fears over the spread of AIDS and reports of young
girls being abducted and forced into prostitution.
In Kamathipura brothel district
in Bombay more than 70,000 prostituted women and girls are bought by three men
a day. Condoms are seldom used. Escape is rare.
90% of the 100,000 women in
prostitution in Bombay are indentured slaves.
Sources: Asian prostitutes
meet to demand legal status," Reuters, 29 July 1998; Tim McGirk "Nepal's Lost
Daughters, 'India's soiled goods,'" 27 January 1997; Robert I. Freidman,
"India's Shame: Sexual Slavery and Political Corruption Are Leading to An AIDS
Catastrophe," The Nation, 8 April 1996
.
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