Sexual slavery

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Sexual slavery is a special case of slavery which includes various different practices:

1. forced prostitution
2. single-owner sexual slavery
3. ritual slavery, sometimes associated with traditional religious practices
4. slavery for primarily non-sexual purposes where sex is common or permissible

In general, the nature of slavery means that the slave is de facto available for sex, and ordinary social conventions and legal protections that would otherwise constrain an owner's actions are not effective. For example, extra-marital sex between a married man and a slave was not considered adultery in most societies that accepted slavery.^[1] Female slaves are at highest risk of sexual abuse and sexual slavery.

The term "sex slave" and "consensual sexual slavery" are sometimes used in BDSM to refer to a consensual agreement between sexual partners (see also total power exchange). This should not be confused with the meaning of the term as defined in this article, which refers specifically to unwilling slavery.

Contents 1 Modern types 1.1 Forced prostitution 1.2 The United States 1.3 China 1.4 Africa 1.5 The Middle East 1.6 India 1.7 Pakistan 1.8 Southeast Asia 1.9 Sex Trafficking in Cambodia 1.9.1 Problem Facts in Cambodia 1.9.2 Human Security approach as a solution to the problem 1.9.2.1 Human Security Goals 1.9.2.2 Consistency with the portfolio diversification strategy in Cambodia 2 Historical types 2.1 United Kingdom 2.2 North America 2.3 East and Southeast Asia during World War II 2.4 By Nazi Germany in WWII 2.5 The Middle East 3 References 4 Further reading 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] Modern types

[edit] Forced prostitution

Forced prostitution is a form of sexual slavery that is often directed at immigrants to Western and Asian countries. Often the "owners" of these people will confiscate passports and/or money in order to make them completely dependent. This practice, also known as sex trafficking or human trafficking, is illegal in most countries.

Human trafficking is not the same as people smuggling. A smuggler will facilitate illegal entry into a country for a fee, but on arrival at their destination, the smuggled person is free; the trafficking victim is enslaved. Traffickers use coercive tactics including deception, fraud, intimidation, isolation, threat and use of physical force, debt bondage or even force-feeding with drugs to control their victims. Women are typically recruited with promises of good, legal jobs in other countries or provinces, or are tricked into a false 'marriage', and, lacking better options at home, agree to migrate. Traffickers arrange the travel and job placements, the women are escorted to their destinations and delivered to the employers. Upon reaching their destinations, some women learn that they have been deceived about the nature of the work they will do; most have been lied to about the financial arrangements and conditions of their employment; and all find themselves in coercive and abusive situations and kept in a financial situation that they are stuck in a form of debt bondage from which escape is both difficult and dangerous.

A US Government report published in 2003, estimates that 800,000-900,000 people worldwide are trafficked across borders each year,^[2] the majority to Southeast Asia, Japan, Europe and North America. The trafficking of women has also been recorded (in lower numbers) in South Asia and the Middle East and from Latin America into the United States. Since the mid 1990s, with the opening up of the former Soviet Union, the end of the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and the opening up of East and Southeast Asia, there has been an increase in the trafficking of human beings. It is estimated that 2/3 of women trafficked for prostitution worldwide annually come from Eastern Europe, three-quarters have never worked as prostitutes before.^[3][4] An estimated 500,000 women from Central and Eastern Europe are working in prostitution in the European Union alone.^[5] Annually, thousands of Russian women end up as prostitutes in China, Japan, or South Korea.^[6] See the main article on human trafficking.

A recent development should be noted that proponents of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in the United States, and Sweden's Act On Prohibiting The Purchase Of Sexual Services seek to define all forms of prostitution as exploitive or de facto slavery, and place emphasis on suppressing the demand for sex services, by prosecuting profiteers and customers. While this effort is advanced as a means to protect trafficked children and women, that are variously estimated at 20,000-100,000 annually in the United States, who have issued numerous critiques of these laws as another form of prohibition and stigmatization, that serve mainly to marginalize sex workers.^[7] Prostitute rights organizations argue that decriminalization and extension of labor rights to sex workers is more effective in ensuring their economic, mental and medical health than any form of prohibition.^[8]

The term "sex worker" itself is rejected by the advocates of anti-slavery laws, who argue that women cannot choose sex as an economic activity, and claim it is the criminal networks and customer demand that are the driving forces, not economic necessity.

[edit] The United States

Reports of child sex slavery and on the business of working children in organized criminal businesses as well as in legitimate businesses and trading sexual favours for contracts and business in the United States under inhumane conditions exist.

In 2002, the US Department of State repeated an earlier CIA estimate that each year, about 50,000 women and children are brought against their will to the United States for sexual exploitation.^[9][10] Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said that "[h]ere and abroad, the victims of trafficking toil under inhuman conditions -- in brothels, sweatshops, fields and even in private homes."^[11]

[edit] China

Thousands of women are forced into prostitution in and from China every year. Chinese women are brought to countries like the US and European countries under the cover of massage therapists, and other specialized employees. These women are forced/contracted(illegally) into prostitution by their perpetrators.

Thousands of girls are also sold into prostitution in countries like Singapore, Thailand and other Asian Pacific countries.^[12] They are also trafficked into South Asian and Middle Eastern countries, such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, where "Chinese teahouses", "massage parlors", and "restaurants" are commonly known as fronts for prostitution, as they are often are in other countries.^{[13] [14]} Indeed, the term "Chinese" is virtually synonymous with "prostitute" amongst local law enforcement and other groups in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

[edit] Africa

Main article: Slavery in modern Africa

Sex slavery is a problem in some parts of Africa. The colonial powers abolished slavery in the nineteenth century, but in areas outside their jurisdiction, such as the Mahdist empire in Sudan, the practice continued to thrive.

Now, institutional slavery has been banned worldwide, but there are numerous reports of women sex slaves in areas without an effective government control, such as until recently, Sudan,^[15] Liberia,^[16] Sierra Leone,^[17] northern Uganda,^[18] Congo,^[19] Niger^[20] and Mauritania.^[21]

In Ghana, Togo, and Benin, a form of religious prostitution known as trokosi ("ritual servitude") forcibly keeps thousands of girls and women in traditional shrines as "wives of the gods", where priests perform the sexual function in place of the gods.^[22] This can be compared with the devadasi system in India.

[edit] The Middle East

In the contemporary Middle East, sexual slavery exists, and transportation and trafficking occurs. In Israel, officials report a significant problem in human trafficking for the sex trade industry,^[23][24]—much of it involving women from Eastern Europe. Eastern European women also end up in Turkey and United Arab Emirates.^[25]

Many of the Iraqi women fleeing the Iraq War are turning to prostitution, while others are trafficked abroad, to countries like Syria, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Iran.^[26] In Syria alone, an estimated 50,000 Iraqi refugee girls and women, many of them widows, have become prostitutes.^[27] Cheap Iraqi prostitutes have helped to make Syria a popular destination for sex tourists. The clients come from wealthier countries in the Middle East - where many are Saudi men.^[28] High prices are offered for virgins.^[29][30]

[edit] India

As many as 200,000 Nepali girls, many under the age of 14, have been sold into sex slavery in India. Nepalese women and girls, especially virgins, are favored in India because of their fair skin and young looks.^[31][32]

[edit] Pakistan

Sexual slavery in Pakistan is one of the worst in South Asia^[33]. Young girls (sometimes as young as 9 years old) are sold by their own fathers to brothels as sex slaves in big cities. Often this happens due to debt accumulated from gambling, whereby the father has no other way to raise the money than to sell his daughters^[34]. There have even been cases recorded where wives and sisters have been sold to brothels to raise money for gambling, drinking or consuming drugs. Many sex slaves are also bought by 'agents' in Afghanistan who trick young virgin girls into coming to Pakistan for well-paying jobs. Once in Pakistan they are taken to brothels (called Kharabat) and forced into sexual slavery for many years. ^[35][36]. Watta satta (Urdu: وٹہ سٹہ), which is a prevalent tribal practice of trading brides, is also considered a form of sexual slavery by certain women’s groups in Pakistan ^[37].

[edit] Southeast Asia

In Asia, Japan is the major destination country for trafficked women, especially from the Philippines and Thailand. The US State Department has rated Japan as either a ‘Tier 2’ or a ‘Tier 2 Watchlist’ country every year since 2001, in its annual Trafficking in Persons reports. Both these ratings implied that Japan was (to a greater or lesser extent) not fully compliant with minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking trade.

Currently an estimated 300,000 women and children are involved in the sex trade throughout Southeast Asia.^[38] It is common that Thai women are lured to Japan and sold to Yakuza-controlled brothels where they are forced to work off their price.^[39][40] In Cambodia at least a quarter of the 20,000 people working as prostitutes are children with some being as young as 5 (somaly.org)

[edit] Sex Trafficking in Cambodia

[edit] Problem Facts in Cambodia

Cambodia has the highest proportion of its population trapped in prostitution and sex slavery in the South East Asia region. It is estimated that there are between 80,000 to 100,000 prostitutes and sex slaves in Cambodia. With a population of just 10-12 million, Cambodia's sex slave and prostitution problem is enormous where more than 1 in 150 people in Cambodia involved in sex trade. Most of those involved are women and children who have been trafficked from impoverished rural areas or brought to and from neighboring countries, such as Vietnam and Thailand.^[41]

[edit] Human Security approach as a solution to the problem

[edit] Human Security Goals

1. To have a more comprehensive concept of security under the Human Security agenda. Combating Sex Slavery and Trafficking as Government Security Priority The Human Security agenda enabled the Cambodia government to have a more comprehensive understanding of national security and make the issue of sex trafficking as a national security priority. Traditional state-centered security was defined narrowly as security of territory from external aggression, and hence under this approach, Cambodia might be regarded as a secure state. On the other hand, human security is a people-centered approach which recognizes a broader scope of the concept of security and that lasting stability cannot be achieved until people are protected from violent threats to their rights, safety or lives.^[42] While the women and children who sought security in their daily lives were being neglected under the traditional security paradigm, the human security agenda suggested the government to focus efforts on those who are particularly vulnerable to the threat of sex trafficking.
2. To supplement the inherent incapable Government with the portfolio diversification strategy. While traditionalists regard the state as the primary actor in providing for security, the human security agenda encourages diverse portfolio of actors in providing security, which helped in alleviating the problem of sex trafficking in Cambodia. A state-centered approach would be insufficient and incapable in enhancing personal security of vulnerable children and women in Cambodia due to the following reasons:
   1. Corruption and Lax law enforcement of Cambodia's anti-trafficking efforts remained hampered by systemic corruption and an ineffectual judicial system. Although Cambodia is the first country in the world to create a special police task force to fight human trafficking, this Police Anti-trafficking Department has conducted only a limited numbers of proactive investigations. Corruption, lack of training and funding for law enforcement, and a weak judiciary remain the most serious impediments to the effective prosecution of traffickers. There are reports that corrupt police officials continue to leak information to brothel/karaoke operators about upcoming police raids.^[43] Moreover, the government provides limited assistance to victim and made modest efforts to promote awareness of sex slavery and trafficking due to limited human and financial resources.
   2. Complexity and transnational nature of the problem Unlike some human rights abuses which are primarily regional, sex trafficking is complex and transnational in nature. Victims come from virtually all developing countries and are trafficked into or through virtually all developing and developed countries where demands from wealthy countries keep this criminal industry extremely profitable for traffickers.^[44]

[edit] Consistency with the portfolio diversification strategy in Cambodia

1. Practical with normative appeal With the above reasons, a portfolio diversification strategy would be needed to deal with this complex and transnational security threat to Cambodia and to supplement the state’s insufficiencies and incapability. This strategy has been practical since to protect vulnerable children and women is normatively appealing and hence attracts help from non-state actors and attention from mass media. The onus of moral responsibility to intervene to protect individual lives was deemed highly acceptable in the eyes of most supporters and hence effectively persuaded publics around the world to provide assistance to these vulnerable children and women in Cambodia.
2. Efforts by diverse portfolio of actors Portfolio diversification strategy has been used in implementing human-focused security policies which would enhance Cambodia’s security through combating the problem of sex trafficking. States like United States and Canada, international organizations (IOs) like the Asia Foundation, United Nations International Children’s Fund, Red Cross,^[45] International Labor Organization and International Organization for Migration (“IOM”), and local non-governmental organization, like Cambodian Center for the Protection of Children’s Rights (“CCPCR”) and Cambodian Women’s Development Association, have been exerting pressure and cooperating with the Government of Cambodia in combating sex trafficking.^[46]
   1. To exert pressure on Government of Cambodia in combating sex slavery and trafficking Cambodia was placed on Tier 3 in the 2005 United States Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report for its lack of progress in combating severe forms of trafficking. Subjected to the international pressure together with supervision from global mass media, the Cambodian Government stepped up efforts to arrest, prosecute, and convict traffickers. Police actions increased over 2006 and the Cambodian Government also made efforts to address trafficking-related official corruption. The Ministry of Interior (MOI) also developed a National Action Plan to eradicate trafficking in persons. In addition, the Cambodian Government made clear progress in its anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts by approving a comprehensive anti-trafficking bill that provides law enforcement and judicial officials with enhanced powers to arrest and prosecute traffickers in 2006.
   2. To provide human and financial resources and supplement insufficient Government’s effort Cambodia has a very active domestic and international NGO community working to combat trafficking. Regarding to the lack of human resources and rampant corruption problems, IOs and NGOs cooperated with the Government to conduct training for police officers on investigation techniques, surveillance, and case preparation and management of trafficking cases. Victims are mainly referred to NGOs and IOs and relied primarily on foreign and domestic NGOs to provide protective services to victims.^[47] For example, the IOM provides trafficked women and children with long term recovery and reintegration assistance and CCPCR, which provides rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration services to child victims of trafficking. NGOs and IOs also worked with the Government to implemented campaigns in most parts of the country to raise public awareness regarding the dangers of trafficking. For example, the Ministry of Women's Affairs collaborated with the IOM to expand a nationwide anti-trafficking information and advocacy campaign that included district-level meetings with government officials and the distribution of educational materials and videos.
   3. International Cooperation Efforts: International treaties Cambodia has made progress in engaging in regional and international cooperation by signing and ratifying important instruments concerning the protection of children from sexual exploitation.^[48] In October 2004, Cambodia participated in the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking (COMMIT) which is a regional agreement at the government level committing governments to prepare country-specific plans of action.^[49] Cambodia also acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1992, and ratified the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (Optional Protocol) in 2002 and ratified ILO Convention No. 182 in 2006.^[50]
3. Effectiveness and Sustainability of the efforts In 2005, the Cambodian police reported conducting 67 operations, resulted in the arrest of 111 perpetrators and the rescue of 164 victims. The Ministry of Justice reported the prosecution and conviction of at least 45 traffickers during 2005, double the number in 2004.^[51] However, these cases were mostly generated by the efforts of NGOs.^[51] In addition, implementation of the policies and commitments of the international treaties has been slow, mainly due to lack of resources, poor law enforcement and corrupt practices. Hence sustainability of these efforts is in question. In long run, the Cambodian Government should put greater effort in building a working judicial system and legal infrastructure to enforce these laws. Moreover, to enhance the sustainability of their anti-trafficking efforts, other states and IOs ought to focus on cooperating with local NGOs and the government departments in order to empower them. Luckily, the Cambodia Government has been quite active in learning from other states and to cooperate with IOs and NGOs.

[edit] Historical types

[edit] United Kingdom

Prostitution, allied with destitution, was so widespread in Victorian Britain that campaigning journalist William Thomas Stead was able to buy a 13 year old virgin for £5, then equal to a labourer's monthly wage. See the Eliza Armstrong case.

[edit] North America

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (May 2008)

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In the mid-nineteenth century in the U.S., there was a white slavery scare which suggested that large numbers of white women were being kidnapped and forced into prostitution. The prevalence of this practice was greatly exaggerated due to xenophobia^{[citation needed]}, and this phenomenon is generally regarded today as having been an example of a moral panic.

At that time, the US victims of sexual slavery were overwhelmingly women of African descent, held as slaves, often purchased primarily for sexual exploitation.^{[citation needed]} One unverified story of such a girl, purchased as a sexual slave when she was fourteen, is told in Celia, A Slave by Melton A. Mclaurin. Such practice is also widely referred to in other literature discussing the era e.g. Roots by Alex Haley and Chapter thirty of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Frederick Douglass, in his autobiography, described the sale of female slaves openly advertised for sexual purposes at slave auctions in the nineteenth century United States. According to John A. Morone's book Hellfire Nation, slaveowners in the American South openly admitted to practicing sexual slavery, while Southern diarist, Mary Chestnut, famously wrote that

“

Like the patriarchs of old, our men live all in one house with their wives and their concubines; and the mulattoes one sees in every family partly resemble the white children. Any lady is ready to tell you who is the father of all the mulatto children in everybody’s household but her own. Those, she seems to think, drop from the clouds.

”

[edit] East and Southeast Asia during World War II

Main article: Comfort women

"Comfort women" is a euphemism for the up to 200,000 women who served in the Japanese army's brothels during World War II. Historians and researchers into the subject have stated that the majority were from Korea, China and other occupied territories and were recruited by force or deception to serve as sex slaves.^{[52][53][54][55]}

[edit] By Nazi Germany in WWII

Main article: Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II

At least 34,000 women from Europe were forced into prostitution. Usually organized in hotels confiscated from their rightful places, they also served travelling soldiers or those withdrawn from the front. Usually they also included a bar, a restaurant and a brothel. In most cases, especially in the East, the women were forced to serve as prostitutes after being caught at random on the streets in Łapankas, kidnapping raids by Nazi German military of civilians in Poland.

[edit] The Middle East

Main article: Arab slave trade

Slave trade, including trade of sex slaves,^[56] fluctuated in certain regions in the Middle East up until the twentieth century.^[57] These slaves came largely from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caucasus,^[58] and often from parts of Central Asia and Eastern Europe.^[59] Saudi Arabia was the last modern country to legally abolish slavery in 1962.^[60][61]

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Lal, K. S. Muslim Slave System in Medieval India (1994), chapter XII: "Sex Slavery" [1] ISBN 81-85689-67-9

• Wright, Terry Lee River of Innocents (2008) [2]

[edit] See also

• Ritual servitude
• Trafficking in human beings
• Sexism
• Rape
• Harem
• Child sexual abuse

[edit] External links

• "Trafficking Is a Long Standing Crime - US Troop Use of Japan's Trafficked Women 1945" WNN - Women News Network Sept 29, 2007
• Coalition against Trafficking in Women Publications on sexual exploitation and violence against women by Professor Donna M. Hughes of Rhode Island University.
• "A Child in Danger is a Child that Cannot Wait - Columbia and Child Prostitution in Today's World" WNN - Women News Network Sept 16, 2007
• End Child Prostitution and Trafficking / Child Wise
• Foundation against Trafficking in Women (STV)
• Global Alliance against Traffic in Women (GAATW)
• Odalisques
• Somaly Mam Foundation - to raise awareness and combat global sex slave trade
• The Anti Trafficking AllianceUK Charity tackling sex trafficking and supporting its survivors