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WAR AGAINST PROSTITUTION (New e-book) by Victor Izuogu
SPECIAL NOTE
The author is deeply touched by the above situations faced by our brothers and sisters world wide on a daily basis. He is inexplicably disturbed in his spirit and feels an irresistible urge to extend help to these people although his financial strength is not strong enough to single-handedly undertake projects of this nature. Ideas have been flowing into the author’s mind since 2002 {when the inspiration came to him} to take practical steps in order to give meaning to this project of helping the needy. This single and bold step; which is “the beginning of the journey of a million miles” is directed and propelled by a strong commitment to promote charity and humanitarian services. The first idea was to establish GLOBAL INTERCHANGE VENTURES in 2002. This was followed by a second idea to create a website: http://globalinterchange.wetpaint.com . A third was to dedicate the website for this purpose and to use it as a platform for attracting attention and assistance from people of like minds. Again, a fourth idea was to write and publish e-books on the above website. The proceeds of the e-books will be used to promote charity and humanitarian services world wide.
This is therefore, the author’s first attempt at writing a book. It may not be a perfect work, but it is a practical step aimed at raising funds to realize his dreams of reaching out to the needy. To this end, he is already working on several other books which he intends to published on the site http://globalinterchange.wetpaint.com very soon.
The author has chosen not to place a price on this e-book or any other books written by him and published on this website. He would rather prefer that you (the reader) freely give any token that comes from your heart if it pleases you to do so.
You may mail your crossed checks in favour of Global Interchange Ventures to: The Director, Global Interchange Ventures, P.O. Box 1291, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. You can also reach the author on his e-mail: victorizuogu@yahoo.com Telephone: +234-803-340-7086
THE BOOK
WAR AGAINST PROSTITUTION
Introduction
The question of the origin of prostitution has nearly as many answers as it has authors addressing the subject. Whatever is the origins and causes of prostitution, it has been a social institution throughout the recorded history of humankind. Yet there are many misconceptions concerning prostitutes. In general, it has always been a temporary job where any choice was involved. Most prostitutes left the profession to marry or simply found work of another type. For many it was a sideline, practiced to supplement their income from other sources. Prostitution is linked to other women's issues, such as the social status of women, birth control, and employment opportunities. One of the most important of these issues is economic status. As with other forms of violence against women, prostitution is a serious violation of women's human rights. Instead of capitulating to the laws of the market, governments need to reaffirm a human rights commitment to abolish all forms of sexual violence and exploitation, including prostitution, by de-criminalizing the women in prostitution and penalizing the pimps, procurers, and buyers.
There are three legislative options that have emerged to address the problems associated with prostitution. The first option, further criminalization, proposes to strengthen prostitution related laws. The second option, decriminalization, proposes to remove prostitution related offences from the Criminal Code and replace them with municipal bylaws. The final option, legalization, maintains that prostitution is a social problem that should be legalized and regulated by the state. Some communities have implemented various practices to control prostitution and its negative effects. Some of the more popular practices include legalizing brothels, implementing prostitution offender programs and creating zones of tolerance. Society has a responsibility to educate the public, prostitutes and pimps about the increased risks of disease and violence associated with prostitution. Although prostitution often appears to be a career choice for those involved, it is essential to understand the overwhelming coercion and desperation behind that "choice." Future initiatives should continue to acknowledge prostitutes as victims, and realize that the punitive nature of the criminal law is rarely of any help in addressing a social problem like prostitution.
CHAPTER ONE
Prostitution Defined
Prostitution is the exchange of sexual acts for payment. In its most basic form, prostitution is nothing but a contract between consenting people. A contract to provide and receive sex in exchange for payment, economic gratification or any consideration agreed upon by the parties involved. The services may consist of any sexual acts, including those which do not involve copulation. The practice of engaging in indiscriminate sexual activity in exchange for deferred or immediate payment in money or other valuables is called prostitution.
Prostitutes may be of either sex who may engage in heterosexual or homosexual activity, but the majority of prostitution has been among females, with males as their clients. A very simple way of defining prostitution is when people do something for money or other gratifications that they would not be doing without being rewarded for it. You will find under this definition that there are quite a few who engage in the act but who are not prostitutes. Prostitutes appear to love what they do, and would continue to engage in promiscuous sex even without the monetary reward. There are several factors that are associated with entry into the prostitution trade. Some of the more influential factors are age, early home leaving, childhood sexual abuse, drug abuse and a poor financial situation. Most prostitutes have encountered at least one of these problems and many have experienced them in combination. In discussing the issue of prostitution, some words will feature prominently in this book. It is important to explain these so that everyone understands what is being said. The words/terms are:
1. Abolition (or suppression): This refers to attempts by governments to prohibit all acts of prostitution, as well as the activities that promote it, such as keeping a brothel. Abolition -- or absolute criminalization -- is often considered to be the extreme opposite of legalizing prostitution. Actually, it is the ultimate in state control of that profession. Abolitionists call for all forms of prostitution to be considered a criminal offense and suppressed by force of law.
2. Legalization (or regulation): This refers to governments’ attempt to regulate prostitution by giving it some form of backing and regulations. It can best be described as “government regulated prostitution”. In this case, government has registered prostitutes with the police. The prostitutes are subjected to rules meant to protect health and public decency. Legalization refers to some form of state controlled prostitution. It often includes mandatory medical exams, special taxes and licensing. It always includes a government record of who is a prostitute, information which is commonly used for other government purposes. For example, some countries in Europe indicate whether a person is a prostitute on his or her passport. This restricts that person's ability to travel since many countries will automatically refuse entry on that basis. The responsibility of controlling legalized prostitution usually falls on the shoulders of the police.
3. Decriminalization (or tolerance): This refers to the abolition of all laws against prostitution including laws against pimping. Almost all prostitutes' rights groups in North America call for the decriminalization of consensual adult sex on the grounds that laws against such sex violate civil liberties, such as the freedom of association. The individualist feminist approach to prostitution is to advocate decriminalization: that is, the abolition of all laws against selling and buying of sex.
4. Pimps (or Johns):These are men who "protect" prostitutes and force the prostitutes to pay for the service of “protection” rendered. In most countries, pimps are not subject to arrest because they infrequently engage in acts of procurement.
5. Brothel: A brothel was an establishment where a number of prostitutes gathered to work, and sometimes live.
CHAPTER TWO
The History Of Prostitution
Prostitution is frequently called the world's oldest profession. Prostitution is empowered by many of society's traditional attitudes about women, e.g. women are property, women are sinful, women's purpose is to serve the needs of men. Because these attitudes are so ingrained, it is impossible to think of a time when they were not truisms. Prostitution is very ancient, however, and is documented in humankind's earliest written records. The question of its origins has nearly as many answers as it has authors addressing the subject. The various theories can be broken into four basic categories. The first is that prostitution is inevitable because nature determines certain roles for men and women, and one of women's roles is to serve the sexual needs of men. This theory is shared by both traditional anthropologists and by some modern theorists. The socialist/Marxist view is that prostitution is an inevitable result of capitalism. A third view, widely held by some anthropologists, is that prostitution is an inheritance from early matriarchal societies where it was practiced without the negative social stigma that is attached to it today. The final, and in my mind the most reasonable theory is that prostitution is a function of a patriarchal and male-dominated society. Whatever the origins and causes of prostitution, it has been a social institution throughout the recorded history of mankind. Yet there are many misconceptions concerning prostitutes.
In general, it has always been a temporary job where any choice was involved. Most prostitutes left the profession to marry or simply found work of another type. For many it was a sideline, practiced to supplement their income from other sources. Prostitution is linked to other women's issues, such as the social status of women, birth control, and employment opportunities. One of the most important of these issues is economic status. Throughout history, prostitutes have fallen into three classes. The lowest is the prostitutes of the streets. These women were originally slaves, and in later times came from the entrenched poor. The next class up is composed of women who work in brothels or similar facilities, who mainly come from working-class backgrounds. The upper-class of prostitutes are the courtesans. Although there is some blurring between these categories, for the most part they are discrete and distinguished by working conditions, number of clients, amount of pay, and social status.
Women of the Streets : Women of the streets were those who sold their sexual services by walking the streets in search of customers. In ancient times slaves made up the lowest class of prostitutes. These were the "temple prostitutes." Because of their association with state religions, many authors have assumed that prostitution carried no stigma in these cultures. In actuality, the association with the temples was solely economic. The slave prostitutes carried on their business in the streets and taverns and turned their earnings over to priests to support the temples. This was the case in Babylonia, Egypt, Palestine, Greece, and Rome. Confusion is caused by incorrectly equating these women with the priestesses who had ritual sex as part of various religious rites. This has been labeled prostitution by many authors, though it bears no resemblance to any modern definition. Most of the former group worked the streets, although in Greece and Rome, large brothels were considered an easier way to control them. Solon, the Athenian lawgiver of the 6th century B.C., owned a large brothel populated with slaves. Secular prostitution in the streets also existed in the ancient world. In Babylonia at the time of Hammurabi, the harimate had a notorious reputation, and men were warned not to marry them under any circumstances. In ancient Palestine, women sat along side the roadways to attract customers. Greek street walkers worked the taverns, but shared status and name, pornoi ("whore"), with the slaves in the brothels.
The Romans considered street prostitutes to be sexually insatiable, vicious, and likely to corrupt children. The lives of these women were circumscribed in many ways. In Rome, the street prostitute's movements were controlled as well as her mode of dress, and the Assyrians had severe penalties for those who wore veils in an attempt to pass as "respectable women." Women of the ancient middle east turned to prostitution because they were widows, orphans, outcasts, or the daughters of prostitutes. There was no other place for those who did not have men to protect and support them.
In early Islamic cultures, the harem was a form of slave prostitution, and men of wealth purchased hundreds of slaves for their harems. Men could sell their slaves and concubines at will, but were not supposed to sell them into prostitution, which was illegal under Islamic law. Some did anyway, and prostitution was tolerated, though kept behind the scenes by the muhtasib--the morals police who had the power to punish prostitutes on sight.
The lowest class of prostitutes in India were the khumbhadasi. They came from the lower castes of society and had nominal legal protection from the State. Since marriage and prostitution were the only options available to women in Indian society, widows who failed to commit suttee had few, if any, alternatives. In China, all prostitution was confined to brothels. The lowest class, called wa-shê, first appeared during the Han dynasty (206 B.C.--24 C.E.), and was filled with women criminals or the female relatives of male criminals, prisoners of war, and slaves. They had few legal rights and numerous social disabilities. They were used to service soldiers and the poorest elements of male society.
Prostitution in medieval Europe was influenced by the views of the early Christian church. It was seen as a necessary evil, and therefore tolerated, although Church officials condemned the practice and encouraged women to give up the trade. The lowest class prostitutes of the Byzantine Empire were in brothels peopled with girls from the countryside who had been sold by their parents in time of economic need. In early Germanic societies, voluntary prostitution was a crime against the male relatives of the prostitute and was severely punished, but the sexual exploitation of female slaves was practiced. Prostitution increased with urbanization, and the lowest class of prostitutes were serfs who fled to the cities. They made up the ranks of camp followers who plied their trade at military garrisons and followed the armies in the field. Prostitutes were required to wear distinguishing dress, and there was concern about public soliciting.
As urbanization increased, prostitutes began to cluster in certain areas of the cities, especially near universities and around the public baths or "stews." As in modern times, "public women" were identified with venereal disease. Pimping was illegal in most places, probably in an attempt to control the street crime which was associated with it, although stories of mothers selling their daughters into prostitution abound. By the Renaissance, regulation of prostitution existed throughout Europe. Wages, rents, hours, and health examinations were all controlled by the various governments. Fear of syphilis, at that time as deadly a disease as AIDS is today, led to the closing of the stews and the removal of most prostitutes to brothels. Unfortunately, those women who were evicted from the brothels due to disease were left with no choice but to ply their trade in the streets. In some areas, prostitution was outlawed entirely, but strict regulation and some efforts at reforming prostitutes were the norm. None of these measures succeeded in reducing prostitution, and in 1490 the official register recorded 7,000 prostitutes in Rome and over 11,000 in Venice. Since street prostitutes were not registered, these numbers represent a minimum. Street prostitution has always been the most visible form of the profession. Composed of women from the lowest classes of society, it is unarguably the lowest status that a woman could have. It was not, however, the most prevalent form of prostitution. That distinction goes to the middle-class of the profession, the women in brothels.
Women in Brothels
By far the most common form of prostitution throughout history was in a brothel. A brothel was an establishment where a number of prostitutes gathered to work, and sometimes live. The Babylonians referred to the women who worked in brothels and ale-houses as senhate, and the ancient Hebrews called them zonah, which means "faithless one." In Greece the middle-class prostitutes worked in inns, sat in windows of houses, or worked as musicians and dancers. This class of women were called aultrides, which means "flute players." Women of this class were generally not slaves, and though they probably came to the profession for reasons of economic hardship, they were able to turn beauty or talent to advantage. In Rome, the prostitutes of this class sometimes worked in brothels, but were more likely to be found in inns, working the circuses, or sitting in the windows of their houses--thus the word prostitute, which means "to set forth."
In the Islamic world, an interesting custom arose called mut'a. This was a form of temporary marriage, which could be for as short as one hour, in exchange for money. This was not considered prostitution, though it meets most modern definitions.
Many of the women who practiced this were married and did so with their husbands permission and sanction of law. Married women in India also sometimes practiced prostitution to make extra money, especially those from the sudra or servant caste. These artisan's wives were known as silpakarika. The women who worked in the brothels were called paricharika and usually had one or two special customers who looked after them. Musicians and dancing girls were also frequently prostitutes. Prostitutes in China were classified according to their accomplishments, and the middle-class were entertainers. They worked in wine-houses, establishments that also served as hotels. Red silk lamps were hung on their doors for identification. Middle-class prostitutes in the Byzantine Empire were usually entertainers and theater women. Tradition has it that Empress Theodora was once a prostitute of this type who rose through the ranks and eventually seduced the Emperor into marriage.
In Europe, women plied the trade in taverns and inns, and as cities grew, actual brothels were established. Some prostitutes established guilds in the same way as the other professions. Female troubadours also sometimes practiced prostitution. Many of the prostitutes of this class had other employment which was inadequate to meet their needs. By the Renaissance, brothels were a well-established part of the cities, and were restricted to designated areas. Prominent men frequently owned brothels, and taxes on them were paid to the state, which regulated them.
Regulation attempted to get all prostitutes into the brothels where they could be counted, taxed, and controlled. Fear of syphilis led to regular medical inspections. Special hospitals were founded for diseased prostitutes, and there was an active movement in the 16th century to abolish prostitution, which built convents and shelters for reformed prostitutes. Despite these efforts, prostitution continued to flourish, especially in the larger cities where wages for women were low, and there were large numbers of men in the professional merchant class.
Courtesans
Courtesans are the elite of prostitutes. Their lives have been lauded by writers of many times and places. In societies where wives were not allowed to interact socially with men, courtesans have been used to fill the gap. They are the only prostitutes to leave their names in histories, and at times they have had a profound effect on politics and the arts. Courtesans have inspired entire genres of poetry and set styles of fashion. Some rose from the ranks of middle-class prostitutes through talent and education, and some were trained virtually from birth. Many of them came from the middle and upper-classes and chose the profession because it was the only way to achieve wealth and prestige in a world dominated by men. The courtesans of Babylonia were the kizrete and were highly prized as concubines. The Epic of Gilgamesh includes the story of how a courtesan defeated the wild man Enkidu through the arts of love. In ancient Egypt, tales of famous courtesans were written as popular stories. The concubines of the Hebrew patriarchs also came from this class, but nowhere was the courtesan more highly prized than in ancient Greece.
CHAPTER THREE
Prostitution as a Career
In a controversial 1998 report, the International Labor Organization (ILO), the official labor agency of the United Nations, called for economic recognition of the sex industry. Citing the expanding reach of the industry and its unrecognized contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) of four countries in Southeast Asia, the ILO urges official recognition of what it terms "the sex sector." Recognition includes extending "labor rights and benefits to sex workers," improving "working conditions" in the industry, and "extending the taxation net to cover many of the lucrative activities connected with it". Although the ILO report claimed to stop short of advocating legalization of prostitution, the economic recognition of the sex sector that it promotes could not occur without legal acceptance of the industry.
For many years, the sex industry has lobbied for economic recognition of prostitution and related forms of sexual entertainment as sex work. Now the ILO has become the latest and most questionable group urging acceptance of the sex industry. Effectively the ILO is calling for governments to cash in on the booming profits of the industry by taxing and regulating it as a legitimate job. Entitled The Sex Sector: the Economic and Social Bases of Prostitution in South-East Asia, the ILO report echoed the economic determinism of the February 14, 1998 cover story of The Economist aptly termed "Giving the Customer What He Wants." The report professes to be a survey of the "sex sector" in four countries authored by country-specific writers in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. But the framework, summaries, and conclusions of the report were edited by economist Lin Lean Lim, longtime advocate for governmental acceptance of the "sex sector." Southeast Asia is facing its most serious economic crisis in decades. Together with the political uncertainty and instability in many parts of Asia, the economic crisis has exacerbated the recruitment of women into the sex industry. Governments which follow the ILO recommendations to recognize prostitution as legitimate women's work will thus have a huge economic stake in the sex industry. Consequently, this will foster their increased dependence on the sex sector.
The ILO report will be used as a justification for increasing the entry of women into "sex work" to lower the unemployment rate and then for taxing women's earnings to raise desperately needed capital. As in Latin America, the impact of macro-economic policies in certain countries of Asia will provide these governments with the rationale to expand the sex industry. The government of Belize, for example, has "Recognized prostitution...[as] a gender-specific form of migrant labor that serves the same economic functions for women as agricultural work offers to men, and often for better pay." Rather than economic opportunity, the most glaring evidence of women's economic marginalization and social inequality in almost all Asian countries is the rampant commodification of women in prostitution, sex trafficking, sex tourism and mail order bride industries. In this context of severe economic decline, it seems the height of economic opportunism to argue for the recognition of the sex industry based on transforming women's sexual and economic exploitation into legitimate work. The ILO report reads as an economic anointment of the sex industry. In this year of the 50th Anniversary of the International Declaration of Human Rights, the ILO report seems to regard human rights concerns about prostitution as an impediment to recognition of the sex industry. As part of its policy recommendations, it concludes that "A stance focusing on individual prostitutes tends to emphasize moralistic and human rights concerns, which are undoubtedly important, but which will not have a major impact on changing or reducing the [sex] sector". The ILO grossly underestimates the violation and violence that prostituted women endure, dismissing the harm done to women in prostitution by stating that only 20% are badly exploited or kept in some form of bondage. Contrary to the benign picture of prostitution painted by the ILO report, the violence that prostituted women endure is more acute and much more frequent than that experienced by other women. In a study of Nepali women and girls trafficked for prostitution into India's brothels, Human Rights Watch/Asia documents that "Most girls and women start out in these cheap brothels where they are 'broken in' through a process of rapes and beatings". In another report on Burmese women trafficked for prostitution into Thailand's brothels, Human Rights/Asia states that "the brothel owners are profiting off the repeated rape and sexual assault of the Burmese women and girls sometimes over long periods of time...".
The report makes clear that rape and sexual assault were not restricted to under age girls or to the girls' or women's initial seasoning into the brothels. "The combination of debt bondage, illegal confinement and the threat or use of physical abuse, force the women and girls into sexual slavery...for the duration of their time in the brothel." In its minimization of the harm of prostitution and in its push to redefine prostitution as sex work by recommending that governments recognize the sex industry as an economic sector, the ILO seems oblivious to recent legislation demonstrating that countries are able to reduce organized sexual exploitation instead of capitulating to it. Two countries which have specifically refused to recognize prostitution as work are Sweden and Venezuela. In May, 1998, Sweden became one of the first countries to prohibit the purchase of sexual services with punishments of fines or imprisonment. In so doing, Sweden has declared that prostitution is not a desirable economic and labor sector. Also in May, 1998, the government of Venezuela passed legislation rejecting the request of powerful pro-sex industry groups to register a legal union of so-called sex workers. The Ministry of Labor's decision was based on the fact that since the majority of "sex work" is prostitution, rather than being sexual work, it is sexual exploitation. Venezuela ruled that "prostitution cannot be considered work because it lacks the basic elements of dignity and social justice." It also ruled that since one of the main purposes of forming a labor union is "to promote the collective development of its members and of their profession," a decision in favor of unionizing so-called sex workers would in fact promote the development and expansion of prostitution. For over a decade, women's groups worldwide have sought better measurement of women's contribution to national economies calling for the inclusion of work such as child or family care, housekeeping, cooking and shopping -- most of which women have traditionally done -- in labor force statistics. Since governments use these statistics to assess economic development and to prepare and implement social policies, failure to properly recognize and measure women's role in production distorts and minimizes women's economic contribution to society and impedes their access to economic resources.
Given the lack of recognition and the devaluing of women's work in the systems of national accounts, it is a travesty that the ILO would now be calling for the economic recognition of prostitution as legitimate work. If women in prostitution are counted as workers, pimps as businessmen, and the buyers as customers, thus legitimating the entire sex industry as an economic sector, then governments can abdicate responsibility for making decent and sustainable employment available to women. Why specifically is the ILO urging recognition of the sex industry? The report lists a number of reasons which, it says, are based on interviews, conducted mostly by academics and university students, and done with small samples of women in the sex industry in each of these four countries. It is highly questionable whether this small sample of women, interviewed by academics and university students, could get at the truth of prostituted women's lives. For this and other reasons, it is important to address these arguments and to offer detailed responses.
ARGUMENTS BY THE ILO REPORT IN SUPPORT OF PROSTITUTION AND MORAL/LOGICAL RESPONSES AGAINST PROSTITUTION
1. Prostitution is “mainly economic in nature”. The stark reality is that the sex sector is a 'big business' that is well entrenched in national economies and the international economy...Especially in view of its size and significance, the official stance cannot be one of neglect or non-recognition".
As an economic activity, prostitution institutionalizes the buying and selling of women as commodities in the marketplace. It further removes women from the economic mainstream by segregating them as a class set apart for sexual servitude. It reinforces the definition of women as providers of sexual services, thereby perpetuating gender inequality. And it legitimizes and strengthens men's ability to put the bodies of women at their disposal. Because the sex industry is integrated into the economic, social and political life of many countries doesn't mean we should passively accept this state of affairs as a kind of economic law. The ILO's dispassionate recommendation to recognize the sex industry as an economic sector capitulates to a conservative laissez-faire market ideology prevalent in many countries. That the sex industry contributes significantly to the economy and GDP of many countries should be taken as a cause for alarm and action against the industry rather than an excuse for acquiescence to it.
2. The sex business has assumed the dimensions of an industry and has directly or indirectly contributed in no small measure to employment, national income and economic growth...". In Southeast Asia, the sex industry prostitutes "between 0.25 and 1.5 per cent of the total female population in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand" and "accounts for between 2 per cent and 14 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP)". In Thailand, "prostitution was the largest of the underground businesses winning out over drug trafficking, arms trading, contraband in diesel oil, trafficking in human labour and gambling...These economic bases underscore the importance of the commercial sex sector in the economies of Southeast Asian countries, and help to explain why the policy issue cannot be seen only from the perspective of the welfare of individual prostitutes. It is worth considering...the possibility that official recognition of the sector would be extremely useful...for extending the taxation net to cover many of the lucrative activities connected with it".
The international narcotics industry contributes significantly to the economy and GDP of several Latin American and Asian countries. Millions of farmers and families in countries such as Columbia and Burma depend on the income generated by the drug sector. Foreign currency generated by drug trafficking is said to contribute to economic stability. The drug sector involves diverse but highly interrelated establishments such as farming, transportation, bars, gambling, prostitution, tourism, and hotels. The revenues generated by the drug sector, if calculated, would rival the revenues generated by the sex sector. Should we, by the same token, recognize the "drug sector," redefining harmful drugs as legal marketable commodities and drug traffickers as legitimate businessmen? The ILO report makes little mention of the harm that accrues to women in prostitution. As the report states, "the welfare of individual prostitutes" cannot be allowed to dictate the policy issue.
It is this harm, made visible in the violence and health consequences suffered by women in prostitution, that most strongly refutes the ILO arguments that prostitution should be accepted as work by recognizing the sex industry as an economic sector. Study after study has shown that the lives women in prostitution lead are hazardous and bordering on brutality. The harm of prostitution is graphically evident in its health consequences. Women in prostitution suffer the same injuries that women subjected to other forms of violence against women endure, including bruises, broken bones, black eyes, concussions, and loss of consciousness. The reproductive health effects include a high incidence of unwanted pregnancies, miscarriage, multiple abortions and infertility. In addition to HIV/AIDS, chronic pelvic pain and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are alarmingly high among women in prostitution. In the study done by Human Rights Watch/Asia of Burmese women prostituted in Thailand, fourteen of the thirty girls interviewed were HIV positive, infected by the men who bought them (Asia Watch, 1993, p.70). The report on Nepali women and girls cites the Indian Health Organization's estimate that "80 percent of sex workers are infected with a sexually transmitted disease...Activists there have also encountered cases of forced sterilization of brothel inmates, hysterectomies during abortion being the most typical. Recognition of the sex sector will not change this reality.
3. The ILO report argues that "All the country studies confirm that earnings from prostitution are often more than from alternative employment opportunities open to women with no or low levels of education" .
Rather than accept the unexamined premise that some women earn more in prostitution than in any other profession, the ILO should question why prostitution is the only place where mostly women can turn when all else fails. The ILO report acknowledges that "A striking finding from the survey is that although many women indicated that they would like to move to other jobs, they were conscious of the income loss they would face". It is a gendered reality that prostitution may be the best of the worst economic options that many women have, and it is understandable that women turn to prostitution in these circumstances. However, the fact that there are often no better job options for women shouldn't be manipulated to turn many women's desperate economic plight against them by institutionalizing their exploiters as entrepreneurs. This is to surrender the political battle for women's right to decent and sustainable work, and to tolerate that women's bodies are increasingly bought for sex and used as merchandise in the marketplace.
4. "On the demand side, recent economic development has created increasing...capacity and, very likely, the motivation of men to buy sexual services in a much wider and more sophisticated range of settings...This has resulted in the widening of the diversity of settings in which sexual services are offered, and in the establishment of new and more luxurious types of sex establishments".
The most invisible part of the sex industry is the buyer and his role and responsibility in creating the demand for prostitution. The ILO report offers no criticism of the male entitlement to buy women for the sex of prostitution. Citing the expanding reality of male demand for prostitution, and even acknowledging that "poverty has never stopped men from paying for sexual services", the ILO's recommendations implicitly support the view that men need sex and are entitled to have it even if they have to purchase a woman's body. The body of the prostituted woman is the vehicle with which the male buyer acts out his gender-based dominance. The ILO seems to assume that male biology dictates male sexual behavior, and that thus prostitution is inevitable. If not biologically inevitable, the ILO report does assume that prostitution is economically inevitable. "Given that the economic and social foundations are not easy to change, the sex sector is not going to disappear in the foreseeable future. Especially in view of its size and significance, the official stance cannot be one of neglect or non-recognition". The explicit recommendations of the report urge governments to recognize the right of men to buy women in the market sector because male purchasing power is increasing. This is no less that an economic rationalization of male sexual privilege and economic power. Instead of transforming the male buyer into a legitimate customer who buys women's bodies with impunity, the ILO should seriously study various innovative programs which make the buyer accountable for his sexual exploitation, thereby regulating his actions instead of recognizing them as legitimate. For example, the SAGE Program in San Francisco has designed a program to educate those men arrested for soliciting women in prostitution about the risks and impacts of their behavior.
Buyers have to listen for eight hours to those most traumatized by male sexual exploitation, especially the prostitution survivors, who tell these men that they wreak havoc on women's lives leaving behind them a wake of danger, degradation, disease and often death.
5. When the sex sector is recognized as an economic sector, governments may be better able to regulate and monitor the expanding criminal elements of the industry such as organized crime, drug abuse, and especially child prostitution. "Yet governments have found it exceedingly difficult to tackle the problems...because...The sex sector is not recognized..." .
Even if it were possible to remove the criminal element that controls the sex industry, or to limit prohibition only to child prostitution, these "solutions" can be compared to attempts to regulate slavery as a business -- a serious proposal at the height of the slave trade. Those who advocated abolition of the slave trade knew that it was/is not possible to legislate against slavery by simply removing abusive slave owners, or by tolerating the slavery of adults but not of children, because slavery itself is the abuse. They knew that these "economic sector solutions" were tantamount to reinforcing slavery as an oppressive institution. As with slavery, prostitution per se is abuse, exploitation and an oppressive institution. Sexual exploitation violates the human rights of anyone subjected to it, whether adult or child. The criminal aspects of prostitution which the ILO report is critical of cannot be remedied without addressing the entire system of prostitution. Transforming the crime of prostitution into an official acceptance of it will only lead to entrenching organized crime.
The legacy of slavery in the United States has been a legacy of the racial subordination and oppression of all African Americans. Slavery set the standard for the way African Americans, as a race, have been treated in the United States, although all African Americans were not enslaved. For all African Americans, slavery generated a history of physical violence and racial hatred, a society based on segregation, and unequal access to all the basic rights of citizenship. Similarly, prostitution expresses the worth of all women. Prostitution has an enormous impact on the way men value and treat women in general and any woman in particular.
The pervasive sexualization of women, the fact that women's bodies are made increasingly accessible and available to men, and the ways in which all of this is made into "sex" in prostitution define what a woman is in this society and what she is made for. Because any woman's body can be commodified and sold as sex in the marketplace, all women can be reduced to sexual objects and instruments. The degraded role into which prostituted women are cast, sanctions the sexual exploitation of all women, eroticizes women's inequality, and thus bolsters women's personal and social subordination.
6. "For those adult individuals who freely choose sex work, the policy concerns should focus on improving their working conditions and social protection, and on ensuring that they are entitled to the same labour rights and benefits as other workers".
In countries that have taken a labor approach to prostitution regulating/legalizing it as work, recognition of the sex sector has caused prostitution to flourish more than when it was illegal. There is good evidence that countries such as Holland and Germany, both of which have recognized prostitution as work and as an economic sector, are precisely the countries which have higher rates of women illegally trafficked into the country for prostitution. Furthermore, the permissiveness of the legal climate encourages the illegal sector to grow. Men who formerly would not risk buying women for sex now see prostitution as acceptable. The tolerant legal climate makes it easier for pimps, traffickers and brothel owners to attract women to the "work." The ILO argues that recognition of the sex sector would help keep the sex industry above ground and make it controllable. But consider the example of the legal arms sector which is supposedly monitored and regulated by governments, the very position in which the ILO would place the sex sector. A significant percentage of the arms trade is clandestine and underground, although the arms sector is subject to disclosure and to governmental oversight.
In addition, hundreds of NGOs keep close watch on the arms sector. That there is a trade in legal arms has only served to enhance the viability and expansionism of the illegal arms industry. Rather than reducing the illegal trafficking in arms, the legal flow of arms serves to expand it by creating the infrastructure on which illegal arms trading depends. Why should the sex sector be any different? Recognition of prostitution as work can only increase the current expansionism of the sex industry giving it the stable marketing environment for which it has lobbied and locking women even further into the industry by legitimating the sex trade. Instead of recommending that governments cash in on the economic benefits of the sex industry, the ILO should recommend that states invest in the futures of prostituted women by providing economic resources from the seizure of sex industry assets to enable women to leave prostitution. In this context, the ILO should pay attention to that part of its own report which found that "...prostitution is one of the most alienated forms of labour; the surveys show that women worked 'with a heavy heart', 'felt forced' or were 'conscience-stricken' and had negative self-identities. A significant proportion claimed they wanted to leave sex work if they could”.
7. The ILO report does not call for the legalization of prostitution. Lin Lean Lim, the editor of the report has stated that "Recognizing prostitution as an 'economic sector' does not, at all, mean that the ILO is calling for the legalization of prostitution."
Although the ILO report does not explicitly recommend legalization, it implicitly advocates legalization by calling on governments to recognize prostitution as an economic sector and "a legal occupation with protection under labour law and social security and health regulations". One might ask how an illegal activity could be taxed. How can prostitution be recognized as a "legal occupation" without legal recognition, thus legalizing it in some way? How can prostitution be regulated as legitimate work, subject to occupational health and welfare standards, without some form of legalization?
8. "A major difficulty [to economic recognition of prostitution as work] is that measures targeting the sex sector have to consider moral, religious, health, human rights and criminal issues in addressing a phenomenon that is mainly economic in nature. A stance focusing on individual prostitutes tends to emphasize moralistic and human rights concerns, which are undoubtedly important, but which will not have a major impact on changing the sector". "
Moral, religious, health, human rights and criminal issues" have served as the only brake on the expansion and exploitation of the sex industry. Prostitution is sexual exploitation and violates the human rights of anyone subjected to it. Particularly, it victimizes the women in prostitution but also all women, justifying the sale of any woman, and reducing all women to sex tools. In his famous work on famines, economist Sen reminds us that famines are not caused by food shortages but by the failure of governments to make social choices to eradicate famine and intervene on behalf of those most affected by lack of food. The fact that prostitution is a flourishing industry indicates the failure of governments to make the necessary social choices to eliminate it. Any economic theory that chronicles the way in which prostitution is entrenched in the economies of many countries could encourage governments to make the social choice to eradicate prostitution and provide economic alternatives to assist women out of prostitution, thereby restoring an ethical dimension to the discussion of vital economic and social problems.
9. "Child prostitution should be treated as a much more serious problem than adult prostitution". Legislation should make a clear distinction between child and adult prostitution. In the case of children, "all prostitution must by definition be deemed involuntary and the aim is its total elimination" but "in the case of adults, we can concede that it may be possible to make a distinction between prostitution as a freely chosen form of work and prostitution through coercion" .
Many individuals and groups are concerned about the sexual exploitation of children and rightly so. Child prostitution is a horrendous violation of a child's person and his/her human rights. But when "choice" is used as a wedge to drive distinctions between child and adult prostitution in order to legitimate the so-called right of adult women to choose prostitution, then the harm to women becomes invisible. The distinction between child and adult prostitution also serves to perpetuate the exploitation of children because countries then rush to redefine children as adults, either legally by lowering the age of consent to sexual intercourse, or socially by redefining the image of children as adults in pornography, advertising and film. As more and more children are sexualized and made to look like adult women in prostitution, men can claim they were ignorant of engaging in sex with a minor. When distinctions are made between child and adult prostitution for purposes of making only child prostitution actionable, the child sex abuser becomes known as a pedophile, a category that gives the impression that men who buy sex with children are abnormal personalities who are fixated on children, bio-psychologically driven to abuse children sexually, and not in control of their actions. There is no pathological type of men who use children for sex. Rather, men who sexually exploit children come from all walks of life. In a paper on "The Sex Exploiter" prepared for the World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children held in Stockholm in 1996, the ECPAT Working Group found that "...the majority of the several million men who annually exploit prostitutes under 18 years of age are first and foremost prostitute users who become child sexual abusers through their prostitute use, rather than the other way about. These men come from a variety of nationalities, socio-economic, cultural and religious backgrounds and do not abuse children in prostitution because they have a focused sexual interest in children but because they are morally and sexually indiscriminate.
In the United States, child prostitution and pornography scandals usually focus on very young children, mostly under age 12, because Lolita-like depictions of 13 and 14 year olds in the media and on the streets condition people to see them as adult-like adolescents who are capable of choice. Will the next distinction drawn be between child and adolescent prostitution, and the arbitrary age line set at 12 or 13? Furthermore, if countries limit the harm of prostitution to only "forced prostitution," as the ILO report suggests, it becomes easier to defend men who engage in prostitution with adolescents between the ages of 12-18, because this will become an ambiguous age cohort as more and more choice is attributed to older children. Consider also that the average age of entrance into prostitution worldwide is 14. As one survivor who was recruited into prostitution at age 13 remarked, "I must tell you that the day I turned 18, the sexual abuse I was subject to did not turn into a self-determined choice." By creating a distinction between child and adult prostitution, we are conveying the message that there is an appropriate age at which a male may use his social and economic power to buy access to a female body.
Do we really want the message to be "Not now but later?" Legal brothels in countries which have recognized prostitution, such as in Bangladesh, are filled with children. The children carry identity papers on them falsifying their ages. The police see the papers and do nothing to enforce the age limit because they accept the false certificates and are often in collusion with the pimps and brothel owners. Recognition and outright legalization of prostitution in such countries has done nothing to reduce police corruption, child prostitution, or the prostitution of women. Recognition of the sex industry as an economic sector will only enhance the already high demand for child prostitution. Even the ILO report acknowledges that "The AIDS epidemic appears to have indirectly resulted in a rising demand for ever-younger children because of the belief among clients that they are not likely to be infected with the disease". Even before the AIDS pandemic, men always sought sex with children and adolescents in the belief that child sex is more fresh and real than sex with hardened adult woman. However, men not only seek the vulnerability of children but also the pliability of children who can be molded more easily into the sexual objects and instruments of male desire.
Men delude themselves into believing that they are introducing children into sexuality and derive a false power from "breaking in" girls they imagine are young virgins. The ILO report recognizes that "Commercial sexual exploitation is such a serious form of violence against children that there are lifelong and life-threatening consequences. There are also chain effects, with sexual abuse leading to other forms of abuse, such as drug abuse, and cumulative negative consequences". Oral testimony from women in prostitution reveals the same effects on adult women -- that it is such a serious form of violence that it affects their lives forever. Adult women in prostitution are at special risk for self-mutilation, suicide and homicide.
Connecting the sexual exploitation of children and women does not mean that women are being treated as children. Nor does it mean that the physical and psychological effects of sexual exploitation on the young may well be more severe than the effects of sexually exploitative practices on adult women. It does mean that when an adult takes his sexual gratification over the bought bodies of women and children that this is a violation of a human being, that he is using a human being as an instrument for his own pleasure, and that whatever the age, culture, race of condition of the victim, sexual exploitation is a violation of that person's humanity, dignity and integrity and should be made actionable.
Conclusions
Official recognition of the sex sector is not likely to improve things for women. Those who argue that recognizing prostitution as work will protect women from abuse fail to acknowledge that violence is often done to women in prostitution not just because laws do not protect women or the "work," but because men's use of women in prostitution and the acts women must engage in are sexually and physically degrading, exploitative, and most often violent. How would recognition of the sex sector function? The ILO acknowledges that women in prostitution are against compulsory legal registration but, on the other hand, seems to accept that some kind of mandatory registration would have to happen. Will an official license confer rights on women in prostitution or confine them to a registered ghetto of legally stigmatized women who enjoy the right to be branded by the state as prostitutes and be medically accessible for examination?
The law in Bangladesh requires a woman to simply file an application before a first class magistrate to obtain a license for prostitution. Yet few women file such papers. In some countries, a whole new criminal network will emerge to control legal licenses. New laws recognizing the sex sector will have to be regulated and enforced and that implies more bureaucracy and red tape, not more protection. When a woman wants to take legal action against a perpetrator, she will bear an enormous burden of proof of violation because she will have to prove force. Consider this example which captures the meaninglessness of the forced/free distinction in the actual "workplace."
If a woman in prostitution is paid to "enact" a rape, how can the purchased performance of "enacting" a rape, to which she allegedly consents, be separated from the actual brutality of the rape which the buyer may force on her. Would any court of law recognize a distinction between a forced and free enactment of rape in this situation? Or would it assume that an occupational hazard of prostitution is that the buyer, with impunity, can get rougher than the prostituted woman bargained for? How will the woman be able to demonstrate that the violations from acts that she is expected to perform in prostitution -- e.g., a "regular" rape -- are indeed separate from those acts she shouldn't be expected to endure in prostitution -- i.e., a brutal rape? How would a woman who wanted to prove force in this context be able to demonstrate that the violation and violence to which she was subjected in this rape "enactment" was not a free choice if she is presumed to consent to the general act of prostitution and the specific act of "enacting" a rape with a buyer?
When a woman accepts money for Sex, it implies that she has conferred on the man, the authority and power to decide and dictate what kind of sex will happen. She has entered into business transaction with him. In that case, she would be expected to endure brutality, rape and other crimes committed against her behind closed doors by the man. The ILO report claims that recognizing prostitution as an economic sector will improve the health conditions for women in the industry. Just how this will happen is not clear from the report. In one section, the ILO acknowledges that health measures, presumably health checks and monitoring, would have to be directed to the "clients" which is not now a reality. For it is the buyers who are the major link in the chain of transmission of HIV/AIDS and STDs, since they carry the diseases not only to the women in prostitution but to their spouses or other sexual contacts.
Perhaps because the ILO tacitly recognizes that the sex sector's viability depends on giving the customer what he wants -- which is certainly not mandatory health checks -- it offers no recommendations for how health monitoring of buyers would be achieved. A reason why men go to women in prostitution is that they get the sex that they demand. If they don't want to use condoms, they won't. Male buyers don't want to be checked at the door for HIV/AIDS or STDs. They want anonymous sex on demand. Even in military situations where health check-ups could easily be mandated, as at the social hygiene clinics set up to monitor women in prostitution and previously run by the U.S. military in connection with local governments near the former U.S. military bases in the Philippines, the military men were never required to undergo medical check-ups. Women are not well-served by the ILO's particular brand of economic determinism that calls for recognition of the sex sector, particularly in Southeast Asia where the brutal effects of globalization have hit hardest. As with other forms of violence against women, prostitution is a serious violation of women's human rights. Instead of capitulating to the laws of the market, governments need to reaffirm a human rights commitment to abolish all forms of sexual violence and exploitation, including prostitution, by de-criminalizing the women in prostitution and penalizing the pimps, procurers, and buyers.
The four countries surveyed in the ILO report have been and will be hurt most by its recommendations. The Geneva-based body is the oldest United Nations subsidiary and has been involved with the world of work for decades. In many developing countries, the ILO is looked upon with reverence by trade union leaders who believe that the people running the organisation have workers' interests at heart. However, the ILO has grossly underestimated not just the integrity of governments in this region but also the intelligence of the Southeast Asian people. Prostitution and the sex industry are social ills, not legitimate occupations that the ILO claims will bring in better incomes than unskilled labor. For years the governments in this region have been fighting a war against the flesh trade. Their status as newly-impoverished countries should not give the ILO or anybody else the impression that Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines or Thailand are desperate and would do anything for economic growth. Recognizing the legitimacy of the sex sector will reinforce women's subordination and lead to the greater sexual objectification and economic inequality of women. In countries that have recognized prostitution as work, there are more brothels than schools. Do we really want brothels everywhere? Is prostitution a career to which we want young girls to aspire? Women in prostitution need social services, educational opportunities and economic alternatives -- real economic recognition that doesn't freeze them in a life of prostitution but provides a different future. Women in prostitution need income-generating projects that will provide them with decent livelihoods -- the kind of jobs that do not lock them into lives of sexual and economic exploitation. Women in prostitution need to be brought into the economic mainstream, not to have prostitution mainstreamed as legitimate work.
Factors That Influence the Existence of Prostitution
In general terms, the rate of prostitution in our society is a function of the extent of poverty and deprivation suffered by men and women. Statistically, most prostitutes were from broken homes, poor families, orphans or half orphans, having one deceased parent. We are all aware of the evils of polygamy. One of such evils is prostitution among children from polygamous families. The common feature of polygamy especially in Africa and other third world countries is that the man married to more than one woman procreates more than he is able to cater for economically. The reason why this happens is outside the scope of this work. In spite of the challenges confronting them, the children are expected to be able to support themselves as the family was rarely in a position to support them. Under this circumstance, young girls would be expected to be economically independent.
Low Income
Low female labor market earnings potential, especially in developing countries, is often taken to be an important reason for why women go into prostitution and in any society, a higher proportion of poor women prostitute themselves. While majority of them do it for economic gratification, some do it for fun and money. Those in this category may have had problems in their past. Such problems may include experience of incest in the past, which is the reason why they tend to have a different idea about sexuality. In contemporary societies, the vast majority of prostitution are carried out by occasional prostitutes-that is, people who use it to supplement low incomes. Men and women who rely on prostitution as their primary source of income (so-called professional prostitutes) typically have left their natal families in adolescence. Without education or work skills and often prevented from employment by child labor laws, such runaway children resort to prostitution as their only means of survival.
Addiction to Drugs
For women who are addicted to drugs, prostitution is mostly the only possibility to get money. Due to the cost of the drugs and the addict’s helpless insatiable appetite for the stuff, the addicted are always in need of cash even if they are unemployed and do not have any source of income. They live in a critical situation and cross all their borders in order to get money or give anything in exchange with a view to obtaining and satisfying their appetite for drugs.
Greed
It is also important to note the role played by greed in this forbidden act. It is obvious that many women find their way into prostitution with open eyes, attracted by the prospects of much higher rewards than they could ever earn. Prostitution, in some sense, allows the women that are able to take advantage of it, the opportunity to live in their world of fantasy; to enjoy and extend increased consumerism to their families. Pathetically, there are also student prostitutes who serve as bread winners to their siblings and entire family members by prostituting themselves. These “student” ladies make themselves available primarily to rich men called Sugar Daddies/Mummies who are old enough to be their grand fathers or mothers.
War and Emergency Situations
We must not lose sight of the impact of war or emergency situations on the sexual behaviors of women. Wars and emergency situations disrupt economic and social activities in affected areas. Under the weight of the resultant economic hardship, most women naturally respond to the survival instinct. They therefore tilt to the direction of soldiers for survival as a last resort. The army has several reasons to tolerate, if not actively condone, the use of prostitutes. Soldiers on military assignments in distant lands can best be described as "professional bachelor" armies. In most cases, they are not allowed to travel to war fronts or areas of crisis with their wives. Neither are they permitted to marry during military campaigns and so it was assumed that they would require some non-committed sexual outlets. Most military bases would naturally wish to discourage and check the homosexual behavior that could become increasingly popular among their troops. Prostitutes provided an outlet for heterosexual activity. They thought it necessary to protect army health without actually discouraging prostitution. The way to do this was to inspect and inoculate the women.
Opposition to military prostitution became worldwide with the formation of CAMPS (Campaign Against Military Prostitution) at the 1985 UN international Women's Conference in Nairobi. In addition to focusing on liberty ports in Japan and the Philippines, CAMP carried its campaign to South Korea, Kenya, Spain, Honduras, Greece, Puerto Rico, Morocco and everywhere else foreign troops invade Third World populations. The message is being carried further, with increasing educational and organizing pressure in countries which supply customers to the brothels. In the United States, activists are urging Congress to investigate the situation and pressuring government and military authorities to act to protect the health and welfare of the women who service their troops. Recent cases of rape and human rights abuse perpetrated against women in Iraq by American and British soldiers has given force to the clamour for the withdrawal of American troops in that country. Increasingly, however, people see the only permanent solution as two-fold: close the bases and provide other livelihoods for Third World women and children who are usually the victims of this abuse.
Other Factors Influencing the Existence of Prostitution Social Need
Prostitution does fulfill an identifiable societal function. In some cases, it can be a substitute for psychological or marriage counseling. It might even prevent divorce. Although usually an imperfect solution, it can be a cost- effective one. Prostitution provides a safety valve against frustration, especially for people who are not attractive or have few social skills. Also in couples that have very different sex drives and might otherwise be headed for affairs or divorce. Prostitution tends to be prevalent in societies where sex is repressed. It was quite popular in Victorian England and in Muslim societies. In a society where sexual advances can carry very negative legal consequences, in a society where an exposed marital infidelity can destroy a career, prostitution should be expected to become an alternative of choice. The fact that prostitution is illegal, may sometimes encourage it. It guarantees a measure of anonymity and silence, which may not otherwise be feasible.
Oversexed Males and Undersexed Females
In most cases, prostitutes tend to be women, while clients tend to be men. This may be partially due to the fact that men may have easier access to money. But it probably also means that in this society, there is a deficit of sexually available females with respect to sexually needy males. A more plausible explanation as to why society seems so bent on outlawing prostitution, is that "legitimate" sex partners or spouses may feel threatened by prostitution. Outlawing prostitution is a way for society to deal with sexual insecurity. Some prostitutes do what they do as a way of earning additional income. It is not totally uncommon for highly attractive female college students to be in this business a few hours a week. They typically can afford to be very selective and charge high prices. Besides for school, the money may be used for training in school and other extras. More tragic are the women in low income situations, doing it out of pure economic necessity. Sometimes they are single mothers, who simply have not been able to find any other way to make it. Inadvertently, many of those women are risking their health and their lives. This happens in a lot of places and can best be described as unfortunate situations. Even police officers are heartbroken when they see it. It is a situation that should make people think about policies in terms of criminalization and about our welfare system.
TRICKS EMPLOYED IN FORCING YOUNG GIRLS INTO PROSTITUTION
Women are trafficked from poor countries to rich countries. At the current time, women are trafficked from Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia to Western Europe and North America. Typically, a woman in a poor country will see an advertisement in a newspaper for a job in a foreign country. The advertisement could be vacancy for the position of a waitress, clerk, office assistant, etc. She answers the advertisement and so begins the nightmare journey into the world of trafficking in women, sex slavery, and organized prostitution. She is offered what she believes to be a good deal. If she accepts the job, the company will pay her moving expenses, arrange all necessary papers, provide transportation to her new location, and even set her up in an apartment.
In return, she is to sign a contract to work for the company for some period of time, a year, maybe two. She signs the papers and arrives at her point of departure at the appointed time, and so begins her journey through the underground trafficking in women. She arrives at her destination, is taken to her room to settle in, then is taken to her place of employment, a seedy, barely respectable place. She is told she gets a bonus for every drink she sells. A couple of days later, the manager tells her that one of the customers offered her money if she has sex with him. She refuses, she is not that kind of girl. So the pressure begins. She does not speak the local language, her passport is in the safe keeping of the people who own her contract, she now has a reputation for working in a brothel, she has no friends or family to help her, she is alone. The people who hired her as a waitress pay the local constabulary well; they will not help her. Perhaps they offer her more money to send to her family back home if she will do this only once. Perhaps they threaten to beat her. Perhaps they do beat her. Isolated, afraid, and alone, she eventually gives in. But it is not the only time they ask her to do this, it is the first. A couple of days later, another customer offers her money to be with her. Then the tricks begin coming daily, then several times a day, each time feeling like she has been violated, raped. She is now a prostitute; if she tries to escape, her pimp brings her back and beats her until her will is broken. Perhaps she turns to drugs and alcohol to dull the pain she feels inside. But she is a very pretty girl. A video of her would sell well.
So the threats and beating begin anew until she once again agrees to do what they ask, and she becomes a porn star. She smiles for the camera and assures everyone that she does it of her own free will, knowing that if she does not do those things, she will be beaten, again. Her owners toss her some money to assuage their consciences or to tell people that she was paid to star in the film, but it is never enough to compensate her emotionally for being raped. She has long ago forgotten about the contract she signed; she has come to understand that it doesn't matter if she agreed to work for them for a week or a month or a year or for ten years, they will never let her go. Somewhere along the line her soul died and she learned how to survive in the underground where prostitution, pornography, and trafficking in women intertwine and intermingle.
PROSTITUTION IN WESTERN COUNTRIES
In Europe during the Middle Ages, prostitution was not merely tolerated but was protected, licensed, and regulated by law and it constituted a large source of public revenue. Public brothels or places of prostitution, on a large scale were established in large cities throughout Europe. Stricter controls were imposed with the outbreak of an epidemic of venereal disease in the 16th century and with the advent of new ideas of sexual morality brought in with the Reformation. Brothels were closed throughout Europe, and when disease continued to claim victims, regulations became even more stringent. Some cities passed laws requiring periodic medical inspection, but these had little effect. International cooperation to stamp out the traffic in women for the purpose of prostitution began in 1899. In 1921 the League of Nations established the Committee on the Traffic in Women and Children, and in 1949 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a convention for the suppression of prostitution. In the United States, prostitution flourished in most cities and was virtually uncontrolled until the passage of the Mann act in 1910, which prohibited interstate transportation of women for immoral purposes. By 1915 nearly all states had passed laws banning brothels and regulating the profits of prostitution.
In most large Western cities prostitution is tolerated. The police there are more concerned with regulating the crimes associated with prostitution, which are often controlled by organized crime syndicates. Soviet and Chinese officials maintain that prostitution no longer exists in their countries. Throughout Asia the trade continues to flourish openly. In most Eastern countries prostitution is an urban problem, but in India a majority of prostitutes are in rural areas. Female prostitutes are often economically disadvantaged and are usually unmarried and lack skills to support themselves. Many are drawn at an early age into the subculture of prostitution and associated crime. Health hazards to prostitutes include acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), venereal diseases, and, in some subcultures, drug abuse. Male prostitution has received less public attention in most cultures. Heterosexual male prostitution - males hired by or for females - is uncommon. Homosexual male prostitution, however, has become increasingly common, in large cities in particular, in the 20th century. Historically, the majority of prostitutes have been women; however, male prostitution and prostitution of prepubescent children occurs. In general, prostitutes are drawn from those segments of society that are economically marginal and have relatively little political power.
Can the Act of Prostitution Be Legally and Morally Justified?
That an activity is illegal does not establish that it is immoral; that an activity is legal does not mean that it is moral. For example, ownership of slaves is one of the most immoral of all activities; but it was legal before the passage of the 13th Amendment. It was only considered illegal after an amendment in the books of law was enforced. What is legal can be ascertained from statutes in books of law, while the morality of an action presupposes a suitable standard. An action is RIGHT when it produces as much GOOD (usually taken to be happiness) as any available alternative. But the problem remains of deciding FOR WHOM that happiness ought to be produced. This does not mean that persons can never treat other persons as means, which usually happens without generating immoral results. Let us draw some illustrations from the relationship between employers and employees. The relationship between employers and employees is clearly one in which employers use their employees as a means to conduct a business and to make a profit, while employees use their employment as a means to make some money and earn a living. Within a context of mutual respect, this is moral conduct.
When employers subject their employees to unsafe working conditions, excessive hours, or poor wages, however, the relationship becomes exploitative and immoral, which can also occur when employees do not perform their duties, steal from their employers, or abuse the workplace. Similar considerations apply to doctors and patients, students and faculty, or ministers and congregations, which may explain our dismay at their betrayal. There appears to be no inherent reasons why prostitution should not qualify as moral so long as the sellers and the buyers of the service treat one another with respect. The prostitutes are immoral when they do not provide the services agreed upon, steal their customers’ money, or subject them to venereal disease, while the customers are considered immoral if they do not pay for services rendered, engage in physical abuse, or infect them with disease. Respect works both ways round. Even in countries where prostitution is legalized, of course, immorality can enter by means of other relationships.
When husbands or wives commit adultery and thereby betray their commitments to each other, they are not displaying respect for their spouses and are acting immorally. But that remains the case apart from any fiscal aspects. Indeed, marriage itself has been described as "legalized prostitution" by George Bernard Shaw. The difficulties that arise in relation to prostitution are generated largely by its illegality, not its immorality. In the countries where prostitution is legal women can freely choose this line of work without the intervention of pimps, who turn them into sexual slaves. When prostitution is illegal, no doubt, the consequences are often immoral for both buyers and the sellers alike.
CHAPTER FOUR
The Effects Of Prostitution
When violence against women is considered, prostitution is often exempted from the category of violence against women. However, a consideration of the dire health consequences of prostitution demonstrates that prostitution not only gravely impairs women’s health but firmly belongs in the category of violence against women. The horrors of prostitution rarely reach the public eye. In 1984, a fire incident in Phuket's red light district of Bangkok killed five girls who were forced into the act of prostitution. They had been locked into their room. Two of the youngest girls were chained to beds. When one mother came to claim her daughter's body, she admitted having sold her to a procurer for 6,000 baht ($266). She also confessed that before the fire incident, her daughter had written to her, begging to be "bought back" because she was being rapped, beaten and forced to take drugs. The health consequences to women from prostitution are the same injuries and infections suffered by women who are subjected to other forms of violence against women. The physical health consequences include: injury (bruises, broken bones, black eyes, concussions). A 1994 study conducted with 68 women in Minneapolis/St.Paul who had been prostituted for at least six months found that half the women had been physically assaulted by their purchasers, and a third of these experienced purchaser assaults at least several times a year. 23% of those assaulted were beaten severely enough to have suffered broken bones. Two experienced violence so vicious that they were beaten into a coma. Furthermore, 90% of the women in this study had experienced violence in their personal relationships resulting in miscarriage, stabbing, loss of consciousness, and head injuries.
The sex of prostitution is physically harmful to women in prostitution. STDs (including HIV/AIDS, chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, human papilloma virus, and syphilis) are alarmingly high among women in prostitution. Only 15 % of the women in the Minneapolis/St. Paul study had never contracted one of the STDs, not including AIDS, most injurious to health (chlamydia, syphilis, gonorrheal, herpes). General gynecological problems, but in particular chronic pelvic pain and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), plague women in prostitution. The Minneapolis/St. Paul study reported that 31% of the women interviewed had experienced at least one episode of PID which accounts for most of the serious illness associated with STD infection. Among these women, there was also a high incidence of positive pap smears, several times greater than the Minnesota Department of Health’s cervical cancer screening program for low and middle income women. More STD episodes can increase the risk of cervical cancer.
Another physical effect of prostitution is unwanted pregnancy and miscarriage. Over two-thirds of the women in the Minneapolis/St. Paul study had an average of three pregnancies during their time in prostitution, which they attempted to bring to term. Other health effects include irritable bowel syndrome, as well as partial and permanent disability. The emotional health consequences of prostitution include severe trauma, stress, depression, anxiety, self-medication through alcohol and drug abuse; and eating disorders. Almost all the women in the Minneapolis/St. Paul study categorized themselves as chemically-addicted. Crack cocaine and alcohol were used most frequently. Ultimately, women in prostitution are also at special risk for self-mutilation, suicide and homicide. 46% of the women in the Minneapolis/St. Paul study had attempted suicide, and 19% had tried to harm themselves physically in other ways.
More succinctly, women in prostitution suffer the same broken bones, concussions, STDs, chronic pelvic pain, and extreme stress and trauma that women who have been battered, raped and sexually abused endure. In fact, the case can be made that women in prostitution -- because they are subject to being battered, raped and sexually abused all at the same time over an extensive period of time -- suffer these health consequences more intensively and consistently. For example, in another survey of 55 victims/survivors of prostitution who used the services of the Council for Prostitution Alternative in Portland, Oregon, 78% were victims of rape by pimps and male buyers an average of 49 times a year; 84% were the victims of aggravated assault and were thus horribly beaten, often requiring emergency room attention and hospitalization; 53% were victims of sexual abuse and torture; and 27% were mutilated. In developing countries, it has also been estimated that 70 percent of female infertility is caused by sexually transmitted diseases that can be traced back to their husbands or partners. Among women in rural Africa, female infertility is widespread from husbands or partners who migrate to urban areas, buy commercial sex, and bring home infection and sexually transmitted diseases. Women in prostitution industries have been blamed for this epidemic of STDs when, in reality, studies confirm that it is men who buy sex in the process of migration who carry the disease from one prostituted woman to another and ultimately back to their wives and girlfriends. In what becomes a vicious cycle, infertility leads to divorce and, in some cases, the ex-wife who is cast aside herself turns to prostitution to survive. The movement of abandoned or rejected ‘barren’ women to urban prostitution has been documented in Niger, Uganda, and the Central African Republic.
Numerous studies in Africa and Asia by the World Bank and a number of international research organizations have found that divorced or separated women comprise the great majority of prostitutes or ‘semi’ prostitutes. Thus, a major health effect of the mass male consumption of commercial sex and the expansion of sex industries in developing countries, is not only a rampant increase in sexually transmitted diseases but an exponential increase in infertility. The further effects of this vicious cycle ensure that a whole new segment of women who are abandoned by their husbands due to infertility, are propelled into prostitution for survival. Anti-AIDS groups have largely focused on negotiating "safe sex" by promoting condom usage. In both developing and industrialized country contexts, current campaigns to control the spread of HIV/AIDS by advocating "safe sex" for women in prostitution fail to address the blatant inequities between women who are bought for sex and the men who pay for it. Any AIDS strategy based on negotiating condom use between the purchaser of sex and the woman who must supply it assumes a symmetry of power that does not even exist between women and men in many personal consensual relationships.
If AIDS programs are serious about eradicating AIDS, they must challenge the sex industry. Women in prostitution are targeted as the problem instead of making the sex industry problematic and challenging the mass male consumption of women and children in commercial sex. This is institutionalized when governments and NGOs argue for the medicalization of prostitution when they propose laws on prostitution which subject women to periodic medical check-ups. It is stated that women in the sex industry would be better protected if they submitted, or were required to submit, to health and especially STD screening. The way in which sex industries are responsible for the widespread health problems of women and children is mystified with proposals to implement health checks of women in the industry. No proposals have been forthcoming, from those who would propose both mandatory and voluntary medical surveillance for women in the sex industry, to medically monitor the men who would purchase sex. On the other hand, proposals to medicalize female genital mutilation have been soundly rejected by women’s groups. Women’s human rights organizations have refuted arguments that girls and women undergoing genital cutting would be better protected from its health risks and physical trauma if it was performed in hospitals under trained medical supervision. Although policies and programs that medicalize female genital mutilation may reduce some injury and infection, women’s groups have stressed that these policies and programs do not address or end the abuse of women’s human rights represented by the very institutionalization of this unnecessary and mutilating surgery in a medical context. The same is true with current attempts to medicalize prostitution.
No action will stabilize the sex industry more than legitimating prostitution through the health care system. If medical personnel are called upon to monitor women in prostitution, as part of "occupational health safety," we will have no hope of eradicating the industry. Furthermore, from a health perspective alone, it is inconceivable that medicalization of women in the industry will reduce infection and injury without concomitant medicalization of the male buyers. Thus medicalization, which is rightly viewed as a consumer protection act for men rather than as a real protection for women, ultimately protects neither women nor men. As with other forms of violence against women, eradicating the health burden of prostitution entails addressing but going beyond its health effects. To address the health consequences of prostitution, the international human rights community must understand that prostitution harms women and that in addition to needing health services, women must be provided with the economic, social and psychological means to leave prostitution.
Until prostitution is accepted as violence against women and a violation of women’s human rights, the health consequences of prostitution cannot be addressed adequately. Conversely, until the health burden of prostitution is made visible, the violence of prostitution will remain hidden.
CHAPTER FIVE
Legislations on Prostitution
There are three general legislative responses to prostitution. The first, pro-criminalization, or further criminalization, proposes to increase the severity of criminal laws relating to prostitution. The second, decriminalization, proposes that prostitution related offences should be removed from criminal code and municipal bylaws should be passed to control prostitution. The third, regulation, holds that prostitution is a social problem that should be legalized by the state. Each perspective would like to see an end to the problems associated with prostitution, but each has a different view on how to reach this goal. At the present time, no country, city or jurisdiction in the world has ever adopted a complete legalization approach to prostitution, although decriminalization and some legalization has been implemented in a few countries. Wynter, Thompson and Jefreys poured out their reservation concerning the issue of legislation on prostitution in an International Feminist Journal of Politics thus: The idea that men's prostitution behaviour is inevitable suggests that prostitution should be understood as a harmful traditional practice. It fits UN criteria for harmful traditional/cultural practices very well. It harms the health of women and girls, it creates stereotyped sex roles, it is for the benefit of men and arises from the oppression of women and is justified by tradition.
Canadian Laws On Prostitution
The United Nations passed a resolution in 1958 that prostitution is not a criminal act. As a result, prostitution between consenting adults is not illegal in Canada. Various acts associated with prostitution are, however, contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada. The Criminal Code addresses various activities associated with prostitution, including communicating in a public place for the purpose of engaging in prostitution, providing directions, taking or showing someone to a common bawdy house, procuring or assisting or obtaining a person for sexual services on behalf of third party and living on the avails or benefiting from the prostitution of another person. There have been three major federal responses to prostitution in Canada in the last 20 years. In 1981, the Committee on Sexual Offences Against Children and Youth was appointed to explore legal sanctions pertaining to child sexual abuse and to make recommendations aimed at protecting children at risk. In 1985, the Special Committee on Pornography and Prostitution researched and proposed recommendations related to youth prostitution. In 1998, the final report of the Federal Provincial Territorial Working Group on Prostitution provided legal and social intervention recommendations based on an examination of the legislation, policy and practices concerning prostitution related activities in Canada. In 1985, the Criminal Code was amended to tighten prostitution laws. Bill C-49, which prohibited communicating for the purpose of prostitution, replaced the soliciting law.
Attempting to communicate with or stopping a person in a public place for the purposes of obtaining sexual services became illegal, and both prostitutes and johns can be charged under this law. Bill C-49 resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of prostitution related charges: from 1,225 in 1985 to 7,426 in 1986 (83% increase). It also intensified the criminal status of street prostitutes, forcing them to work in more remote and dangerous areas and causing increased tension in their relationships with law enforcement. In May, 1997, Bill C-27 amended section 7 of the Criminal Code. Bill C-27 was aimed at protecting youth from adults who seek children for sexual services or economic gain. It also extended jurisdiction to Canadian courts over prostitution offences. Canadians who have committed prostitution and other sex related offences in other countries may be prosecuted by Canadian courts. A new offence, "aggravated procuring," was created for those who live on the profits of the prostitution of a young person, use violence against that person and assist that person to carry out prostitution related offences. Special protections for youth testifying in court against pimps or johns were also implemented. Provincial governments across Canada have re-evaluated the issue of youth prostitution. Youth prostitutes who were once criminally responsible for their actions are now seen as the victims of sexual abuse. In February, 1999, Bill 1, the Protection of Children in Prostitution Act (PChIP) became law in Alberta. It recognizes that children who are involved in prostitution are victims of sexual abuse who require protection. PChIP, which is closely related to the Child Welfare Act, allows social workers and police to apprehend child prostitutes under the age of 18 and place them in protective safe houses for up to 72 hours. PChIP includes fines up to $25,000 and jail terms up to 24 months for johns and pimps who solicit youth prostitutes. There has been controversy surrounding PChIP. In July 2000, the Alberta provincial court ruled that certain provisions of PChIP were unconstitutional. That decision was overturned by Alberta's Court of Queen's Bench in December, 2000. PChIP was amended in March, 2001, to provide, among other things, more legal safeguards for child prostitutes.
Nigerian Law On Prostitution: Edo State Government
In Edo State of Nigeria, the State Governor (who ruled the state from 1999 to 2007) Lucky Igbinedion signed a bill which makes prostitution an offence in the State. The law cited as the ”Criminal Code (Amendment) Law 2000”, amended some of the provisions of the cirminal code law cap. 48 laws of Bendel State 1976 as applicable to Edo State. The law forbids any person from sponsoring a girl or woman by giving her any financial, physical or material assistance to enable her travel out of Nigeria for the purpose of becoming a prostitute or to carry out any immoral act. It stipulates that any person, who administers any oath on a woman or girl or performs any fetish ritual to enable her travel out of Nigeria for the purpose of becoming a prostitute or to have unlawful carnal knowledge with any person, is gulty of an offence. On conviction, such a person will be sentenced to imprisonment for ten years or to pay a fine of N500,000.00 or both. In recognition of the fact that some women willingly embrace prostitution as a profession, the law provided that any female person who knowingly offers herself for the purpose of prostitution or carry out any immoral act within or outside Nigeria, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to an imprisonment for two years or pay a fine of N20,000.00. Similarly, any man who patronises any woman in an act capable of being called prostitution is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to two years imprisonment or to a fine of N10,000.00. It further provides that: Any woman who lures or induces any male with gratification for the purpose of having carnal knowledge with her is guilty of an offence and if convicted is liable to two years imprisonment or a fine o N10,000.00 or both.
For those who lure or induce women into prostitution, a prison term of 10 years or a fine of N500,000.00 awaits them if they are found guilty of the offence. In addition, they will forfeit any property acquired through prostitution to the state. The law also provides for a five-year imprisonment for any male person who is guilty of an offence of misdemeanour.
Nigerian and ECOWAS Action
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo made a promise to the Economic Council of West African States (ECOWAS) in 2002 to the effect that the government of Nigeria will take immediate action to stem the traffic of Nigerian women. "We have to start a rehabilitation program," the president said. "We want to bring all our children back. We can't allow this type of thing (prostitution) to continue." In recent months there have been some decisive actions regionally and on the part of the Nigerian government. In August 2003, the Federal Government approved the setting up of a search and rescue team to intervene in the countries notorious in the sordid practice, so as to repatriate Nigerian victims. The Nigerian government signed a Readmission agreement with Italy, which would allow Italian authorities to deport Nigerian prostitutes who have overstayed their visas without even checking their nationality. But this does nothing to help Nigeria reintegrate the women or prevent the trafficking at the source. "After exploiting and infecting many of them with HIV/AIDS, Italy is sending these women back to a country which has no capacity to support them," says one Italian campaigner angrily. Experts in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) attended a two-day meeting in Accra, Ghana. They agreed on a political declaration and Plan of Action for combating trafficking in human beings in the sub-region. The one-year Plan of Action, which was implemented between 2002 and 2003, committed Member States to set achievable goals and objectives towards eradicating the scourge, involving organized criminal groups operating through a pervasive network and deploying developments in communication, transport and information technology. The Plan called on members of the 15-nation Organization to ratify and fully implement important international instruments of the sub-region and the UN, that strengthen laws against human trafficking and protect the victims, particularly the most vulnerable - women and children. It also committed countries to adopt laws criminalizing trafficking in human beings and to build necessary administrative structures for its eradication. The Action Plan called for new special police units to combat trafficking in persons. Training of police, customs and immigration officials, prosecutors and judges is also an important element of the plan. The training was to focus on preventative measures, the persecution of traffickers, and the protection of victims, including protecting the victims from the traffickers.
Poverty, Prostitution And The Nigerian Girl Child Extreme poverty and falling standard of living have increasingly dogged the Nigerian state. An average Nigerian is hungry, poor and seriously deprived of the basic essentials of livelihood. A walk through any major street in Nigeria reveals that everywhere reeks of poverty. It can be seen on the faces of people daily thronging the streets. International development community used to think that if a country could sustain rapid growth, poverty would take care of itself. Then it realized that growth does not always translate into poverty reduction, so it started emphasizing "pro-poor" growth. Growth generates more income. But the poor are unlikely to receive a fair share of this increased income if they are not empowered- first economically but also, just as important, socially and politically. The Federal and State governments agreed to eradicate poverty but they cannot explain why the resources are not getting to the poor. Women comprise 70% of the world’s 1.3 billion absolute poor. They bear the brunt of economic and financial transition and crisis caused by market forces and globalization. Within every unit, that of family, community, and sect, the weakest and the most vulnerable are women and girl children due to their life long depravation in education, protection, shelter, skill learning and development, access to resources and rights. Poverty does not create imbalances in gender and sex. It only aggravates already existing imbalances in power and therefore increases the vulnerability of those who are at the receiving end of gender prejudice. In a patriarchal set up, the section in families in societies that is affected is women and girl children. Caste wars, political strife, domestic conflicts through their manifestations and repercussions reflect strong gender prejudice against women.
Violence against women, assault and rape on women are not individual sexual or physical crimes. It has become a tool of a political statement for aggression and gender persecution, which amply reflects on the degree of human degradation and communizing women in the eyes of the state, community and society. It is very easy to flip through newspapers, Radio and Television stations and see or hear people pointing accusing fingers at girls for prostituting, condemning the trade especially international prostitution and making moves to repatriate them from abroad. But they fail to look beyond these girls and examine the underlining factors that made them go into sex trade.
Legislation In The Austrailian States And The Netherlands
In the Australian states and territory and in the Netherlands, legalisation of brothel prostitution has taken similar forms. In each case, brothels that want to operate legally must apply for licenses or planning permission through local authority planning procedures. One problem common to these regimes of legalisation is the fact that local authorities cannot refuse planning permission to a brothel so long as certain conditions are met. This removes some of the scope for local democracy. Citizens are forced to have brothels in their streets even if every single one of them objects. In each case too, the prostituted women, but not the male customers are examined for sexual diseases on a regular basis. As the Dutch national Rapporteur on trafficking remarks, legalisation in the Netherlands harks back to the nineteenth century when 'public vice' was regulated to 'protect the safety and health of the man'. In 1911 brothels were banned in the Netherlands as a result of the activities of abolitionist campaigners many of whom were strongly feminist in sympathy. Wherever legalisation and regulation of brothel prostitution are introduced they represent a return to a time when it was considered reasonable for the state to take a role in providing disease free women for men's sexual purchase. It is a return to the time of the contagious diseases acts, as they were called in the British Empire, which feminists mounted a fierce and successful campaign against on the grounds that they abrogated the civil liberties of the women and gave state approval to the men's behaviour.
Italian and European Union Action
There is no specific legislation in Italy that defines the crime of trafficking in women. However, various aspects of Italian legislation deal indirectly with the issue. Law n.75 of 20 February l958 "for the Abolishment of previous rules on prostitution and the fight against exploiting others' prostitution", better known as the Merlin Law, de-criminalizes the crime of prostitution if it is practiced privately, forbids prostitution in brothels, (which was previously controlled by the State), but criminalizes those who exploit prostitutes or who lead women into prostitution. This includes foreign women. Under this law (Article 3) it is a crime "to encourage or to transfer a woman into another place or another State, in order to practice prostitution;" "for national or foreign organizations to recruit persons for prostitution". Such crimes are punishable even if executed in a foreign country. Migration laws also make some reference to the exploitation of prostitutes by foreigners stating that such crimes can result in the expulsion of the foreigners concerned. A foreigner who brings a migrant woman into Italy for the purpose of prostitution can, in theory, be jailed for up to 7 years. There are also legal provisions that sanction those who facilitate the access of illegal aliens into Italian territory. If this is done for profit, and by three or more persons together, penalties can include jail sentences of up to 6 years. Finally, laws against sexual violence offer trafficked women some legal protection at least on paper. Italian law foresees, for example, punishment of "whoever with violence or threats or, through abuse of authority, forces a person to commit or to suffer sexual relations (acts)" and that the violence is perpetrated "on a person in any case submitted to limitations of personal freedom".
In recent articles and practice, Italy seemed to treat the victims of trafficking more as rape victims than as criminals, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands now offer shelter, protection and residency permits to trafficked prostitutes so they can help identify and prosecute their exploiters.
Under a revision of Italy's immigration law that has been in force since late 1999, more than 2,000 immigrants have obtained residency permits after breaking away from their pimps. Italy also offers schooling, job training and employment to help them start new lives. Throughout Italy, 48 various programs assist female victims of traffickers. Italian law gives participants six-month legal residency, even if they do not denounce their traffickers; and they can renew residency if they have found jobs. These provisions distinguish the law from others in Europe, where denouncement is obligatory to obtain residency and is sometimes followed by repatriation. According to government figures, there are an estimated 3,500 trafficked women in Italy, and 1,200 have taken part in the programs. Italy is leading the new approach, driven by alarm over an influx of Eastern European and African prostitutes since the late 1990s and by the coercive violence of the foreign pimps who bring them. Recently there has been an ongoing discourse within the European Union on the issue of human trafficking and smuggling and immigration laws. The Committee for "Equal opportunities for men and women" in the parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe organized on 2nd April, 2002 in Paris, a public hearing on the trafficking of women. European Union governments agreed on May 29th to bring their jail sentences for smugglers of illegal immigrants more closely into line. EU member states will set maximum jail terms of between 6 and 10 years for people found guilty of smuggling or hiding illegal immigrants. They also agreed on fines against airlines and other carriers that bring in non-EU nationals without proper papers and rules on sharing banking information needed in criminal investigations.
Laws Concerning Prostituted Children In America
Each state, the District of Columbia, and the federal government criminalize some aspects of prostitution. The “Mann Act” is a federal law that prohibits the transportation of individuals younger than the age of 18 in interstate or foreign commerce, or an attempt to do so, with the intent such individual engage in prostitution or any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense. The Mann Act is important because it provides that equal federal protection is granted to children of all ages. This equal protection is not always granted in state statutes, since some states have consent ages that are lower than 18. More recently the Protection of Children from Sexual Predators Act of 1998 clarified some of the language, added attempt provisions, and increased the penalties under the Mann Act. Under the federal law, it is forbidden to knowingly persuade, induce, entice, or coerce any individual to travel in interstate or foreign commerce to engage in prostitution or any criminal sexual activity. It is forbidden for a United States citizen or an alien admitted for permanent residence in the United States to travel in foreign commerce and engage in any illicit sexual conduct with another person. Under the provision of the law, sexual abuse of a minor or ward is a serious offence. The law criminalizes engaging in sexual acts with any individual who is not yet 12 years of age or engaging in sexual acts with any individual who is older than 12 but not yet 16 years of age with at least a four-year difference in age.
If one were to understand the institution of prostitution, and the process of trafficking that is inextricable to the institution, it may be done through the push and pull factors. The push factors that help to aggravate trafficking of women and children are:
* Poverty
* Discrimination of the girl child - rights to health, education - and
therefore options, property and resources.
* Organized crime rackets
* Debt burden of the family
* Economic disparities in the country
* Migration
* Religious and social sanctions promoting child marriage
* Cultural practices
Tradition and religion that promotes and supports prostitution, particularly of the girl child Let us consider a man for instance who has no means of livelihood but goes ahead to raise a large family. He brings children into the world that he cannot take care of. These children grow up to become rogues, delinquents and women of easy virtue when they are barely out of their diapers. Now if these children become adults and get caught in the act, who should bear the capital punishment? They or their parents who gave them no choice other than to live the hard way? The unsavory scourge of prostitution should be dealt with first at home before looking outside. There is this popular saying that one has to remove the log in his eyes so that he can see clearly to remove the mot in another person’s eyes. What about fresh female graduates who go about struggling to get jobs only for them to be told that they have to go to bed with the directors of such companies before they could secure appointments. Some others get jobs with these new generation banks only to be told that they have to employ their "bodies for Marketing" in order to win rich clients/customers. What do we call that if not prostitution?
Prostitution means the use of ones body for sexual activities for the purpose of remuneration or any other form of consideration.
Government officials and politicians are not left out. They visit our university campuses at night to recruit female students for the entertainment of visiting senators/top government officials. Commercial sexual exploitation is illegal and we have to work towards the safe keeping of our children.
What needs to be done?
· Educate all female children.
· Stop all forms of discrimination against women/girl child.
· Stop most cultural practices that are an affront to the right of women generally. E.g. child marriage, female genital cutting, child labour, etc.
· Create more programmes that are aimed at eradicating poverty completely from our society.
· Give exemplary punishment to traffickers.
· Demand and press for the rescue of all children forced into prostitution.
· Organise strict Border Security.
· Make trafficking and child sexual abuse non-bailable offence.
· Provide more income generation programmes for the rural poor.
REFERENCES
(1) Acton, William. Prostitution, Considered in Its Moral, Social and Sanitary Aspects in London and Other Large Cities. 1870, 1968(Fryer,ed.)
(2) Alberta Task Force on Juvenile Prostitution (1997). Children involved in prostitution. Edmonton: Ministry of Alberta Family and Social Services.
(3) Aggleton, P. (1999). Men who sell sex. London: UCL Press.
(4) Bond, Lydia, S.(1992). Street Children and AIDS: Is Postponement of Sexual Involvement a Realistic Alternative to the Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases? Environment and Urbanization, 4: 150-157.
(5) Boritch, H. (1997). Fallen women: Female crime and criminal justice in Canada. Toronto: ITP Nelson.
(6) Committee on Sexual Offences Against Children and Youth (Badgley Committee) (1984). Report on sexual offences against children and youth. Ottawa: Department of Supply and Services. (7) Edmonton Social Planning Council. (1993). Street prostitution in Edmonton. Edmonton Street Prostitution Project. (Available from the Edmonton Social Planning Council, 41-9912 106 Street, Edmonton, AB T5K 1C5).
(8) McKeganey, N., Barnard, M. (1992). Selling Sex: Female Street Prostitution and HIV Risk Behaviour in Glasgow; AIDS Care, 4: 395-407.
(9) Janice Raymond, Legitimating prostitution as sex work : UN Labor Organization (ILO) calls for recognition of the sex industry, 1998
6 Delphine Saubaber, « Paroles d'anciennes », L'Express, 22.08.02.
(10) Forbes, W., Powis, B., Griffiths, P., & Strang, J. (1992). Action group on prostitution (legal aspects). Edmonton, Alberta: Student Legal Services of Edmonton.
(11) Foti, S. (1994). Sexual abuse as a precursor to prostitution. (Doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University). Dissertation Abstracts International, 3586, B5508. In Nadon, S., Koverola, C. & Schudermann, E. (1998). Antecedents to prostitution: Childhood victimization. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 13(2) 206-222. (12) Hagan, J. & McCarthy, B. (1997). Mean Streets. London, England: Cambridge University Press.
(13) Nadon, S., Koverola, C. & Schudermann, E. (1998). Antecedents to prostitution: Childhood victimization. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 13(2) 206-222.
(14) Schissel, B. & Fedec, K. (1999). The selling of innocence: The gestalt of danger in the lives of youth prostitutes. Canadian Journal of Criminology 41(1), 33-56.
(15) Seng, M. (1989). Child sexual abuse and adolescent prostitution: A comparative analysis. Adolesence. In Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (1993). Street prostitution in Canada. Juristat 13(4).
Internet Search For Scholarly Work on Prostitution:
(16) Communities for Awareness and Action on Prostitution Issues (1999). A Community resources handbook on prostitution issues http://www.cadvision.com/caapi/resource3.htm.
(17) Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada (2000). Sexual exploitation of children http://www.cisc.gc.ca/Cisc2000/exploit2000.html.
(18) Crossroads Outreach (1997). Crossroads works to stop sexual exploitation of youth: http://freenet.edmonton.ab/catjump/cjensep5.htm.
(19) Magnet, J. (2000). Factum of the Canadian Organization for the Rights of Prostitutes. Canadian Organization for the Rights of Prostitutes http://www.constitutional-law.net/Prostitution.pdf. (20) Prostitution Awareness and Action Foundation of Edmonton. (2000). Crime prevention tools http://www.crime-prevention.org/english/crime/tools/stolen.html.
(21) Research and Education for Solutions to Violence and Abuse. (1999). A new approach to prostitution http://www.umanitoba.ca/resolve/news/november99/news3p5.htm.
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