Date:02/08/2007 URL:
http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/02/stories/2007080250520200.htm
New Delhi An inside story of trafficking in women
Smriti Kak Ramachandran
Unmasking reality: National Commission for Women chairperson Girija Vyas (second from right) releasing the book titled ‘Confronting the Demand for Sex-trafficking: A Handbook for law enforcement’ in New Delhi on Wednesday
NEW DELHI: Exploitation of women is not limited to their trafficking for commercial sex market. The criminal justice system, which arrests more women than men, is an equally harrowing experience, claims a book on sex trafficking released in the Capital on Wednesday.
Authors Ruchira Gupta and Ruchi Sinha, in a handbook titled ‘Confronting the Demand for Sex Trafficking: A Handbook for Law Enforcement’ point out that while victims of sex trafficking are put though the criminal justice system, the perpetrators are allowed to go scot-free.
Making a case for more gender-sensitive law enforcement, the authors point out how the existing laws can be used to fix legal responsibility on those who buy trafficked people.
The book also cites examples of countries like Sweden, the Philippines and South Korea, which have addressed the demand for sex trafficking as an effective anti-trafficking measure.
“Demand for trafficked people -- from end-users to those who make profit from the trade -- has become the most immediate cause for expansion of the trafficking industry,” said Ms. Gupta, who is also founder-director of Apne Aap Women Worldwide.
Ms. Gupta, who has co-authored the book with Ms. Sinha, an assistant professor at the Centre of Criminology and Justice Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, explained: “Providing services and instituting preventive mechanisms has provided protection to vulnerable people but not detracted the traffickers.”
Calling for increased vigilance and new laws to prevent traffickers from sourcing women and children from Nepal to Mumbai and Kolkata, she said: “They simply shifted areas of operation to Bihar, West Bengal, the hill States of the Northeast and Jharkhand in India because a demand for trafficked women and children continued to exist.”
The handbook claims that the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956, which penalises women for soliciting in public places is used more frequently than the Section 5which penalises traffickers, highlighting that trafficking is not a victimless crime.
The book, which has contributions from several people and a foreword from UN Special Rapporteur for Human Trafficking Sigma Huda, claims that human trafficking is an organised and well-structured crime which is operated through a supply chain.
A panel discussion on the subject moderated by P. M. Nair(IPS)which included Girija Vyas, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women, and Gary Lewis, Representative Regional Office of South Asia United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, and the author Ms. Gupta
followed the book release.
Showing posts with label Philippines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philippines. Show all posts
Thursday, August 9, 2007
URGENT ACTION - GABnet 3 "held" in the Philippines
Dear GABNet members, allies and friends:
On August 5, 2007, GABRIELA Network USA National Chairperson Dr. Annalisa Enrile was barred from leaving the Philippines. She was not allowed to board her return flight home to the US. She was told that she is on a "watchlist." Two other GABNet women--Judith Mirkinson and Ninotchka Rosca--are reportedly on the same "watchlist."
Dr. Enrile, Ms. Mirkinson and Ms. Rosca were in the Philippines, along with other GABNet members and officers, for the 10th bi-annual Women's Solidarity Affair in the Philippines. The GABNet 3 also led the GABNet-co-sponsored human rights mission to the Philippines with US women lawyers in May-June 2006.
We are demanding that the Philippine government "release" the GABNet 3 and allow them to return home.
We need your HELP in pressuring the US Embassy and the US Ambassador to the Philippines to act on behalf of these 3 US citizens/permanent resident and demand that the Philippines "release" them at once.
ACTION - WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY, AUGUST 9TH: FAX the US Embassy, American Citizen Service, 011 63 2 522-3242 and/or Ambassador Kenney, 011 63 2 522-4361. Below is a sample letter.
Please re-word. And please distribute this call to action far and wide.
Stay tuned formore action/s.---------
Thank you.
Onward,Doris Mendoza
Secretary General
GABRIELA Network USA
PO Box 403, Times Square Station
New York, NY 10036
SAMPLE LETTER
-----------------------------
US Ambassador to the Philippines
Manila, Philippines
I wish to voice my concern about the status of US citizens Dr. AnnalisaEnrile and human and women's rights activists Judith Mirkinson, and of US permanent resident Ninotchka Rosca, awriter and novelist. Dr. Enrile was prevented fromboarding her return flight from Manila to Los Angeles on August 5th andwas informed that she was on a "hold" orderfrom the Philippine Department of Justice. It has been subsequently reported that both Ms. Mirkinson and Ms. Rosca areon the same "hold" list. Considering that 90 women organizers,activists and leaders have been assassinated in thePhilippines since 2001, and considering that the Philippines is second only to Iraq in the number of writers and mediapeople murdered, we are urging the US embassy and your office to demandthat the Philippine government stop holding these three women hostage and let them return to their lives and work in the US.
Signed:
Name
Address---------
On August 5, 2007, GABRIELA Network USA National Chairperson Dr. Annalisa Enrile was barred from leaving the Philippines. She was not allowed to board her return flight home to the US. She was told that she is on a "watchlist." Two other GABNet women--Judith Mirkinson and Ninotchka Rosca--are reportedly on the same "watchlist."
Dr. Enrile, Ms. Mirkinson and Ms. Rosca were in the Philippines, along with other GABNet members and officers, for the 10th bi-annual Women's Solidarity Affair in the Philippines. The GABNet 3 also led the GABNet-co-sponsored human rights mission to the Philippines with US women lawyers in May-June 2006.
We are demanding that the Philippine government "release" the GABNet 3 and allow them to return home.
We need your HELP in pressuring the US Embassy and the US Ambassador to the Philippines to act on behalf of these 3 US citizens/permanent resident and demand that the Philippines "release" them at once.
ACTION - WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY, AUGUST 9TH: FAX the US Embassy, American Citizen Service, 011 63 2 522-3242 and/or Ambassador Kenney, 011 63 2 522-4361. Below is a sample letter.
Please re-word. And please distribute this call to action far and wide.
Stay tuned formore action/s.---------
Thank you.
Onward,Doris Mendoza
Secretary General
GABRIELA Network USA
PO Box 403, Times Square Station
New York, NY 10036
SAMPLE LETTER
-----------------------------
US Ambassador to the Philippines
Manila, Philippines
I wish to voice my concern about the status of US citizens Dr. AnnalisaEnrile and human and women's rights activists Judith Mirkinson, and of US permanent resident Ninotchka Rosca, awriter and novelist. Dr. Enrile was prevented fromboarding her return flight from Manila to Los Angeles on August 5th andwas informed that she was on a "hold" orderfrom the Philippine Department of Justice. It has been subsequently reported that both Ms. Mirkinson and Ms. Rosca areon the same "hold" list. Considering that 90 women organizers,activists and leaders have been assassinated in thePhilippines since 2001, and considering that the Philippines is second only to Iraq in the number of writers and mediapeople murdered, we are urging the US embassy and your office to demandthat the Philippine government stop holding these three women hostage and let them return to their lives and work in the US.
Signed:
Name
Address---------
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Swedish embassy e-mail link to combat Asian child sex tourism
Posted on : 2007-07-17 | Author : DPA
News Category : Internet
Stockholm - The Swedish embassy to Thailand has set up a special e-mail link on its web site as part of efforts to combat child sex tourism in South East Asia, reports said Wednesday. The e-mail links to the Nordic police liason office located at the embassy where two police officers from Denmark and Sweden liaise with authorities in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and the Philippines.
The Swedish branch of the ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography & Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) network welcomed the move that if successful could be introduced at other embassies.
"This is not a day too early," ECPAT Secretary General Helena Karlen told daily Svenska Dagbladet, saying the group had suggested something similar for several years.
ECPAT Sweden, founded 10 years ago, set up its own web-based hotline in 2005 and also cooperates with travel companies in an effort to counter child sex tourism.
The group has estimated that nine in 10 Swedish tourists that have seen indications of child sex tourism outside Europe never file any reports.
The Swedish embassy website urges tourists who believed they have witnessed child sex tourism to write down their observations, mentioning the place (town, location, hotel), when the sighting was made, as well as a description of the suspect and child.
Tips could also be filed anonymously.
To date, two Swedish nationals have been sentenced in Sweden for child sex tourism, including one case in Thailand.
Print Source :
http://www.earthtimes.org
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