Trafficking and Prostitution

Anti Violence Against Women Plan of Action

Submitted by vivhdem on Fri, 04/08/2011 - 4:45pm

Violence against women and girls is one of the most intractable and complex issues on the global policy agenda that will affect one out of three women during her lifetime. According to the United Nations, this phenomenon is a major obstacle to achieving equality, development, and peace. To build a collective response, the National Council for Research on Women, in partnership with the US National Committee for UN Women (previously, UNIFEM USNC), gathered experts at Hunter College in New York for a joint conference (June 11-12, 2010).

Attachment:

ANTI-VAW PLAN OF ACTION-OnlineVersion-v1r1.pdf

Trafficking in Persons Report 2012

Submitted by asklar on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 10:35am

The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report is the U.S. Government’s principal diplomatic tool to engage foreign governments on human trafficking. It is also the world’s most comprehensive resource of governmental anti-human trafficking efforts and reflects the U.S. Government’s commitment to global leadership on this key human rights and law enforcement issue. It represents an updated, global look at the nature and scope of trafficking in persons and the broad range of government actions to confront and eliminate it. The U.S. Government uses the TIP Report to engage foreign governments in dialogues to advance anti-trafficking reforms and to combat trafficking and to target resources on prevention, protection and prosecution programs. Worldwide, the report is used by international organizations, foreign governments, and nongovernmental organizations alike as a tool to examine where resources are most needed.

URL:

http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/index.htm

2012 State Anti-Trafficking Laws Fact Sheet

Submitted by asklar on Tue, 06/12/2012 - 9:40am

The Center for Women Policy Studies works with state legislators to develop legislative initiatives:

URL:

http://www.centerwomenpolicy.org/documents/11.CWPS_FactSheetonStateAntiTraffickingLawsMarch2012.pdf

Women Violated in War Denied Memorials

Teaser:

Japanese officials are trying to remove a small monument to Korean "comfort women" in New Jersey.

Editorial:

From Women's eNews:

As a participant at the nongovernmental organization forum that accompanied the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, I witnessed a delegation of Korean "comfort women" survivors who were trying to call attention to their victimization as sex slaves for the Japanese military during World War II.

By then, they were no longer young and some indeed looked frail, but they made a powerful and striking presence to demand recognition of their history.

In the early 1990s, Kim Hak Soon was the first former comfort woman to speak out, at the age of 67, and her testimony inspired other women to do the same. Within one year more than 200 other Korean women who had been enslaved as comfort women came forward. They have joined together, supported each other and shared their experience.

A local monument to these brave women was the subject of a startling May 19 story in The New York Times. The first surprise was my own ignorance of the monument, just across the Hudson River from New York City, in Palisades Park, N.J., where more than half of the population is of Korean descent. Since it's the only one of its kind in the U.S., it seemed strange that it had not attracted widespread publicity and become a major pilgrimage site for women's advocates.

[...]

Source:

Women's eNews

URL:

http://womensenews.org/story/prostitution-and-trafficking/120528/women-violated-in-war-denied-memorials

Date:

May 29, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Supportive housing improves safety for female sex workers: B.C. study

Teaser:

Reports on a study published in the American Journal of Public Health that found that female sex workers living in and operating from supportive-housing units have less adversarial relationships with police and were exposed to less violence and disease, such as HIV.

Editorial:

From the Winnipeg Free Press:

Female sex workers living in and operating from supportive-housing units have less adversarial relations with police, says a new study.

The study was published Wednesday in the "American Journal of Public Health" and was authored by researchers from the University of B.C. and the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS.

Based on interviews with 39 women living on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, the study also found female sex workers living in the housing units were exposed to less violence and disease, such as HIV.

The study was released just a month after Ontario's top court struck down a ban on bawdy houses.

It also comes amid the inquiry into serial killer Robert Pickton, which has heard the poor relationship between sex workers and police makes them reluctant to report abuse.

"I think it's actually providing a really important opportunity for sex workers to actually feel safe to reach out to police for protection rather than feeling constantly criminalized," said Kate Shannon, senior author and assistant professor of medicine at UBC.

According to the study, the women lived in supportive-housing programs run by the Atira Women's Resource Society and RainCity Housing and Support Society on the Downtown Eastside.

The housing units operate on a harm-reduction model, meaning the women are given a place to live and pay rent, but what they do in their units is their business.

Security measure are in place and include women-only buildings, security cameras, front-desk sign-in procedures for guests and clients, and on-site staff who can call police in the event of violence.

[...]

Source:

Winnipeg Free Press

URL:

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/supportive-housing-improves-safety-for-female-sex-workers-bc-study-150848945.html

Date:

May 10, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

The coming fight over violence against women

Teaser:

Salon outlines each partisan side in the new Violence Against Women Act reauthorization debate.

Editorial:

From Salon:

Reauthorizing the once-bipartisan Violence Against Women Act used to be a matter of Senate routine, but it has now gone the way of debt-ceiling negotiations — into the trenches of partisan warfare. Reading recent reports of the coming Capitol Hill showdown on the VAWA, you would either conclude that Republicans are broadening their assault on women, or Democrats have politicized the bill with various poison pills involving LGBT rights, immigration and Native American communities. What gets lost in both explanations is the merits of the actual changes.

While VAWA has not yet faced a full Senate vote, all Republicans on the Judiciary Committee voted in February against reauthorization. Democrats are clearly trying to use this to capitalize on the recent interest in Republican misogyny, which, legislatively speaking, has become mainstreamed in the party. Sen. Dianne Feinstein asserted on the Senate floor last week that “This is one more step in the removal of rights for women.” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell shot back Thursday, citing a Politico article to suggest Sen. Chuck Schumer “is sitting up at night trying to figure out a way to create an issue where there isn’t one … to help Democrats get reelected.”

[...]

Source:

Salon.com

URL:

http://www.salon.com/2012/03/20/the_coming_fight_over_violence_against_women/singleton/

Date:

April 16, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Expert Profile

Location:

United States

40° 41' 55.2372" N, 73° 59' 9.3876" W

See map: Google Maps

Miriam W. Yeung is Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF). She guides the country’s only national, multi-issue, progressive organization dedicated to social justice and human rights for Asian and Pacific Islander women and girls. With offices in New York City and D.C., and chapters in 11 cities, NAPAWF’s current priorities include winning rights for immigrant women, making nail salons safer for workers, conducting community-based participatory research with young API women and ending human trafficking. Prior to NAPAWF, Miriam held many positions during her 10-year career at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center (the Center) in New York City. Born in Hong Kong and raised in the projects of Brooklyn, Miriam is a proud queer Asian-American immigrant woman activist who is committed to social-justice movement building and raising her two daughters to be fearless.

Location

Brooklyn, NY 11201

United States

40° 41' 55.2372" N, 73° 59' 9.3876" W

See map: Google Maps

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Expert Profile

Location:

United States

40° 46' 7.3092" N, 73° 59' 30.5448" W

See map: Google Maps

Penny leads the Clinton Global Initiative’s Girls and Women program and is Associate Director, Commitments. She is responsible for the portfolio of CGI Commitments focused on girls and women worldwide as well as spearheading year round efforts in this space. Prior to CGI, Penny worked in both development and programmatic areas for Human Rights Watch, the Funding Exchange and the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy. She graduated from the University of Southern California and completed her Master of International Affairs at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Penny is currently an organizer of TEDxHarlem 2012, serves on the Board of Directors of Harlem Success Academy Five, the Advisory Board of Blue Engine, and a member of the Global Fund for Muslim Women’s Global Advisory Council.

Location

New York, NY 10019

United States

40° 46' 7.3092" N, 73° 59' 30.5448" W

See map: Google Maps

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Struggling to Survive: Sexual Exploitation of Displaced Women and Girls in Port au Prince, Haiti

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 01/12/2012 - 11:58am

Two years after an earthquake devastated Haiti, a report detailing the impact of sexual exploitation on displaced Haitian women and girls has been released. The report is authored by MADRE, the Commission of Women Victims for Victims (KOFAVIV), the International Women’s Human Rights (IWHR) Clinic at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law, the Global Justice Clinic at NYU School of Law (GJC) and the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies at UC Hastings College of the Law (CGRS).

The drastic increase in sexual violence in displacement camps has been well documented since the disaster. But another face of the epidemic has emerged as a pressing issue: the sexual exploitation of displaced women and girls.

URL:

http://www.madre.org/index/press-room-4/news/press-release-groups-release-report-analyzing-sexual-exploitation-in-haiti-738.html

No Way Out for Foreign National Women Behind Bars

Submitted by asklar on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 11:26am

Too many vulnerable foreign national women are locked up for non-violent crimes and have often been trafficked or coerced into offending, according to a briefing by the Prison Reform Trust and the charity FPWP Hibiscus.

Women from foreign countries are one of the fastest growing groups in the female prison population and represent one in seven of all the women held in custody in England and Wales. Drawing on the experience and work of Hibiscus with foreign national women in prison and kindly supported by the Barrow Cadbury Trust, the briefingreveals that coercion, intimidation, misinformation and threats are frequent factors behind the offending of this group.

URL:

http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/ProjectsResearch/NoWayOutforeignnationalwomen

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