Globalization & the Sex Trade: Trafficking and the Commodification of Women and Children : Cleveland IMC (((i)))

Capitalist globalization today involves an unprecedented "commodification" of human beings. In the last 30 years, the rapidly growing sex trade has been massively "industrialized" worldwide (Barry ; Jeffreys). This process of industrialization, in both its legal and its illegal forms, generates profits amounting to billions of dollars (1). It has created a market of sexual exchanges in which millions of women and children have been converted into sexual commodities. This sex market has been generated through the massive deployment of prostitution (one of the effects of the presence of military forces engaged in wars and/or territorial occupation (Strudevant and Stolzfus) in particular in the emerging economies, the unprecedented expansion of the tourist industry (Truong), the growth and normalization of pornography (Poulin 2000), and the internationalization of arranged marriages (Hughes).

The sex industry, previously considered marginal, has come to occupy a strategic and central position in the development of international capitalism. For this reason it is increasingly taking on the guise of an ordinary sector of the economy. This particular aspect of globalization involves an entire range of issues crucial to understanding the world we live in. These include such processes as economic exploitation, sexual oppression, capital accumulation, international migration, and unequal development and such related conditions as racism and poverty.

The industrialization of the sex trade has involved the mass production of sexual goods and services structured around a regional and international division of labour. These "goods" are human beings who sell sexual services. The international market in these "goods" simultaneously encompasses local and regional levels, making its economic imperatives impossible to avoid (2). Prostitution and related sexual industries - bars, dancing clubs, massage parlors, pornography producers etc. - depend on a massive subterranean economy controlled by pimps connected to organized crime. At the same time, businesses such as international hotel chains, airline companies, and the tourist industry benefit greatly from the sex industry. In Thailand, trafficking is a 500 billion Bahts annual business (equivalent to approximately 124 million U.S. dollars), which represents a value equal to around 60 per cent of the government budget (CATW). In 1998, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated that prostitution represented between two and 14 per cent of the economic activities of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines (Jeffreys). According to a study conducted by Ryan Bishop and Lilian Robinson, the tourist industry brings four billion dollars a year to Thailand. It is not without reason, then, that in 1987 the Thai government promoted sexual tourism through advertising "The one fruit of Thailand more delicious than durian [a local fruit], its young women" (Hechler).

Globalization and development strategy

The industrialization of the sex trade and its globalization are fundamental factors that make contemporary prostitution qualitatively different from the prostitution of yesterday. "Consumers" in the economic North now have access to "exotic" and young, very young bodies worldwide, notably in Brazil, Cuba, Russia, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Vietnam, Nicaragua, and, given the trafficking of children, in their own countries. The sex industry is diversified, sophisticated, and specialized : it can meet all types of demands.

Another factor, which confers a qualitatively different character on the current sex trade, is the fact that prostitution has become a development strategy for some countries. Under obligations of debt repayment, numerous Asian, Latin American, and African States were encouraged by international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) to develop their tourism and entertainment industries. In each case, the development of these sectors inspired the development of the sex trade (Hechler). In certain cases, as in Nepal, women and children were put directly on regional or international markets (notably in India and in Hong-Kong) without the country experiencing a significant expansion of local prostitution. In other cases, as in Thailand, local, regional, and international markets developed simultaneously (Barry).

We can see that, in every case, the "goods" in this market move transcontinentaly and transnationally from regions with weak concentrations of capital toward regions with stronger concentrations.

For example, over ten years, 200,000 Bangladeshi women and girls were the object of trafficking to Pakistan (CATW), and we find that between 20,000 to 30,000 Thai prostitutes are from Burma (CATW). A good part of the migratory stream makes its way towards industrialized countries (3). Foreign women are generally at the bottom of the prostitution hierarchy, are socially and culturally isolated, and work in the worst possible conditions.

Any political economic analysis of prostitution and trafficking in women and children must take into account structural discrimination, uneven development, and the hierarchical relationships between imperialist and dependent countries and between men and women. In recent years under the impact of structural adjustment and economic liberalization policies in numerous countries of the Third World, as well as in the ex-USSR and Eastern Europe, women and children have become "new raw resources" within the framework of national and international business development. Capitalist globalization is more and more characterized by a feminization of migration (Santos). Women of ethnic minorities and other relatively powerless groups are particularly exploited. So, the internal traffic of Thai females consists mostly of 12-16 year olds from hill tribes of the North and the Northeast. In Taiwan, 40 per cent of young prostitutes in the main red light district are aboriginal girls (Barry 139). At the world level, the customers of the North abuse women of the South and of the East as well as local women from disadvantaged groups. From an economic point of view, these "goods" are doubly valuable because bodies are both a good and a service. More precisely, we have seen a commodification not only of the body, but also of women and children as human beings. This has led many to see this tafficking in women and children as a form of slavery (CATW).

Kidnapping, rape, and violence continue to act as midwives of this industry. They are fundamental not only for the development of markets, but also for the "manufacturing" of these "goods," as they contribute to making them "functional" for an industry that requires a constant supply of bodies. Research has shown that between 75 and 80 per cent of prostitutes were sexually abused in their childhood (Satterfield ; Chaleil) (4). More than 90 per cent of prostitutes are controlled by a pimp (Silbert and Pines 1982 ; Barry). A study of street prostitutes in England established that 87 per cent had been victims of violence during the last 12 months and 43 per cent suffered from grave physical consequences of abuse (Raymond). An American study showed that 78 per cent of prostitutes had been victims of rape by pimps and customers, on average 49 times a year ; 49 per cent had been victims of removal and transported from one state to another and 27 per cent had been mutilated (Raymond). The average age of entrance into prostitution in the United States is 14 years (Silbert and Pines 1981 ; Giobbe).

Only 15 per cent of the prostitutes in the United States have never contracted a venereal disease (Leidholdt). Fifty-eight per cent of the prostitutes of Burkina Faso have AIDS, as have, 52 per cent in Kenya, about 50 per cent in Cambodia and 34 per cent in the North of Thailand. In Italy, in 1988, two per cent of the prostitutes had AIDS, compared to 16 per cent ten years later (Leidholdt ; see also, Mechtild). One of the reasons customers give for sexually exploiting children is to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. But the data show this is no protection. For example, in Cambodia there are between 50,000 and 70,000 prostitutes. More than a third of them are less than 18 years old and about 50 per cent of these young people are HIV positive (Véran). In the industrialized countries, 70 per cent of female infertility is caused by venereal diseases caught from husbands and partners (Raymond).

Given such conditions, it is hard to understand how some researchers can continue to treat "sex work" as a predominantly and simply a freely chosen occupation/activity.

Prostitution and Trafficking

Over the last three decades, most of the countries of the Southern Hemisphere have experienced a phenomenal growth of prostitution. For a decade, this has also been the case for the countries of the ex-USSR and Eastern Europe. Millions of women, teenagers, and children thus live in the red-light districts of the urban metropolises of their own countries or in those of the nearby countries. Two million women prostitute themselves in Thailand (Barry 122), 400,000 to 500,000 in the Philippines (CATW), 650,000 in Indonesia (CATW), about ten million in India (of whom 200,000 are Nepalese) (CATW), 142,000 in Malaysia (CATW), between 60,000 and 70,000 in Vietnam (CATW), one million in the United States, between 50,000 and 70,000 in Italy (of whom half are foreigners, most notably from Nigeria), 30,000 in the Netherlands (CATW), 200,000 in Poland (Opperman), and between 60,000 (Guéricolas) and, more credibly, 200,000 (Opperman) in Germany. German prostitutes sell sexual services to 1.2 million "customers" per day (Opperman ; Ackermann and Filter).

UNICEF estimates that a million children are brought into the sex industry every year. The industry of child prostitution exploits 400,000 children in India (UNICEF 2003), 100,000 children in the Philippines (CATW), between 200,000 and 300,000 in Thailand (Oppermann), 100,000 in Taiwan (UNICEF 2001) and in Nepal (ECPAT), 500,000 children in Latin America, and from 244,000 to 325,000 children in the United States. If one includes children in all the sex industries, the U.S. figures climb to 2.4 millions (UNICEF 2001). In the People's Republic of China, there are between 200,000 and 500,000 prostituted children. In Brazil, estimates vary between 500,000 and two million (UNICEF 2001). About 35 per cent of the prostitutes of Cambodia are less than 17 years old (CATW). Certain studies estimate that during one year, the prostituted "sexual services" of one child are sold to 2,000 men (Robinson).

Just as the development of local prostitution is tied up with rural migration towards cities, hundreds of thousands of young women are moving internationally towards the urban areas of Japan, Western Europe, and North America. These rural migrations towards close or distant urban areas show no sign of slowing down (Santos). On the contrary, everything indicates that it is continuing and that traffic in women and children is widespread. The women and children of South and Southeast Asia constitute the most important group : 400,000 persons a year are objects of the aforementioned traffic. Russia and independent states from the ex-USSR constitute the second most important group (175,000 persons a year) (UUSC) followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (about 100,000 persons) and Africa (50,000 persons).

The number of prostitutes from the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Russia installed in Japan is estimated at 150,000 (CATW). About 50,000 Dominicans prostitute themselves abroad, notably in the Netherlands, where they were found to make up 70 per cent of the occupants of 400 Amsterdam sex-shop "windows" (Guéricolas 31). About 500,000 women of Eastern Europe and between 150,000 and 200,000 women of the countries of the ex-USSR prostitute themselves in Western Europe. Of these, it is estimated that 150,00 are in the red-light districts of Germany-a country where 75 per cent of the prostitutes are foreign (Oppermann). About 40 per cent of Zurich's prostitutes are from a Third World country (Oppermann). About 50,000 foreigners arrive each year in the United States to supply the prostitution networks (O'Neill).

Every year, nearly a quarter million women and children of Southeast Asia (Burma, Yunnan province in China, Laos and Cambodia) are bought in Thailand, a transit country, for a price varying between 6,000 and 10,000 U.S. dollars (CATW). In Canada, the intermediaries pay 8,000 dollars for a young Asiatic from the Philippines, Thailand or Malaysia whom they resell for 15,000 dollars to a pimp (CATW). In Western Europe, the current price of a European woman from the former "socialist" countries is between 15,000 and 30,000 USD (CATW). On their arrival in Japan, Thai women have a debt of 25,000 USD (CATW). The bought women have to work for years to pay off "expenses" incurred by the pimps.

Sex tourists do not limit themselves to poor countries. Hamburg's Reeperbahn, Berlin's Kurfürstendamm and the red-light districts of Amsterdam and Rotterdam are well known destinations. In countries that have legalized prostitution or where it is tolerated, prostitution has become an important tourist draw. NGOs from these countries are actively lobbying at the European and international levels for the recognition of prostitution as simply "sex work," an occupation like any other.

The growth of sexual tourism over the last 30 years has entailed the "prostitutionalization" of the societies involved. In Thailand, with 5.1 million sexual tourists a year, 450,000 local customers buy sex every day (Barry 60). The now massive South East Asian sex industry began with the Vietnam war. The U.S. government stationed servicemen not only in Vietnam, but also in Thailand and the Philippines (Jeffreys), these last two countries serving as rear bases in the fight against the Vietminh. The resulting increase in local prostitution established the infrastructure necessary for the development of sexual tourism. The presence of the military created an available work force. More importantly the military presence also provided opportunities for contact with foreigners and the social construction, through pornography, of an exotic sexual image of young South Asian women. Government policies favourable to sex tourism contributed to the explosion of this industry. A decade ago there were 18,000 prostitutes in the service of the 43,000 U.S. servicemen stationed in South Korea (Barry 139). Between 1937 and 1945 the Japanese army of occupation exploited between 100,000 and 200,000 Korean women imprisoned in "comfort stations" (Barry 128). After the Japanese defeat, the Association for the Creation of Special Recreational Facilities, financed indirectly by the U.S. government, opened a first comfort station for U.S. soldiers. At its height this association exploited 70,000 Japanese prostitutes (Barry 129). Today these numbers have swelled and include women from the Philippines, Russia, and other countries in sex industries around the U.S. bases (Moon).

The Liberalization of the Sex Industry

In 1995 during the United Nation's Fourth World Women's Congress in Beijing the principle of "forced" prostitution appeared (UN). This was the first time the term "forced prostitution" was used in a UN document. This created a special (presumed minority) category of prostitution that could be opposed without opposing the sex industry as such. Constraint/force was identified as the problem rather than the sex trade itself. The way was opened for the normalization and legalization of the industry.

In 1997 at the Hague Ministerial Conference on Private International Law, when the European ministers attempted to draw up guidelines harmonizing the European Union's fight against trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, their definition of trafficked women included only those women who were being trafficked against their will.

In 1998, the International Labour Organization (ILO) called for the economic recognition of the sex industry on the grounds that prostitutes would then benefit from workers' rights and protections and improved working conditions that it presumed would follow (Lim). In June 1999, the ILO adopted an agreement on unbearable working conditions for children, the Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour. The agreement provides a long list of the work children do, including prostitution. This is the first time in an international text that sex work is presented as simply a job. Countries, such a France, although ratifying this Convention, have underlined that their ratification in no way recognizes prostitution as work. The United Nations' Special Raporteur on Violence against women was at pains in her report to the UN Human Rights Committee in April 2000 in Geneva, to distinguish trafficked women from "clandestine migrant sex professionals."

All these statements and agreements tend to undermine the struggle against the growing sex industry and the system of prostitution which is at its heart, for they shift opposition from the system itself, to the use of force/constraint within the system. They aim to protect only women who have not agreed to their exploitation and can prove this !, placing the burden of proof on already vulnerable women. In attempting to regulate this fast growing area of the economy these approaches are tending to regularize it. For instance, when the European Union declares its opposition to the illegal traffic in persons, it implies that there is a "legal" traffic. Thus, as Marie-Victoire Louis (131) has pointed out, such initiatives transform the struggle against the commodification of women and girls into its legitimization. She states :

[Toutes ces politiques entérinent] l'abandon de la lutte contre le système prostitutionnel [et] confirme[nt] la légitimation de la marchandisation du système prostitutionnel, au nom de la mise en oeuvre de certaines modalites de sa régulation. (131).

Conclusion

Over 30 years, we have seen an extremely profitable "sexualization" of many societies based on social domination. We have witnessed the industrialization of prostitution, of the traffic in women and children, of pornography, and of sexual tourism. This once marginal market is an increasingly central aspect of current capitalist globalization. Sex multinationals have become independent economic forces (Barry) quoted on the stock exchange (5) sexual exploitation is more and more considered to be an entertainment industry (Oppermann), and prostitution a legitimate job (Kempadoo ; Dorais).

The increasing size and centrality of the global sex industry helps explain why so many groups and agencies are adopting normalizing regulatory approaches in their attempts to address its harms. However, this strategy is deeply flawed. The rapidly expanding international sex market exploits above all women and children, especially members of marginal and minority groups in the Third World and in the former "socialist" countries. This "leisure industry" is based on the systematic violation of human rights, for it requires a market in commodified human beings and the complicity of pimps and clients who are prepared to buy and sell women and children.

The commodification at the heart of the growing sex industry is only one among many varied instances of the commodification of all of life which is a defining characterization of current neo-liberalism. Patents are now issued on genetic life forms (including human genomes) and all forms of traditional knowledge (Shiva 1997, 2000). Water is being privatized (Barlow). In the name of environmental protection and sustainable development, markets are being created for trade in CO2 and emissions credits (the right to pollute) (Kyoto Protocol). The apparent "normalcy" of trade in human beings in this period has led to misguided regulatory approaches in some quarters. Yet this very "normalcy" is what makes refusal of the sex industry as such, so essential. In this context, resisting or struggling against the commodification of women and children in the sex industry becomes a central element in the struggle against capitalist globalization. Anything less is complicity.

Notes

1. According to Chulalungkborn Political Economy Center at the University of Thailand, in 1993 worldwide the sex industry generated incomes of between 20 and 23 billion USD (ECPAT Australia 29). Other estimates put incomes from the legal sex industry at 52 billion dollars (Leidholdt).
2. Kathleen Barry reports that as a result of globalization, complete fishing villages in the Philippines and Thailand have been transformed into service providers (126).
3. For example, the majority of New Zealand's prostitutes are from Asia (CATW).
4. These data confirm the findings of my own research with escort dancers (Poulin 1994).
5. The most important bordello in Melbourne, Australia, "The Daily Planet," is now quoted on the stock exchange (Jeffreys 185).

References

Ackermann L. und C. Filter. Die Frau nach Katalog, Freiburg : Herder Verlag, 1994.
Barlow, M. Blue Gold : The Battle Against the Corporate Theft of the World's Water. Toronto : Stoddart, 2002.
Barry, Kathleen. The Prostitution of Sexuality. New York : New York University Press, 1995.
Bishop, R and L. Robinson. Night Market. Sexual Cultures and the Thai Economic Miracle. New York, Routledge, 1998.
Chaleil, Max. Prostitution. Le désir mystifié.Paris : Parangon, 2002.
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW). Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation. Manila : CATW, 2001. [cited March 2, 2003] Available online : http://catwinternational.org/ fb/.
Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (ILO No. 182), 38 I.L.M. 1207 (1999), entered into force Nov. 19, 2000.
Dorais, Michel. Travailleurs du sexe. Montréal : VLB, 2003.
End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT) Australia. ECPAT Development Manual. Melbourne : ECPAT, 1994.
Giobbe E. "Juvenile Prostitution : Process of Recruitment." Child Trauma I : Issues and Research. New York, Garaland Publishing, 1992.
Guéricolas, Pascale. " Géographie de l'inacceptable ", Gazette des femmes 22 (1) (mai-juin 2000) : 27-31.
Hechler, David. Child Sex Tourism. [online] New York : Don't buy Thai. 1995. [cited May 6, 2001] Online : ftp://members.aol.com/hechler/tourism.html .
Hughes, Donna M. " Rôle des agences matrimoniales dans la traite des femmes ". L'impact de l'utilisation des nouvelles technologies de dommunication et d'information sur la traite des êtres humains aux fins d'exploitation sexuelle. Bruxelles : Conseil de l'Europe, 2001. 4-16
Jeffreys, Sheila. "Globalizing Sexual Exploitation : Sex Tourism and the Traffic in Women." Leisure Studies 18 (3) (July 1999) : 179-186.
Kempadoo K and J. Doezema. Global Sex Workers. New York : Routledge, 1998.
Kyoto Protocol. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Online : http://unfccc.int/ resource/convkp/kpeng.html.
Leidholdt, Dorchen. Position Paper for the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. Eds. Donna M. Hughes and Claire M. Roche. Kingston, Rhode Island : CATW 2001.[cited September 12, 2002]. Online : http://www.uri. edu1artsci/wms/hugues/catw/posit2.htm
Lim, L. L. The Sex Sector. The Economic and Social Bases of Prostitution in Southeast Asia. Geneva : ILO, 1998.
Louis, Marie-Victoire. " Pour construire l'abolitionnisme du XXIe siècle. Cahiers marxistes 216 (juin-juillet 2000) : 123-151.
Mechtild, M. Tourisme, prostitution, sida. Paris/Genève : Harmattan/Cetim, 1992.
Moon, K., Sex Among Allies : Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations. New York : Columbia University Press, 1997.
Oppermann M. "Introduction." Sex Tourism and Prostitution : Aspects of Leisure, Recreation, and Work. Ed. M. Oppemann. New York, Cognizant Communication Corporation, 1998. 1-19.
Poulin, Richard. La violence pornographique, industrie du fantasme et réalités. Second edition. Yens-sur-Morges : Cabédita, 2000.
Poulin, Richard. Le sexe spectacle, consommation, main-d'œuvre et pornographie. Hull/Ottawa : Vents d'Ouest/Vermillion, 1994.
Raymond, Janice, Health Effects of Prostitution. Kingston : University of Rhode Island, 1999. [cited March 12, 2001] Online : http:http://www.uri.edu/ artsci/wms/Hugues /mhvhealth.htm.
Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women. Intergration of the Human Rights of women and the Gender Perspective : Violence Against Women. Commission on Human Rights, 56th Session. E/CN.4/2000/68 : 29 February 2000.
Robinson, L. N. The Globalization of Female Child Prostitution. [online] Bloomington : Indiana University, 1998. [cited March 3, 2001] Online : http://www.law.indiana.Edu1glsj/vol5/no1/ robinson.html
Santos, Aida F. Globalization, Human Rights and Sexual Exploitation. University of Rhode Island, 1999. [cited March 3, 2001] Online : http:http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hugues/mhvglo.htm.
Satterfield, S. B. 1981. "Clinical Aspects of Juvenile Prostitution." Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality 15 (9) (1981) : 126.
Shiva, V. Biopiracy : The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge. Boston, MA : South End Press, 1997.
Shiva, V. Stolen Harvest : The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply. Cambridge, MA. : South End Press, 2000.
Silbert, M. and A. M. Pines. "Entrance in to Prostitution." Youth and Society 13 (4) (1982) : 471-500.
Silbert M and A. M. Pines. 1981. "Occupational Hazards of Street Prostitutes." Criminal Justice Behaviour 195 (1981) : 395.
Strudevant, S. P. and B. Stolzfus. Eds. Let the Good Times Roll. Prostitution and the U.S. Military in Asia. New York : The New Press, 1992.
Truong, T. D. Sex, Money and Morality : Prostitution and Tourism in Southeast Asia, London : Zed Books, 1990.
United Nations (UN). Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women. Beijing, 4-15 September 1995. Conf.177/20, 113b
UNICEF. Child Trafficking Statistics. New York : UNICEF, 2003. [cited February 27, 2003] Online : http:// http://www.unicef.org/programme/cprotection/focus/trafficking/stats.htm .
UNICEF. L'Unicef demande l'élimination de l'exploitation sexuelle des enfants à des fins commerciales. New York : UNICEF, 2001. [cited May 13, 2002] Online : http://www. unicef.org/french/newsline/ pr/2001/01pr97fr.htm.
UUSC. The Modern International Slave Trade. Cambridge, MA : UUSC, 2001. [cited May 14, 2001] Online : http://www.uusc.org/programs/index_frames.html ? straffic2.html.
O'Neill Richard, Amy. International Trafficking in Women to the United States : To Contemporary Manifestation of Slavery and Organized Crime. DCI : Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1999. Véran, Sylvie. 2000. " Cambodge. Vendue à 9 ans, prostituée, séropositive", Nouvel Observa-teur, 3 au 10 août : 10-11.

" Globalization and the Sex Trade : Trafficking and the Commodification of Women and Children ". First publication in Canadian Women Studies/Les cahiers de la femme (Vol. 22, n° 3-4, December 2003 : 38-43).

Sisyphe, février 2004

I'm the regional representative for B.C. and the Yukon of the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres. I've been working with victims of rape and sexual assault since 1973, so I embody much of the Canadian history of the development of rape crisis centres and transition houses. I'm now part of the national decision-making body of CASAC, which includes CALACS from Quebec and other individual member centres. I am newly elected by the Canadian Women's March Committee to the international committee discussing prostitution. I have been taking positions on prostitution for as long as I can remember. In the first years of transition houses, it was a big surprise to realize that many of the women who came to shelters had also at some point or another experienced prostitution, usually on a temporary basis. We had to very quickly realize that there was a connection between women who had suffered incest, women who were dealing with prostitution, and women who were dealing with wife assault. For me, it is impossible to separate those issues. I come at the issue of prostitution as being violence against women. They're not separable in my mind.

What I would like to talk to you about, though, is that I think the current discussion in the Canadian situation has everything to do with changes in Canadian governance and the economic situation in Canada. It has much more to do with that than with the issues of prostitution that were being discussed during the Fraser commission. I think this is perhaps the most important thing that needs to be considered.

For five years I have received research funds from the Department of Justice for a five-year, cross-Canada project examining how cases of violence against women manage to be pushed out of the criminal justice system. How is it that we have such a low conviction rate ? How is it that so many are pushed off stage ? During the course of that research, it has been made clear to us that the changes in governance in Canada are a big factor in what's going on in the prostitution discussion as well as in the criminal justice discussion. That project is called LINKS. Its report will be out by the end of 2003. It will be released in Vancouver. It examines the changes in Canadian governance that have meant not only a complete change in the relationship to NGOs, particularly women's groups, but it also talks about the loss of welfare as a level of redistribution of income within Canada, not as a service. It talks about the promotion of prostitution, which is how I would now categorize the political process we're part of.

Prostitution and neoliberalism

The changes in the informal economy are evident in every major city. There are now more women--and young women and young men, but I'm speaking particularly about the situation of adult women--on the street than there ever have been in my lifetime. It is a phenomenon that cannot be separated from the changes in the economy, including the loss of welfare and the loss of the public sector. It's not for me to talk about the loss of the public sector. I think other people can do that much better. But from answering a crisis line and being in a transition house and a rape crisis centre--which I still do every day, and that's where my work is centred--I can tell you that it is impossible not to recognize the relationship between the changes in the economy and what's going on with prostitution. That's the first thing I want to say. Unless you go looking for it, I don't think you'll hear that in this discussion.

The research will substantiate some of what I'm saying, but I largely have to bank on the fact that I have a lifelong reputation of doing this work and I do know some things. You can take that for what it's worth.

Legalization of organized crime

I can tell you very clearly that we are pushing numbers of people out from under the law-and-order agenda, which I've always worried about. We are now pushing more and more people out to the rule of motorcycle gangs and criminal elements of that sort. Organized crime is a serious phenomenon in the major cities and in relation to prostitution. I don't know how anybody can think we're going to change exit services, the policing of violence against women, and prostitution without dealing with this issue. It is a matter of governance. It has been dramatic in the major cities, but it has also been dramatic in cities as small as Winnipeg. I think it would be foolhardy to make recommendations about prostitution that do not take those issues into account.

My original position on prostitution was that we should immediately decriminalize in order to protect the women. I am now not so sure that's the right thing to do at this moment. With the absence of services and funding and with the cuts and the devolution of powers, I am very worried that decriminalization will simply abandon women in very large numbers to the streets of the urban centres, where they will be pushed around for the purposes of real estate. I can't say this strongly enough. I think the context is entirely different from the last time we discussed this issue. So I would urge you not to make any decriminalization moves that don't take into account that you are in essence legalizing a huge threatening trade. I urge you to think about this as a growing industry that is completely beyond regulation. If you decriminalize, you remove the largest power we have to deal with that industry. This is my worry. It has also been articulated by people working in other countries. I'll give you some websites and contacts with regard to other people's research on that.

A question of women's human rights and of the redistribution of income

We held a forum in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago. In Vancouver, the city government was elected because the public is very concerned about the plight of the people in the downtown eastside. I think it's important to recognize that no government has been given a mandate to end welfare. No government has been given a mandate to carry out the destruction of services that have actually been carried out. In Vancouver we've gone even further. The city government was elected to help solve the problem of the ghetto. It was out of people's goodwill that they were elected. It is, of course, cynical politics since I don't see how that city government has any chance of actually affecting the income of those people or the problems they're facing. That's exactly what you will be generating if you devolve this problem to the city level. Cities cannot cope with this issue.

It's a basic issue of women's human rights and of the redistribution of income. It's a basic issue of what we are all entitled to as human beings, including the protection of the state. I urge you not to take it out of that context. That's my strongest message. I can back it up with statistics and contacts. I wanted to communicate that concept. This is not 1970. In 1970 I argued decriminalization. I'm saying to you now think twice. Be very careful about this.

Lee Lakeman's testimony for the Subcommittee on Solicitation Lawsof the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

On Sisyphe, June 13, 2005.

The World March of Women is a global feminist action network committed to fighting poverty and violence against women. We represent over 5300 women's groups located in 163 countries and territories. These groups are concerned about escalating poverty, especially its feminization, and the omnipresence of violence against women in every region of the world. We struggle every day to change this situation.

We address the issue of prostitution and the expansion of the sex industry from the perspective of sexual exploitation, the subjugation of the poorest women, racism and the international division of labour.

We remind you of these two statistics about the situation of women planet-wide ; they should guide the sub-committee in its deliberations :

- according to official UNDP data, almost half the world's population lives in conditions of extreme poverty : less than US$1 per day. Of this number, 70% are women.

- according to the World Bank, violence against women equals cancer as a cause of death and disability in women of reproductive age.

We could put it more strongly still and say that women are much more likely than men to die of malnutrition and lack of health care-especially reproductive health care ; and more likely to die at men's hands, usually men they know, whether they are prostituted or not.

Why ? Because we still live in a world where the lives of women and girls are valued less. We live in a political, social, economic and cultural system that is based on unequal, gender-based based treatment of its citizenry. The patriarchal system, here and elsewhere, persists and resists every attempt women make to change it. We have made gains and continue to advance but many obstacles still stand in our way. The task is indeed an enormous one and the system is as old as the "oldest occupation in the world."

The institutions of the patriarchy

The patriarchal system is rooted in four institutions that simultaneously perpetuate and increase its strength : marriage, maternity, heterosexuality and prostitution-four institutions whose purpose is to control women's bodies and their sexuality. As feminists we have succeeded in shaking up these institutions, with one exception : the institution of prostitution. It must be stressed that this is true of Western countries in particular ; it is hardly true for the great majority of women around the world.

Marriage in Canada and Québec is no longer viewed as the only career plan for young women. Now there are even new types of union that are breaking with tradition. In many other countries, however, girls are forced into marriage (especially in Africa) ; and women are burned alive on their husband's death (Asia).

The right to decide on the number of children we wish to bear, end an unwanted pregnancy, or simply not to have children, was won after long hard struggle by women in this part of the world. Although we must fiercely guard this right, it does represent a step forward. It is not a choice that the majority of women in the world can make. Witness the pressure exerted by the Vatican, supported by the United States, a world superpower, to deny women's right to bear the children they desire and to control their reproductive lives ; the forced sterilization of Aboriginal women in Latin America ; or the criminalization of abortion in many countries, including countries in the North like Portugal and Ireland.

The institution of compulsory heterosexuality was also shaken although these gains are among the most fragile. For a woman, the right to love who we choose still requires the most arduous struggle. Bringing homosexuality out of the closet, especially freeing it of its stigma as a mental illness or sign of abnormality, allowed numerous women to make different life choices. These choices are unimaginable in many countries where non-heterosexuality is repressed, even penalized by death.

The institution of prostitution, meanwhile, has prospered. The sex industry, pornography, and sexist advertising have seen to that. In this market-driven era, selling women's bodies-in the virtual or the real world-is an extremely lucrative activity, and in fact, is ever more lucrative. The traffic in women and girls, mostly for the purposes of prostitution, is rising. Despite the obvious links between this traffic and prostitution, there is strong resistance to the notion of attacking these links, especially attacking the demand.

It is useful to remember that defying any of these institutions means exposing oneself to repression and violence. In fact, violence against women could be defined as the ultimate tool of repression when women refuse to be at the service of men.

Why decriminalizing prostitution is not the answer to violence against prostituted women

Because the main goal of violence against women is the control of the Other by denigration, terror, blows, torture and death. Women in prostitution are more vulnerable to this violence because the men who buy women believe they have paid for the right to do what they like to them. Even if women try to establish limits, men believe they can legitimately disregard them because they have bought control.

If we truly want to address the issue of violence against prostituted women, then, we must tackle inequality between women and men in a much broader way. We must above all challenge the demand, i.e., the fact that men want to purchase sexual services, and make the necessary links with the maintenance of women's inferior status. Remember, too, that the institution of prostitution concerns all women. Under patriarchy, the man/buyer does not wonder if the woman wants to be a prostitute. He prostitutes her.

Since this sub-committee was created in response to the violence perpetrated on prostituted women in Vancouver over the years, it is useful to recall that numerous times during the investigation the women themselves reported details to the Vancouver police that could have led to arrests of the murderers and a reduction of the numbers of victims. Law or no law, women victims of violence, especially women in prostitution, are not believed when they report violent incidents.

The consequences of total deciminalization in Canada

Canada boasts a strong international reputation for fighting violence against women. It was the first country to accord refugee status to women fleeing violence. It was one of the first countries to define rape within marriage as a crime. We have developed practices and adopted legislation which are the envy of many across the world. The Canadian government is a signatory of the Palermo Protocol on the sex trafficking of women and children.

We believe it would be a mistake for Canada to decriminalize prostitution as a means of countering the violence committed against prostituted women. This would send the wrong message and would diminish Canada's credibility on the issue. There are no reliable data we know of that show that violence against prostituted women has decreased in countries that have decriminalized or legalized prostitution. On the contrary, the trafficker networks enjoy much more latitude to sexually exploit the legions of women and girls who are desperately trying to improve their quality of life .

Why is it that since the sex industry was legalized in the Netherlands most of the women in the windows come from countries in the South ? This is why we believe that connections must be made between prostitution/sex trafficking and the subjugation of poor women, racism and the international division of labour. In fact, when we observe the movement of the traffic in humans (especially sex trafficking) it is quickly apparent that the traffic moves from East to West, South to North, following the route of poor countries' debt repayments to rich countries. With dread, we observe institutions like the World Trade Organization propose to a country like Thailand that sex tourism revenues be counted in its gross domestic product. And, in Germany, not long ago, an unemployed woman was obliged to take a job in the sex industry.

Needed changes

We are nevertheless of the opinion that current Canadian law is not adequate to fight the pimp networks and the institution of prostitution. We are aware that women-especially women in the street-are doubly penalized by the stigmatization/marginalization of which they are victims, police repression, and, of course, the potential violence of male buyers. We denounce the treatment of Aboriginal women who are ignored by the system and left in a condition of extreme vulnerability. We are above all aware that it is time to stop trying to control women in prostitution and start addressing this issue from another perspective, that of the demand and the industry.

This is why we recommend the following priorities to the Canadian government :

- totally decriminalize prostituted and trafficked women (including the possibility of according them refugee or immigrant status, where applicable) ;

- begin a process to adopt framework legislation focussing on the demand and attacking pimping networks. This legislation should provide for massive public information campaigns and education programs for boys and girls in the schools concerning the causes and consequences of prostitution ; it should link gender equality policies with the struggle against pimping and sexual exploitation of others ; and review the sections of the Criminal Code and the Immigration Act that facilitate the expansion of the sex industry and sex trafficking in Canada ;

- take the needed measures to eliminate poverty in Canada with specific programs to combat women's poverty ;

- respond favourably to the demands of Aboriginal women to recognize their Aboriginal status in their communities and give them the tools they need to assume leadership ;

- evaluate the impact of the sex industry on equality between women and men in Canada.

Text of a presentation made by Diane Matte, Coordinator of the International Secretariat of the World March of Women, to the Subcommittee on Solicitation Laws of the Standing Committee On Justice, in Montreal, March 16, 2005.

Online on Sisyphe April 11th, 2005.

Cleveland Indy Media Center