STATEMENT BY GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT ON INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
Press Release
GA/9190
STATEMENT BY GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT ON INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
19961206 Following is the statement by the President of the General Assembly, Razali Ismail (Malaysia) to commemorate the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, 6 December 1996:Our world is a bewildering place, full of creative and humane potential, and yet so brutal. Such morbid reflection is appropriate today when we commemorate the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, and consider the trafficking of women and girls.
A defining characteristic of these modern times is the movement of vast numbers of people across national boundaries. The relative affordability of international travel, and the opening up of formerly closed frontiers have facilitated these movements. At the same time, environmental degradation and socio-political instability have caused internal displacement and increased refugee flows. The harsh reality of poverty and deprivation, punctuated by dreams of a better life in richer countries -- made tantalizingly clear via modern communications -- have spurred individuals to migrate, either permanently, or on a temporary basis. Unlike earlier times, women are now more commercially active and relatively free to travel. Women therefore constitute a large proportion of these would-be immigrants. Most countries see the increase in movements of people as a threat, and have rushed to put rigid immigration controls in place. These controls have had serious adverse impacts by limiting opportunities and restricting options for legal migration.
All these various factors have combined to create a widespread pattern of illegal immigration flows. These flows of people are usually facilitated by unscrupulous people who organize the transit in return for huge profits. Such is the desperation of their existing situation, that many illegal immigrants are in fact willing participants in their transit. They are prepared to endure hardship and live on the promise of a more secure future. For some, this hard struggle is eventually repaid by greater financial and personal security. For most, the initial hardship only begets further exploitation and misery. The chains of debt, bondage and servitude, often add to the burden of their illegal status and prevent them from seeking protection in their new country of residence.
One part of the spectrum of the illegal transit of people concerns the trafficking of women and children. Normally this heinous trade in human beings is driven by sexual exploitation. Forced labour, forced marriage and
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forced adoption are also to blame. Victims may be abducted, compelled by violence or blackmailed. Victims may be deceived by promises of marriage, of employment, or of greater income for themselves and their families. The most tragic cases are those when the victims are sold and trafficked with the complicity of parents, relatives and people known to them. Young children are the major victims of such desperation. Girls are most vulnerable, because their low status and so-called sexual desirability usually merge with traditional practices such as child marriage.
The trafficking in women and children is not a novel practice. The issue has been of grave concern to the international community for decades. For example, measures to address the traffic of women for the purposes of sexual exploitation were the subjects of one of the first multilateral human rights agreements as far back as 1904, with the International Agreement for the Suppression of White Slave Traffic. This was drafted to prevent the export of prostitutes from Europe to brothels in various parts of the colonial empire. An international convention by the same name was completed in 1910. The traffic in women and children was considered so important that it was included in the Covenant of the League of Nations, and resulted in two international treaties. And one of the early priorities of the United Nations was the preparation of the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of Others. This Convention was adopted on 2 December 1949, the anniversary of which we recall today.
Trafficking is an illegal and a clandestine practice. It is therefore virtually impossible to estimate the actual numbers of women and children affected, though available figures suggest the problem is growing in all corners of the globe. No region is spared. Significantly, the most reliable data is available from those countries where trafficking in women has been the focus of a specific policy. Most victims have been tricked into working as prostitutes or in sex-related businesses.
Accurate information on the incidence of trafficking in children is even more fragmented. However one fact remains incontrovertible - that a greater number of younger girls are absorbed into the commercial sex trade where adult female prostitution exists. Even more disheartening are indications of a growing demand by male clients for sexual activity with very young girls and virgins. This trend is probably associated with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and with dangerous delusions that young girls are less likely to be infected with HIV.
Why does such a vile phenomenon continue to persist? Not surprisingly, rampant greed that exploits the vulnerable for quick profit is fundamental to the problem. Trafficking is a highly profitable business. Victims are powerless, and unlikely to protest as they themselves are caught up in the web of illegality. So the illicit trade poses few risks for the trafficker. It is ironic that when globalization and market-forces have been accepted as the keystones of greater freedom and prosperity, that our most vulnerable women and children have themselves fallen victim to the global zeal for commodification. Women and children are being transformed into marketable
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objects to satisfy any and every demand. Not only are they exploited as bonded labour in conditions reminiscent of medieval slavery, but are manipulated as objects for sexual gratification. Nothing exemplifies this perversity more than the modern phenomenon of "sex tourism" and the catalogues of children available for paedophiles, accessible even on the internet.
Trafficking in women and children, for whatever purpose, constitutes one aspect of gross exploitation and the denial of guaranteed human rights. Such abuses remain very much a part of our world, despite the efforts of nations through the United Nations to carve out a vision of humanity endowed with universal values and inalienable rights. Trafficking and its attendant abuse and exploitation is a crime that reinforces the subordination of women and children.
The international community and national governments have not ignored trafficking in women and children. An array of international treaties and a substantial framework of differing approaches have been developed to tackle the problem. And yet despite all these efforts, this organized crime continues. Many reasons can be advanced to explain this. Like most other global issues considered by the United Nations, the international community is proficient at defining and analysing the problems of our time but seems less able to prevent and resolve them. Solutions are of course easier to prescribe and more difficult to implement. But if we are to reach for a vision of human dignity that is universal, we must make concerted efforts to root out the fundamental causes that perpetuate such misery. Political will and social responsibility are essential ingredients to these solutions.
The persistence and apparent growth of traffic in women and children serves as a reproach to our age. It is nothing short of modern slavery and an affront to humanity. As such, it should be treated with the abhorrence and moral outrage it deserved. All members of society must share in the responsibility to eliminate the exploitation of women and children in this manner. Only through such collective mobilization will the local, national, regional and international criminal trafficking networks be dismantled. Of primary importance are actions aimed to eliminate the gender discrimination and persistent poverty that drive the trafficking in the first place. The international legal framework is in place and should be implemented and utilized. Law enforcement authorities and social service providers must increase their coordination and emphasise preventive measures, such as better health and education.
Perhaps more than all these, efforts are needed to extinguish the shame of victims which enable the trafficker to hide behind the cloak of secrecy and security. It is incumbent on every society and human person to ensure that the commodification and abuse of the vulnerable, the young and the helpless have no place in our world. Each of us must step forward to guarantee the fundamental rights of those who have lost theirs.
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