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1. Seeking Accountability and Preventing Reoccurrence: Addressing Conflict-Related Sexual Slavery through the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda

Author:
Elenore Veillet-Chowdhurry
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP)
Abstract:
The Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), with support from the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), coordinated a global research to analyze historical and contemporary incidences of sexual slavery, from World War Two to the present geopolitical context. The overall goal of the research is to promote synergies in the implementation of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda, international humanitarian and human rights laws, and policies to prevent and counter violent extremism to improve the prevention of, protection from, accountability mechanisms for, and relief and recovery for survivors of sexual slavery. To ensure that this research reflects the voices of survivors of sexual slavery and women’s civil society on the ground in conflict-affected communities, the research team produced three case studies: one on sexual slavery during World War Two in Asia and the Pacific, and two on more recent incidences of sexual slavery in Uganda and Iraq respectively. Key informant interviews and focus group discussions with survivors of conflict-related sexual slavery, women’s rights activists, local and national government officials, human rights lawyers, and grassroots peacebuilders in Korea, Uganda, and Iraq, along with global policymakers were conducted. This advocacy brief summarizes the key findings and recommendations of the global research and case studies. The full-length global research and case studies will also be made available. GNWP hopes that this research will inform and strengthen the global response to conflict-related sexual slavery and survivor-centered implementation of the WPS Agenda. Critically, this research will serve as a key advocacy tool for victims and survivors of sexual slavery and their families, and civil society activists.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Sex Trafficking, Slavery, and Conflict
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Worsening Women Trafficking, Multidimensional Poverty and Gender Inequality: The Vulnerabilities, Playouts and Governmental Responses in West Africa

Author:
Tunde Abioro and Omolara Akinyemi
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Polish Political Science Yearbook
Institution:
Polish Political Science Association (PPSA)
Abstract:
Modern governments in modern states in third world countries are overwhelmed with social circumstances that have forced citizens to resort to self-help. Also, prevalent unclear demographic and globalization issues are sometimes neutral lines of justification for either transit or destination posture of the West African states. Concisely, poverty issues have continuously permeated the West Africa region’s fabric, and the challenges seem protracting. It has implications for mobility, (women) trafficking, and human security, among others. The quantitative approach adopted profiled index while evaluating and descriptive methods explained the content. Among other findings, lack of national data and proper immigration service is obvious. Thus, adequate data for national planning is recommended. Further, ongoing regional and national initiatives for possible integration and collaboration to address challenges are advocated.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Poverty, Sex Trafficking, Governance, Inequality, and Human Trafficking
Political Geography:
Africa and West Africa

3. Africa Lags in Protections against Human Trafficking

Author:
Africa Center for Strategic Studies
Publication Date:
07-2018
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Africa Center for Strategic Studies
Abstract:
Trafficking in persons has become a multibillion dollar business in Africa that African governments have been slow to address.
Topic:
International Affairs and Sex Trafficking
Political Geography:
Africa

4. Migrants, Housewives, Warriors or Sex Slaves: AQ’s and the Islamic State’s Perspectives on Women

Author:
Andrea Sjøberg Aasgaard
Publication Date:
01-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
Why do young Muslim women from the whole world join the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq, despite the fact that the group is notorious for conducting terrible sexual violations against women? Through comparing how al-Qaeda (AQ) and IS are positioning women in their ideological literature, this article sheds light on IS’ appeal to women. This is interesting, as AQ in a historical perspective only attracted a handful of European women to physically join the group. The comparison highlights that AQ and IS position women in different ways: as housewives, migrants, warriors and sex slaves. Both groups’ ideologies agree that a woman’s primarily role is to be a housewife and mother, and exclude in principle women from the battlefield. However, only IS is emphasizing that Muslim women have a right and duty to migrate to its territory. Through using ideological arguments in its literature, IS convinces its supporters that it is a religious duty to enslave women the group defines as idolaters. For this reason, IS’ brutality against non-Muslim women will not discourage its female supporters from joining the group.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Migration, Sex Trafficking, Islamic State, and Sexual Violence
Political Geography:
Iraq, Middle East, and Syria

5. How to Dismantle the Business of Human Trafficking: Blueprint for Congress

Author:
Annick Febrey
Publication Date:
02-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights First
Abstract:
Since passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000—and its subsequent reauthorizations—the U.S. government has taken steps to build an anti-human trafficking infrastructure. Through annual publication of the Department of State’s (DOS) Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report,[ii] the United States has led the movement to call worldwide attention to this problem. The DOS Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP) provides grants to both American and foreign institutions involved in prevention and awareness raising, protection and victim services, law enforcement and efforts to increase prosecutions, research and data collection, and evaluation. J/TIP also facilitates coordination between U.S. agencies, both at home and abroad, including those on the President’s Interagency Task Force (PITF).[iii] Despite these efforts, human trafficking continues to be a massive human rights problem across the globe, one that inflicts suffering on millions and undermines legitimate, law-abiding U.S. businesses and their workers. Victims are forced to work in fields and factories and on fishing boats for little to no pay, while others are held captive in private homes. Forced prostitution rings imprison women, girls, and boys in brothels or make them to work on the streets under threat of abuse. The primary reason for the persistence of slavery is clear: the crime pays. Operating with virtual impunity, traffickers earn an estimated $150 billion annually in illicit profits worldwide.[iv] The 2016 DOS TIP report used law enforcement data to determine that there were only 6,609 human trafficking convictions globally in 2015—a paltry figure considering the millions of victims. The U.S. government reported just 297 convictions in 2015.[v] The United States should flip the financial equation for traffickers: dismantle the business of human trafficking by increasing the risks and decreasing the profits. To that end, the 115th U.S. Congress has an opportunity to prioritize policies that will increase prosecutions through the annual appropriations process and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which is up for reauthorization this fall. These policies should strengthen partnerships across federal, state and local law enforcement and related agencies, and increase funding to create more effective and sustainable efforts to combat this horrific crime.
Topic:
Labor Issues, Sex Trafficking, Domestic Politics, and Human Trafficking
Political Geography:
United States, Washington, and D.C.

6. What Slaveholders Think: How Contemporary Perpetrators Rationalize What They Do

Author:
Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick
Publication Date:
03-2017
Content Type:
Book
Institution:
Columbia University Press
Abstract:
Drawing on fifteen years of work in the antislavery movement, Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick examines the systematic oppression of men, women, and children in rural India and asks: How do contemporary slaveholders rationalize the subjugation of other human beings, and how do they respond when their power is threatened? More than a billion dollars have been spent on antislavery efforts, yet the practice persists. Why? Unpacking what slaveholders think about emancipation is critical for scholars and policy makers who want to understand the broader context, especially as seen by the powerful. Insight into those moments when the powerful either double down or back off provides a sobering counterbalance to scholarship on popular struggle. Through frank and unprecedented conversations with slaveholders, Choi-Fitzpatrick reveals the condescending and paternalistic thought processes that blind them. While they understand they are exploiting workers' vulnerabilities, slaveholders also feel they are doing workers a favor, often taking pride in this relationship. And when the victims share this perspective, their emancipation is harder to secure, driving some in the antislavery movement to ask why slaves fear freedom. The answer, Choi-Fitzpatrick convincingly argues, lies in the power relationship. Whether slaveholders recoil at their past behavior or plot a return to power, Choi-Fitzpatrick zeroes in on the relational dynamics of their self-assessment, unpacking what happens next. Incorporating the experiences of such pivotal actors into antislavery research is an immensely important step toward crafting effective antislavery policies and intervention. It also contributes to scholarship on social change, social movements, and the realization of human rights.
Topic:
Human Rights, Sex Trafficking, and Slavery
Political Geography:
India and Global Focus
Publication Identifier:
9780231543828
Publication Identifier Type:
ISBN

7. What Do We Know About Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts? Recent Empirical Progress and Remaining Gaps in Peace and Conflict Research

Author:
Carlo Koos
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
Since the war in Bosnia‐Herzegovina and the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s, sexual violence in conflict has received increasing scholarly attention. While earlier research focused on documenting cases of sexual violence and investigating the topic from a metaperspective, in the last decade an increasing number of empirical, largely qualitative studies have been published. This paper critically reviews this recent literature on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) according to two lines of inquiry. It first examines the literature on the causes of CRSV, then surveys the research on its social consequences. Overall, the growing body of research on CRSV has considerably advanced our knowledge. However, methodologically there remains a shortage of comparative, and particularly quantitative, research. Much of the qualitative research relies on convenience samples, which result in a clear selection bias. This hampers our ability to make more general statements about the causes and, in particular, the social consequences of CRSV.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Human Rights, and Sex Trafficking

8. Conflict and Extremist-Related Sexual Violence

Author:
Kerry Crawford
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Abstract:
As extremist groups in the Middle East and North Africa perpetrate sexual violence against women as part of their campaigns to further their interests and propagate fear, scholars are reaching a deeper understanding of the ways in which sexual violence, before, during, and after conflict, arises from a complex pattern of political, military, social, and economic factors. International actors can draw from this work to craft responses that better assist survivors and hold perpetrators accountable.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Human Rights, and Sex Trafficking
Political Geography:
Middle East and North Africa

9. The UN Security Council and Organized Criminal Activity: Experiments in International Law Enforcement

Author:
James Cockayne
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
On 30 November 1943, Franklin Roosevelt was in Teheran, celebrating Winston Churchill's sixty-ninth birthday with Josef Stalin. FDR gave Churchill a Persian vase, and as discussion turned to the post-war order he passed an aide a pencil sketch of what was to become the United Nations.
Topic:
Crime, International Cooperation, International Law, Narcotics Trafficking, Sex Trafficking, Law Enforcement, and Piracy

10. No Life Left Untouched by Human Trafficking

Author:
Chrisella Sagers
Publication Date:
04-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
A special session of the United Nations General Assembly made headlines last week with a disheartening announcement – 2.4 million people today, across the globe, are victims of human trafficking. Of those, 80 percent are being forced into sexual slavery, and 17 percent are enslaved into forced labor. Even the statistic of 2.4 million people does not truly reflect the impact that this phenomenon has; the number only represents the souls caught up at any given time, but does not track those who escaped their living nightmares and found freedom. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, human trafficking is “the acquisition of people by improper means such as force, fraud, or deception, with the aim of exploiting them.” Some prefer to dispense with the seemingly whitewashed term and refer to the practice as modern-day slavery. No country is unaffected. Because of the way traffickers transport their “goods,” the human cargo often follows the same shipping lines as illegal drugs. It is one of the world’s most lucrative forms of organized crime, creating a draw for cartels seeking to diversify as well as for individual pimps on the street. Women make up nearly two-thirds of the world’s trafficked persons, and it is shockingly easy to sell these women for sex. Madrid police began an investigation last month into a prostitution ring, in which the pimps violently forced the women into sex slavery. The victims were chained to pipes and beaten into submission, and if they tried to escape or failed to pay their pimps, bar codes were tattooed onto their wrists.
Topic:
Narcotics Trafficking, Sex Trafficking, Slavery, Sexual Violence, and Human Trafficking
Political Geography:
Global Focus