The sexual misuse, abuse, mistreatment and/or manipulation of a person. 

As many as 2 million women and children are said to be trafficked each year, 800,000 across borders and girls as young as 5 have been forced into the commercial sex trade. 

• It is reported that approximately 80% of all trafficked persons are female, 70% of whom are trafficked into the commercial sex trade. 
• According to UNICEF, “Surveys indicate that 30 – 35 per cent of all sex workers in the Mekong sub-region of Southeast Asia are between 12 and 17 years of age.”
• Also according to UNICEF, “In Lithuania, 20 – 50 percent of prostitutes are believed to be minors.”  

As awareness concerning sexual exploitation continues to grow, so do our chances of finding ways to successfully challenge this issue. As governments, NGOs and churches work together it becomes more and more possible to stop this heinous form of injustice and slavery. According to the Direct Assistance for Victims of Trafficking document, produced by the International Organization for Migration in 2007, “. . . sexual exploitation is currently the most widely recognized form [of exploitation]. It appears to be the most profitable for the traffickers and the most physically and emotionally damaging for the victim because of the persistent physical, sexual, psychological abuse that accompanies it on a daily basis.”

There are many areas of sexual exploitation that need attention including exploitation for commercial purposes, rape, sexual abuse, pornography, during conflict, and more.

The Commercial Sex Trade

The commercial sex industry is a multi-billion dollar per year business which includes, amongst others, prostitution, pornography, strip clubs, mail order brides and child prostitution.

The story of many women who have been forced into prostitution sounds similar. They go out in search of honest ways to support their families, moving from small villages to cities, or from one country to another. They are approached by someone who offers to help them, but they soon find out they have been recruited into the sex industry.  Other women and children are taken forcibly or sold by desperate family members. Nearly all of them are deceived.  There is no country where this is not a growing problem in need of serious attention. According to the International Organization for Migration (www.IOM.int), “trafficked persons often find themselves in situations where they are held against their will, their documents are taken from them, and they are abused and kept captive by reason of the debt they incurred while being taken across borders. It is made virtually impossible for them ever to repay this debt.”  As economics remains a factor on all sides of the commercial sex industry, new strategies, more awareness and law enforcement are all key tools to freeing the men, women and children involved.

Rape During Conflict

"I was badly beaten up and raped by five Angolan police officers when they forcefully expelled us," said Ms. Lomelo from Angola.  Lomelo can barely stand because she has a sexually transmitted infection. She is also six months pregnant.

"She is in danger of having an abortion because of the [gonorrhea] infection she contracted," a doctor said.
(www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=78689)

Rape can happen in any country to anyone, but often is not reported because of the fear of retribution, or the stigma that accompanies it.  In most countries, complicated social dynamics cause women to be seen as ‘used’ and ‘dirty’ after being raped. These dynamics then put pressure on husbands and family members and the women are divorced and become outcasts, even to their families.

According to the UN, systematic rape is often used as a weapon of war in ‘ethnic cleansing’. Rape, forced prostitution and trafficking during times of war have been documented in conflicts in Bangladesh, Mozambique and other countries.

The UNFPA estimates that 60,000 women were raped during the 1994 conflict in Rwanda, 2/3 of whom have been infected with HIV/AIDS. The Bosnian conflict reports are around 40,000. (http://www.unfpa.org/)

Rape is not a new form of warfare, but it has only recently been recognized as a modern, systematic, organized weapon of war and ethnic cleansing. In June 2008, the UN Security Council voted unanimously in favour of a resolution classifying rape as a weapon of war. (news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7464462.stm)

Every individual case of rape is a traumatic, dehumanizing, painful experience.

Amnesty International reports, "Survivors [of rape as a weapon of war] face emotional torment, psychological damage, physical injuries, disease, social ostracism and many other consequences that can devastate their lives.

"Women's lives and their bodies have been the unacknowledged casualties of war for too long." There is an urgent and desperate need for caring workers who will help women through the process of healing physically, emotionally, spiritually and psychologically after becoming a victim of rape.

The issue of sexual exploitation is knit into so many other issues. Poverty, lack of education, health and disease, drugs, abuse, abortion, the breakdown of the family, trafficking. . . each play a part either in the cause, or contributing to the effects of, exploitation.

Information and awareness are key parts of this issue, and many organizations are offering reports on such incidents.

Check out:

UNICEF Information  www.unicef.org/

International Justice Mission www.IJM.org

Why be involved?

Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that "women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault."

Rape was listed in Article 6 of the Nuremberg Charter as a "Crime Against Humanity."

John 8:3-12 (NIV):

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"

They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.  But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.

Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

Psalm 10:17:

You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry.

Oosterveld, Valerie, When women are the spoils of war.
http://www.unesco.org/courier/1998_08/uk/ethique/txt1.htm

Human Trafficking – A New Form of Slavery
www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/traffic

UNICEF, Child protection from violence, exploitation and abuse, Child Trafficking
www.unicef.org/protection/index_exploitation.html

DRC: Sexual abuse widespread among fresh wave deportees from Angola
www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78689

BBC News, Rape in war ‘a growing problem’
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5105102.stm

BBC News, How did rape become a weapon of war?
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/4078677.stm

BBC News, Sex Trade’s Reliance on Forced Labour
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4532617.stm

Film:

Trading Women, produced by Dean W. Slotar and David A. Feingold