Debate feminista sobre la trata de mujeres para el proposito de la explotacion.
| Autor | Cardozo Lozano, Sandra Milena |
| Cargo | III. Paz, seguridad y Conflicto |
| Páginas | 217(41) |
La trata mujeres es un fenómeno generalizado, conforma un tema complejo con múltiples consecuendas que tiene una relación directa en la cual el problema de la trata es entendido por las instituciones que la regulan y proponen su solución. Las estrategias gubernamentales deben responder a la multidimensionalidad del fenómeno siguiendo herramientas estatales para contrarrestar los efectos de un crimen y que reconozca que las mujeres, los hombres, la niñez y la adolescencia pueden ser vulnerables indiscriminadamente de este flagelo. Sin embargo, se debe reconocer que debido a factores culturales las mujeres y las niñas son la mayoría de las víctimas por ello se requieren acciones específicas dirigidas hacia ellas.
Palabras claves: debate feminista, trata de personas, prostitución, explotación sexual, ciudadanía íntima.
Feminist Debate around 'Trafficking' in Women for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation in Prostitution
Women trafficking, as a widespread phenomenon, is a complex topic with manifold consequences which have a direct bearing on the way in which the problem of trafficking is understood by regulatory institutions and their proposed solutions. The governmental strategy must respond to this multidimensional phenomenon through state tools to counteract the effects of crime and recognize that women, men, children and adolescents may be indiscriminately vulnerable to this scourge. Nevertheless, we must recognize that, due to cultural facts, women and girls constitute the majority of its victims and specific actions are required for them.
Key words: feminist debate, trafficking in women, prostitution, sexual exploitation, intimate citizenship.
Debate feminista sobre o tráfico de mulheres para o propósito da exploração sexual na prostituição
O tráfico de mulheres é um fenômeno generalizado, fazparte de um tema complexo com múltiples conseqüêndas que tem uma relação direita na qual o problema do tráfico é entendido pelas instituições que o regulam e propõem sua solução. As estratégias governamentais devem responder à multidimensionalidade do fenômeno seguindo ferramentas estatais para contra-arrestar os efeitos de um crime e que reconheça que as mulheres, os homens, a infância e a adolescência podem ser vulneráveis indiscriminadamente deste flagelo. No entanto, deve-se reconhecer que devido a fatores culturais as mulheres e as crianças são a maioria das vitimaspor isso se requerem ações específicas dirigidas para elas.
Palavras chave: debate feminista, tráfico de pessoas, prostituição, exploração sexual, cidadania íntima.
Introduction
Prostitution and trafficking in women is a topic increasingly discussed in the international arena. Indeed, although prostitution is the central issue of this article, and although the theoretical perspective develops according to prostitution, the problematic under analysis and my purpose is to analyse the relationship between prostitution trafficking and the discussion of prostitution within an anti-trafficking debate. Those concepts are, I will argue, instruments of social control over prostitution inscribed in legal practice and are legitimized by states.
Suggestions are made for legalization as well criminalization of prostitution within trafficking discussion. It constitutes a public awareness of prostitution as a problem. Women, men, children and teenagers may be vulnerable to slavery or exploitive situations in different activities. However, in the case of sexual exploitation in prostitution, women have become the most significant objects of consumption for the sexual market. I will examine the process of objectification of prostitutes and trafficked women, because they are subject to gendered exclusion in national and transnational agendas. Dominant discourses lump them all into the same category and attribute to them a common set of characteristics as 'those women', meaning 'prostitutes'.
Pheterson (1996) argues that prostitution functions as a prism in "deviating attention, decomposing understanding and deforming reality" (Petherson, 1996: 7). The projection object within prostitution are women identified as prostitutes, they are, as any social group, a construction; prostitutes are socially stigmatized because of their activity and they are not considered persons who 'freely choose' prostitution. Pheterson (1996) pointed out that prostitution laws codify states and society, they reinforce control "of women's sexual, reproductive and economic behaviour" (Pheterson, 1996: 16). It is important to stress that prostitution stigmatization serves to support the sexist social control of women.
Trafficking in women is a constructed topic and, as a result of it being morally equated with prostitution, it tends to justify violations of women's rights by further criminalizing prostitution without taking its causes and social effects into account. I suggest that not all victims of trafficking are prostitutes and that there is a difference between trafficking, sexual exploitation and prostitution. Sexual exploitation in prostitution is only one purpose of trafficking; as previously said, not all victims of trafficking are prostitutes, and not all prostitutes are victims of trafficking. Therefore, all the debate around trafficking should not be focused just in prostitution.
The international visibility of trafficking in persons -or 'human trafficking'- started from feminist discussions around prostitution, which were eventually conflated with trafficking. The central goal of this research is to study how the feminist debate supports the trafficking debate, how the international discourse over female prostitution is constructed and then linked with trafficking, how international and feminist discussions about 'trafficking' are incorporated. The study presents first the theoretical framework for an understanding of the concepts of the female prostitute bodies and of intimate citizenship. Then I will make a reference of the leading feminist debates concerning the subject of prostitution: abolitionism and regulationism. As I have stated above, the main idea is to explain the international construction of prostitution and its link with trafficking. On this basis, I will study the influence of feminism in the political and legal construction of prostitution inasmuch as they are connected with trafficking and they continue to dominate scholarly writings and understandings of this issue.
Since its inclusion within the international arena, the whole debate around trafficking has focused on the abolition of prostitution; this issue still remains central to the current discussion on 'eliminating trafficking.' Therefore, it is necessary to deconstruct the anti- 'trafficking' prevalent discourse which focuses on prostitution as if being only purpose of 'trafficking.' This should not be construed as a denial that some women in the sexual market are doing this activity in slavery conditions, but it should neither be denied that it is possible to 'choose' prostitution as an economic activity.
Trafficking is a global phenomenon that gains every day more importance -although is not really understood. (Wijers, Marjan, 1998: 69) This argument is supported by the United Nations: the recognized international organization gives primacy to the problem of trafficking, because it is recognized to be the third most lucrative business in the world, behind arms trading and drug trafficking. Consequently, the UN fosters international pressure against trafficking and towards its abolition.
My research analyses the discourse on trafficking in women for the purpose of sexual exploitation in prostitution. I will develop a theoretical outlining of trafficking and its relation to the female prostitution debate, because both discourses are conflated within the international anti-trafficking campaign, although this analysis is focused on the female prostitution debate, since trafficking is generally understood as prostitution. Prostitutes are considered 'victims,' slaves and 'trafficked' women. Therefore, in order to comprehend 'trafficking', one must first analyse the phenomenon of prostitution; this will further allow us to understand the dose relationship between both of them, and to figure out why the sexual exploitation in prostitution is more visible than the other purposes of trafficking within the international arena.
The present discourse on trafficking emphasizes the concepts of slavery and consent in prostitution as important notions which differentiate personal choices and slavery situations in this specific activity. Slavery and consent in prostitution are discussed within the international anti-trafficking debate, these two topics have been long debated under the feminist theory, from the abolitionist to the regulationist approach.
I sustain that feminist debates reproduce two parallel discourses and two parallel agendas: abolitionism and regulationism.
The debate on prostitution was started by the abolitionist feminists in the late 1980s; their's was the position of the international women's movement of the end of the 19th century. They asked for the political recognition and condemnation of prostitution as an activity of female slavery, as the main manifestation of trafficking. When 'trafficking' entered in the global agenda through international agreements, it was institutionalized in the international arena; it was and is still an issue discussed by different actors: multilateral and international organizations, states, NGOs and the feminist civil society.
The abolitionist feminist discourse defines prostitution as a human rights violation and as a coercive activity. This dominant discourse on trafficking in women is promoted and supported by the United Nations -UN- and, as a consequence, by states that ratify the UN conventions. The UN's position is an institutional viewpoint of trafficking, and abolitiorüst feminists defend and elaborate this view in the Coalition Against Trafficking...
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