Trafficking in human beings: human rights and ... - unesdoc - Unesco

labour exploitation and services are not restricted to women and children, several male
victims have entered the victim protection programme. 117
Apart from the evident fact that men can be traffi cked as well, the historical linkage of
“women and children” has proven problematic in many ways. Often this linkage entails
the treatment of women as if they were children and denies women the rights attached
to adulthood, such as the right to have control over one’s own body and life. When laws
target typically “female” occupations, they tend to be overly protective and prevent women
from making the same type of decisions that adult men are able to make. This is refl ected
in the position that prostitution is “forced” by defi nition, which effectively places women
on the same level as children and denies them the agency to make their own decision
to engage in sex work among the options available to them. Examples of corresponding
strategies are anti-traffi cking measures which aim to prohibit or prevent women from
migrating for (sex) work and the type of prevention campaigns which predominantly
aim to scare women from going abroad by warning them about the dangers of being
traffi cked, up to the use of (semi-pornographic) illustrations of women. Moreover, the
linkage of women with children emphasises a single role for women as caretakers of
children and obscures women’s increasing role as the sole supporter of dependent family
members and, consequently, as economic migrants in search of work. 118
It is true that many aspects of traffi cking (migration, empowerment, human rights) are
to some extent gendered. Economic inequality is often gendered, the majority of the
world’s poor are women; industries are gendered, generally women are traffi cked into
sweatshops, domestic work 119 and prostitution where men are traffi cked into agricultural
labour and mining; traditional gender roles often impede women’s participation in public
and economic life which creates a disadvantage. Traffi cking has also supplied domestic
workers to destination countries exactly because women in these have moved out into the
labour market and now need domestic help. 120
Apart from conventional conceptions and gender divisions on who are “victims” and
who are irregular migrants - women seen as vulnerable, men as active – there are a
great number of linked factors which can infl uence a traffi cked male’s perception of his
situation and the likelihood of seeking help. Exploitation is a normative aspect of migrant
labour and migrant workers may see their traffi cking as ill fortune rather than a violation
of their human rights. Others may feel that their own participation in the recruitment
process disqualifi es them as traffi cked victims. 121 Being labelled a ”victim” may have
117 Kangaspunta, K.: Collecting Data on Human Traffi cking: Availability, Reliability and Comparability of
Traffi cking Data, p. 2.
118 Ditmore, M. and Wijers, M: The negotiations on the UN Protocol on Traffi cking in Persons, p. 82
119 This paper does not dwell on the particular problems of human rights abuse of domestic workers.
Shortly it can be mentioned that due to the marginalisation and often total isolation and dependence
upon the employers, domestic workers are in an especially vulnerable situation and abuse take place
very often.
120 Cameron, S and Newman, E.: Traffi cking in humans: Structural factors, p. 41.
121 IOM: Traffi cking of men – a trend less considered.
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