In Romania, Aurora Martin from the National Agency for Equal Opportunities between women and men, invited me as a keynote speaker in two important virtual events. One event was a workshop on “Gender Equality: Opportunities and Challenges”, part of a larger anniversary event of the Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University. The second event was focused on “Women’s Safety in Public and Private Spaces”, organized by the Romanian Institute for Human Rights and the National Agency for Equal Opportunities between women and men. Below you will find my contribution to the two events, as well as a list of recommendations to facilitate the reintegration of survivors.
Violence against Women in Public and Private
Spaces
Women face challenges to their safety and integrity in public as well as in private. In public spaces, women face all kinds of degrading attitudes, from cat-calling to inappropriate touching, from (verbal and sexual) harassment to online death threats. The reasons for that sort of behaviour can range from embedded misogyny to education to societal models.
Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of
Women
Another even
more terrible phenomenon taking place partially in public is human trafficking
and sex slavery. We can see the women on the side of the road or the women in the windows in
red light districts, even though we haven’t witnessed the entire process that
took them there. Trafficking in Human Beings disproportionally affects women
and girls, which makes this a gender equality issue as well.
Fighting human
trafficking, especially sex trafficking, is something I and the organization I am part of have been involved
for many years at an European level. Through reports in the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe, organizing events for students and NGOs,
training sessions for professionals, raising-awareness campaigns etc. we made
every effort to fight this on several fronts.
The numbers in
the last report
of the Anti-trafficking Directive are not encouraging, however. More than
14,000 victims of human trafficking have been recorded in the EU in 2017-2018.
· Nearly 75% of all victims were
women and children, sexual exploitation being one of the main purposes behind
trafficking (two-thirds). The real number of victims is most likely higher, as
many victims remain undetected.
· Even though this report is for
2017-2018, every year the numbers increase, so we can conclude that this year
the numbers could be even higher.
· The top five EU countries as
regards to citizenship of trafficking victims by absolute numbers were Romania,
Hungary, France, the Netherlands, and Bulgaria.
· In Romania, there is a 16% increase in the number of victims of human trafficking registered in the first part of 2020 compared to the same period last year, according to ANITP.
What can be
done about these alarming statistics?
In the Netherlands, where I come from, there is currently a big discussion about the effects of 20 years of legalisation of prostitution. The consensus is that this law did not meet the expectations. The persons active in prostitution have not been sufficiently protected, prosecutions of traffickers continue to be low, and the number of victims of sex trafficking continues to be high.
Criminalization or Regulation?
The battle
against sexual exploitation is only truly effective if the client is held legally
responsible. This is also the position of the European Commission regarding
those clients who knowingly use services provided by victims of human
trafficking (2011
EU Anti-Trafficking Directive and 2018
European Commission Report
on Progress Made in the Fight Against Trafficking in Human Beings). The best way to
combat human trafficking is to keep the client fully responsible and to
criminalize the purchase of sexual services - this is what is called the Nordic
Model.
This approach has been proven successful in different countries like Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Ireland, France, Canada and Israel.
The other side of this discussion is what happens in private to women. Abuse can range from domestic violence, to psychological and/ or verbal abuse, to rape. Here, I will focus on the first.
COVID-19 Pandemic Caused a Spike in Domestic
Violence
The COVID-19 pandemic caused
an increase in cases of domestic violence all across Europe, according to
emerging data made public by CEPOL,
WHO
and UN-Women.
The enforced quarantine, curfews, lockdowns, travel restrictions and
limitations on public life, although necessary, had a few devastating effects:
- The victim may be trapped at home with her perpetrator. Use of
alcohol (which has increased during the pandemic) has often increased the
volatility of the situation. In this case, it is often impossible for the
victim to reach out for help, since the perpetrator is physically present all
the time.
- Identifying victims is more challenging. Usually, those who report
cases of domestic violence are close family or friends, which in times of the
pandemic have been restricted from visiting. The victim’s movements are also
reduced, which means co-workers, neighbours or professionals are prevented from
noticing signs of abuse on the face or the body of the victim.
- Many women shelters, helplines and women services have been deemed non-essential during the first lockdown and had to give up space or resources for treating COVID-19 patients. In many cases, funding or support for NGOs that help women stopped coming or were diverted elsewhere.
Thankfully, governments and authorities noticed the sharp rise in cases of violence against women in the first part of this year and they began correcting course and mitigating the effects.
Reintegration of Survivors of Human Trafficking
and Sexual Abuse
Having worked on these issues for a long time,
I realized that a big component missing from this fight against violence and
exploitation is rehabilitation and the reintegration of the survivors in
society. Therefore, after holding various meetings and roundtables with NGOs,
politicians and institutions on this matter, we put together a pilot project
for reintegration. I am glad to announce it has been recently tabled in the
Gender Equality and Women’s Rights (the FEMM) Committee in the European Parliament.
It focuses on:
- Research on the organizations that
are involved in the reintegration projects
- Brainstorm sessions with NGOs in different Member States
- Organizing round table discussions with representatives of NGOs, institutions, governmental representatives, and politicians in the Member States
- Drafting a report with conclusions and recommendations on how to implement this and steps to be taken.
The support for the reintegration of human trafficking survivors or domestic violence victims is even more important because of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Traffickers exploit economic vulnerabilities when recruiting and grooming victims. A violent spouse who also lost his job or was fired because of this crisis is going to act even more violently. If there is not a robust support system in place for these vulnerable women, we are expecting this “shadow pandemic” to increase.
Recommendations for Reintegration of Survivors
in Romania
As mentioned before, following meetings and
brainstorming sessions with NGOs and those on the front lines, here are some
recommendations that came out and which could be applied in other countries as
well:
- A better collaboration,
communication and coordination among the various NGOs active in this field,
especially regarding prevention and integration. And between NGOs and the governmental
agencies. The integrated approach of the Exit Programs in the Netherlands could
be a good model. Updating/ Creating national referral mechanisms. Including
churches and religious organizations in the broader efforts.
- De-stigmatization of victims and survivors. There is great prejudice and discrimination towards women who were caught is sex trafficking or prostitution. Most of the times, it was NOT a choice, but they were forced, or their vulnerabilities were exploited. Raising awareness about labels and referring to them instead as “victims” or “survivors of human trafficking” can make a big difference.
- An increase in support of all kinds:
PSYCHOLOGICAL: it goes without saying that victims of human trafficking and domestic violence are in great need of professional psychological counselling.
EMPLOYMENT: develop private-public partnerships that offer jobs to survivors. Offer job training and skill development during exit programs.
EDUCATION: develop educational programs as part of the exit strategy. Often it is not easy for survivors to go back to school and they may be unskilled or unprepared for the workforce.
HOUSING: the biggest obstacle in exiting the sex industry or leaving an abusive household is the lack of a place to live. Shelters are many times insufficient and undignified. Like I said before, funding is insufficient or sporadic. More needs to be done here.
- Training law enforcement, prosecutors, judges and politicians in a victim-centric approach.
- Avoid re-victimization (by treating her as a criminal or by using derogatory language) or shaming the survivor. In the definition for human trafficking, it is mentioned “exploitation of a vulnerability” as a means that leads to trafficking.
- Authorities need to be trained in recognizing these vulnerabilities and counteracting them.
- Case proceedings should be shortened to
facilitate the victim’s ability to move forward and to receive justice.
Thanks for sharing such type of informative post. I really like it. It will be very helpful for me. Thanks for sharing such insights. Great work. Much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteTop Christian men’s speakers