CATWA submission on women's violence

Submission By The Coalition Against Trafficking In Women Australia In Response To Key Directions In Women's Safety

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia wishes to congratulate the Office of Women's Policy for the report of Key Directions in Women's Safety.

As the preface maintains, this is the first work of its kind to be developed in sixteen years, and we applaud the Government for recognizing the need to specifically address gender-based violence against women.

In particular, we wish to commend the report for its comprehensive analysis and understanding about the issue of women's safety, as well as recognizing that violence against women is part of a widespread social problem of gender inequality, and that an effective strategy would require broader community effort to overcome this problem.

We are also pleased to note that the report identifies harm prevention as necessary in creating a safer living environment for women, and that the report acknowledges the need to educate young men, from an early stage, against violence against women.

AIM OF THIS SUBMISSION

This submission addresses the importance of recognising the ways in which trafficking in women and the sex industry in general raise safety concerns for women and girls.

THE COALITION AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN

The Coalition is a global feminist network operating in Asia, Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe with a Category II consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. We are dedicated in promoting the human rights of women and children by combating sexual exploitation in all its forms, particularly in prostitution, trafficking, pornography, and mail-order bride. We have developed programs, workshops, publications, resource materials as well as human rights proposals. We are affiliated with over 300 organizations, and work with survivors of sexual abuse and exploitation. In 1999, the Coalition played a key role in developing the UN Trafficking Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, as well as protecting the trafficked victims. This is consistent with the Beijing + 5 Outcomes Document, Articles 59 and 60, which supports the principle that trafficking and prostitution are practices of violence against women, thus reinforcing the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (A/RES/48/104) (CATW, 2000).

CONCERNS

Recognising that the trafficking in women for the purpose of sexual exploitation is a serious human rights violation with an increasing global magnitude, we commend the Victorian Government for acknowledging the existence of trafficking in women and girls in Australia. After the drugs and arms trade, the trafficking of women and children is the third most profitable illegal trade. Whilst trafficking also includes forced labour, slavery, and the removal of body organs, it is found that women and children are predominantly trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation such as prostitution, pornography, and mail order bride (CATW, 2000).

However, we note with great concern the report does not mention how the existence of prostitution and pornography, both of which generate the demand for women to be trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation, compromise the safety and human rights of women and children. Therefore, it is imperative that commercial sexual exploitation, including pornography and prostitution, be recognised as gender-specific violence against women.

THE HARM OF COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

The Government's recognition and commitment to end violence against women - such as sexual assault, violence in public places, stalking, workplace violence and bullying, sexual harassment, and trafficking - will be severely undermined if the sexual violation of women in a specific sector of society (i.e. the sex industry) is concealed by the euphemism "sex work".

The Coalition recognizes that the legalization of brothel prostitution in Victoria does not intend to show total approval for the sex industry, and that the main objective of the legislative change was meant to regulate the prostitution industry by the "harm minimization" approach (Sullivan and Jeffreys, 1999:2). However, legalization mainly benefits the sex businessmen and the men who buy women, and fails to address the severe harms of prostitution to the women. These include - along with other sequelae of sexual violence - such as, post-traumatic stress disorder, vaginal abrasion, drug-addiction, eating disorders and higher risk of suicide.

In reality, the legalization of brothel prostitution gives men the impunity to purchase and degrade women, forcing the women to learn and disassociate themselves emotionally by using drugs and alcohol in order to survive the sexual abuse and degradation they face daily.

Therefore, legalization - despite its intention to regulate and minimize the harm of prostitution - cannot begin to address the harm of prostitution itself as sexual violence against women. The sex industry and its lobby groups often argue that women do choose to enter into prostitution, and that we need to respect and protect the choice of these women. However, when the majority of women in prostitution are from marginalised socio-economic backgrounds, often with prior victimisation to male sexual violence(1), their recruitment into prostitution is proof of the absence of reasonable alternatives. As Janice Raymond points out, the notion of consent is irrelevant if we compare consent to be prostituted, to consent to take dangerous drugs: it is the harm to the person, not the consent of the person, that is the governing standard (Raymond, 1995).

The legalization of brothel prostitution in Victoria has fuelled the growth of the illegal sector, in which the harms to women are even greater, e.g. the adult entertainment industry association estimates that there are 300 illegal to 100 legal brothels in Victoria.

The severe harm of street prostitution is illustrated by the Victorian study called Off Our Backs, which confirmed that 80% of street prostituted women are heavily addicted to drugs (Sullivan and Jeffreys, 1999:11). In addition, the City of Port Philips' report on St. Kilda street prostitution, found that 90% of the prostituted women are homeless.

As the sex industry grows, it creates a greater risk of violence against all women as it promotes to a new generation of men, the idea that women are sex objects to be bought and used. As Miss F.K. Powell said in 1926 about the relationship between rape and prostitution, "what is right to buy is also right to have without buying, whether it is human beings or any other merchandise." (London, The Woman's Leader)

THE HARM OF PORNOGRAPHY

Pornography harms the women used in its production. It also as "the propaganda of women-hatred" (Barry, 1995) creates a climate in which all women and girls are seen as appropriate objects of violence and abuse.

The Coalition recognizes that pornography is "violence against women, a mainstay of male power and female subjugation, and a practice of sex discrimination" because pornography eroticizes the existing male-dominance and female-subordination in our society (Raymond, 1995:15).

Victoria is becoming overwhelmed with sexist, pornographic depictions of women - whether it be popular media or the growing industry of pornography. Both of which serve as a pervasive education tool for men to perceive violence as sex, and that women are sex objects to be exploited. Therefore, the presence of pornography degrades the human status of women, as well as heightening violence against women and thus compromising women's safety both in the public and at home.

In addition, the scenes of women and children as depicted in pornography are forced upon them to be acted out. Whether it is bondage, torture, bestiality, paedophilia, or sadomasochism, actual human bodies are penetrated, beaten, burned and violated upon in order for these pornography to be made(2). When the production of pornography is actual violence against women, the Government needs to question whether it should respect the rights of men to consume pornography, or to protect the vulnerable women and children in our society.

TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN AND GIRLS

Trafficking in women and girls for sexual exploitation is increasingly recognised internationally as a severe form of violence. There is increasing recognition that women and girls are trafficked into legal and illegal brothels in Victoria. As the sex industry expands the demand for trafficking in women and girls increases as the sex industry finds it difficult to get find sufficient women who are in such desperate circumstances that they are willing to enter brothels. Trafficked women are cheaper and more vulnerable. If decreasing the harm of trafficking into prostitution is a serious concern then it may be necessary to reconsider prostitution regulation in this state.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia, therefore, urges:

1/ The Office of Women's Policy to endorse a human rights approach that recognizes commercial sexual exploitation in prostitution, pornography and trafficking of women for these purposes as violating women's human right to be free of violence and abuse.

2/ The Office of Women's Policy to coordinate with other Government bodies such as the Justice and Immigration Department to develop women-centred programs to specifically address to the needs of the victims of trafficking, e.g. safe houses.

3/ The Office of Women's Policy work with women's domestic violence and sexual assault services to develop and finance exit strategies, including alternative employment opportunities, for women from the sex industry.

4/ The Office of Women's Policy to recommend the State Government to pressure the Federal Government to sign the UN Trafficking Protocol in order to provide better support and protection for trafficked victims in Australia.

5/ The Office of Women's Policy to coordinate with, and support local women's services and organizations in developing awareness programs for young women, as well as establishing anti-sexual exploitation and violence against women programs for young men as prevention measures.

6/ The Office of Women's Policy should recommend to the government a review of the current legislation on the sex industry. This is in the interests of creating a safer environment for the women and girls who are in or wish to leave the industry and a safer environment for all women whose status and risk of male violence is increased by that industry.

(1)The Oral History Project by WHISPER (Women Hurt in Systems of Prostitution Engaged in Revolt) found that 90% of the women who participated in the project had been subjected to physical and sexual child abuse: 90% had been battered in their families; 74% had been sexually abused between the ages of 3 and 14 (Giobbe, 1990:73).

(2)For evidence of how the production of pornography is sexual violence itself, please see In Harm's Way: The Civil Rights Hearing (1997) edited by Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin. The book contains unedited transcripts of court testimonies by both women and men who have been victims of pornography in the United States.

Reference:

Barry, Kathleen. The Prostitution of Sexuality. New York: NYU Press, 1995.

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. Written Statement to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights 57th Session. Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, 2002. http://www.catwinternational.org [accessed 11/03/02]

Giobbe, Evelina. "Prostitution: Buying the Right to Rape." In Rape and Sexual Assault III. A Research Handbook. (Ed) Ann Wolpert Burgess. New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1991.

Powell, F.R. "When Crimes Are Not Crimes", In Women's Leader. London: National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship, 1926.

Raymond, Janice G. Report to the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women. The United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland. North Amherst, Massachusetts: Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, 1995.

Sullivan, Mary and Sheila Jeffreys. Legalising Prostitution is Not the Answer: The Example of Victoria, Australia. Melbourne: Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, 1999.