Preventing Trafficking in Women and Children in Asia: Issues and Options

• NCJ Number: 198331
• Journal: Impact on HIV Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Dated: September 1999 Pages: 1-8
• Author(s): Tony Bennett
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 8 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Downloaded December 26, 2002

Annotation

Connections between the trafficking of women and children in Asia and the AIDS/HIV epidemic are profiled in this article.

Abstract

From Family Health International, this article details connections between the AIDS/HIV epidemic and the trafficking of women and children in Asia. Discussing the trafficking of women and children as an age-old problem, the author argues that trafficking is a grim reality of modern life in many countries. After defining trafficking as the kidnapping and enslavement of women and girls, often in the commercial sex industry, the article details three responses to trafficking as recommended by the President’s Interagency Council on Women. Addressing the prevention of trafficking in women and children, the protecting and assisting of victims of trafficking, and the prosecuting of traffickers and the enforcement of laws against trafficking, the author describes a number of Asian programs designed to handle problems of trafficking in women and children. After describing community action programs in Nepal and national anti-trafficking efforts in Thailand, the author discusses a global approach to trafficking taken by the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women. Arguing that the trafficking of women and children is based on supply and demand, the author contends that efforts to reduce the demand for trafficking are the most effective way to resolve this problem. Focusing on the connection between trafficking and AIDS/HIV, the author indicates that the trafficking of young women into prostitution has had a formidable impact on HIV transmission, with sex workers likely to become infected with this virus in the first 6 months of work. After arguing that trafficking is a microcosm of the many complex social issues facing global society today, the author maintains that a combination of short, medium, and long term strategies designed to combat trafficking in women and children will be the most effective means for responding to this problem in Asia. The article concludes with the story of a Nepalese woman who was a victim of trafficking. References