Nyet to Trafficking: Russians show
political will to fight prostitution
By Donna M. Hughes
For the last two years, Russia has
received a failing grade from the U.S. State Department for its efforts to
combat human trafficking. That's the grade it deserved, because each year,
thousands of women and girls are trafficked for prostitution in Russia. The
total number over the past decade is estimated to be over half a million.
Organized-crime groups run the trafficking networks that have sold Russian
women and girls into prostitution in over 50 countries around the world,
including the U.S. Any effort to combat this modern-day slave trade has been
crippled by the fact that Russia does not have a law against the trafficking of
persons. Fortunately, that may soon change.
The leaders in the fight against
trafficking have been nongovernmental organizations, operating on shoestring
budgets, or as volunteers. They have carried out prevention campaigns to warn
potential victims and provided minimal services to returning victims.
The leading anti-trafficking organization,
the Angel Coalition, comprised of 43 NGOs from 25 regions of Russia, issued a
report on trafficking of women for 2002. Members documented a representative
handful of trafficking cases. Of the 15 known victims from Chelyabinsk, a city
at the base the Ural Mountains: One girl returned from Cyprus with a
psychological disorder and had to be placed in a hospital in Moscow. Another
girl resisted a pimp and refused to become a prostitute. The traffickers
subsequently burned her parents' home. Of the 50 known victims from Kazan, a
city in the Muslim republic of Tatarstan: Two girls were burnt alive in Turkey;
another returned from Turkey an invalid. Of the 30 known victims from
Vladivostok in the Far East: Three girls were trafficked to China, one girl
jumped out of the hotel window and killed herself, one girl was murdered by an
overdose of drugs; another was sold several times before being forced to carry
drugs across the Chinese border. She was caught and sentenced to death.
Women are also trafficked into Russia,
particularly to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Traffickers recruit them in rural
areas of Russia and the former Soviet Republics, such as Ukraine, Moldova,
Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. According to an official source, there are 130,000
to 150,000 women and children in prostitution in Moscow. Pimps working for
organized-crime groups control them.
The Angel Coalition has lobbied for years
for an anti-trafficking law. It has been an uphill battle against officials who
denied that trafficking existed in Russia and groups who lobbied for an
anti-trafficking law that would normalize prostitution by redefining it as
"sex work."
The Russian Federation was galvanized to
take steps to combat trafficking when it was ranked in Tier 3, the lowest
ranking, in the State Department's Trafficking in Persons reports. At the end
of 2003, any country with a failing grade risks the loss of non-humanitarian
funding from the U.S.
The present version of the anti-trafficking
law is strong legislation. In addition, the Duma plans to amend the criminal
code to make procuring and pimping felonies, which will protect women and
children from being recruited by pimps and traffickers into prostitution. The
legislative working committee bravely rejected attempts to use the new law to
normalize prostitution by referred to prostitution as "sex work" or
"sexual services."
Last week, I was in Moscow and heard
Tatyana Kholshevnikova, representative of the Russian Duma's legislative
working committee, speak about the new law and the position of the legislative
working group. She said, "Prostitution is a socially dangerous activity
that humiliates women and treats them as commodities. Prostitution is not work;
it is an activity of organized crime. We reject the legalization or
decriminalization of prostitution that would recognize it as work."
During the last year, the city of Moscow
has also begun to address the escalating problem of prostitution, particularly
the sexual abuse and exploitation of children in Moscow, and the associated
health-care costs of sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS. Last year, some
high-ranking officials were favoring the legalization of prostitution as a way
to get control of the problem. They were also probably eyeing the large revenue
legalization would make for the city. Fortunately, along with the Federal Duma,
the city officials are rethinking the impact that would have on the welfare of
women and children.
Last week, the Moscow City Duma's
commission on social policy held a hearing on child prostitution in Moscow at
which I made a presentation on how the legalization of prostitution would
increase child prostitution, including the production of child pornography and
child-sex tourism from foreign pedophiles.
The commission members voiced their
opposition to the legalization of prostitution and called for penalties against
pimps, procurers, and the so-called "customers." With a few
exceptions, they also agreed that the women and children involved in
prostitution are victims and should not be treated as criminals.
Russian leaders have increasingly found the
political will to fight the traffickers and pimps. Officials have moved beyond
denial and blaming the victims. Both federal and city officials are
increasingly aware of the physical and psychological devastation to individual
victims and society as a whole. There is commitment to finding ways to combat
the breakdown of values in their community and country.
In response to the new political will shown
by Russian officials, the U.S. State Department gave Russia a passing grade on
the 2003 Trafficking in Persons Report, which was issued on Wednesday. Since
the new law still has not been introduced into or passed by the Duma, this
passing grade seems to be based more on faith than substance. Let us hope that
Russian officials match the faith put in them with action, by passing the new
federal law and providing services to victims.
- Donna M. Hughes is a professor &
Carlson Endowed Chair at the University of Rhode Island.
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