Amnesty International, Eastern PA

Thank you to Hans Wuerth for today’s Op-Ed piece about Amnesty’s Annual Report published earlier this year. As you all know, copies of the 2007 Annual Report were delivered to local libraries by Nancy Kelley, Ed Simons, Bob Glazer and Dan Laxar this summer. Today’s Op-Ed piece discusses the wide distribution of this violence against women. Karen Berry

To the Editor,

The June 28, 2007 the German weekly, Die Zeit, published an article on the growing problem of human trafficking in Europe. The article gave several specific examples. One woman, Natalia, from the country of Moldova, wrongly assumed that a household job awaited her in Istanbul that would pay 300 Euros per month. At the Istanbul airport, however, her male contact person was approached by another man who told Natalia that she would be working for him instead. Subsequently, she was forced into prostitution and “sold” six more times. Fortunately, her sister managed to locate her and to get her released.

Die Zeit also referred to a report by The Organization for International Migration. IOM estimated that between 600,000 and 800,000 human beings become victims of human trade each year, some 100,000 of whom are misled and abused in Western Europe. When I checked IOM’s website, I found the following assessment of human trafficking. “Migrant smuggling now matches drug trafficking as a major source of income for organized crime. Trafficking in human beings has become a significant and worldwide concern.”

It is not surprising that Amnesty International, in its 2007 Report on the State of the World’s Human Rights, states that “violence against women – in all societies around the world – remains one of the gravest and most common human rights abuses today.” According to AI, violence includes the trafficking of women and girls for purposes of sexual exploitation. It is a growing concern, and it occurs today in many parts of the world. AI includes statistics from the European Police Office, Europol, “that well over 1,000 women and girls were trafficked annually from Lithuania, primarily to western European countries.” “Trafficking of human beings, including of women and girls for forced prostitution in Europe, continued to thrive on poverty, corruption, lack of education and social breakdown. Trafficking of human beings in and to Europe was widespread.”

The AI Report lists other countries where the trafficking of women is persistent and out of control. Despite having ratified the Council of Europe’s Convention against Trafficking in Human Beings, Moldova still needs to do more to combat this problem. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women noted the “increasing trend of trafficking in young women and girls and the lack of protection for victims.” Another example: In China human trafficking remains pervasive despite strengthened laws and government efforts. “An estimated 90% of cases were women and children trafficked for sexual exploitation.”

In its 2007 Reports, AI lists specific human rights violations that target victims in numerous countries. Here is a short list of disturbing issues, among them arbitrary detention, abuses of detainees, police brutality, racism and discrimination, the recruitment and use of child soldiers, torture and ill-treatment of prisoners, violations of rights of indigenous people, discrimination against the Romani communities (Gypsies), lack of access to education, use of slave labor, and the retention in many countries of the death penalty. One problem mentioned again and again is the ongoing violence and discrimination against women.

In 2006 rapes of women by Janjaweed militias in Darfur remained systematic and unpunished. Women in eastern Chad suffered abuses, including rape, during attacks on villages. In Burundi “women of all ages were subjected to sexual violence” with a “very high incidence of rape cases.” Honor killings persisted in Jordan, Iraq, Syria and other states. “In Belarus, 2,736 women became victims of crime in the home. In Finland, 43.5% of women “were victims of physical or sexual violence or threats of violence by men.”

South of our border, the violence against women and gender discrimination remained “widespread throughout Mexico.” In Haiti, “women and girls continued to be tortured, raped and killed by illegal armed groups and individuals.” In Honduras last year, the “high levels of violence against women, children and young people persisted, with little effective government response.” Conditions appear even worse in Guatemala where 580 women were killed last year and 2,200 since 2001. According to still another story in Die Zeit (September 6), 380 women were murdered there so far this year. One Guatemalan human rights activist claimed that “the government is not interested in stopping this, which is why “only about 2% of these killings are solved.”

In her introductory essay, Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International, wrote that the lack of freedom for women is one of the major human rights concerns. Violence against women “thrives because of impunity, apathy and inequality… Billions of dollars are spent on fighting the ‘war on terror’ but where is the political will or the resources to fight sexual terror against women? There was universal outrage against racial apartheid in South Africa – where is the outrage against gender apartheid in some countries today?”

– Hans M. Wuerth