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Trafficking of women

Sri Lankan perspectives

SHAMILA DALUWATTE
SRI LANKA is basically a patriarchal society. Its' values influence gender relations. However, women, in their central role as mother, care giver, home maker, and employee, often have de facto powers in the family. The inherited concept of man as the head of the family unit, undermine the attempts to advance the status of women. Yet only a few are allowed to make decisions. Women's contribution to the national economy is vital. The livewire and/or drive force of today's restructured and fragmented economy is women. Despite the education and the high literacy rate, the unemployment rate of women has been double that of men for more than 3 decades. Though women are economically active more than ever and there has been a redistribution of financial responsibilities, the traditional role of a woman as the care giver remains unaltered. As a result many women have had to give up their careers due to the dual responsibility of balancing work with family life. Some women find part-time or less demanding job owing to the multiple role they have to play in the family.
Sri Lankan women have a relatively better "status" than their South Asian counterparts. Despite the ongoing conflict, the country has made considerable progress in human development in areas of life expectancy, literacy, infant, child and maternal mortality. Women are more than half of the population. Sri Lanka has the distinct honour of having produced the first ever woman Prime Minister to the world. Presently we have a woman President but have yet to achieve gender equality or empowerment in the context of all the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), declared in 1981. The State Party (SP) must eliminate discrimination against women for the enjoyment of all civil, political, economic and cultural rights. Gender equality is a one of the goals of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), where, Section 3 deals with the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women. Much needs to be done by all stakeholders. Although article 12 of the Constitution provides for equal employment opportunities in the formal sector, women have no legal protec-
tion against discrimination in the private sector. By this, discrimination cannot be questioned or challenged in the Supreme Court. This is a matter of concern to the women in the labour market. Indeed the constitution has provisions to ensure nondiscrimination on the grounds of language, caste, creed, gender, political opinion, place of birth, etc. There are proposed reforms to include "gender, marital status, maternity and parental status' in addition to the present provisions. When it come to gender and Labour" it is significant to note that "marital status and maternity" sometimes close the doors of the labour market to women with family responsibilities. It is hoped that the Government would take a serious note of the proposed reforms to be included to the Constitution. Despite the fact that the percentage of Sri Lankan women entering universities has increased women are still under-represented in many disciplines. The proposed Women's Act provides for a 25%
quota of women but it is uncertain whether this target can be reached.
According to the Human Development Report (UNDP 2002) Sri Lanka's Gender Development Index (GDI) in 2000 was 0.737 as compared with the Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.741. Around 22% of all households in Sri Lanka are female-headed. Many of these women are compelled to play the role of breadwinner and they are faced with problems such as income generation and household management. Though there is a separate Ministry for Women's Empowerment, statistics shows that gender empowerment (compared with modern standards) is relatively low (20%).
In 1993 the Government adopted the "Women's Charter" the first policy statement for the realisation of gender equality in all areas of life. As a result of the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995 the Ministry of Women's Affairs in collaboration with the National Committee for Women formulated
the "National Plan of Action for Women in Sri Lanka" in 1996. In 1997 a separate Ministry was established titled "Ministry of Women's Affairs."
Trafficking of Women
Trafficking has been continuing as human servitude and forced labour. Trafficking has been defined as the "recruitment, transportation, purchase, sale, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of persons: by threat or use of violence, abduction, force, fraud, deception, or coercion (including the abuse of authority) for the purpose of placing or holding such person/s, whether for pay or not, in forced labour or slavery-like practices This violates the right to decent work. Many reasons have compelled women and members of the marginalised communities to cross the boundaries of their own countries and their native places. This may occur as external migration and internal migration. According to surveys and research trafficking is being done in the name of migration. Therefore in this regard trafficking of women, women's migration and violence against women should be discussed together. With the changes of the livelihood patterns many people made attempts to migrate in search of better opportunities. It may be due to domestic agonies or poverty may have compelled them to move from their places of origin. Wars in our countries have also had a direct bearing on migration. Maldevelopment practices, poor governance, corruption, violation of human rights have also been a reason for trafficking.
In some instances the process of migration has ended by depriving the right to control over their bodies, mind, labour, and life. Therefore educating and raising awareness women about their rights is important.
It is needless to say that trafficking is one of the most traumatic violence against women. It is an outcome of the Human Rights violation of an individual. Trafficking violates the right to live in dignity, respect, and in peace. It violates the freedom of mobility, i.e., the right to move freely and safely. The equation of sex-work with trafficking had contributed towards disempowerment of migrant workers. This has created difficulties for women who are in need of migration for work. Trafficking has had direct links to forced prostitution. Therefore it is really important to deal with the issue of HIV/AIDS among the victims of
trafficking.
Now it is time to develop sustainable and appropriate activities for the prevention of trafficking and protection and support of the affected persons and survivors of trafficking. It is important to protect the rights of people, in particular women, to move freely inside and outside home, country, without any fear of stigma, abuse or discrimination. Sometimes women are detained in protective custody without consent. Since they have not committed any crime their consent should be taken into account and all preventive measures taken. Receiving countries and foreign missions should facilitate voluntary return of victims of trafficking rather than keeping them is safe houses or government homes.
Here, I would like to make some of suggestions that might help formulate a strategy for anti-trafficking. Some recommendations were extracted from the Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women.
Ways forward
1. Urge the National Governments of the region to bring the proposed SAARC Convention for preventing and combating trafficking in women and children for prostitution into line with accepted international standards.
2. Seek justice through the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime.
3. Ensure an effective criminal justice system in the country. Further it is significant to form an interregional police task force to combat trafficking.
4. Ensure sound social welfare measures to protect the rights of the women victims of trafficking.
5. Set up inter-agency task force and a monitoring mechanism among all international agencies on trafficking to take joint initiatives to combat trafficking.
6. Collect extensive data on trafficking and creating a database in the SAARC region is important in handling the issue effectively.
7. The embassies in receiving countries should be sensible in providing assistance to victims of trafficking.
The author is an attorney in Colombo Court and at present working with ILO, Sri Lanka.