Background

Over half of all women in Latin America have suffered some form of violent act.¹ 33% of these women have been victims of sexual exploitation between the ages of 16 and 49.² 45% of these women have been insulted and harassed.³ Some examples of the sexual exploitation women in Latin America suffer are rape and prostitution. Both rape and prostitution occur in trafficking networks between Ecuador and Venezuela.

"Venezuela is a country of destination for women for commercial sexual exploitation."⁴ Victims are recruited through job advertisements in major newspapers.⁵ Once gathered, these victims are trafficked abroad, "where their passports are taken away and they are prostituted in massage parlors and brothels."⁶

Women and children are also trafficked into Venezuela. Women from countries like Colombia are trafficked into Venezuela through prostitution trade networks originating in Colombia.⁷ Children from Ecuador are trafficked into Venezuela to serve as prostitutes and work as street vendors and housemaids.⁸ The victims are usually children who are kidnapped, sold by their parents, or deceived by false employment opportunities.⁹ These children are first exploited through prostitution at the average age of 12.¹⁰ Children as young as 7 years old have been found to be sexually exploited.¹¹ Of the 40,000 sexually exploited children in Venezuela, 78% are girls between the ages of 8 and 17.¹²

Why Does Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking Occur?

The sexual exploitation and trafficking of women and children from Venezuela and Ecuador occurs because women and children are vulnerable groups. Women's "lack of economic, social, cultural and political rights confirms women's position as dependent and vulnerable second-class citizens."¹³ Since women do not enjoy equal rights, poverty and unemployment affect women more than men. Women often have to raise families on their own creating a desperate need for employment that is not available to women. When women answer to false employment opportunities in newspapers and other advertisements they end up being recruited and trafficked into other countries to be sexually exploited as prostitutes.

Because of the deceitful methods used to recruit the women and children who are trafficked into prostitution, these women and children are being used for sexual purposes against their will. According to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda September 1998 Akayesu Judgment, the Court defined rape as "a physical invasion of a sexual nature, committed on a person under circumstances which are coercive."¹⁴ The Court also defined coercive to mean threats and intimidation, not just physical force.¹⁵ In other words, recruiting women and children who are in desperate need to find a job or who are otherwise disadvantaged and leaving them more vulnerable by taking away their means of escaping and surviving, so that they can be easily used for prostitution, amounts to the use of coercion to perpetrate "a physical invasion of a sexual nature…."¹⁶ Thus, the trafficked women and children are not just used for prostitution, but they are also raped.

The rapes and sexual exploitation that occur when women and children are trafficked arise from a culture in Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and other Latin American countries that promotes sexual violence through the media. Women and children in these Latin American countries are widely depicted in pornographic and other sexually oriented materials. "Latin America and the Caribbean have the highest incidents of children engaged in trafficking, prostitution and pornography."¹⁷ The sexual violence and exploitation depicted in pornographic and other sexually oriented materials "(1) predisposes some males to want to rape women [and children] and intensifies the predisposition in other males already so predisposed; (2) undermines some male's internal inhibitions against acting out their desire to rape; and (3) undermines some male's social inhibitions against acting out their desire to rape."¹⁸ In other words, the existence of pornography and other sexually oriented materials promote the acting out of sexual violence against women and children through trafficking, prostitution, and rapes.

Ways of Addressing Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking

Trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and children to and from Venezuela and Ecuador is argued by some activists to be a violation of international humanitarian law. "[T]he 1998 Rome Statute forming the International Criminal Court states, for the first time under international law, that rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, and other forms of sexual violence are each to be considered a crime against humanity and a war crime."¹⁹ The Rome Statue defines a crime against humanity as an act committed repeatedly against civilians to carry out an organized plan to attack that particular group of civilians.²⁰ The civilians can be part of any identifiable group, including a gender-based group.²¹ Moreover, according to the Rome Statute, sexual slavery "means the exercise of any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership over a person and includes the exercise of such power in the course of trafficking in persons, in particular women and children…."²² However, crimes against humanity also require a widespread and systematic attack (attack includes possible patterns of severe discrimination) on a portion of the civilian population usually with government acquiescence or active involvement. Thus, there is a dividing line between organized international crime and crimes against humanity that can be murky but will hopefully be delineated more clearly as cases are brought before the ICC and domestic courts for crimes of trafficking in persons.

Thus, trafficking women and children clearly constitutes sexual slavery committed against particular groups, women and children. Trafficking is carried out as an organized plan that recruits women and children for the purpose of attacking them through the use of sexual violence. Not only does trafficking in certain circumstances constitute a crime against humanity, but rape and enforced prostitution are additional crimes that occur in trafficking networks to and from Venezuela and Ecuador that possibly may be argued as constituting crimes against humanity. How trafficking will be prosecuted before the ICC remains to be seen. Additionally, investigation and research into all the gradations of trafficking in persons is relatively young and non-existent in several areas of the world, such as much of Latin America and many other conflict ridden zones across the globe.

What Must Be Done?

Since trafficking and the sexual exploitation that occurs within trafficking networks between Venezuela and Ecuador could be classified as crimes against humanity by some activists, perpetrators may be prosecuted under the Rome Statute and applicable national laws if in existence. In prosecuting perpetrators of these crimes, the laws used must provide the following:

"Recognition of Trafficking as an offence subject to heavy penalties.

Special penalties for the Trafficking of minors under 18 years of age.

"Procuring" for [trafficking victims] becomes a felony.
*…[P]ornography [created with trafficked victims] defined as an independent crime.
*Criminalisation of the customers of sexual exploitation of [trafficked victims].
*Criminalisation of running premises where human trafficking takes place.
*Protection and psychological support for the victims of Trafficking.
*Deportations suspended."²³

In addition, when prosecuting perpetrators, the laws must make all forms of trafficking a crime, including trafficking into inhumane labor conditions.²⁴ Also, laws must impose "explicit penalties for complicity and other unlawful involvement in trafficking by law enforcement officials, customs agents, and other state officials."²⁵

To prevent trafficking and sexual exploitation before it occurs, advocate and community awareness organizations in Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and other Latin American countries must promote the need to protect vulnerable groups by preventing social acceptance of sexual violence. Organizations must support programs at the local level that focus on the impact the media has on promoting sexual exploitation through pornographic and other sexually oriented materials. Training programs must also enhance the positive value women and children have in society and diminish the negative and helpless view of women and children as objects that can and should be abused.

Educating women and children helps in preventing more of them from falling into the hands of traffickers. "Specific training programs for girls should be established in order to increase the number of girls attending schools."²⁶ Women and children must know who the traffickers are, what mechanisms they use to recruit victims, and how to protect themselves from becoming victims. "Collaborative programs should be initiated to exchange information on perpetrators, tracing mechanisms and to co-operate on sanctions against violators."²⁷ Thus, empowering the victims and punishing the perpetrators are deterrents to halting the trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and children.

Footnotes:
¹United Nations Study, "UN proposes pact on family violence," ALC News Service, 24 July 1998.
²International Day Against Violence Against Women, "Gender-Based Violence is an Obstacle to Development," 6 June 2003.
³Ibid.
⁴Protection Project, "Country Report: Venezuela," 6 June 2003.
⁵Patrick J. O'Donoghue, "Venezuelan Sex-Slaves Sold in Trade-Offs to Spanish Wayside Brothels," Venezuela's Internet News, 18 November 1997.
⁶CATW, "The Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation: Venezuela," 5 May 2003.
⁷Radhika Coomaraswamy and Gustavo Capdevila, "UN Special Report on Violence Against Women," IPS, 2 April 1997.
⁸Miami Herald, "Exploited Children Going Home," Associated Press, 22 January 1998.
⁹Vladimir Villegas and Estrella Gutierrez, "Child Traffic in Venezuela Tip of the Iceberg," IPS, 11 January 1998.
¹⁰Global March, "Worst Form of Child Labour—Venezuela: Global March Against Child Labour," 25 June 2003.
¹¹ECPAT International, "Child Prostitution," 25 June 2003.
¹²ECPAT International, "Venezuela Losing War Against Sexual Exploitation of Children," ECPAT Bulletin, October 1996.
¹³International Day Against Violence Against Women, "Gender-Based Violence is an Obstacle to Development," 6 June 2003.
¹⁴Prosecutor v. Jean-Paul Akayesu, Judgement, ICTR-96-4-T, Sept. 2, 1998.
¹⁵Oxfam, "Ending Impunity for Sexual Violence," 25 June 2003.
¹⁶Prosecutor v. Jean-Paul Akayesu, Judgement, ICTR-96-4-T, Sept. 2, 1998.
¹⁷CIRCLE, "CIRCLE in Latin America," 25 June 2003.
¹⁸Diane E.H. Russell, PhD., "Pornography as a Cause of Rape," 7 April 2003.
¹⁹Center for Reproductive Rights, "Sexual Violence," 26 June 2003.
²⁰Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), July 17, 1998, U.N. Doc. A/CONF.183/9 (1998).
²¹Ibid at Article 7 (3).
²²Ibid at Article 7 (2) (c).
²³Doctors of the World, "Sub-Commission for the Promotion and the Protection of Human Rights," 26 June 2003.
²⁴Ibid.
²⁵Ibid.
²⁶Protection of Children and Adolescents in Complex Emergencies, "Preventing Gender-Based Violence and Sexual Abuse," 26 June 2003.
²⁷Ibid.