The Link Between Prostitution and Human Trafficking
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Inextricably Bound: The Link Between Prostitution and Human Trafficking Dan O’Bryant and Ian Speir * Table of Contents I. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 2 II. Human trafficking: a crime of global magnitude and shocking brutality ...................... 5 A. Global magnitude ....................................................................................................... 6 B. Shocking brutality ...................................................................................................... 7 III. Why trafficking happens ............................................................................................... 9 A. Organized crime ......................................................................................................... 9 B. Demand .....................................................................................................................12 C. Other factors: supply, cost, market size, and migration flows ..............................13 IV. Prostitution and the link to trafficking ........................................................................13 A. Cross-country econometric analyses .....................................................................15 B. Individual-country case studies ...............................................................................16 1. Sweden ......................................................................................................................16 2. Denmark ....................................................................................................................17 3. Norway .......................................................................................................................17 4. Netherlands ...............................................................................................................17 5. Germany ....................................................................................................................18 C. Other evidence ..........................................................................................................18 V. Taking trafficking seriously .............................................................................................21 A. Why legalization violates Palermo Protocol article 9 .............................................21 B. States’ “positive obligations” to combat trafficking under Rantsev .....................22 C. Implications of a Palermo Protocol violation ..........................................................25 1. International dispute resolution ...............................................................................25 2. Treatment under the TVPA of countries who have legalized .................................26 VI. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................30 1 I. Introduction Human trafficking is “one of the dark sides of globalization.”1 As international investment, trade, and migration have increased, so also has the illegal cross-border movement of human beings for purposes of forced labor, sexual servitude, and other forms of exploitation.2 The problem is both widespread and hidden. Human trafficking affects nearly every country on earth,3 with some 20.9 million victims worldwide.4 Of these, 14.2 million people are trafficked for labor, and 4.5 million are trapped in sexual slavery, according to estimates from the International Labour Organization (“ILO”).5 Trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation (“sex trafficking”) is particularly heinous. To call it a gross violation of basic human rights – rights of bodily integrity, health, and freedom from violence, among others – is to tell only half the story. Sex trafficking demands special moral and legal attention because of its victims: fully 98% are women and girls.6 While the plight of male victims, particularly boys, cannot be diminished, it’s impossible to miss the gendered dimensions of this problem. In a world where women and girls already suffer disproportionately from poverty, violence, and lack of education, sexual exploitation only deepens their inequality and vulnerability.7 And it’s a problem that is not going away. The international response to modern slavery began in November 2000 with the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children (“Palermo Protocol”).8 That same year, Congress enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the 1 Seo-Young Cho, Alex Dreher & Eric Neumayer, Does Legalized Prostitution Increase Human Trafficking?, 41 World Development 67, 67 (2013). 2 See Gergana Danailova-Trainor & Patrick Belser, “Globalization and the illicit market for human trafficking: an empirical analysis of supply and demand,” Int’l Labor Org. Working Paper 53 (Dec. 2006), at 19 http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/--- declaration/documents/publication/wcms_081931.pdf. 3 UN Office on Drugs & Crime, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, at 37 (2014) (“Trafficking in persons is a crime of global scope that leaves virtually no country unaffected”); 4 Int’l Labour Org., Global Estimate of Forced Labour, at 13 (2012). 5 Id. The remaining 2.2 million victims include individuals forced to be soldiers by governments and rebel groups, and other victims of forced labor, such as prison labor that contravenes international standards. 6 ILO, Global Estimate 2014, at 14; UNODC, 2014 TIP Report, at 37 (similarly putting the figure at 97%). 7 UNICEF, The State of the World's Children 2006, at 12; Int’l Labour Org., Combating Child Labor Through Education, at 10 (rev. 2008); Iris Yen, Comment, Of Vice and Men: A New Approach to Eradicating Sex Trafficking by Reducing Male Demand through Educational Programs and Abolitionist Legislation, 98 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 653, 654 (2008) (“Impoverished women and girls from developing countries are vulnerable to all forms of human trafficking and exploitation, but they are especially vulnerable to sex trafficking.”). In passing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, Congress recognized that “[t]raffickers primarily target women and girls, who are disproportionately affected by poverty, the lack of access to education, chronic unemployment, discrimination, and the lack of economic opportunities in countries of origin.” 22 U.S.C. § 7101(b)(4). 8 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, adopted Nov. 15, 2000, G.A. Res. 55/25, U.N. GAOR, 55th Sess., Annex II [hereinafter “Palermo Protocol”], http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/ProtocolTraffickingInPersons.aspx. 2 cornerstone of human trafficking legislation in the United States.9 Since then, governments and international organizations have devoted increased attention and resources to human trafficking. There’s growing social awareness of the problem. Countless nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations (“NGOs”) have sprung up with emotive calls to “end slavery in our lifetime.” In spite of these efforts, the problem persists. The ILO’s estimate of victims of sexual slavery globally went from 1.4 million in 2005 to 4.5 million in 2012.10 The UNODC’s 2014 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons soberly noted that “the number of convictions globally has remained extremely low” and “we have continued to see an increase in the number of detected child victims, particularly girls under 18.”11 Tragically, trafficking in persons remains far too common. As this tragedy continues to grow, another trend has surfaced: efforts to legalize prostitution. While prostitution – the sale of sexual services for money – remains illegal in most of the world, several countries have enacted laws to normalize “sex work” as a legitimate occupational choice. The Australian state of Victoria did so in the mid-1990s.12 The Netherlands legalized in 2000.13 Perhaps most notably, when Germany made prostitution legal in 2002,14 the country quickly became the largest prostitution market in Europe,15 with an estimated 400,000 sex workers and an industry valued at €16 billion per year.16 In May 2016, Amnesty International adopted a policy in favor of legalization, calling on governments around the world to “decriminalize consensual sex work” and to “include sex workers in the development of laws that affect their lives and safety” and ensure they are “protected from harm, exploitation and coercion.”17 Amnesty’s press release notes that it “joins a large group of organizations” advocating legalization, including the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women, Global Commission on HIV and the Law, Human Rights Watch, UNAIDS, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, and World Health Organization.18 9 Pub. L. 106-386 (Oct. 28, 2000), 22 U.S.C. §§ 7101-7113; see U.S. Dep’t of State, “U.S. Laws on Trafficking in Persons,” http://www.state.gov/j/tip/laws/. 10 Compare Int’l Labour Org., ILO Minimum Estimate of Forced Labour in the World, at 1 (2005) (estimating 1.39 million in forced labour for commercial sexual exploitation), with ILO,Global Estimate 2014, at 13 (estimating 4.5 million). The ILO urges caution when comparing its 2005 and 2014 reports but notes that the 2012 estimate, “at 20.9 million victims globally, is considerably higher than ILO’s