INTERDICTING WOMEN TRAFFICKING FROM BOTH THE SUPPLY AND THE DEMAN SIDES

  By SEN. AQUILINO PIMENTEL, JR

Let me congratulate DAWN under the leadership of Ms. Carmelita Nuqui and the rest of its officers for holding this conference on migration and trafficking in persons with the theme that focuses on “Recognizing the Dignity and Rights of Women.”

I think that the conference is both timely and critical because now there is apparently an alarming tendency among certain sectors in poor countries to view women as commodities that may be traded to earn a few dollars more for the families concerned.

The problem is acquiring global proportions that it is nor possible for only one country to solve it alone.

Supply Side

The problem exists in some countries in Africa , Asia and Europe where the squalor of poverty drives the affected women - abetted by their families in many instances - to seek life elsewhere even at the risk of their being abused.

And abused, they are indeed - psychologically, physically and sexually.

If the problem is seen in callous, economic terms, that is the issue from the supply side.

Demand Side

The problem, however, is aggravated by the fact that there appears to be a growing demand for women who could be used as chattels, molested as sex toys and maltreated as slaves in the more affluent parts of the world. We hear of women coming from the poor nations of Asia - our country included - who are battered and victimized, mostly, sexually by bad elements in countries like Japan , or ill-treated as slaves in some Middle Eastern states. We hear of women trafficking even in the UK for instance. There is also a recent report that in the US some 45-50 thousand women a year are trafficked by criminal syndicates.

That is the issue from the demand side.

Collective Genius

Hence, it will take the collective genius of the well-meaning peoples of the world to combat this menace that threatens the moral fabric of all societies of the world.

From our end we are trying to do what we can. Some 2 years and 7 months ago, the Philippine Senate, to which I belong, passed a bill proscribing the trafficking of women and children. The bill is now a law.

If there is a woman's organization that should take a major part of the credit for ceaselessly lobbying to have the law enacted by our legislature, by our legislators, that organization is non other than DAWN, the main organizer of this conference.

DAWN has every reason to be proud of this role in this struggle for upholding the dignity and the rights of women in this country.

But laws, my dear friends, like international agreements are just words unless they are implemented. Unfortunately, in this country the law that we passed is not being implemented fully as we intended it to be. The deployment of women, some of them minors, in many places, not particularly in Japan , still goes on.

Immediate Challenge

To the end that we get our own law and international agreement against the trafficking of women fully implemented is the immediate challenge that we all face. But laws and international agreements are only effective if countries get down from their rarefied air of legal norms to address the problems and get into the tough battle for the equality of the sexes, which is in the realm of the social and economic lives of our peoples.

To get that done successfully, we must not only have to get the government of the less affluent parts of the world, where the supply of trafficked women comes from to legally interdict it. We must also get the more affluent world where the demand for trafficked women is greatest to help the less affluent nations to eradicate the basic cause of women trafficking that is poverty.

Moral Degradation

That said, it is important for the peoples of the world to realize that unless we address the problem of the moral degradation of our societies in general, and of women in particular, there won't be much that our respective societies can do about the other serious problems of the world - women trafficking included. The warning that Jimmy Carter, former US president, airs in his recent book, Our Endangered Values: America 's Moral Crisis, may well apply to the rest of the world. Without upholding moral values, no country, no matter how powerful - economically or militarily - can last for long.

Plug Loopholes

I am certain that DAWN and the participants of this conference will use their pool of wisdom to help plug the loopholes in our legal networks that enable the exploiters of our women to continue doing their nefarious trade.

I end with a prayer that as DAWN celebrates its 10 th anniversary this year, we will soon see the women of our country, if not of the world, treated as full partners of men - equal in dignity and in rights - in all aspects for the good of all humanity.

Thank you very much.