SOLD IN WAR: Women Trafficking and Armed Conflicts

SOLD IN WAR: Women Trafficking and Armed Conflicts

Introduction:
A universal attribute of any society, tribe, or nation is its capacity and obvious willingness to
wage wars. Whether or not to vanquish, to colonize, to protect, to develop, or to with ease set up
a symbolic superiority, a nations use of military actions performs an primary function within the
definition of that nations identification. Whatever the marketed purpose of a war, nonetheless, it
is finally a social occasion that regularly allows for the dying and suffering of each warring
parties and civilians and for the exploitation of thousands of men and women, children and adults
on a grand scale. The chaos and turmoil of wartime seems to carry out the worst qualities in
human beings.
In an article published in the University of St. Thomas Law Journal1 it highlights that a major
tenet of the laws of war is that civilians, and women and children in particular, are to be
protected from the trials and suffering of war to the fullest extent possible.
Therefore, it is ultimately the task of each military and its members to make sure their behaviors
are consistent with the specifications in International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Even though the
complete avoidance of civilian deaths and suffering is not realistic, it is the responsibility of an
armed force to not intentionally target civilians and to consider operations in terms of the
concepts of distinction, military necessity and proportionality. By their very nature and status,
civilians are vulnerable to the atrocities of war, but that vulnerability should never be taken
advantage of by offering as an excuse the argument that in times of conflict, no one is safe and
suffering must be expected. Suffering and death in war are certainly anticipated; unnecessary
violence and the targeted abuse of vulnerable populations with the purposes of exhibiting control
or claiming entitlements are war crimes.

1 Kirby, Kristi M., and Claude DEstree. 2008. "Peacekeepers, the Military and Human Trafficking:
Protecting Whom?" University of St.Thomas Law Journal 6.

SOLD IN WAR: Women Trafficking and Armed Conflicts

It also makes it particularly complicated for the actors to be discovered and prosecuted for their
crimes or the accurate figures of the trafficked populace to be determined. This because of this
quickens the industry of human trafficking in struggle instances.
Millions of men, women and children are victims of human trafficking for sexual, compelled
labor and different forms of exploitation global. The human and monetary costs of this take an
enormous toll on contributors and communities. Through conservative estimates, the rate of
trafficking in phrases of underpayment of wages and recruiting fees is over $20 billion 2. The fees
to human capital are more commonly inconceivable to quantify. The hindrance of trafficking cuts
throughout a variety of progress issues, from poverty to social inclusion, to justice and rule of
law issues, and accordingly has relevance for practitioners for the duration of the progress
community.
Despite the poor impact of warfare on all civilians involved, females, adolescent girls, and
children keep a precise place of vulnerability and regularly, without effort, in finding themselves
capable of severe defenselessness and grow to be exposed to abuse from both the adversary and
people there to safeguard them. The attention that women possibly at a special threat in the
course of armed conflicts resulted in the commission on the status of females and its
investigation of the designated needs, if any, that will have to be afforded to women in conflict
areas3.The work of the commission as a consequence was once instrumental in the United States
General Assembly decision to adopt in 1974 the Declaration of Women and Children in
Emergency and Armed Conflict. In phrases of numbers, the fundamental victims of human
trafficking are women and children who are pressured into exploitative labor or prostitution.
Human rights standards are trampled beneath the foot within the process. The trafficked
themselves be aware of some distance too little about their rights or about the correct channels to
take to say them. Although the extreme vulnerability of females in armed clash was famous, the
fact that gender-established violence has relevance to a sort of army and peacekeeping missions
is yet to be stated and analyzed.
2 See ILO (2009), The Cost of Coercion.
3 Mazurana, Dyan, Angela Raven-Roberts and Jane Parpart (eds.) Gender, Conflict, and Peacekeeping. Oxford &
Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.

SOLD IN WAR: Women Trafficking and Armed Conflicts

Moreover, the effect of war on both the genders is somewhat different 4. Since majority of today's
wars are intrastate, involving governmental and non-governmental navy and paramilitary forces
and militias. Civilians are more and more purposefully targeted by all forces. Whilst men are
both killed or forcibly recruited to become soldiers, women commonly turn out to be victims of
quite a lot of varieties of sexual violence, which is most commonly deliberately employed as a
conflict strategy. Moreover, armed conflicts exacerbate gender hierarchies. In these dayss wars
are increasingly protracted if no longer initiated via actors who thrive on and create war
economies, relying on extralegal and violent activities, equivalent to trafficking and slavery. This
creates high levels of poverty, destruction and displacement, from which in exact females endure.

What is Human Trafficking?

Before 2000, there was no internationally accepted definition of trafficking, despite the fact that
it used to be usually famous as a major violation of human rights. The lack of an Internationally
agreed upon definition impeded assistance to victims as a result of a lack of consensus on what
constituted trafficking. Just lately nevertheless, states have begun to link trafficking to key
transnational issues together with migrant smuggling and geared up crime.

Trafficking in

persons encompasses longstanding typical practices as well the growing transnational crime
similar to contemporary day slavery. It's difficult to improve a single definition that addresses
the global and targeted regional and nearby practices that may be characterised as trafficking.
An worldwide definition can more readily tackle the global nature of trafficking, while each
State will have to increase counter-trafficking legal guidelines to address nearby and regional
trends and patterns of trafficking.
Human trafficking is a procedure of people being recruited in their group and country of origin
and transported to the destination the place they are being exploited for purposes of pressured
labor, prostitution, domestic servitude, and different forms of exploitation. The internationally
recognized definition of trafficking is set forth in the Protocol to avert, Suppress and Punish.
4 UNIFEM (2002): Women, War and Peace: The Independent Experts Assessment on the Impact of Armed
Conflict on Women and Womens Role in Peace-building, by Elisabeth Rehn/Ellen Johnson Sirleaf; International
Alert (2002): Gender Mainstreaming in Peace Support Operations: Moving Beyond Rhetoric to Practice, London,
pp. 19-22.

SOLD IN WAR: Women Trafficking and Armed Conflicts

Trafficking in persons, above all women and Children 5 (the Palermo Protocol), which
supplements the United countries convention against Transnational Organized Crime6.
"For the purposes of this Protocol:
(a) Trafficking in persons shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or
receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of
abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the
giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control
over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum,
the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced
labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;
(b) The consent of the victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in the
subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in
subparagraph (a) have been used;
(c) The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of a child for the purpose of
exploitation shall be considered trafficking in persons even if this does not involve any of the
means set forth; and
d) Child means any person under the age of 18.
The Palermo Protocol represents a broad global consensus on the definition of human trafficking;
nonetheless there is controversy surrounding a few of its elements. The definition is

5 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, General
Assembly resolution 55/25, annex II, p.32. http://www.unodc.org/pdf/crime/a_res_55/res5525e.pdf. Since December
25, 2003 when the Protocol entered into force, 117 countries have signed and 132 countries have ratified the
Protocol as of September 10, 2009.
6 The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, General Assembly resolution
55/25.http://www.unodc.org/pdf/crime/a_res_55/res5525e.pdf

SOLD IN WAR: Women Trafficking and Armed Conflicts

large and uncertain, for that reason it leaves interpretation to every State and generates more than
a few debates surrounding the definition. The International Labour Organization (ILO) notes that
For illustration, there was a debate as to whether trafficking have to contain some movement of
the trafficked victims both inside or across national borders along with the process of
recruitment, or whether or not the focus must be most effective on the exploitation that occurs on
the end7. Yet another problem has been whether or not trafficking for the purpose of exploitation
always concerned coercion.
European Directive 2011/36/EU, which focuses more on the protection of victims, expands on
the above provided definition in its Paragraph 11:
"In order to tackle recent developments in the phenomenon of trafficking in human beings, this
Directive adopts a broader concept of what should be considered trafficking in human beings
than under Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA and therefore includes additional forms of
exploitation. Within the context of this Directive, forced begging should be understood as a form
of forced labour or services as defined in the 1930 ILO Convention No 29 concerning Forced or
Compulsory Labour. Therefore, the exploitation of begging, including the use of a Trafficked
dependent person for begging, falls within the scope of the definition of trafficking in human
beings only when all the elements of forced labour or services occur. In the light of the relevant
case--law, the validity of any possible consent to perform such labour or services should be
evaluated on a case--by--case basis. However, when a child is concerned, no possible consent
should ever be considered valid. The expression exploitation of criminal activities should be
understood as the exploitation of a person to commit, inter alia, pick--pocketing, shop--lifting,
drug trafficking and other similar activities which are subject to penalties and imply financial
gain. The definition also covers trafficking in human beings for the purpose of the removal of
organs, which constitutes a serious violation of human dignity and physical integrity, as well as,
for instance, other behavior such as illegal adoption or forced marriage (...).
Traffickers use a variety of ways to create a prone for the victims so that the victims should not
have any other option but obey the traffickers. One of the common methods utilized by
traffickers is debt-bondage where the traffickers inform their victims that they owe money on the
7 See ILO (2009), The Cost of Coercion.

SOLD IN WAR: Women Trafficking and Armed Conflicts

subject of their journey and residing costs and that they'll not be released until the debt has been
repaid. Traffickers additionally use other methods including starvation, imprisonment, physical
abuse (beatings and rape), verbal abuse, elimination of victims identification documents (eg.
Passport), threats of violence to the victims and the victims households, and pressured drug use.
In particular within the case of go-border trafficking, victims most of the time do not
communicate the regional language or don't have any social community to guide them in order
that they are depending on members of their own ethnic group receiving them within the
vacation spot nation. Furthermore, victims unlawful fame makes it complicated for them to seek
support from legislation enforcement, the healthcare process and/or other public offerings.
Throughout the method of human trafficking (recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring,
or/and receipt of men and women), traffickers play designated roles 8. Traffickers in this be aware
indicate recruiters, transporters, folks that exercise control over trafficked men and women,
individuals who switch and/or hold trafficked individuals in exploitative instances, those
concerned in associated crimes, those who profit either straight or indirectly from trafficking, its
element acts and related offences.9 Every trafficker contributes at distinct phases in the human
trafficking procedure for the purpose of exploiting the victims for economic or different obtain.
Traffickers may tackle one assignment or more than one duties equivalent to recruitment, file
forgery, transportation, escorts of victims, bribing public officials, facilitating the transportation
and transferring, understanding gathering, and receiving victims within the destination10.
The concrete forms of trafficking in women during conflict may vary according to the conflict
region, the specific economic and political context and the military and civil actors involved.
What is common is the extreme vulnerability of women and children living in war territories to
being trafficked, in particular when the general level of violence against women is high. Forcibly

8 For a detailed discussion on trafficker profiles, see ILO and UNICEF (2009).
9 The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (2002). Recommended Principles and Guidelines on
Human Rights and Human Trafficking, E/2002/68/Add.1.

10 http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/about-migration/managing-migration/cache/offonce/pid/676

SOLD IN WAR: Women Trafficking and Armed Conflicts

displaced women and children are particularly in danger to being trafficked. The following
addresses the main trafficking forms within and from conflict territories.11

Military abduction and enslavement in conflict territories

During instances of armed conflict, women and men are generally abducted by using government
or insurgent forces. Usually women are held for a short time, mostly they're exchanged for brand
new women after some time or held for a long time. They could also be captured for different
purposes, but sexual violence is almost always a part of their exploitation.
The majority of abducted women either by government military forces, paramilitaries of rebel
militias are held for sexually servitude and enforced military prostitution. The most commonly
known case of systematically organized military sexual slavery during wartime is the abduction
of about 200.000 mainly Korean and Philippine women by the Japanese army during World War
II. Officially organized by the military leadership, these women were held in comfort stations
frequented by Japanese soldiers.
Abduction for sexual enslavement by military forces is documented for many past and current
conflicts, such as for Angola, the war in Former Yugoslavia, in Sierra Leone, Liberia, the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)10, etc. In Chechnya, Russian military forces abduct
women and take them to military camps, where they sexually abuse and torture them for
different periods of time. Amnesty International documented a case where a Chechnyan woman
was only released after 10 machine guns were paid for her. 11 In Burma the army has for the
last 35 years systematically abducted women, subjecting them to rape and other abuses. This is
directly related to the militarys war against certain minorities in the country.12In Colombia
women and children are being abducted by armed forces and detained in conditions of sexual
slavery and made to perform domestic tasks. This has been encouraged and organized by some
high-ranking members of the military.13 In many cases, abducted women are married to
soldiers or militiamen. During the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, Indonesian army
officials and militias abducted women, sent them to camps in West Timor, where they got
married to Indonesian soldiers.

11 UNIFEM (2002), p. 12.

SOLD IN WAR: Women Trafficking and Armed Conflicts

Sexual Exploitation
While trafficking for forced labor is recently gaining more recognition on its severity, trafficking
for sexual exploitation is still the most common form of human trafficking. This primarily
impacts women and children. There are several identified common patterns for recruiting victims
into sex trafficking,12 which include but are not limited to
1) a promise of a good job in another country;
2) a false marriage proposal turned into a bondage situation;
3) being sold into the sex industry by parents, husbands or boyfriends, and
4) being kidnapped by traffickers. Recruiters are often very familiar persons to the victims, such
as neighbor, friend, a friend of a friend, acquaintance, or even a family friend.13
Numerous observers in countries at war confirm that, apart from the cases of sexual slavery,
women and teenagers are being abducted and then sold overseas, most likely for the functions of
compelled prostitution. As early as 2003, Human Rights Watch (HRW) pronounced an expand in
abductions of young women14. The equal 12 months, the NGO Organization of Females
Freedom in Iraq stated that 400 females had been kidnapped in the Kirkuk region 15. There was
proof that 18 of them had been sold for sexual exploitation in nightclubs in Egypt 16. More not too
long ago, the NGOs contacted for this study drew awareness to feasible revenue of females,
specifically to buyers in the Gulf States. In Iraq and Syria, the hazard of abduction is currently
highest in the border areas. Numerous armed companies use these crossing elements to lift
finance via smuggling migrants and selling females.

12 http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/fact_sex.pdf
13 See Clert, Carine, Elizabeth Gomart with Ivana Aleksic and Natalia Otel (2005).
14 Human Rights Watch (2003): Climate of Fear.
15 Over 400 Iraqi women kidnapped, raped in post--war chaos, Jordan Times, August 25, The Arab Regional
Resource Center on Violence against Women.

16 Mlodoch, Karin: Lange Schatten der Vergangenheit, ai--journal, amnesty international, Heft 10, October 2003,
pp. 12--13.

SOLD IN WAR: Women Trafficking and Armed Conflicts

Forced Labor and Other Forms
Trafficking for forced labor is less frequently discovered and reported than trafficking for sexual
exploitation. It is difficult to distinguish victims trafficked for forced labor from migrant
laborers. These victims often work in hidden locations, such as agricultural fields in rural areas,
mining camps, factories and the private houses in the case of domestic servitude. As a
consequence, the trafficking victims of forced labor are less likely to be identified than the
trafficking victims of sexual exploitation.17 Along with women and girls, both adult men and
boys are also the victims of trafficking for forced labor but the trafficking cases of men are
extremely underreported. Victims of forced labor trafficking are often recruited with a promise of
work, generally through personal contacts and also through job advertisements on newspapers,
television, billboards and the Internet. Some victims enter the country legally on work visas
while others enter illegally. The IOM reported in the case of labor trafficking of men in Belarus
and Ukraine that recruitment generally mimicked legal migration. 18 These male victims often
made what they thought were legally binding agreements with reliable companies, employment
agencies and recruiters. Confusion between trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants
prevents victims from receiving protection and support as their fundamental right.
The consequences of abduction and enslavement of women during conflicts are manifold. Due to
the fact of the violence, exploitation and harsh dwelling conditions, abducted females and girls
endure from extremely poor well-being together with physical injury, disorders and malnutrition.
Many women are contaminated with HIV/Aids. Pointless to say, the women and girls undergo
from deep psychological traumas considering that of the ordeals they have got to endure. More
commonly, women are impregnated, with many girls at a young age.19
Kidnapped women face huge social and fiscal problems after their break out or free up from the
camps. Often, the customary household may be dead, the home demolished and the females don't
have any place to return to and no financial resources to live on. The place there still is some
17 UNODC (2009), Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, p.51.
18 http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/cache/offonce/pid/1674?entryId=20571.
19 UNIFEM (2002), pp. 31-46; Human Rights Watch (2002): The War Within the War, pp. 64-74.

SOLD IN WAR: Women Trafficking and Armed Conflicts

variety of dwelling community, the victims trauma is frequently compounded by way of social
stigma, rejection
and resistance to address their problems. This is exacerbated when women have born youngsters
as an effect of the sexual violence they had to suffer. Thus, the majority of females do not
communicate about their experiences, which can worsen their trauma. Given that their social and
economic situation, survivors of abduction and enslavement danger becoming prostitutes. In
some countries reporting of the violence to law enforcement authorities, medical practitioners or
non-governmental organizations can even be provoke demise threats to females or actual
killings. Where violence is said, there has been an amazing lack of accountability and
prosecution of the perpetrators by using the country wide or even international criminal justice
system.
The absences of regulation enforcement Agencies or border patrols do facilitate convenient
transport of human beings for traffickers through war zones, depending on the areas geography.
When wanting to use a special field as transit route, traffickers most likely rely on the cooperation of the navy authorities or warfare lords in control. Therefore, when transit trafficking
occurs in clash regions, army actors may also be assumed to be a part of the geared up network.
The abduction and sale of women and women can emerge as an main income source for the
period of wars, in targeted for struggle lords, rebels and guerrillas. In Sierra Leone, for instance,
rebels also offered kidnapped women abroad.20 throughout the long warfare in Afghanistan, the
Mujaheddin sold Afghan women and girls to crook networks in neighbouring Pakistan. The
international locations of destination may both be neighbouring states, nations in the
neighborhood or detached continents, for instance Europe or the U.S. Of their nations of
destination, trafficked women and women could end up workers in illegal factories and gem
mines, or enslaved domestic workers.
Women and children constitute the vast majority of internally displaced folks and refugees on
account of armed conflict. They are susceptible to gender-headquartered violence typically and
to trafficking in designated. They will become victims of hostage-taking and enslavement for the
entire purposes listed above. Refugee camps are also a source for trafficking of females.
Trafficking from refugee camps is prone to be regarding the existence of gender-centered
20 Human Rights Watch (2002): The War within the War, pp. 75-76.

SOLD IN WAR: Women Trafficking and Armed Conflicts

violence in the camps and male-dominated leadership structures that expose women to
exploitative situations, for circumstances via forcing them to trade sexual favors for support
supplies.
A Report by Human Rights Watch on the situation of Bhutanese women refugees in UNHCR
refugee camps in Nepal mentions that the UNHCR reported refugee women and girls missing
from the camp between November 2002 and July 2003. HRW suspects that many of these
women and girls may be trafficking victims.
Post-war zones become areas of vacation spot for trafficking in females most distinctively with
the presence of foreign or international military and civilian forces. International troops
frequently come to post-conflict zones either as navy occupants, allies or as a part of global
peace support operations. Foreign troop presence could variety wherever from several months to
a long time. They normally bring with them a demand for sexual services and home labour.
Entry to sexual services provided by means of prostitutes has constantly been developed to be
most important for the military efficiency for just about all armies. 21 Even at present, it's argued
that the presence of prostitutes prevents armies from harassing the female population in host
nations. At the strain of the womens movement, army prostitution has increasingly grow to be
criticized.
There are no estimates available about the number of trafficked women and girls who work in
military prostitution globally. Yet, NGO reports on trafficking in connection with military
prostitution have been increasingly emerging. In Asia NGO networks report on cases of
trafficked women and girls in South Korea and the Philippines.
In their reports on gender-based violence in Sierra Leone, the UN Special Rapporteur on
Violence against women, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Physicians for
Human Rights documented the enslavement of abducted women during the war from 1991 to
21 Human Rights Watch: Climate of Fear, July 2003, p.3. Interesting to note in this context is an article that
appeared in several US-American newspapers indicating new forms of post-war sexual enslavement among Shiite
women, (for example in: Knight Ridder Newspapers: Iraqi Widows willing to sell bodiesin temporary marriages, by
Hannah Allam, August 29, 2003) According to this source, Shiite war widows who lost their husbands and
livelihood increasingly enter into temporary marriage contracts with\men who in turn provide money, food and
clothes for the children. In doing so, they resurrect andadapt an old Shiite widow practices called mutaa thatwas
bannedunder the regime of Saddam Hussein.

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SOLD IN WAR: Women Trafficking and Armed Conflicts

2001. It is estimated that during this war, thousands of women and girls were abducted after they
had become subject to sexual violence. The report by Physicians for Human Rights found out
that about one third of the womenreporting sexual violence during the war had been abducted
and 15 % subject to sexual slavery. The vast majority of these cases was perpetrated by rebel
forces.
Colombia is one of the leading international locations of starting place for trafficked females for
sexual exploitation in Latin the us.39 The number of ladies who're trafficked out of Colombia
every year is estimated as between 35,000 and 50,000.Forty Trafficking of ladies from Colombia
is linked bymany immediately to the ongoing conflict within the country.Forty one The struggle
is characterized by using a high measure of violence towards the civilian populace perpetrated by
means of the governmental paramilitary forces as good as the guerrillas, together with sexual
violence in opposition to women. Females and women are trafficked into sexual slavery by
means of army and paramilitary actors. The violence has brought on many men and women in
the geographical region to flee the conflict affected areas, main to about 2 million inside
refugees.
In post-war Afghanistan women and girls are routinely abducted and sexually abused by soldiers
from different military factions, the police and former fighters. Reports of trafficking of women
within the country include abductions for forced marriage, and sexual and domestic servitude. In
addition, the reports indicate trafficking of abducted women and children abroad for sexual
slavery and forced labour. Abductions, violence and threats are also used to intimidate female
political activists. This effectively serves to limit the participation of women in civil society and
the public sphere. Sexual violence curtails their rights to education, to work, to privacy, and to
health care. Many women and girls are essentially prisoners in their own homes. For
Afghanistan, the Womens Commission for Refugee Women and Children concludes: there is a
severe lack of documentation and monitoring of the situation which prohibits the ability of actors
to identify networks and take action.
In Iraq, insecurity and violence against ladies is on the upward thrust considering the invasion of
the worldwide coalition below the leadership of the USA forces. Human Rights Watch
establishes an develop in stories of kidnapped females and ladies who are offered abroad, for

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SOLD IN WAR: Women Trafficking and Armed Conflicts

example to international locations within the Gulf vicinity. Abduction of women and ladies is
taking situation in large daylight something that didn't occur before the conflict.
Considering the Korean battle (1950-1953) which resulted within the separation of the peninsula,
US American navy has been deployed to South Korea. In these days there are 41 camps with
about 37.000 army personnel. From the commencing of the deployment, there were bilateral
formal and informal agreements concerning the organization of entertainment areas across the
bases.While Korean ladies made up the vast majority of military sex workers except the
Nineteen Eighties, overseas women, in particular Russian and Filipinas, have been brought into
the country due to the fact that the1990s, due to the fact that they're less expensive and when
you consider that South Korean females discovered different jobs within the booming Korean
economic system. In 2001, 8.500 as a rule Russian and Filipina ladies entered the country on
enjoyment visas, majority of them working across the bases. A massive quantity of the women
is trafficked a fact that is allegedly generally recognized within the Korea- established U.S.
Army.
With the advent of about 50,000 quite often male worldwide peacekeeping personnel in 1995,
the small already current local intercourse enterprise in Bosnia boomed. To meet the demand,
females have been trafficked from Moldavia, Romania and the Ukraine into Bosnia. In 2002,
UNMiBH officers suspected 227 of the clubs and bars in Bosnia to be involved in trafficking.
Local Bosnian NGOs estimated the number to be as excessive as 900 with about 2.000 ladies and
girls trapped in brothels and bars to had been trafficked to Bosnia.
Human trafficking undermines the security and security of all countries it involves. Responding
to human trafficking requires various stakeholders, which include countrywide governments,
countrywide executive businesses (e.G. Law enforcement, immigration, and judiciary
departments), well being and public offerings, international companies (e.G. United Nations
Organizations, corresponding to UNODC, IOM, and ILO), Non-Governmental organizations
(NGOs) and Civil Society organizations (CSOs), the media, enterprises/companies, teachers, and
members.

National Actors
Governments: Efforts undertaken by the government to combat human trafficking vary in
each country. Some governments acknowledge the problem of human trafficking by
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SOLD IN WAR: Women Trafficking and Armed Conflicts

ratifying the Palermo Protocol and adapting laws to criminalize human trafficking activities.
Governments can develop a national strategy responding to internal, regional and
international human trafficking as well as create a system to coordinate the efforts of
government agencies and NGOs.
Government agencies (law enforcement, judiciary, and immigration offices): Combating the
crime of human trafficking requires collaboration among all of the stakeholders, particularly
law enforcement, immigration and judiciary agencies. The primary responders to human
trafficking are often law enforcement agencies, which then coordinate with the judiciary
office to prosecute traffickers. If the victims of human trafficking are from other countries,
they work with the immigration office to provide the temporary visa to stay in the country or
repatriate the victims to their own country.
Health and public services: Once human trafficking victims are rescued from traffickers,
victims need access to basic services, such as shelter, legal assistance, transportation,
medical exams, and psychological counseling.
NGOs and CSOs: NGOs and CSOs have long been active in the anti-human trafficking
movement before governments and international community start realizing the severity of
this issue. NGOs and CSOs mainly focus on carrying out awareness raising campaigns,
conducting research, helping law enforcement on victim identification, and providing basic
services to victims of human trafficking.
Media: The media plays an indispensable role in educating the public about the reality of
human trafficking and illuminating the problems via films, theatre, photographs,
newspapers, magazine articles and so on. The media is used as one of the most effective
ways to inform communities around the world about different aspects of human trafficking.
Private Sector: The private sector can also play a very important role to further prevent
human trafficking. Corporations and businesses can create job opportunities for trafficking
victims and financially support the other organizations activities to protect victims. Many
businesses have started adapting codes of conduct that would implement measures to
prevent labor exploitation and human trafficking.
International Actors
UN System and agencies: Since the Palermo Protocol entered into force in December
2003,117 countries have signed the Protocol. Led by UNODC, the United Nations Global

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SOLD IN WAR: Women Trafficking and Armed Conflicts

Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) was created to promote the global
efforts to fight against human trafficking and managed in cooperation with ILO, IOM,
(UNICEF), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Multilateral Development Banks:32 The Asia Development Bank (ADB) and the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) are most active at working on human trafficking
issues in their loan and grant projects as well as regional and country-specific technical
assistance projects. ADB focuses on preventive measures of human trafficking and
monitoring of impacts, especially those related to cross-border road corridors and
regional economic integration activities. IDB has established an inter-institutional
framework to define a plan of action and support Latin American governments in fighting
against human trafficking. Even though other Multilateral Development Banks may work
on this issue, project information on human trafficking and its related issues is not
available on their websites.
INTERPOL: INTERPOL works with governments to help them strengthen their capacity
to fight against global human trafficking. In February 2009, INTERPOL signed an
agreement between Nigeria and Italy, coordinating the efforts of both countries and
providing tools and resources to national law enforcements to target organizations behind
illegal immigration and human trafficking.
Bilateral/multilateral and regional initiatives: A number of governments are participating
in multilateral, regional and sub-regional initiatives to protect migrant workers from
forced labor trafficking.
International NGOs: International organizations, such as Amnesty International, Human
Rights Watch, and the Global Alliance against Traffic in Women (GATW) have been
leading the global anti-human trafficking movement. NGOs have been successful in

bringing public and government attention to this issue.

Academic and Research Institutions: Academic and research institutions around the
world conduct useful research on the various aspects of human trafficking and provide
recommendations to policymakers and service providers.

Suggestions:

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Prevention or combating trafficking throughout wartime is as a substitute complicated if no
longer unattainable. Virtually, the intention is to prevent warfare from breaking out within the
first situation. Accordingly, strengthening worldwide and regional early warning mechanisms
and peaceful conflict resolution devices theoretically customarily referred to as for however
without a doubt beneath prioritized together with a gender standpoint and awareness to
trafficking, could be the nice procedure. Furthermore, global struggleassociated regulation and
its implementation with exact regard to gender-established crimes and trafficking must be
bolstered to enhance prevention and prosecution of trafficking. This would entail:
including trafficking as a war crime under ICC statute (currently, it is recognized as a crime
against humanity only);
strengthening the prosecution of gender based war crimes and trafficking by International
or regional war crime tribunals.
Realization of humanitarian aid and refugee businesses operating in war zones on trafficking
wants to be expanded. As a consequence, based on enough research guidelines and trainings have
to be developed on the right way to recognize, preclude and reply to trafficking, in targeted with
recognize to refugees and displaced men and women.
In the international safety policy making community, consciousness about the hindrance of
publish-conflict trafficking in human beings wants to be extended. For example, the drawback
must be prompted the agenda of the UN security Council with the aim to plan methods for
prevention and combating.112In addition, worldwide institutions worried in post-conflict
rebuilding will have to be alerted to human trafficking in submit-clash regions. Preventive antitrafficking measures situated on a womens human rights strategy and the inclusion of local as
good as global actors will have to be integrated into all put up-clash rebuilding programmes.
Instructional materials for the development of such measures will have to be developed. Antitrafficking training should be applied in all worldwide companies dealing with submit-conflict
rebuilding routine. Additionally, special programmes and guidelines have got to be developed on
learn how to enhance institutional capacities for dealing with trafficking in accordance with an
institutions distinctive mandate and tasks. So as to prevent navy associated trafficking in
submit-conflict areas, national and international laws and their software must be bolstered. All
civil and army actors in international PSOs must obtain mandatory anti-trafficking training and
be held responsible to international legislation.
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For trafficked and enslaved women for the duration of conflicts, publish-clash rehabilitation
programmes need to be developed and implemented. They must be run in co-operation with local
institutions and womens businesses and so they must address the womens personal, social,
monetary, authorized and political desires and interest s. Also, rehabilitation of trafficked women
for the period of conflict need to emerge as part of national and international publish-clash
rebuilding programmes and techniques.

Moreover, countrywide and worldwide legal

prosecution of trafficking and enslavement for the period of wars wants to be increased after the
wars. This is also an most important contribution to sufferer rehabilitation and to creating the
crimes and their influence on women and societies obvious.
A scientific evaluation of the efforts and experiences with combating trafficking through
international and national institutions in submit-clash international locations or areas would for
that reason be priceless. This could be completed through bringing specialists and practitioners
together, drawing from the more than a few trafficking associated policy areas,reminiscent of
womens human rights defense, victim assistance, crime prevention, legal justice,health, poverty
discount. Headquartered on the outcome, policy guidelines for integrating anti-trafficking
measures in publish-clash reconstruction programmes and a framework for the monitoring of
these measures could be drawn up.

Conclusion:
Trafficking of women in the course of and after wars is founded on identical explanations and
conditions that characterize trafficking more often than not. Nevertheless, armed conflicts motive
an amplification of those motives and conditions. Additionally they result in precise forms of
struggle-associated trafficking.

Trafficking in females is founded on gender-established

discrimination and violence that are exacerbated in the course of and after wars, frequently as a
part of deliberate military policies. Clash and publish-clash circumstances may just increase
exact war associated demand structures for womens sexual, economic and navy exploitation.
Therefore, trafficking in women may emerge as an main element for struggle economies and for
the fiscal profit of battle actors. Sexual and labour exploitation and abuse could also be a part of
military politics. Impunity of gender associated struggle crimes throughout and after wars
because of the struggle chaos and to the low prioritization of womens human rights defense are
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SOLD IN WAR: Women Trafficking and Armed Conflicts

trafficking enabling stipulations. Whilst, economical, social and political destruction, the loss of
livelihood sources and the individual experience of warfare trauma that result in a high
vulnerability of women to being exploited and trafficked during and after wars. Measures to
combat war-related trafficking of women must don't forget all of those special motives and
conditions and the exclusive actors concerned. Presently, debates on war-related trafficking in
women take position in a number of unique coverage contexts: human rights violations of
women; gender, struggle and peace; security and post-clash reconstruction; development
insurance policies; combating transnational crime. To ensure that war associated anti-trafficking
measures to be clever and strong, thereought to combine the perspectives and experiences in all
these areas whilst basically being guided via a womens human rights standpoint.

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