Реферат: Детская проституция
focus in the newagendas was on the depraved 'foreigner' who preyed on the innocence of childrenin developing countries.; As one media commentator summarized, «The childprostitute has become a potent symbol of touristic excess: the ultimate commodificationof humanity in its most vulnerable and innocent form» (Black, 1995: 13)
Local demand
As campaigns to prevent child prostitution and exploitation matured,several agencies, including ECPAT began to recognize that not all problemscould be attributed to debauched outside influences. In Olongapo City in thePhilippines much of the market for very young prostitutes had been connected toUS servicemen, but further research concluded that 50% of customers of theestimated 1000 child prostitutes were locals. Research into the Thai sexindustry estimated that Western tourists mainly patronized women above age 18and that 90% of the demand for 'underage girls' came from locals. NGOs began todevelop more sophisticated analyses of what had previous been considered apedophile problem. The lives of street children emerged as a theme especiallyin Latin American countries such as Brazil where estimates climbed into100,000s for the number of children living on the streets or insecure homes.Local demand for young sexual partners of either gender was viewed as theproblem for these youngsters rather than necessarily the demands of foreigntourists. Other forms of societal violence and the actions of corruptofficials, the military and the police were also listed as problems by NGOs andjournalists. The abduction and murder of street kids in Guatemala, Colombia andBrazil were cited in the media as key examples of what was to become aninternational scandal. One study into the lives of 143 street children inGuatemala City carried out by Casa Alianza found that commercial sex was areality for almost all of these young people as a form of survival (Harris1996). The consequences of life on the street and sexual activity with numerouspartners were severe-100 percent of the children reported being sexual abusedand 93 percent had previously contracted sexually transmitted diseasesincluding genital herpes, gonorrhea, and scabies. All of the children reporteddrug use featuring the sniffing of glue and solvents as the drug of choice.
Trafficking in children
Most recently I believe that the hot topic for NGO intervention,media focus and international action lias shifted away from the actions ofpedophiles and child prostitution per se to the notion of'trafficking inchildren'. This trend is best represented by the 1997 name change of ECPAT fromEnd Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism to End Child Prostitution,
ChildPornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes, Trafficking inpersons is an ill-defined concept at best but may be considered the brokeredmovement of persons across state lines or borders (refer to GAATW definition).However, most of the documents and studies that consider the problem of'sexualtrafficking in children' define this very broadly to encompass thetransportation of children from one place to another. This means that verydiverse examples are bundled together under one label obscuring fundamentallydifferent legal concerns. Instances where young Brazilian women are taken toremote villages in the Amazonian mining districts to 'work' in canteens andbars and provide sexual services for local laborers raise different legal,health and human rights concerns than the cases of young Burmese women andgirls who are sold by their parents to work in Thai brothels (see Beyer, 1996and Human Rights Watch, 1993 for case examples)
Recently attention has focused on the fate of young women from Nepalwho are tricked into travelling to Indian with the promise of'legitimate'employment. ECPAT has estimated that 200,000 Nepalese women under 16 years ofage are to be found in Indian brothels and of these approximately 40,000 arehired against their will. ECPAT contends that entire villages are involved inthe trade. Young women are abducted or persuaded to go with brokers by theirparents, husbands, relatives and friends. A broker makes approximately $800USwhen he sells the women to a brothel, an amount that is more than three timesthe average yearly income in Nepal. The young women work until the brothel ownershave recouped the outlay wages and it may takes three years to pay back thedebt. If the brothel owner provides food, health case or clothing they expectremuneration. According to a 1995 Asia Watch Report about half of Bombay's100,000 girl prostitutes are Nepalese girls who are routinely raped, beaten,exposed to HIV/ATDS and kept in brothels against their will as virtual 'sexslaves'. ECPAT also contends that the demand for virgin girls is increasing andthe age of girls being trafficked to India is decreasing. The average age inthe last decade is said to have fallen from 14-16 years to the present 10-14years.
Looking at the problem from different perspectives
I have used this brief history of recent ways of speaking about andcontextualizing child prostitution and sexual trafficking in children as a wayof introducing the debates and some regional concerns including the concept oftrafficking. However, some of the reports I have quoted and the figures I havepresented are for me problematic and may obscure more than they reveal. Termssuch as 'sexual slavery' and 'child prostitution' may initially appear todescribe the lives of some of the young women and men I have mentioned) but acloser examination reveals that many of the subjects in the reports do notconsider themselves child prostitutes. Several times when researching for thisseminar I read that «It is estimated that 1 million children are sold intoprostitution around the world' but at no point was I ever fully informed howthis figure was calculated.
In order to elucidate my point I would like to share with my ownresearch experience in Australia and to draw on some other examples fromresearch in Peru and Thailand. Before I proceed let me assure you it is not myintention to somehow dismiss abuses to which children and young people aresubjected. It is my intention, however, to promote accuracy in reporting andresearch and to encourage everyone when writing articles about 'child sex' toquestion right from the start, how is it that we know what we supposedly knowto be a fact. I have photocopied some publications and made a shortbibliography for follow up about some of the issues I will discuss here.
a. Child prostitution?
In 1995 and 19961 oversaw a research project in Adelaide, SouthAustralia. At that time I was directing a division at the AIDS Council of SouthAustralia which included a sex worker health and rights program. Our researchproject focused on young homeless people in South Australia with an aim tofinding out about the kinds of sexual health risks they faced and how we mightimprove our HIV prevention work with this group. Many other youth healthagencies in South Australia were very concerned that young homeless people werebeing abused by pedophiles, sellingsex to survive on the streets and,as the local newspaper put it that there was a 'child prostitution ring'operating in inner city Adelaide.
We decided to put aside rumor and anecdotal information andinvestigate the nature and extent of the problem. Rea Tschirren, a projectofficer at the AIDS Council, interviewed 106 young homeless people using asurvey which guaranteed their confidentiality and provided them with a way ofindicating whether or not they had had sex for favors which includedaccommodation, food, clothing, safety, drugs or transport. We deliberately didnot refer to this as 'prostitution' in our survey because we felt that thiswould be prejudging the data. We wanted to let the young people describethemselves and to reveal what their needs were rather than imposing our ownvalues and judgements about their behavior. Our research revealed that onethird of the young people interviewed had engaged in sex for favors and another10 percent said that they would consider doing so in the future. The young peoplewho had engaged in sex for favors exhibited some specific health problemsrelating to drugs and alcohol and depression. Attempts at suicide were commonfor all the young people interviewed, but young people who had engaged in sexfor favors were twice as likely to have attempted suicide than those who hadnot engage in this behavior.
An important elements that emerged from our research was that youngpeople who engaged in sex for favors rarely defined themselves as 'prostitutes'or linked their activities to work in the sex industry per se. The termprostitution, for all but one person interviewed, was not a way a describingtheir reality. Rea and I published about this in the National AIDS Bulletin inAustralia where we subtitled our article „Prostitution is something otherkids do.“ Heather Montgomery in her case study of a small village next toa tourist resort in Thailand had a similar research experience (see Montgomery,1998). She discovered that the children and young people who engaged in what couldbe termed 'prostitution' with tourists as a way of supporting their families,considered it a deep insult to be called a 'child prostitute.' They would referto their activities in other ways including 'going out for fan withforeigners', 'catching a foreigner' or even 'having guests.'
If young people are uncomfortable with the term 'child prostitution'and are therefore likely to avoid speaking to service providers if this term isused, then its usefulness in NGO program work should be questioned. Clearlymany of the young people interviewed in our study required assistance fromservice providers, especially in relation to attempts at self-harm and suicide,It was not conducive to our work to use terms which further alienated youngpeople and made them reluctant to seek help. Our term 'sex for favors' has beenaccepted by service providers in South Australia as a neutral andnon-judgmental way of speaking about the sensitive issues associated with youngpeople having sex with adults for some kind of gain. ECPAT Australia has alsorecently acknowledged the term 'sex for favors' as a way of describing theexperiences of some young people (ECPAT 1997),
Sexual exploration and sexual identity
The second point that emerged from our research in Adelaide was thatthe exchanges of sex for favors may sometimes associated with young people'ssearch for sexual identity. In a few instances indications were that some youngmen exchanged sex for favors with other men not only as a survival tactic butalso as a way of exploring bisexuality and homosexuality. Carlos Caceresresearch in Lima, Peru explores the nuances of young men's sexual negotiationswith older men in greater detail. Some young men who identify as 'fletes'(young men in this study who were 16 to 19 years old and who went to areas thatwe might call 'beats' to have sex with other men for money or some other kindof remuneration) strongly identify as heterosexual and deny that they aresexually interested in their clients or homosexuality. Other young men in thisstudy acknowledged that they might be bisexual or even part of the gaycommunity in Peru (Caceres ana Jimenez, forthcoming}. In both of theseinstances in Australia and in Peru to employ the term 'child prostitute' or todeny that some element of exploration exists in some instances wouldmisrepresent the experiences of these young people. At times it is necessary tolook past the framework of prostitution or pedophilia and focus on the wordsand experiences of children and young people without making immediate valuejudgements,
c. Age matters
The final point, which may be relevant from our research experiencein Adelaide, is that age matters. It is crucial to specify the age groups withwhich one is working or to which one refers in research and the media, Weinterviewed young people aged 12 to 23 years old and it was clear that theexperience of life on the street was significantly different for very younginterviewees. For example, some very young people interviewed had not had sexyet but knew about opportunities to exchange sex for favors and considered itsomething that they might do in the future. Clearly the health and educationneeds of these young people differ from older teenagers who are alreadyinvolved in sex for favors. Initially this subtlety was one of the mostdifficult to convey to the media when I spoke to journalists about our researchand findings. The desire to provide simple summaries for maximum 'readerimpact' is strong, but it is essential to be clear about the ages of the 'children'involved in studies or who are served by NGO programs.
Our research findings have been confirmed by other studies. TheInternational Labor Organization (ILO) has been at the forefront of researchinto child and youth involvement in sex work. The 1996 report „In theTwilight Zone“ concluded from four country studies that most „childprostitutes“ are in fact better described as youth or young people. Thereport which focuses on child and youth workers in the hotel, tourism and cateringindustries in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Mexico found no individualwho sold sex on a regular basis was younger than 15 nor had any intervieweebegun this work younger than 14 years old. Once again I hasten to add that thisdoes not mean that abuse of very young or prepubescent children never occurs.All too sadly it does. However, I am in agreement with the ILO that cases whichinvolve very young children or clearly involve physical and sexual abuse aremore accurately described as „commercialized child sexual abuse“rather than prostitution, sex work or 'sex for favors'. In summary, I suggestthat reporting about the lives of children, and young people use terms whichaccurately and sensitively describe their lives or even reflect what they mightsay about themselves,
4. Concluding comments
The issues surrounding the commercialization of child sexual abuse,sex for favors, young people who work in the sex industry and the forcedtrafficking in children and youth across state and national lines present uswith a plethora of health and legal concerns. We may wish to discuss strategieswhich can help all these categories of children and youth including thedifferent needs of boys and girls, homeless youth as opposed to young peoplewho still live at home, and very young children as opposed to youngреэр1е over 15 or 16 years. One successful strategy in myexperience has been bringing together youth workers and agencies with diverseperspectives.
Bibliography
»A Modern Form ofSlaverу: Trafficking of Burmese Women and Girls into Brothels m Thailand."AsiaWatch, HRW, 1993.
Beyer, D, 1996, «Childprostitution in Latin America.»In Forced Labor: The Prostitution ofChildren, Papers from a symposium co-sponsored by US Department of Labor,Bureau of Labor Affairs, the Women's Bureau, and the US Dept of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Sept 29,1995, DC. Black, M, 1995,In the Twilight Zone: Child Workers in the Hotel,Tourism and Catering Industry, Geneva, ILO
Caceres,C. and Jiminez, 0., «The Flete experience in Parque Kennedy: Sexualcultures among young men who sell sex to other men in Lima,» (chapter tobe published in Aggleton, P,Men Who Sell Sex — International Perspectiveson Male Prostitution and AIDS. London: UCL Press).
ECPAT-Australia,1997,Youth For Sale, ECPAT-Ausiralia.
Harris, B, «Allthey have left to sell is themselves: Sexual Exploitation of ChildrenIncreasing Worldwide,» 20 August 1996 (Internet news article).
Interpol, 1996,«The International Law Enforcement Response Against Child SexualExploitation.» InForced Labor: The Prostitution of Children,Papers from a symposium co-sponsored by US Department of Labor, Bureau of LaborAffairs, the Women's Bureau, and the US Depi of State, Bureau of Democracy,Human Rights and Labor, September 29, 1995, DC.
Montgomery, H, 1988,«Children, prostitution and identity: A case study from a tourist resortin Thailand.» InGlobal Sex Workers edited by K. Kempadoo and J.Doczema, Routledge, New York: 139-150.
Resources, documents and follow-up information
Aggleton,P.J.Men Who Sell Sex — International Perspectives on Male Prostitution andAIDS. London: UCL Press. (Simultaneously Philadelphia: Temple UniversityPress).
«AModem Form of Slavery: Trafficking of Burmese Women and Girls into Brothels inThailand,»Asia Watch, HRW. 1993.
Black,M, In the Twighlight Zone: Child Workers in the Hotel, Tourism and CateringIndustries, Geneva, ILO. 1996.
ConceptualClarity on Trafficking. Proceedings of the workshoporganised by the