Heather Little-White, Ph.D., Contributor 
Bob Marley left with us the words "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery" with very clear instructions that "none but ourselves can free our minds". The words are liberating enough and as we free our minds so must we free ourselves and our sisters from any other form of limitation. Sex is talked about more today than ever before. It comes in all forms, done to all kinds of people, in all kinds of places and for various reasons.
As pervasive as sex is today, several of the sexually-related activities have placed some persons in some form of sexual slavery. It may not be as gruelling as it was in the Middle Passage, but it entails actions taken against a person's will. Sexual slavery, defined by the 1992 Slavery Convention, is the "Status or condition of a person over whom all the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised, including access through rape or other forms of sexual violence." The definition of sexual enslavement includes the trafficking of women and children.
HOUSEHOLD ABUSE
Marriage is a legal way for a man to own a woman and children. To show ownership, power is usually exerted to the extent that some men devalue women and girls. At the household level, a woman who is sexually exploited and cannot get out of it is a sexual slave. She may be a victim of abuse by a partner or relative who wants her to engage in forced prostitution or pornography by a pimp, trafficker or other 'owner'. In all cases, the woman or teenager is trapped with no way out.
There is an urgent need to emancipate our young girls and women from modern-day sexual slavery or human trafficking, an activity affecting two million women and children worldwide. According to the DePaul University's International Human Rights Law Institute, 80 per cent of persons sold into sexual slavery are under age 24 and some may even be as young as age six. It is estimated that over 30,000 die each year from abuse, torture, neglect and disease.
REMOVAL OF ORGANS
'Trafficking in persons' shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of adduction, of the abuse of power to having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation, forced labour, slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. (Article 3 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children).
Trafficking in women and children is fuelled by the misery of poverty in which women and children live, as well as political conflicts in different parts of the world. Globalisation has helped to intensify the problem as all market opportunities are created for traffickers in human being and their exploiters. Liberalised borders and ease of movement of people across them have made international trafficking of human beings a lucrative criminal activity.
LUCRATIVE JOBS
Out of desperation to improve their lives, young women are lured to lucrative jobs as housekeepers, nannies and waitresses in prosperous western and Asian countries. They are given necessary assistance to secure travel documents and visas for safe entry to the intended country of work. However, when the women arrive in the countries they are taken hostage, beaten, raped (often gang raped) and resold from one brothel to the next. Escape is difficult and wages are withheld until they pay off the purchase price incurred by the persons who bought them.
Describing her ordeal, one young woman said that she was locked in a small room for eight weeks. "They took my passport and I never saw outside; they only come and give me food. They speak foreign language and several men come and demand sex in all forms and even when you give them, they beat you like a child. Everything was videotaped. I never knew I could survive. I got the flu and became weak and that's how they let me out with US$50.
HIV/AIDS
Girls and young women live with a fear of contracting HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections because they are forced to have sex without a condom. Should they get pregnant, they are forced to have an abortion so that they can continue sex work.
Another method used to recruit young women and teenagers is kidnapping. When teens and young women "look sexually appealing" on the streets, it is easy to grab them and stuff them in the back of a car and take them to organised crime gangs who sell them to brothel owners or pimps.
AWARENESS PROGRAMMES
What can be done to emancipate young women and girls from the sexual ordeal they face? At the national level, the Ministry of Justice should promote the awareness of trafficking in human beings, train law enforcement officers, establish and straighten anti-tracking elements and strengthen victim and witness support. The United Nations Global Programme against Trafficking in Human Beings assists member states in efforts to combat trafficking of human beings. It promotes the development of effective criminal justice-related responses to the involvement of criminal groups in human trafficking.
In some countries, shelters are provided for victims of spousal abuse and laws result in the removal of sexually abusive fathers from homes, rather than removing the child or children. Other countries have laws than ban pimping. Agencies like the Human Rights Watch should encourage advocacy for laws in countries worldwide to help women and implement tools like the United Nations Convention Against the Exploitation and the Prostitution of Others. Emancipation from sexual slavery requires the help of all persons to preserve the dignity of our women and children.
