Presentation made at an internal workshop on gender mainstreaming

1. Gender aspects of human trafficking
By Yoshiko Ogawa
27 June 2014
GENDER AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING

2. WHAT IS GENDER?
 Gender: socially constructed differences
between men and women
 Sex: biological differences between men and
women
What is ‘being a man’ and what is ‘being a
woman’?

3. WHAT IS GENDER?
 It is about HOW WE SEE OURSELVES

4. WHAT IS GENDER?
 Differences in
 Behaviours/attitudes/attributes
 Roles
 Opportunities
 Constraints
 Values
 Relationships
between women and men, between women, between
boys and girls…

5. WHAT IS GENDER?
 ‘Socially constructed’- what does it mean?
 Learned through socialization processes
 Context and time specific
 Changeable

6. WHAT IS GENDER?
 Gender determines what is expected,
allowed and valued in a women or a man in a
given context.

7. WHAT IS GENDER EQUALITY?
 The equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of
women and men and girls and boys.
 Equality does not mean that women and men will become
the same but that women’s and men’s rights,
responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on
whether they are born male or female.
 Gender equality implies that the interests, needs and
priorities of both women and men are taken into
consideration, recognizing the diversity of different groups
of women and men.
 Equality between women and men is seen both as a
human rights issue and as a precondition for, and
indicator of, sustainable people-centered development.
 http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/conceptsandefinitions.htm

8. GENDER IN VIETNAM AT A GLANCE
 Women’s participation in labour market: high
 88.9 compared to 79.3 of developing countries in
East Asia & Pacific, 48.8 of lower middle income
countries and 68.3 in Japan (2012 WB)
 High literacy rates both men (96.6%, 2012) and
women (92.9%, 2012)
 Political participation (women in parliament)
stands at 24%; it is only 8% in Japan!
 The World Gender Gap Report ranks Vietnam
73 and Japan 105 (World Economic Forum
2013)

9. BUT…

10. AND…
 Sex ratio
Country At birth Total population
World 107 101
China 111 106
Japan 106 95
Vietnam 112 100
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2018.html

11. GENDER AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING
 What is human trafficking?
 Illegal migration, is it the same as trafficking,
or different from it?

12. CASE 1
 Thai women agreed to migrate to work at a
bar, knowing to be involved in sex work.
 But the work conditions were worse than
expected. The bar owner did not listen to her
and threatened her.
Is this human trafficking?

13. CASE 2
 Cambodian men were transported across
border with a promise of good salary, but
they were forced to work in a fishing boat,
day and night, without salary until they pay
off their debts.
Is this human trafficking?

14. CASE 3
 A 17-year-old boy from Dien Bien was
offered a job in HCMC. He was confined in a
family factory with 10 other boys and not
allowed to go out, contact his family. He was
paid but very little.
Is this human trafficking?

15. HUMAN TRAFFICKING
 Anti-TIP Law
 Transfer, receipt, recruitment, transportation,
harboring persons for sexual exploitation, forced
labor, removal of organs, or for other inhuman
purposes (Art. 3-2 &3)
 Penal Code 119 (Trafficking in Women)
 Trading women for the purpose of prostitution; organized,
professional, sending overseas, more than one victims,
more than once -> 5 -20 years of imprisonment vs. 2-7
 Protocol to Prevent Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and
Children
 Action, Means, Purpose

16. GENDER AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING
① The majority of victims of human trafficking in
Vietnam are women – why?
② Many people think that there are no male victims of
trafficking – why?
③ Many women are trafficked to become a bride in
China – why?
④ Many children, especially boys are kidnapped –
why?
⑤ Women who was sexually exploited do not want to
talk about their experience, do not want to even
report – why?
⑥ Boys who were trafficked and sexually exploited
often do not go back home – why?

17. DIFFERENT VULNERABILITY AT DIFFERENT
STAGES
 Why trafficked? What are the causes?
Women, men, girls and boys
 In a trafficking situation, what difficulties they
face?
Women, men, girls and boys
 After returning Vietnam/home, is it easy for
them to re-integrate into their community?
What support services are available?
Women, men, girls and boys

18. CONCLUSION
 We live in our society conditioned by own
perception of ‘gender’ roles and relationships.
 ‘Gender’ influences all aspects of our lives,
including root causes of human trafficking
together with other factors such as poverty, war,
ethnicity, etc.
 Measures for prevention of HT, and protection of
and service provision to victims need to
consider different needs of men, women, boys
and girls, and different intervention outcomes.

19. Thank you for your attention and thank you for
your cooperation in implementation of the project.
We highly appreciate it and look forward to further
collaboration to advance our counter-trafficking
work and contribute to building a better society.