International Human Rights Day address: let's stop worldwide trafficking in women (01/10/99)

International Human Rights Day address: let's stop worldwide trafficking in women

Following is the text of remarks delivered at the 50th anniversary observance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1998, at the University of Pennsylvania by Ulana Baluch Mazurkevich, chairperson of the Ukrainian Human Rights Committee and former public member of the U.S. Congressional Commission on the Ukraine Famine.

The ringing words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were the worldwide response to the evil of Nazism. "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." The words of the Universal Declaration were the guiding light for many human rights activists and human rights organizations - among them the Ukrainian Human Rights Committee which for over the past 20 years fought the suppression of Ukrainian language, culture and religion by Soviet authorities.

In working with former political prisoners, we were told that the holiest of holy days in the vast gulag of Soviet prisons was not Christmas, not Easter nor Yom Kippur. It was December 10, the day celebrated internationally as Human Rights Day. Outside the walls of the concentration camps courageous human rights activists from Moscow to Miensk to Kyiv would organize observances of this anniversary. Here in Philadelphia we united in solidarity with them and annually commemorated this great day.

In Ukraine, Soviet authorities tried to pit Ukrainians against Jews and vice versa. Guided by the words of the Universal Declaration, we worked together in a spirit of brotherhood. Together we raised our banners high: "Release Ukrainian Political Prisoners," "Release Soviet Jews," "Freedom for Rudenko," "Freedom for Sharansky."

Denial of basic human rights took a horrific turn in Ukraine 65 years ago with the murder of 7 million. In 1932-1933, 7 million Ukrainians were forcibly starved to death in a policy of total economic and political control engineered by Stalin.

In order to crush all vestiges of Ukrainian national sentiment, Ukrainian leaders were shipped to the gulag. For the rest of the populace, Stalin had a different plan. An artificial famine was directed at an area known as the "breadbasket of Europe." Soviet authorities scoured the countryside, removing all foodstuffs, every kernel and every grain; even bread baking in the oven was confiscated.

How could 7 million deaths be concealed? Simple: close the borders of Ukraine, isolate Ukraine, contain the famine and deny, deny, deny that millions were starving in an area that was exporting wheat to Europe.

In 1986 Congress mandated a congressional commission to investigate the artificial famine, collect eyewitness testimony and bring out the full scope and tragedy of this horror.

One of the most insidious and blatant violations of human rights is taking place at this very moment. It is the slave trade of women and girls. This is a global problem. Trafficking of women and girls has become one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises in the world. An estimated 1 million to 2 million women are trafficked annually. Trafficked women come from almost all corners of the world. They come from Ghana, Nigeria and Morocco. They come from Brazil and Columbia. In the Caribbean they come from the Dominican Republic. In Southeast Asia they come from the Philippines and Thailand.

The flow is towards industrialized countries and involves, to a greater or lesser extent, all European countries.

Traffickers operate boldly across international borders. They lure their victims with promises of fantastic salaries and in most cases respectable jobs such as: night club entertainers, nannies, dancers, waitresses, sales clerks and models. This international organized crime generates high profits with relatively low risks. Trafficking, the actual sale, of Thai women to Japan, Germany and Taiwan generates close to $3 billion. In Japan alone, Thai women and girls working as prostitutes bring in as much as $4.7 billion.

One of the most lucrative sex trade markets and a new source of women for slave traffic is Central Europe and the new independent states of the former Soviet Union. Let me for a minute focus on Ukraine. With the break-up of the Soviet Union, Ukraine was peacefully transformed from a communist state into a true democracy. However, democracy does not spell economic success, and unfortunately a large segment of the population is caught in an economic nightmare. This situation brings out despair in many young women, who in many cases are highly educated, yet 80 percent of them cannot find work. These young women face stark reality: no jobs, no money. They turn to agencies that propose lucrative jobs. Unfortunately, many of the advertisements are from bogus agencies that act as fronts for syndicates trafficking women.

When the women arrive at their destination, they face the horror of their decision. They find themselves virtual prisoners with no resources, little recourse and no protection against violations of their most basic human rights.

Take the case of Irina: she responded to an ad in a small Ukrainian newspaper to be a dancer in Israel. She arrived in Israel thinking that she would work for one or two years, save the money and return home. One morning her boss at the nightclub where she worked drove her to a brothel, burned her passport before her eyes and told her in no uncertain terms that she was his property.

Another case involved a German citizen who recruited his victims by placing ads for babysitters. One of the victims was a 16 year-old who stated that her passport was confiscated, she was raped, beaten and taken to Hamburg. There she was placed in a brothel and forced to have sex with 10 clients per day. Police suspect that this man was responsible for trafficking up to 500 women into Germany - all under false pretenses.

The global community is responding to this violence against women. The United States and the European Union formally launched a joint information campaign to combat the trafficking of women. The United States is helping Ukraine in an information campaign targeting potential victims. The European Union is sponsoring a similar information campaign in Poland, since this country also is a source and transit venue for trafficking of women. The U.S.-European partnership provides information to local border and consular officials to help them recognize and deter slave traffic of women.

Today, on this anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, let us commit ourselves to join the battle against this insidious assault on women's dignity. The declaration created an ideal - an ideal that requires daily vigilance and courage.

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