Less talk, more action for GBV
CARIBBEAN youth policy expert Tameka Hill has made an appeal for people to start acting, instead of simply meeting and nodding to discuss issues related to gender-based violence.
The appeal comes as part of the global initiative, Orange the World, End Violence Against Women and Girls, led by UN Women on behalf of the UN Secretary General’s global campaign UNITE to End Violence against Women.
“Do not be silenced by people telling you to shut up. Gender advocates, nurses, everybody needs to speak up about it. What happens after the speech? What will you do in your community? What will you do to protect yourself and your children? We need to start acting, not simply meeting or nodding, but acting,” Hill said as she addressed a public forum on gender-based violence at the UWI School of Nursing recently.
The forum was the brainchild of Cynthia Pitter, lecturer in the UWI School of Nursing and doctoral student at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, UWI.
Hill, who is also a youth advocate for human trafficking, said globally, 55 per cent of women are trafficked, which equals approximately 11.4 million women.
She said despite the data that highlights human trafficking as a gender issue, people still regard human trafficking as a non-issue.
“Is it because women have been relegated in our society to the informal labour market?” she asked. “So we serve the domestic and sexual needs so that persons turn a blind eye to human trafficking because you’re doing your duties anyway?”
Hill added: “Many persons believe that human trafficking is a non-issue and after being appointed as youth ambassador for human trafficking and going in with a proposal for how we can fight it, a particular officer said it is not even a problem. So how is it that we’re looking at it as a problem when so many officials consider it a non-issue?”
She stated that the objective for human trafficking is mostly for sexual exploitation, forced labour, servitude, slavery, and the removal of organs, and pointed out that it is the second fastest growing crime in the world, trekking closely behind the illegal drugs trade.
But who are the perpetrators? Hill explained that usually young men between 30 – 39 years old with a tertiary degree account for 75 per cent of persons who are traffickers — they classify themselves as businessmen and 54 per cent of them are club owners.
It is believed that many trafficking victims come from backgrounds which make them reluctant to report cases to authority.
“They are usually very afraid or sceptical about authority figures or the police. They are usually vulnerable groups, marginalised ethnic groups, undocumented immigrants, the indigenous, the poor and persons with disabilities,” she explained.
In Jamaica, the areas at risk would be poverty-stricken garrison areas and territories ruled by dons where the government has little control and which the police hardly visit.
Importantly, she said a common area of trafficking exists in massage parlours where women are offered employment as masseuses and are expected to give sexual favours, their wages are withheld, and their movement is limited.
She also mentioned that many missing children, mostly girls, are often victims of trafficking.
She said one way to solve the crime is with help of civil society, and in order to end gender- based violence, which human trafficking falls under, people in the society need to make their voices heard instead of constantly holding conferences and not implementing the strategies put forward.
