Women's Views on News |
- Human trafficking assessment released
- Shape policy on sexual exploitation
- An emotional response to Lovelace
| Human trafficking assessment released Posted: 11 Sep 2013 08:30 AM PDT
The United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC) has reviewed human trafficking figures in the United Kingdom (UK) and identified prevalent forms of exploitation suffered by victims in an assessment released last month. The UKHTC is a multi-agency organisation 'led' by the Serious Organised Crime Unit (SOCA). According to this assessment, in 2012 there were 2255 potential victims of human trafficking in the UK. These figures demonstrate a 9 per cent rise in human trafficking from the previous assessment period in 2011. Of these, 55 per cent of the victims, 1246 people, were female, and 40 per cent – 910 people – were male. The remaining 95 victims have been classified as ‘gender unknown’. Twenty-four per cent of the victims were children, defined by the UKHTC as individuals under 18, a cut-off age reflected in the United Nations protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons. Victims are referred to throughout the assessment as 'potential victims' to reflect that information on which the assessment is based is drawn from multi-agency sources and thus not empirically verified by the UKHTC. It is not a statement of presumed false testimony. The assessment was commissioned by the UK threat reduction board in the hopes that identifying exploitation figures and potential victims would facilitate greater understanding, cooperation and continued, vigorous, multi-agency support of those affected. Women are overwhelmingly the largest victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation; of those identified in the UK they comprise 98 per cent of the people in this category or 787 people. A quarter of these women, 204 people, said that they were trafficked to work in brothels. The UKHTC identifies that these individuals are problematic because of the presumption by some authorities that they may 'be voluntarily working in prostitution'. However, victims in brothels may have a higher likelihood than those forced into sexual exploitation in private households of coming in to contact with the police and thus reportage figures may indicate that these persons are more frequently recovered. The UKHTC suggests that the 9 per cent rise in the number of victims of sexual trafficking may partially be due to an increase in the specialist training of frontline staff detailing how to identify victims of human trafficking and to whom they can be referred for recovery and rehabilitation. Hence improved reporting. Training is disseminated by the UKHTC itself, the Metropolitan police special unit for human trafficking SC&09 and many frontline non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) - introduced in to the UK as part of its obligations under the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking, launched on 1 April 2009 - is a method of identifying victims, establishing appropriate organisational support networks for them and ensuring an initial period of funded rehabilitation. In practical terms agencies such as NGOs, police forces, local authorities and SOCA refer victims to the UKHTC or the UK Border Agency, in cases where human trafficking issues arise as part of an asylum request or status, and they review whether these potential victims have been trafficked. If they decide that they have, then support is offered or continued. Those who refer potential victims, in the first instance via completing a basic form, are known as first responders, while the UKHTC and the UKBA are known as ‘competent authorities’. The UKHTC has established working partnerships with many NGOs, who are official first responders, often because of their specialist work with victims of trafficking in each of the exploitative categories. Adult victims of human trafficking must identify themselves as victims and consent to receive support from the Salvation Army or other care providers in order to enter the National Referral Mechanism. Child victims are assisted by social services. As the UKHRC explains, many people do not identify themselves as victims, out of fear or denial, and so information on these individuals, and their human trafficking experience, is minimal. The recovery period granted by the NRM is 40 days after it is established that there are reasonable grounds to believe trafficking has occurred. Many NGOs report that this is an unrealistic time period and that victims may take as long as several years to recover from their experiences, resulting in these frequently underfunded organisations having to provide extensions independently in order to properly care for such victims. The UKHTC allows for extensions on the 40 day recovery period to be applied for, acknowledging that each victim’s response to severe trauma is distinctive, however critics argue that this is unrealistic in longer term situations. In spite of this, good working relationships have been established between agencies in order to promote the reduction of human trafficking and ensure that the barbaric personal stories of victims help people to take this issue seriously, and report instances where they have witnessed behaviour that seemed manipulating or coercive. Unequivocally acknowledging that human trafficking occurs for the purposes of sexual, labour, criminal and domestic exploitation is one benefit of the assessments use of statistics. Additionally, that women are the primary victims in of trafficking for sexual exploitation and domestic servitude while men are the majority victims in labour and criminal exploitation is an illustration of a gender divide in human trafficking that must be investigated and comprehended in order to establish fundamental societal change and eliminate human trafficking in all its forms.  |
| Shape policy on sexual exploitation Posted: 11 Sep 2013 04:02 AM PDT
The Scottish government wants to create a new licensing regime for venues that offer 'sexual entertainment' i.e. strip clubs and lap-dancing clubs. This includes a suggestion that communities should be consulted about these venues and that local authorities should be able to set a limit of zero venues in their area. Take action now; this is your chance to shape government policy on 'Sexual Entertainment Venues'. People need to respond and help shape the government's approach. The sex industry is bound to respond so we need to make sure they hear a wide range of views. There are just under three weeks until the Scottish government's consultation on 'Regulation of Sexual Entertainment Venues' closes; the deadline for submitting comments is 5pm on 24 September 2013. You can read the consultation here. You can respond both as individuals and on behalf of your organisations. Zero Tolerance is a charity working to tackle the causes of men's violence against women. Zero Tolerance's response is here and they are happy for supporters to copy and adapt bits of their response if they are useful. We would encourage you, in your response, to support enhanced regulation of sexual entertainment, which at the moment is not regulated in any meaningful way and to challenge the normalisation of sexual exploitation. We see a new regulatory regime as necessary and better than no change, but ultimately we want the government to work to end sexual exploitation. We do not consider lap-dancing and stripping 'adult entertainment': it is sexual exploitation, and we believe that most people do not want this sector to grow and be seen as a 'normal' part of the leisure industry. Let the Scottish government know how you feel about lap-dancing and strip clubs. Personal stories are very effective in influencing government decisions – so tell the government how lap-dancing and strip clubs make you feel, and how they affect the women and men you work with. Do they make you feel unsafe or uncomfortable? Do you avoid walking past them at night or during the day? Do you try to avoid your children seeing them? Do you think they are sexist and harmful to equality? Have you been excluded from a work night out as the 'boys' were going to a strip club? Have you passed on a stag night or a night out as you didn't want to be 'one of the guys' getting a lap-dance? Have you been to one of these venues; were you concerned by what you saw? Are the people you work with affected by the increasing presence of the sex industry in our towns and cities? If you live in a town where there are no strip clubs now, would you want a strip club in your local high street? If you have 10 minutes, send the Scottish government an email stating your support for regulation and also your wider concerns about this industry. If you have an hour, send a more detailed response to the questions in the consultation (you can use the Zero Tolerance response to shape your answers); and contact your MSP to let them know your views and ask if they will support new regulation and work to challenge sexual exploitation. If you have half a day, send in a response and also visit your MSP to let them know your views – writing, emailing or phoning are all useful but visiting your MSP in person, at their surgery, has the most impact on them. You don't need to answer all of the questions in the consultation paper and you can answer however you find easiest, in a letter or email – even just a paragraph counts. But you need to respond – before the closing date of 24 September 2013 - to: Walter Drummond-Murray, Criminal Law and Licensing Team, Scottish Government Area 2W, St Andrews House, Regent Road, Edinburgh EH1 3DG Or send an email to this address. You should also indicate whether you're responding as a private individual or an organisation. There is more information about how to respond on page 14 of the consultation document that you may wish to read if you want to respond anonymously. Please share this information with your friends, colleagues and family, and through Facebook and Twitter, and encourage them to respond.  |
| An emotional response to Lovelace Posted: 11 Sep 2013 01:09 AM PDT
When was the last time you cried in a movie theatre? The last time you were so moved by a film you needed everyone else to leave before ungluing yourself from the seat and attempting to process what you've experienced? Or the last time you saw something that made you feel that if enough people saw it, the world could be changed for the better? None of these things happen to me too often, but this while watching Lovelace (2013), I experienced all three. I've been following the release of this film with some interest. As a dedicated feminist with a fiercely anti-porn stance, I was certainly not expecting anything particularly groundbreaking when I saw the movie posters plastered on the walls of my local underground station. Showing an objectified Amanda Seyfried in a lacy bra with wide eyes and an innocent pout, I very quickly assumed this would be a film for me to try and forget existed (much like the endless Fast and Furious rehashes). And then I heard that Gloria Steinem and Catherine Mackinnon were involved. For those who hadn't heard, they were both consultants on the film, in their roles as caretakers of Linda Boreman Marchiano's estate. (This excellent article by Catherine Mackinnon explains a bit more about their involvement and is well worth reading.) Dreadful acts of abuse feature all too regularly on our screens. Even on television it has become increasingly common to see ever more graphic gore and sadistic violence. As Lovelace has an 18 certificate (equivalent to R in the US) and being superficially familiar with the story beforehand, I had braced myself for a barrage of scarring images, expertly shot and edited and due to reappear in my nightmares for weeks to come. This is one of the quandaries that I have wondered about as a screenwriter – how to depict scenes of distressing acts without compromising your viewer, or making them complicit with the abuse, or, in fact, abusing them as well. However, it may be that by their sensitive and elegant handling, the filmmakers of Lovelace have actually revolutionised an area of storytelling that has prevented some of the most shocking and distressing yet crucially important films from either being made or from being seen. The film intelligently portrays a great deal of what Linda Boreman Marchiano experienced and yet does not subject the audience to the horror. Not only does this make it a safer viewing experience, it also puts the audience's emotional identification with the protagonist first. Linda remains a whole character throughout rather than becoming a body upon which hideous acts are carried out. We do not shift into passive voyeur or spectator, as traumatising scenes in The Accused, Monster, Straw Dogs, Irreversible, or any number of other films depicting domestic and sexual violence force the audience to do. One of the defending arguments the director Michael Winterbottom employed when graphically depicting the violent beating of both female characters in his film, The Killer Inside Me was that: "It was intentionally shocking. The whole point of the story is, here is someone who is supposed to be in love with two women who he beats to death, and of course the violence should be shocking. If you make a film where the violence is entertaining, I think that’s very questionable." What Lovelace opens up is the possibility that it is not actually necessary to show violence – shocking, entertaining or otherwise, in order to interrogate these issues on film. For people affected by domestic or sexual abuse and violence, either personally or otherwise, films about these subjects are of huge interest. The matters are of enormous concern, and knowing the power of the media, it is only natural that these same people would wish to watch any major productions tackling these issues. And yet, viewing violence onscreen has the potential to trigger traumatic responses, so this same audience frequently stays away from this material and is thereby excluded from the conversations (as if they need to be silenced any more than they are already!) As I attempt to process the devastating story of Linda Boreman Marchiano, only a fraction of which is actually covered in the film Lovelace (her activism and later years are not depicted), I am struck by the excellent performances, my enduring loathing for uber-pimp Hugh Hefner, and the exceptional influence of two feminist icons on the making of this important film. What kept me sobbing in my seat throughout the credits and for some time in the lobby after the film, however, was the knowledge that this is not a one-off case, nor was it the worst case scenario. Porn has grown in both financial terms and in the levels of violence and degradation performers endure. What Linda experienced was horrifying. It continues, on an industrialised scale, and yet we are so very far from ensuring the safety of those who are exploited by it. Linda Boreman Marchiano's mission was to raise awareness around domestic violence and the realities of the porn industry so that people who are being abused can reach safety. As part of realising her legacy, I urge you to watch this film and take a sceptical friend: they may just start to think differently after seeing it … Lovelace was released in the UK on 23 August 2013. Gabriella Apicella is a feminist writer and tutor living in London. She has a degree in Film and Media from Birkbeck College, University of London, is on the board of Script Development organisation Euroscript, and in 2010 co-founded the UnderWire Festival that aims to recognise the raw filmmaking talent of women. Her writing features women in the central roles, and she has been commissioned to write short films, experimental theatre and prose for independent directors and artists.  |
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