// Our local material //

Ex Oriente Lux: F.A.Q. (HTML)
Few years ago, this was problably the first FAQ on this subject ever made! So we haven't ever seen another on the web. Still it's not too dusty. Your questions are welcome to add new topics to it.

Ex Oriente Lux: Podem (HTML)
A chapter on our website describing the situation in Podem, a bulgarian home for minor ex-prostitutes.


// The Research and Activism Center //

HumanTrafficking.com (HTML)
If you look for text, information and reports on trafficking in women for the purpose of (sexual) slavery, visit first The Research and Activism Center here. We can really recommend it, because it's very well structured and includes a lot of material.


// General introductions and studies of the subject //

The Face of Human Trafficking (194 kb / PDF)
Essay by Aiko Joshi (President of the Board of Captive Daughters, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing awareness of sex and labor trafficking and exploitation of children and youth) describing the problems from a global and international point of view (Hastings Women's Law Journal, 2002).

A Form of Slavery: Trafficking in Women in OSCE Member States I/III ( 71 kb / PDF)
A Form of Slavery: Trafficking in Women in OSCE Member States II/III ( 51 kb / PDF)
A Form of Slavery: Trafficking in Women in OSCE Member States III/III ( 600 kb / PDF)
Report to the OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting On Trafficking in Human Beings (Vienna, 19 June 2000), initiated by the "International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights" (IHF). The IHF project gathers data on the basis of a questionnaire that includes, but is not limited to, trafficking in women. The original questions in the questionnaire were broadened to enable us to present comprehensive information. Although the answers are based on the same questionnaire, some country responses are longer than others. This reflects the fact that information is more easily accessible in certain countries than others and highlights the need for more research in this field.

Globalized, Wired, Sex Trafficking In Women And Children (HTML)
Essay by Vanessa von Struensee JD, MPH (Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law) and a general observation about prostitution, sex oriented businesses and the slavery of erotic business.


// Geopolitical perspectives //

IOM: Trafficking in unaccompanied minors (I) (403 kb / PDF)
IOM: Trafficking in unaccompanied minors (II) (318 kb / PDF)
An extended study on trafficking in minors and on sexual exploitation in Europe, regarding the situation in Belgium, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands (2000/2001).

IOM: Trafficking in women & children from Armenia: a study (521 kb / PDF)
"...the first study on the subject in Armenia, will give insight into the nature and incidence of trafficking from Armenia and provide a sound basis for policy, legislative and programme intervention by the government, civil society and the international community to address the issue." (2001).

IOM: Trafficking in women to Austria for sexual exploitation (464 kb / PDF)
A study about the situation in Austria. "The Austrian case is particularly interesting because last year the authorities established an interministerial group to propose measures to combat trafficking in women. Furthermore, Austrian law makes a distinction between two aspects of trafficking in women which are often confused; the act of bringing a foreign woman to Austria for prostitution irrespective of whether she has been deceived, and the act of sexually exploiting women in Austria" (1996).

IOM: Shattered Dreams - Report on trafficking in persons in Azerbaijan (803 kb / PDF)
"This report covers research on trafficking in persons in Azerbaijan conducted from November 2001 to July 2002. the project's main objective was to analyse the practice of trafficking in the country" (2002).

IOM: Victims of trafficking in the Balkans (1900 kb / PDF)
"This study provides new information about the nature and extent of trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation in the Balkans. The study was prepared to help to show what needs to be done to combat the phenomenon and to provide better protection and assistance measures for the victims" (2001).

IOM: Hardship abroad or hunger at home - a study of migration from Georgia (484 kb / PDF)
"In small-scale research in 2000 IOM noted that irregular migration from Georgia is substantial and that trafficking in Georgian migrants did take place, albeit to an unknown extent. This was reason for IOM to initiate an in-depth research project in order to assess the magnitude and nature of irregular migration and trafficking from Georgia, and to establish the profiles of both irregular migrants and the people facilitating these irregular migration flows." (2001).

HRW: Greece - Memorandum of Concern (133 kb / PDF)
"The trafficking of women for forced prostitution into Greece is a serious problem and a grave human rights abuse. After many years of failing to address this abuse, a joint ministerial decision by the ministers of public order and interior was signed in May 2001 providing for a 'work management group on trafficking' to develop, coordinate and implement anti-trafficking policy in Greece." (2001).

IOM: Trafficking in women to Italy for sexual exploitation (379 kb / PDF)
"This exploratory study is one of the first to examine the growing problem of trafficking in women to Italy. In previous reports, MIP has studied trafficking in women from Central and Eastern Europe to countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria. In this report we focus on a somewhat different phenomenon. Although women are trafficked from Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) to Italy, a distinctive feature of the Italian case is the trafficking of women from Nigeria and Albania within the CEECs" (1996).

Russia: Crime & Servitude - An Exposé of the Traffic in Women for Prostitution... (HTML)
A report prepared by Gillian Caldwell, Steven Galster, and Nadia Steinzor of the Global Survival Network. "This ground-breaking report details the findings of a two-year investigation by the Global Survival Network into the trafficking of women from Russia and the Newly Independent States for prostitution. Each day, thousands of women and girls are lured into the international sex trade with promises of a better life and a lucrative job abroad. These false promises are especially appealing to the scores of unemployed and underemployed women struggling to survive in impoverished regions and in societies facing post-Communist transition".

The "Natasha" Trade: The Transnational Shadow Market of Trafficking in Women (79 kb / PDF )
An excellent essay about the shadow market in Russia and Ukraina, written by Donna M. Hughes from the University of Rhode Island. "The collapse of the Soviet Union opened up a pool of millions of women from which traffickers can recruit. Now, former Soviet republics, such as Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia and Russia, have become major sending countries for women trafficked into sex industries all over the world. In the sex industry markets today, the most popular and valuable women are from Ukraine and Russia." Also available in russian.

"Stiftelsen Kvinnoforum" - the Scandinavian Perspective (HTML)
"Trafficking in Women for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation Mapping the Situation and Existing Organisations Working in Belarus, Russia, the Baltic and Nordic States. Written by the Foundation of Women's Forum/Stiftelsen Kvinnoforum, Stockholm, August 1998." (1998). En svensk sammanfattning av rapporten finns på en separat sida.

IOM: Deceived migrants from Tajikistan - A Study of Trafficking in Women... (311 kb / PDF)
"The incidence of trafficking in human beings in Central Asia in general, an increasingly in Tajikistan, is a matter of concern for governments and organizations. The title of the present IOM research report: 'Deceived Migrants from Tajikistan', reflects well the issue of human trafficking. Deception and violation of rights, abuse and exploitation are the features of this type of migration. Tajik migrants are increasingly leaving their country though the illegal services provided by the national and international criminal organizations that cheat them into abuse and exploitation. This has grave consequences not only for the persons who are victims of it, but also for the countries concerned, among others, in the form of the presence of criminal organizations and the violation of different national legislations." (2001).

International Trafficking in Women to the United States (418 kb / PDF)
A study about the situation in the USA by Amy O'Neill Richard. Trafficking of women and children for the sex industry and for labor is prevalent in all regions of the United States. An estimated 45,000 to 50,000 women and children are trafficked annually to the United States, primarily by small crime rings and loosely connected criminal networks (1999).


// Feminism and sexwork in general //

An Overview of "Solutions" to Prostitution (HTML)
Essay by Wendy McElroy. "Different societies have viewed prostitution in widely divergent ways. Some cultures stoned whores to death. In ancient Greece, however, prostitutes were an integral part of religious rites. In Napoleonic France, courtesans were educated and talented women. They were not simply respected: they were adored and often eagerly sought out as wives. Other societies have grudgingly tolerated prostitution as a safeguard for the family. It was deemed to prevent rape and to shield virtuous wives from the unsavory sexual appetites of their husbands".

Prostitutes, Feminists, and Economic Associates (HTML)
Essay by Wendy McElroy (1999?). "The purpose of my paper is to investigate the conflict between prostitute activists and anti-prostitution feminists in one area -- namely, the treatment of the economic associates of whores, particularly of the men. Most people might assume that this conflict, and others, is the natural state of affairs between willing prostitutes, who sell themselves sexually to men, and most feminists, who decry the sexual exploitation of women by men. This assumption is wrong. Prominent spokeswomen in the '60s, such as Ti Atkinson, referred to prostitutes as the paradigm of a liberated woman. And a brief history of the Prostitutes' Rights Movement illustrates that co-operation, and not conflict, characterized the early years".


// Various articles on trafficking in women and children //

IOM: Traffickers make money through humanitarian crises (63 kb / PDF)
"Crises and humanitarian disasters, such as the systematic ethnic cleansing of Kosovo, or famine in North Korea, offer golden opportunities for smugglers and traffickers." (1999)

The Problem of White Slavery at the End of the Second Millenium (HTML)
Article by Oksana Havrylenko about the situation in the Ukraine.

Trafficking in women: Procuring Russians for sex abroad - even in America (HTML)
Article by Victoria Pope for the "U.S. News & World Report", regarding the influence of Russians on the problems of forced prostitution in the USA.

Traffickers' New Cargo: Naive Slavic Women (HTML)
Article by Michael Specter for the "NYT", about trafficking of women between East Europe, West Europe and Israel (Sunday, January 11, 1998).

Welcome dear prostitutes (HTML)
Article in the weekly magazine "Klan", 07 February 2002, about the trouble of albanian girls trafficked to Italy.

CNN: Sex slavery - The growing trade (HTML)
CNN.com article about forced prostitution presenting various statistic figures (March 8, 2001).


// Examples of counter-attack material //

IOM: Do you want to trade your dignity, freedom & your health for a cage? (361 kb / PDF)
Scanned information booklet made by the IOM, including warnings about the "famous" ads, used to cheat girls with false promises about "great" jobs abroad.

Ruchira Gupta - Mumbai, India (HTML)
Ruchira Gupta - the interview (HTML)
Two articles about India's fascinating journalist and filmmaker Ruchira Gupta who has become woman's right activist and streetworker in the urban jungle of Bombay.

Preis "Frauen Europas": KARO (2002) (HTML)
Preis "Frauen Europas": Sr. Lea Ackermann (1998) (HTML)
In the years 1998 and 2002, the prize "Woman of Europe" went to women who actively fight trafficking in girls and women and forced prostitution. About the award: "Neben der Auszeichnung von Frauen für besondere europäische Verdienste ist die Schaffung eines Netzwerkes aktiver Frauen aus allen Bereichen des politischen, wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Lebens weiteres Ziel des Preises."

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