Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Song of the Lolas: Beyond the Healing




A visual CD was released by the Visual Worship Institute of South Korea consisting of beautiful photos of the remaining comfort women of the Lolas Kampanyera. They travelled to Manila, Arayat, Pampanga and Roxas City, Capiz to photo document the persevering Filipino Comfort Women Survivors this 2009.

Song of the Lolas: Beyond the Healing was done in honor of the Lolas Kampanyera, survivors of the World War II Japanese Military Sexual Slavery in the Philippines.

Director:
Cheol Ham

Photographers/Writers:

Kyungin Paeng
Jongsoo Yoo
Junghoon Lee
Kwangyoup Kim
Cheong Son
Yohan Ham
Jinsun Hong

Music: Aija Kim, John Lennon and Ennio Morricone

Design:
Kyungsoon Nam

Produced by the Visual Worship Institute


2009 All rights reserved by the Visual Worship Institute


"Lola" means "grandmother" and is also a term of endearment to express affection and respect for the elderly in the Philippines.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

South East Asia Court of Women on HIV and Human Trafficking:from Vulnerability to Free, Just and Safe Movement

06 August 2009, Bali, Indonesia


Dear Friends,

We are pleased to announce that the first South East Asia Court of Women on HIV and Human Trafficking: from Vulnerability to Free, Just and Safe Movement will be held in Bali, Indonesia on 6 August 2009. The Court of Women is organised in conjunction with the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), which will be held from 9-13 August 2009.

The Regional Court, organised jointly by UNDP and the Asian Women’s Human Rights Council (AWHRC), is a major partnership initiative with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), United Nations Inter- Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP), Asia Pacific Network of People living with HIV (APN+) and Yakeba. It will bring together leaders, activists and communities who are working to make a difference to empower women and reduce their vulnerability to trafficking and HIV.

We write seeking your support and solidarity for the Court and also to invite your possible participation.


The South east Asia Court of Women, is a symbolic as well as a sacred space for testimonies of affected women from the Southeast Asia region. Our range of testimonies come from various sectors - HIV positive women, trafficked women, entertainment and sex workers, domestic and factory workers, other migrant women.

Through personal testimonies of violence and of resistance, analyses of expert witnesses and inspiring vision statements of a jury of women and men of wisdom, the Court will seek to understand the increasing vulnerability of women and communities associated with HIV and human trafficking in the context of the current patterns of globalisation and governance that are leading to the destruction, and devaluation of livelihoods and life systems of entire communities of people in the global south; the increasing restriction on mobility due to concerns of national security; the absolute erosion of all notions of rights or dignity for the survivors of the violence of trafficking and of abuse of migrant workers rights and of people living with HIV/AIDS.

Human trafficking and HIV are serious issues of concern globally. It is estimated that South- East Asia contributes one third of the total global figures for human trafficking. Countries in the region are source, transit and destination areas for human trafficking.

Women’s multi-layered vulnerability is exploited by traffickers. The slavery-like working conditions of trafficked women undermine their rights and may increase their vulnerability to HIV infection. Unsafe migration practices also may lead to physical and sexual abuse of women and the conditions in the informal and unregulated employment sectors may further increase their vulnerability.

Both HIV/AIDS and human trafficking are becoming serious threats to the health, dignity and lives of girls and women within and across the region. There is a need for effective policy to address the critical link between HIV and human trafficking.

It is essential that the linkages between HIV and human trafficking be viewed and addressed through the prism of dignity, access to justice, health and human security of individuals and communities. It is in this context the South East Asia Court of Women on HIV and Human Trafficking: from Vulnerability to Free, Just and Safe Movement will seek to understand and respond in more effective and creative ways to the nexus between HIV and human trafficking and increasing vulnerability of women.

The Court will comprise of:

The Court itself on August 6 that will hear the testimonies of women survivors and resistors to violence against women. We have been able to finally gather some 22 testifiers from the countries of Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and women from the Thai-Burma border. The very specific text and textures of the individual testimonies of survival and resistance will be woven together with reflections on crucial issues related to the dominant discourse of politics and knowledge systems that is creating conditions of extreme vulnerability and violence for a majority of the peoples and communities the world over.

The follow up meeting following the court on August 7, which will discuss the concrete way to go forward taking the primary issues that emerge the Court.

Please do send your message of solidarity (in your letterhead, if possible) by 30h of July 2009 to us at cawhrli@dataone.in and awhrc_manila@yahoo.com, so that we can acknowledge you / your organisation at the Court through our publications, video and reports of the Court.

We thank you for the strength and encouragement that your solidarity gives us.

With warm regards

Sincerely,

Corinne Kumar
International Coordinator

Courts of Women, AWHRC/El Taller International
Ms. Caitlin Wiesen
Regional HIV Practice Leader & Programme Coordinator for Asia & Pacific, UNDP Regional Centre Colombo

Nelia Sancho
Coordinator, AWHRC

Southeast Asia Court of Women

South East Asia Court of Women on HIV and Human Trafficking

Vision and objectives:

The first South East Asia Court of Women on HIV and Human Trafficking: from Vulnerability to Free, Just and Safe Movement will be held in Bali , Indonesia on 6 August 2009 . The Court of Women is organised in conjunction with the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), which will be held from 9-13 August 2009.


The Court of Women, organized jointly by UNDP and the Asian Women’s Human Rights Council (AWHRC), is a major partnership initiative involving United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), United Nations Inter- Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP), Asia Pacific Network of People living with HIV (APN+) and Yakeba with funding support from the Government of Japan. The Court will bring together leaders, politicians, activists and communities who are working to make a difference to empower women and reduce their vulnerability to trafficking and HIV in the South East Asia region.


Context:

Human trafficking and HIV are serious issues of concern globally. It is estimated that South East Asia contributes one third of the total global figures for human trafficking. Countries in the region act as source, transit and destination areas for human trafficking. Sexual exploitation remains the primary purpose of trafficking of women and girls, while they are also trafficked for forced marriage, sweatshop labour and domestic work.


Not only is human trafficking a hideous crime and gross violation of human rights, it also contributes to the spread of HIV. Women’s multi-layered vulnerability is exploited by traffickers. The slaverylike working conditions of trafficked women undermine their rights and may increase their vulnerability to HIV infection. Unsafe migration practices also may lead to physical and sexual abuse of women and the conditions in the informal and unregulated employment sectors may further increase their vulnerability. It is therefore crucial to look at the changing context for migration which creates newer avenues for trafficking and generates violence particularly for women and girls.


It is also important to look at the public health impact of anti- trafficking measures ,which may drive the sex industry further underground making it more difficult to reach sex trafficked women and girls and jeopardizing the ability of women within the sex industry to access HIV prevention and treatment services and negotiate safe sex practices with their clients.


Both HIV/AIDS and human trafficking are serious threats to the health, dignity and lives of girls and women within and across the region. It is essential that the linkages between HIV and human trafficking be viewed and addressed through the prism of dignity, access to justice, health and human security of individuals and communities. It is in this context the Southeast Asia Court of Women on HIV and Human Trafficking: from Vulnerability to Free, Just and Safe Movement will seek to understand and respond in more effective and creative ways to the nexus between HIV and human trafficking and increasing vulnerability of women.



Goals and aims:

The goals and aims of the proposed Court of Women include:

· Advocating for and share widely the issues, concerns and opportunities related to the core theme from the perspective of survivors of trafficking and migrant workers living with HIV.

· Providing a forum for women from different countries in the region to share, reflect and have a deeper understanding of the linkages between HIV, traditional forms of gender discrimination and the more contemporary processes of globalization, poverty, forced migration and marginalization resulting in the increasing vulnerability of women and girls to trafficking and HIV.

· Recognizing and building upon the strengths, achievements and success stories of trafficking survivors and migrant workers living with HIV who have overcome tremendous difficulties and been empowered to lead a positive life with dignity

· Identifying coping and resistance strategies of women affected by customary practices and disempowering norms and values that put them at the risk of trafficking and HIV infection.

· Identifying collective means of challenging and transforming discriminatory state and legal policies that are creating and deepening structural inequities towards women and girls in disadvantaged situations.

· Formulating concrete and relevant follow up actions and campaigns at the regional, national and international levels to evolve long term sustainable strategies to address the issue.

· Strengthening regional and national networking among individuals and groups on this issue in order to work for more effective action and advocacy at various levels.



Participants:

The Regional Court will bring together participants from government, civil society, donor community, the UN and will include:



• People living with HIV

• Trafficked survivors

• NGOs and CBOs working on trafficking and HIV issues

• Politicians

• Policy makers

• High-level government officials

• Judges and Lawyers

• Journalists and media representatives

• Bi- and multilateral organizations

• Trade union representatives

• Human rights activists



Expected outputs/outcomes:

· Greater visibility and understanding of the clandestine nature of trafficking, forced migration and HIV in the region;

· Increased public, policy and legal debates and attention regarding the dual vulnerability of women and girls to trafficking and HIV and support for survivors of trafficking and those who are forced to migrate for better livelihood options;

· Greater integration of HIV into policies, strategies and programmes on the prevention of trafficking, care of trafficking survivors and facilitation of safe migration;

· Enhanced collaboration and coordination between the anti-trafficking community, rights of migrant workers and HIV/AIDS community to address the issues in an integrated fashion;

· Various publications including a video production



History of the Courts of Women


The Asian Women Human Rights Council, in its work with issues related to violence against women since its inception in 1986, initiated the Courts in Asia as conceived by Corinne Kumar, the founder of AWHRC and the Secretary General of El Taller International. More than 30 Courts of Women have been held since then, in different regions of the world – Asia , Arab, Africa , Central and South America . The issues have been diverse and also specific to the regions they have been held in – from the violence of poverty, globalization and development, the violence of cultures, caste and racism to the violence of sexual slavery and of all wars.


The Courts of Women seeks to relook at these issues, reflecting the violence of our times, through its unique methodology of weaving together the personal with the political, the rational and the objective with the intuitive and the subjective and the logical with the lyrical. Inviting us to connect with these deeper and varied levels of knowledge, it urges us to reimagine jurisprudence that drawing from and also going beyond the limitations of the politics and processes of the nation state, seeks to understand and respond to the roots of the violence of our times in terms of its history and its context.


This specific Court on HIV and Human Trafficking will take into account the experiences and lessons learnt from two earlier Courts organized by AWHRC and UNDP in partnership with several other groups in the region i.e. the South Asia Court on Trafficking and HIV held in 2003 in Dhaka, Bangladesh; and the Asia Pacific Court of Women on HIV, Inheritance and Property Rights held in 2007 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It seeks to build upon and ground this learning in the specific context of South East Asia .


Organization and format of the Court:


Date: 6 August 2009

Venue: Bali International Convention Centre (BICC), Nusa Dua , Indonesia

Format: Court of Women from 9 am-6 pm , followed by a closing ceremony and celebration in the evening. The Court would be designed so that a core constituency of 5-10 persons from 8 countries in the region will participate to ensure support for follow up initiatives at country level after the conference.


The objective of the Court is to give women an opportunity to be heard by sharing their testimonies with a broader audience which includes leaders and decision makers. The structure of the Court is such that it will be divided into 5 broad segments. Each segment will be introduced by an audio visual poetic expression, an expert witness and 5 -7 women who will present their personal testimonies, verbally, in writing, or other creative mediums. Each segment will be approximately 45 minutes allowing for a total of 20 – 25 testimonies to be heard.


The segments will include:




1. Unraveling root causes of the vulnerabilities of women in the South East Asia region to unsafe migration, trafficking and HIV

2. Making visible and clearly articulating the linkages between HIV, trafficking and migration

3. Recognizing the rights of vulnerable communities including migrants, domestic workers, refugees, sex workers and PLHIV

4. Evaluating the human rights and public health impact of anti trafficking legislation and laws that restrict women’s movement

5. Responses/Resistance/ Celebrating successes



Testimonies


Through a series of poetic visuals the participants of the Court will listen to the voices of wisdom spoken by a jury of women and men chosen for their experience and sensitivity to the issues involved. Each presenter will speak in front of the entire audience. The option of speaking from behind a screen will be available if required. Translations during testimony presentation will be made available.


The Jury

4 – 6 eminent people will act as the Jury to this court. At the end of the hearing, the Jury will issue a declaration to all those present. The Jury’s declaration will be publicized regionally.


Closing ceremony


The Court will end on a celebratory note, where the Court participants will come together in celebration. This will take place in an open space where story tellers and other performers will anchor the closing.


Main partners in the Regional Court :


UNDP, Regional Centre in Colombo , Sri Lanka


The UNDP Regional HIV and Development Programme for Asia and the Pacific seeks to address the development and trans-border challenges of HIV/AIDS in the Asia Pacific region and supports integrated, rights-based, multi-sectoral responses that promote gender equality, sustainable livelihood and community participation. Focus areas of work include: policy advocacy and outreach, mobility and HIV/AIDS, including trafficking of people, capacity development, and empowerment of people living with HIV/AIDS. The HIV Practice Team also provides technical and substantive support to key partners including UNDP country offices in the Asia-Pacific region. These include programme formulation, monitoring and evaluation, strategic planning and HIV mainstreaming, socio-economic impact studies, leadership for results, people living with HIV/AIDS and access to treatment issues, GFATM processes, and ICT and web-based tools for enhanced outreach of information and services. In addition to the internal resources, the Programme draws on a pool of high quality experts.


The Asian Women’s Human Rights Council (AWHRC)


The focus of the AWHRC is the escalating violence against women in the context of the growing militarisation and nuclearisation of the nation states in Asia and the Pacific. The organization seeks to extend and transform the human right discourse from the perspectives and life visions of the south, the marginalized, the women. By challenging the dominant world view and its discourse, through women’s knowledge and wisdoms, it invites another dialogue, proffering new visions towards a just and peaceful world for women and men. Comprising of women from women’s groups, academia and human rights organizations, AWHRC functions from its regional secretariat in Bangalore , India .

Other partners to the Court include:

1. Buhay Foundation for Women and the Girl Child , Philippines

2. Asian Institute of Technology , Thailand

3. Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW), Thailand

4. Foundation for Women, Thailand

5. Shan Women’s Action Network / Women’s League of Burma

6. International Community of Women living with HIV, Thailand

7. Seven Sisters Network on HIV, Thailand

8. Legal Support Center for Women and Children, Cambodia

9. Migrant Workers Union , Indonesia

10. Population and Development Association, Thailand

Thursday, June 18, 2009

CONCEPT NOTE OF SEA COURT ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING, MIGRATION AND HIV

I. Background:

The proposed Southeast Asia Court of Women on HIV, Human Trafficking and Migration being organised by UNDP and AWHRC in collaboration with several organisations and networks in the region, will be an attempt to draw the attention of the States and the civil society to the connections between HIV, human trafficking and migration.

This Court is part of the process of the Courts of Women, a global movement that seeks to relook at rights and other notions of justice from the lives and life visions of women – particularly from the Global South. The Asian Women Human Rights Council, in its work with issues related to violence against women since its inception in 1986, initiated the Courts in Asia as conceived by Corinne Kumar, the founder of AWHRC and the Secretary General of El Taller International. More than 30 Courts of Women have been held since then, in different regions of the world – Asia, Arab, Africa, Central and South America. The issues have been diverse and also specific to the regions they have been held in – from the violence of poverty, globalization and development, the violence of cultures, caste and racism to the violence of military sexual slavery, nuclearisation and of all wars.

The Courts of Women seeks to relook at these issues, reflecting the violence of our times, through its unique methodology of weaving together the personal with the political, the rational and the objective with the intuitive and the subjective and the logical with the lyrical. Inviting us to connect with these deeper and varied levels of knowledge, it urges us to reimagine jurisprudence that drawing from and also going beyond the limitations of the politics and processes of the nation state, seeks to understand and respond to the roots of the violence of our times in terms of its history and its context.

The UNDP Regional HIV and Development Programme for Asia and the Pacific has been actively engaged in collective efforts to reduce the vulnerabilities of people, particularly women and girls to HIV and human trafficking in the context of migration. A recently completed three year regional project on human trafficking and HIV in South Asia highlights the tremendous contribution made by the Programme to enhance the region’s capacity to respond effectively to the issues through rights-based and gender sensitive approaches especially in developing capacities of key stakeholders including women and girls and survivors of trafficking.

This specific Court on HIV, Human Trafficking and Migration will take into account the experiences and lessons learnt from two earlier Courts done by AWHRC and UNDP in partnership with several other groups in the region i.e. the South Asia Court on Trafficking and HIV held in 2003 in Dhaka, Bangladesh; and the Asia Pacific Court of Women on HIV, Inheritance and Property Rights held in 2007 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It seeks to build upon and root these learnings in the specific context of South East Asia.

II. The Rationale:

Human trafficking and HIV are serious issues of concern globally. Southeast Asia contributes to one third of the total global figures for human trafficking. (Note: data source not stated in the first draft). The region serves as source, transit and destination areas for itself and other parts of the globe.

However while it is a fact that vulnerability to HIV increases in the context of trafficking, it is crucial that we are able to look at the changing context for migration, an age old human activity, that is creating newer avenues for trafficking and the attendant violence it generates, particularly for women and children. In contemporary times, human insecurities have been triggered by persecution, armed conflicts and the consequent forced displacement on the one hand and the new globalised economic order and its specific forms of poverty, underdevelopment, unemployment, inequities and environmental destruction that is pushing people to search for new sources of livelihood and survival and better life options.

However, we see also that this intense and escalating migration flow of people from all walks of life is characterised by increasing vulnerability, abuse and labour exploitation. Female migrant labour is gendered – and women are brought to work in informal sectors that are unregulated and unprotected. Vulnerability to trafficking is increasing for instance when there is abuse or labour exploitation of migrant workers by their employers. Women and girls, as well as men and boys, are trafficked annually for various purposes such as marriage, sweatshop labour, factory work, domestic and construction work, sexual exploitation and other purposes.

Women’s multi-layered vulnerability is exploited by traffickers. The slavery and slavery like work conditions of trafficked women increase their vulnerability to the spread of HIV infection and AIDS. Sexually exploited trafficked persons – women, transgender and children- are coerced into work situations with the likelihood of unsafe sexual practices.

In its responses, the states have largely looked at the issue purely as a law and order problem without looking at the larger context for these vulnerabilities resulting finally in revictimising the victim.

It has been eight years since the UN adopted the Convention on Transnational Organized Crime and its two supplementary protocols – the Protocol to Prevent Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children and the Protocol on Migrant Smuggling. Many states parties in destination countries have responded to the Trafficking Protocol by establishing legal frameworks aimed at restricting immigration and enforcing tighter border controls and which oftentimes result in restricting the movement of women who wish to migrate for work or in “profiling” certain types of women. This immigration policy has driven many women who have dreams of migrating for work to get the assistance of traffickers.

Another area of concern on migration policy is the practice of mandatory testing for HIV which has become a requirement for certain States of destination countries for migrant workers as a pre-condition of employment. This discriminatory practice could drive away the migrants from the opportunity to access voluntary testing services and be assured that they have the opportunity to receive counseling and treatment depending on the result.

Anti-trafficking GO and NGO practitioners need also to look into the public health impact of anti-trafficking measures such as the “wide net” raids and rescue approach which affect all those who are in the site of prostitution – whether they are trafficked persons, whether they entered to work in the sex industry by their own free will, or due to low economic and social position in society, violent family situations, or other inequitable, patriarchal structures and experiences. This approach disempowers those who are maybe in a better position to negotiate with their clients for safe sex practices by further driving them underground to continue their work and in the process, losing their capacity to negotiate for safe sex.

Another factor in the increasing criminalisation of HIV/ AID workers is the US “anti prostitution pledge” which required NGOs with HIV prevention programs to cut off any work with the sex sector including distribution and training how to negotiate the use of condoms as part of safe sex.

Both HIV/AIDS and human trafficking are becoming serious threats to the health, dignity and lives of young women and children within and across the region. According to the recent reports on HIV/Aids, Southeast Asia has the biggest potential to become the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic globally (Source of data not stated in the first draft). However unless we are able to understand and craft out policy measures that are built around this critical link between HIV, human trafficking and migration, we will end up with measures that drives women towards greater conditions of vulnerability and exploitation.

III. The Process

The Court methodology and its theoretical underpinnings as well as the context and content of the proposed Court was at the centre of a three day workshop organized for the main partners last September 28, 29 and 30, 2008 held in Bangkok, Thailand. The core partners present included AWHRC, El Taller, UNDP, Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW), Foundation for Women-Thailand, Shan Women’s Action Network / Women’s League of Burma (Thai/Burma), APN+, Seven Sisters Network on HIV, Legal Support Center for Women and Children – Cambodia, Asian Institute of Technology-Thailand, Yakeba, Migrant Workers Union-Indonesia, Buhay Foundation for Women and the Girl Child- Philippines and Population and Development Association (PDA).

Other main partners were also identified in this preliminary meeting to prepare and plan for a Court that will focus on the linkages between the spread of HIV and AIDS to migration and human trafficking. Among them are ICW, UNIAP , IOM, UNIFEM, ILO, UNODC , PT foundation, Caram Asia and Thailand, and APNSW.

The following are the identified tasks of the core partners of the Court:

- to be the country focal points;

- to mobilize solidarity and support such as messages;

- to identify partners from each country;

- to identify and contact potential jury, expert witness and testifiers;

- to mobilize funds or in kind support;

- to identify translators and to prepare a synopsis of the testimony and send it to AWHRC/UNDP.

The issues were identified and recommendations made as to the names of possible testifiers, expert witnesses and jury members for the Court. It was decided that the participants of the Court will include politicians, policy makers, high-level government officials, judges, police representatives, lawyers, journalists, bi- and multilateral organizations, trade union representatives, media representatives, human rights activists, NGOs and CBOs, survivors of trafficking, migrant workers and people living with HIV, among others.

The context in which the Court will seek to conceive and define the vulnerabilities of women migrant workers and other affected sectors to human trafficking and HIV was also lengthily discussed.

IV. The Contours of the Court

Based on these extensive discussions, the context and content of the Court emerged as follows:

The Context for the Court

When mobility and movement of individuals is restricted by rigid nation state borders imposed by the logic of national security and when insecurity of livelihoods is fragmenting large rural and indigenous communities being displaced by the logic of the development state, the twin vulnerabilities of trafficking and HIV thrive.

In such a context it is only through the prism of dignity, access to justice, the health and human security of individuals and communities that we should view the organic linkages between migration, trafficking and HIV. For otherwise what can be perpetuated is the regime of a punitive justice that will only revictimise the victim. As we have seen happen with the rescue and rehabilitation policies of some states; or the closing and tightening up of borders all of which can push migration routes underground where trafficking networks prey on the vulnerabilities of those who are seeking better livelihood options.

What therefore needs to be brought to the centre of the Court is the non negotiable right of women to safe mobility and free movement on the one hand and on the other the equally non negotiable right of all communities to secure and sustainable livelihoods.

The Content and Issues for the Court

In the above context therefore the issues that the Court would revolve around include:

1. Visibilising the linkages between migration, trafficking and HIV

2. Recognizing rights of vulnerable communities like sex workers and women in prostitution, migrants, domestic workers, refugees, PLHIV through looking at issues of citizenship, deportation, labour conditions, right to health and treatment for PLHIV etc.

3. Evaluating the human rights and public health impact of anti trafficking legislation that is criminalizing HIV workers and instead of decriminalizing of sex work, restricting women’s mobility instead of ensuring safe mobility etc.

4. Unravelling the root causes of the vulnerability of migration, trafficking and HIV that include:

- the genocidal nature of the dominant development paradigm that is perpetuating and invisibilising poverty; causing irreversible environmental degradation and deepening gender inequities

- the militarised nature of the national security paradigm which is not only legitimising armed conflicts and state violence but also generating new forms of brutalised patriarchies and gendered violence

- the gender blind nature of a culture and polity in which we see plummeting sex ratios and escalating practices like that of multiple brides thanks to population policies like of the one child norm.

Goals and aims of the proposed Court of Women:

Within the framework of the Court as detailed above the goals and aims of the Court as they emerged included the following:

* Advocate for and share widely the issues, concerns and opportunities related to the core theme from the perspective of survivors of trafficking and migrant workers living with HIV.

* Provide a forum for women from different countries in the region to share, reflect and have a deeper understanding of the linkages between HIV, traditional forms of gender discrimination and the more contemporary processes of globalization, poverty, forced migration and marginalization resulting in the increasing vulnerability of women and girls to trafficking and HIV infection.

* Recognize and build upon the strengths, achievements and success stories of trafficking survivors and migrant workers living with HIV who have overcome tremendous difficulties and been empowered to lead a positive life with dignity

* Identify coping and resistance strategies of women affected by customary practices and disempowering norms and values that put them at the risk of trafficking and HIV infection.

* Identify collective means of challenging and transforming discriminatory state and legal policies that are creating and deepening structural inequities towards women and girls in disadvantaged situations.

* Formulate concrete and relevant follow up actions and campaigns at the regional, national and international levels to evolve long term sustainable strategies to address the issue.

* Strengthen regional and national networking among individuals and groups on this issue in order to work for more effective action and advocacy at various levels.

Components of the proposed Court of Women:

* A press conference highlighting the issues on trafficking and HIV in Southeast Asia and the importance of organizing the Court

* A one-day series of roundtable discussions on the day preceding the court, on critical, cutting edge issues related to the core themes that will provide the context for receiving the text and testimonies of the Court.

* The Court on the second day that will hear the testimonies of women survivors, resistors, expert witnesses and jury members to the violence of trafficking, forced migration and HIV/AIDS.

* A follow up meeting following the court on the third day, which will discuss the concrete way to go forward taking the primary issues that emerge both from the roundtables and the Court.

* The media will be engaged throughout the event to maximize the dissemination of critical messages and to influence public opinions and policy.

Expected outputs/outcomes:

* Greater visibility and understanding of the clandestine nature of trafficking, forced migration and HIV in the region

* Increased public, policy and legal debates and attention regarding the dual vulnerability of women and girls to trafficking and HIV and support for survivors of trafficking and those who are forced to migrate for better livelihood options

* Greater integration of HIV elements into policies, strategies and programmes on the prevention of trafficking, care of trafficking survivors and facilitation of safe migration

* Enhanced collaboration and coordination between the anti-trafficking community, rights of migrant workers and HIV/AIDS community to address the three core issues in an integrated fashion

* Highly visible press conferences and public advocacy campaigns both at regional and national levels

* Various publications including a video production

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Statement of the National Workshop

Statement of the National Workshop on Migration, Trafficking, Labour Exploitation and Centering the Human Rights of Migrants, Trafficked Persons, Domestic Workers, Other Affected Sectors

Venue: Davao City. Mindanao, Philippines

September 22-23, 2008


We, the representatives of civil society organizations, academic sector, self-organized groups of migrant returnees and community based-women, NGO anti-trafficking practitioners as well local government social welfare officers gathered here on September 22-23, 2008 at the Manor Hotel Davao, in Davao City, Mindanao Island, Philippines to discuss the current situation faced by migrants, trafficked persons, domestic workers, women in prostitution, transgendered sex workers and other sectors. The conference workshop is organized by the Buhay Foundation for Women and the Girl Child in partnership with the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) and has invited participants not only from Davao City but also NGO practitioners from Cebu City, Baguio City and from Metro Manila area. For two full days, we shared experiences and practices, concepts and perspectives as well as engaged in dialogue and critical analysis, pinpointed the gaps and addressed challenges relevant to the themes of the conference.

We came to listen to the testimonies offered by women migrants who have returned, and are now involved in advocacy work in their own self-organized groups. We thank them for sharing their dreams which drove them to migrate, and the resulting situation they confronted. Thru their stories, we came to understand why women and individuals in general are moving/crossing borders to work and what is the journey they are making. The women migrant workers expressed their need for safety in their movement and for dignity in their work in destination countries.

We have felt the need to affirm that migration is a human activity that needs to be respected. That throughout human history, people have been migrating. However, in contemporary times, human insecurities have been triggered by persecution, armed conflicts and the consequent forced displacement, survival and the push to search for better options in life, discrimination, underdevelopment, inequality, environmental destruction. These root causes also created the conditions for human rights violations to occur and vulnerabilities of people, especially women, to be exploited. More and more, we are witnessing intense migration flows of people from all walks of life and in the course of this phenomenon, we find numerous migrant workers put into situations of abuse and labour exploitation, some deceived by traffickers, or coerced into slavery like work conditions.

In the discussions during the conference workshop, we began to explore the significance of linkages between migration, trafficking, labour exploitation and human rights that the participants consider as important in order to address human rights violations in labour migration to destination countries and the vulnerabilities to trafficking and exploitation of certain sectors of migrants particularly women. We have seen the need to confront the reality of female migrant labour as gendered – with many Filipino women brought to work in informal sectors that are unregulated and unprotected.

In this regard, we, participants of the National Workshop and Conference held in Davao City, Mindanao, Philippines call for the responsibility of the states both in sending and destination countries towards the promotion of human rights and human security of the internal and international migrants especially migrant workers, undocumented migrants, and the victims of organized crime thru trafficking in persons and the smuggling of migrants. We affirm that migrants must be able to exercise their fundamental human rights and benefit from minimum labor standards, and a minimum of socio-economic security in their places of work, within the Philippines and across borders – in the countries of destination. At the same time, we call on the source/sending /departure countries like the Philippines to develop policies on economic development that set as its priority a sustainable economic strategy to enlarge the local labor markets rather than seek to export more labor to destination/receiving countries.

It has been eight years since the UN adopted the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime and its two supplementary protocols – the Protocol to Prevent Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children and the Protocol on Migrant Smuggling. We express our deep concern that many states parties (particularly those in destination countries) have responded to the Trafficking Protocol by establishing legal frameworks aimed at restricting immigration and enforcing tighter border controls and which oftentimes result in restricting the movement of women who wish to migrate for work or in “profiling” certain types of women.

In addition, anti-trafficking policies and initiatives have grown in number at the national and international level at an extraordinary rate since then. We share the current global concern expressed on the human rights impact of anti-trafficking measures through the 8-country research report of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women entitled “Collateral Damage: The Human Rights Impact of Anti-Trafficking Measures Worldwide” which findings, conclusions and recommendations were presented at this national conference workshop in Davao City.

The Palermo protocol was signed and ratified by the Philippine government, and an Anti-trafficking in Persons Act had been passed in 2003 as a national law. In this conference workshop, we heard the report of the social work department officers of the Davao region and commended them on the dedication they showed on their work to prevent trafficking. They also reported the process of actively installing mechanisms such as the Davao Inter-agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) which engaged some NGOs in the work to prevent trafficking.

However, conference participants expressed their concern on some anti-trafficking measures that were implemented such as raids and rescues of women working in establishments deemed as “fronts” for prostitution. This practice seemed to have become “standard” anti-trafficking responses as gleaned from similar reports in some countries of South East Asia and South Asia. Serious concern were also expressed over the reported practice of some local and national-based anti-trafficking NGOs, who in cooperation with government agencies, were “ profiling” unaccompanied young travelers below 15 years old and young women aged 15 to 18 as “potentially trafficked”. In the name of anti-trafficking campaigns such as “the war against trafficking” launched in August 2008 by NGOs supported by US government money, the youths and young women were stopped from boarding Philippine ships, and were held in halfway shelters near the seaports for some 3 days or more, virtually converting the shelters as temporary detention centers. Human rights provisions of the Trafficking Protocol such as Article 2 obligates States Parties to implement the Protocol with full respect for the human rights of trafficked persons and migrants . In the anti-trafficking measure just cited, participants discussed whether rights of migrants were affected by the arbitrary classification or “profiling” of certain types of migrants as “potentially trafficked”.

Speakers in the conference workshop have also raised questions and criticism on how the Government of the United States of America has used its annual Trafficking In Persons (TIP) report and tier-ranking of countries anti-trafficking performance. It was reported that this has resulted to actions of some governments and several countries in Asia to institute measures and policies such as arbitrary raids and rescues, and detention in seaport shelters which have been documented as affecting negatively the human rights as well as safety and health of migrant workers, women working in the entertainment industry, transgendered sex workers and women and men soliciting sex in various so-called red light districts.

In this regard, the participants call on the anti-trafficking NGO community in Davao City as well as in various cities and provinces of the Philippines to be aware of the human rights implications of some initiatives to end trafficking, whether by the government or of local/national NGOs, and to ensure that the human rights of migrant workers, trafficked persons and all others affected by anti-trafficking measures, are at the center of our work.

In addition, we urge civil society organizations to participate in the monitoring and review of the implementation of the Palermo protocol on human trafficking in the Philippines, as well as the national anti-trafficking law of 2003, and provide specific policy recommendations to respond to gaps and harmful practices seen.
We also urge the academic sector to support and be a partner in the efforts to generate evidence-based researches that can serve as inputs to policy making. There is need to promote awareness on the indicators of trafficking, provide evidence on the number of persons being trafficked, for what purposes, the patterns of trafficking and whether the human rights of the migrants and trafficked persons are protected or violated. Interviews and case studies of trafficking cases can enlighten us on the layered experiences and realities of the affected persons and how their human rights can best be protected.

We wish to address the forthcoming meeting of government leaders such as the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) being held Oct. 27-30 this year, and the ASEAN Summit in Bangkok in December 2008 by drawing the attention of governments to the situation of millions of migrants around the world, and particularly in the ASEAN region, and to the need to take action and improve their situation by putting human rights protection of migrants as an important core agenda. Specifically, we urge the States to curb violations of migrant rights such as putting undocumented migrants in immigration detention centers.

We sincerely welcome the adoption of the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers in January 2007 and the establishment of the ASEAN Committee to Implement (ACI) the Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers in July 2007.

We recommend for a national and local campaign network to be set up to generate broad solidarity and concerted action as well as to address the challenge of advancing a movement in the country with a clear direction and message of centering the rights of Filipino migrant workers and trafficked persons that will ensure their voices and agency at the core of anti-trafficking policies, measures and practices.

And finally, because we are in the island of Mindanao, which is facing today an intensified armed conflict situation, we would like to express our deep concern to a growing number of migrants from among the Moro communities who are victims of displacement due to eruption of armed hostilities between the military forces of the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). We support the clamor for an immediate cessation of hostilities, in particular, for the Philippine military to desist from further military offensives, and that it immediately pulls out its troops from the region, and return to the negotiating table. We also oppose the arming of civilians by the Philippine government and demand the immediate disbandment of militias and private armies. Lastly, we will share in the collective task of civil society organizations to undertake activities that will advance a just and peaceful solution to the 30-year conflict in Mindanao , one that respects the right of the Moro people for self-determination and provides a long lasting framework to the displacement and consequent migration flow of peoples from affected Moro communities.

This national conference-workshop puts forward a set of recommendations to be presented and lobbied with the Philippine government and countries of destination particularly in the ASEAN region. Specific action points and proposals have been framed in the attached RECOMMENDATIONS to respond to the abuse and exploitation of migrant labour and the deepening of vulnerabilities of women and communities; to prevent trafficking, protect trafficked persons and others affected by anti-trafficking policies; and to prosecute traffickers and illegal recruiters and those in government involved in corruption activities. We hope that any campaign network or mechanism to be formed in the future will share in the collective responsibility to realize the implementation of the attached recommendations that has come out from this conference workshop.

Recommendations to the Philippine Government


Policies and procedures for recruitment of migrant workers to work outside the country


In our work as NGOs and civil society organizations working closely with migrant workers, we have identified a number of important problems related to recruitment that need urgent solutions. We recognize that there is often a gap between the promises of the Government to follow international standards and the reality faced by the people who are seeking to migrate.

1. A standard employment contract that contains sections that specify the core rights of migrant workers, and mechanisms to protect those rights. Each contract must also include a clear and detailed job description and relevant information on working and living conditions that that migrant worker will face in the receiving country.

2. Enforce the law relating to the standard placement fee. Greater efforts should be made to create public awareness of the standard fee, and to increase monitoring and enforcement of agencies’ practices in this area. Abuse of the standard placement fee contributes to debt bondage, which is significant given that some are forced to sell their meager assets or secure high interest loans while others accrue this debt directly to the recruiting agency.

3. Consider means to reduce debt bondage. The issue of debt bondage is paramount as in many instances, it is an employee’s debt that triggers their entrapment in exploitative and abusive employment. Systemic labour migration costs associated with training, recruitment and placement fees could be offset by government, or minimized through the provision of no-interest government loans.

4. That mandatory testing for HIV should not be required for migrant workers by

the destination countries.
Government should not permit such requirements to be
imposed on migrant workers as a pre-condition of employment. Rather,
following a right-based approach, migrant workers should be provided
with information and the opportunity to access voluntary testing services
and be assured that they have the opportunity to receive counseling and
treatment depending on the result.

Policies and procedures for protection for migrant workers overseas

Embassies should play a more effective and central role in advocating for the protection of our migrant workers’ rights and helping migrants who need assistance.
Protection of the rights of migrant workers is a core part of their duties and regular work -- and they should be held accountable if they fail to provide effective assistance migrant workers in need of help.

Government should insist that migrant workers shall not be discriminated against in any way. The Government should also insist and actively work to ensure that all migrant workers are treated equally before the law in receiving countries.
Training, Safe Migration and Awareness Raising for Migrant Workers
The new training program should use a rights-based perspective to educate migrant workers, thereby helping to empower them and promote their ability to understand and take actions to effectively protect their rights.

We believe that safe migration approaches offer important information and understanding to intending migrant workers which can help them protect themselves when they depart the country to work. Therefore, safe migration principles should be taught to migrant workers, and should be combined with practical information (tailored to the situation in the country to which the migrant is going) as part of the pre-departure curriculum.

Safe migration information should also be widely disseminated to the communities where migrant workers originate.

The Government should establish a program of awareness raising for migrant workers about all the relevant details and risks of working outside of the country and ensure that this information is spread in communities where migrant workers originate, and re-emphasized.


Policies and procedures for protection of domestic workers


Pass the Batas Kasambahay Act.
This will give domestic workers greater opportunity to access basic labour rights and entitlements and reduce the risk of their abuse and exploitation.

Prosecute employers who abuse workers, including confining domestic workers to the workplace.
Greater attention needs to be paid to the investigation and prosecution of Filipino employers who abuse workers. Cases of psychological, physical and sexual abuse, food deprivation, and forced confinement must be pursued.

Trafficking in Persons

First and foremost, Government must ensure that all its officials, both inside and those working at Embassies overseas, fully understand that human trafficking is a crime that is committed against all persons – women, children, and men – and for all end purposes, including trafficking into forced labour. The Government should actively promote this understanding in its engagement with other Governments in ASEAN.

NGOs and other stakeholders to monitor the implementation of the law and make public reports and interventions when cases of abuses occur.

The Government should find resources and make arrangements to provide proper training on basic knowledge on human trafficking to police authorities, with a special focus in assisting police be able to effectively identify victims of trafficking. Police reforms should also be considered, such as formation of a truly independent, professional, and non-corrupt police authority at the airports and seaports to improve anti-trafficking response.

The Government should ensure that there is effective legal protection for victims of human trafficking. The Government should take all steps required to ensure that persons who are victims of human trafficking are not held responsible for criminal offenses that they are forced or coerced to commit while being held in trafficking situation. The Government should also insist on such protections for its citizens who are trafficked overseas and make bilateral representations to all Governments inside and outside of ASEAN which do not abide by this core international standard practice.

We urge the Philippine government to re-open the “runaway “ shelter in Jordan which was closed by the Philippine embassy just last June.
Abused and exploited migrants and trafficked persons overseas should be provided with an appropriate place/center to guarantee their personal safety.

Increase efforts to identify and prosecute cases of official corruption.
The Government should increase efforts to prosecute cases of official corruption. Many reports cite the issue of official corruption as a major factor undermining the government’s detailed labour migration structure. Increased policing and prosecution is required to enable the official structure to operate effectively.

We urge the various Philippine government agencies and the anti-trafficking mechanism established i.e. the IACAT, to study the findings on the human rights impact of anti-trafficking measures and consider the ten recommendations of the GAATW research report “Collateral Damage”. We wish to highlight four of these recommendations that we think should be a priority:

 Give trafficked persons better access to justice and compensation.
 End the practice of making assistance conditional.
 Create more safe opportunities for migrant workers.
 Ensure decent working conditions for all workers
Recommendations to ASEAN

We strongly believe that the regional Instrument on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (which will be developed by the ASEAN Committee to Implement the ASEAN Declaration on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers) should be legally binding on all ten ASEAN states.

We recommend that the Government should conclude bilateral MOUs/agreements (with focal points established to ensure effective implementation of the agreement) with key nations. These bilateral MOUs/agreements should be in accordance with the principles and provisions of the above-mentioned regional agreement, and should be understood to supplement the regional agreement and to address bilateral issues that are outside the scope of the regional agreement. It must be clear that the bilateral MOUs/agreements of any sort must be in accordance with international human rights and labor standards.

We recommend that there should be an agreement on a “standard medical package” of services that will provided by receiving states (in cooperation with sending states) to migrant workers wherever they are in ASEAN. The provisions of this package would have to be negotiated, but it should contain elements of preventative as well as curative care, access to public hospitals, reproductive health and family planning, and public health and hygiene information. A core element of the plan would be a requirement for the employers of the migrant workers to pay costs associated with the medical package, and a strict prohibition against employers making deductions from migrant workers’ pay for medical costs.

All ASEAN nations must adopt regulations that permit documented migrant workers to change employers without losing their work permit status or their right to continue to work and reside in the receiving country. These regulations should neither be burdensome nor should they require any additional expenditure by the migrant worker to change the employer listed on the work permit.
There must be a clear and absolute prohibition on seizure of passports or migrant workers’ documents, or the destruction of those documents, by Government officials, employers, brokers, agents, recruitment agencies, or any other persons in the receiving country. There should be severe penalties imposed against persons who seize and/or destroy migrant workers’ documents.

In accordance with international core labour standards, the Convention on Migrant Workers (CMW) and other international human rights instruments, all ASEAN states should allow for migrant workers to form and/or join trade unions in the receiving nation.

No ASEAN country should criminalize undocumented migrant workers nor use corporeal punishment (such as caning) against migrant workers.

ASEAN should set out a no-tolerance policy towards use of violence against migrant workers, and should ensure that all its member nations provide migrant workers with the same rights to access to justice as the national of the receiving country. Migrant workers who return to their country of origin shall have the right to file a legal complaint against an abuser in the receiving country. A system (if not yet in place) should be developed where the migrant worker can file a legal complaint through the Embassy of the receiving country, and this Embassy would then be required to transmit the complaint back to the receiving country for action by the receiving country’s courts. The Philippine embassy in the receiving country should be required to monitor the progress of the migrant worker’s case filed in the receiving country’s court, and provide regular updates.

Endorsed by participants to the National conference workshop held in Davao City from Sept. 22-23, 2008.

Report of the Buhay Foundation for Women and the Girl Child




The project “National Workshop on Trafficking in Persons, Gender, Migration and Labour” was fully realized by the Buhay Foundation for Women and the Girl Child in partnership with the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW).
The two-day conference workshop was finally held from Sept. 22-23, 2008 though it scaled down participants from other cities in the Philippines due to a limited budget.

A total of 30 participants came for the conference workshop with Davao City as the venue . Four participants from Metro Manila (2 persons) and Baguio City (2 persons) as well as two other participants from Cebu City arrived in Davao City on Sept. 20 and 21 and attended the facilitators meeting that preceded the 2-day conference. Some 22 persons from Davao City (mostly women) and nearby municipalities of Davao province form the bulk of the local participants that attended the two-day workshop. They represent NGOs working on anti-trafficking , domestic workers and migrant workers issues, as well as women’s rights, academia and Davao City government social welfare officers doing anti-tafficking work. Two persons from the GAATW-IS based in Bangkok came as resource persons on the main topic of sharing the findings and recommendations from“Collateral Damage” research report as well as on the vision, mission, activities and programs of GAATW. It is noteworthy to state that there are at least four participants from the local self-organized groups including a Filipina migrant woman worker returnee based in Davao City who was trafficked to Malaysia and Filipina migrant worker entertainers who returned from Japan.

A full program and agenda was elaborated with various topics and resource persons The discussions were dynamic and enriching. According to the evaluation of the local participants, the workshop content and process gave them so much information and knowledge; provided lots of new insights and food for thought on trafficking, migration, labour and a rights-based approach; provoking new thinking on the esisting anti-trafficking work and approaches. Conference recommendations and a plan of action were drafted and sent out to the participants a month after the workshop (October 2008). The participants noted the positive contributions of the self-organized groups representatives (mostly migrant worker returnees from Malaysia and Japan) who selflessly shared their stories of labour exploitation, discrimination, trafficking into sex work and domestic work, abandonment of the entertainers children by Japanese men, etc.

Follow-up workshop meetings are now being prepared by the Buhay Foundation for Women planned to be held in Cebu City, Baguio City and Metro Manila between the months of May-October 2009 to deepen the discussion of issues and recommendations arising from the Davao workshop such as the impact of anti-trafficking initiatives to the human rights of migrants including domestic and sex workers and the rationale to form a support network and alliance that will serve as a platform to promote a human rights approach to anti-trafficking work and to recognize and promote the rights of various affected sectors of the domestic workers, women in prostitution, transgendered persons and trafficked persons themselves. A national preparatory meeting for the Southeast Asia Court of Women on Trafficking and HIV sponsored by the AWHRC (Asian Women Human Rights Council) planned in the month of June 2009 will also be merged by the Buhay Foundation for Women with the forthcoming workshops to add the dimension of public health impact and health rights of migrants, women in prostitution and transgendered sex workers and trafficked persons thru the HIV prevention component.

Thanks to GAATW for the support and partnership which is critical to an intervention for a rights based approach to anti-trafficking work in the Philippines and to promoting and centering the human rights of the affected sectors.