On the historic occasion of the 47th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) recognizes the significant commitment of this Commission to the elimination of all forms of violence toward women and girls. ISTSS particularly commends past and present efforts to address the problem of trafficking in women and girls, and notes that the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/57/176) has acknowledged that such trafficking and all “sexual exploitation through prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation and contemporary forms of slavery are serious violations of human rights.” ISTSS also recognizes the important international responses to trafficking exemplified by a number of United Nations conventions and associated protocols, such as the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, to the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
In this Commission’s present endeavor to increase the global safety of women and girls in a meaningful way, we believe it is particularly crucial to emphasize the serious long-term effects of traumatic stress on the physical and mental health of women and girls who have survived human trafficking, and the absolutely critical need for the adequate psychosocial rehabilitation of all trafficking survivors to be provided for by this Commission in its response to the human rights crisis of human trafficking. Specifically, ISTSS recommends that this Commission adopt the language included in Paragraphs 78 and 79 of the Report of the Expert Group Meeting of the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (November 2002): that “Governments should ensure, in partnership with NGOs, that all victims have access to…culture-based psychological support,” and that “Governments should ensure trauma-specific treatment and services in cases of traumatic stress.” Sufficient knowledge of traumatic dysfunction should be reflected in all policies and programs that affect the health, rights and legal status of survivors. Governments and other entities must ensure that all programs and services are administered without discrimination, including any exclusion or disadvantage deriving from trauma-related impairment or disability, and effective mechanisms of accountability must be established, along with thorough and professional program evaluation.
Most women and children who have been trafficked for sexual exploitation have experienced multiple trauma events, including some combination of repeated rape, gang rape or other forms of sexual torture; forced prostitution; non-sexual violence; death threats or threats of violence; witnessing murder, torture or other types of violence; imprisonment; isolation and threats against family members. It should be noted that the psychological humiliation experienced by women and girls forced into prostitution or pornography, and shamed beyond limits tolerated by traditional attitudes on gender, may be at least as traumatic for these individuals as the actual violence (Herman, 1997). Trafficked women and girls often lose any concept of a future – a common symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder. As Mollica and Son (1989, p. 365) pointed out, “Social stigma and rejection reinforce the victim’s own feelings of shame, guilt, and self-blame. In cultures in which the social, political, and religious customs are male-dominated and in which purity and chastity define women’s goodness and self-worth, many victims are reluctant to express their feelings about the trauma.”
Thus, trafficking survivors may be emotionally and psychologically unable to handle their experience; the extreme trauma of trafficking is likely to overwhelm ordinary coping mechanisms. The result may be a variety of serious psychiatric disorders, involving depression, dissociation or severe anxiety, as in post-traumatic stress disorder. In girls, additional symptoms may include phobias, somatic complaints, clinging to adults, bedwetting, learning difficulties and aggressive or sexualized play. Self-blame and inability to trust are common problems among survivors. And numerous trafficking survivors suffer from complex PTSD: a large-scale breakdown in social, emotional, physical and cognitive functioning, with severe impairments that may last a lifetime.
We now have an unprecedented opportunity to rescue women and girls from the slavery of human trafficking and its associated trauma symptoms. Let us call upon Governments to provide effective trauma rehabilitation for survivors of trafficking, including adequate funding for scientifically validated assessment and treatment (Foa, et al., 2000), and – as stated in Paragraph 22 of the aforementioned General Assembly resolution – “to formulate training manuals for law enforcement and medical personnel and judicial officers who handle cases of trafficked women and girls, with a view to sensitizing them to the special needs of victims.” (See Weine, Danieli, et al., 2002.) Trafficking in women and girls is an ongoing disaster involving gender inequities of economics and political power. It is also a public health crisis in which millions of individual lives are devastated by trauma. This Commission can ensure that the resources are in place to promote genuine healing and to help rebuild those lives.
References
Foa, E. B., Keane, T. M., & Friedman, M. J. (Eds.). (2000). Effective treatments for PTSD: Practice guidelines from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. New York: Guilford.
Herman, J. (1997). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence – from domestic abuse to political terror. New York: Basic Books.
Mollica, R. F., & Son, L. (1989). Cultural dimensions in the evaluation and treatment of sexual trauma. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 12, 363-379.