WUNRN
ARGENTINA: Activists Criticise New Law
on Trafficking in Persons
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Apr 10, 2008 (IPS) - Women’s rights
groups that fought hard for a new law to crack down on trafficking in persons
in Argentina are opposed to the legislation that was finally passed by Congress
after years of debate because it requires victims over the age of 18 to prove
that they did not give their consent to be sexually exploited.
"It’s not what we wanted; we are going to ask the
executive branch to veto it," feminist lawyer Marta Fontenla, with the
Women’s Association for Work and Studies (ATEM), told IPS.
ATEM forms part of the Red No a la Trata de Mujeres (No to
Trafficking in Women Network), which also rejects the new legislation.
The law, which makes trafficking in persons a federal crime,
was approved late Wednesday by the Chamber of Deputies by a vote of 157 to 35,
with six abstentions, based on a draft law introduced by ruling Justicialista
(Peronist) Party lawmaker Vilma Ibarra with the backing of the Interior
Ministry.
The new legislation had already made it through the Senate.
It must now either be signed into law or vetoed by President Cristina
Fernández.
Ibarra and other advocates of the law say it protects
women’s right to voluntarily engage in prostitution.
However, the Association of Women Prostitutes of Argentina
(AMMAR) was also opposed to passage of the new law, Elena Reynaga, the head of
the group, told IPS.
"To put an end to trafficking in persons, we have to
put an end to hypocrisy, because in Argentina there are a number of crimes
related to trafficking that are already punishable by law, but the problem is
that these laws are not enforced, whether due to negligence or intentionality
on the part of the political powers-that-be or the judicial authorities. For
example, procuring is a crime, but it is practiced anyway," she said.
The No to Trafficking in Women Network has worked for over a
decade to raise awareness of the problem and increase its visibility.
In Argentina, around 90 percent of the cases of trafficking
in persons involve commercial sexual exploitation, while the remainder involves
slave labour, domestic servitude, illegal adoptions or organ theft.
According to the Network, some 500 missing women in
Argentina are presumed to have fallen prey to forced prostitution rings. In
some cases they were kidnapped, but the majority were lured in by promises of
well-paid jobs or other forms of deception.
The Network and other human rights groups, with support from
the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), lobbied for a federal law
against trafficking, in order to accelerate legal cases that often run into
hurdles and are bogged down because the victims are moved from one province to
another.
The penal code now establishes prison sentences of three to
six years for those convicted of participating in the entrapment, recruitment,
transportation or reception of people for the purposes of sexual or labour
exploitation or organ harvesting. If the victim is younger than 13, the maximum
sentence climbs to 15 years.
The women’s organisations agree with that part of the law.
But the new legislation also states that in the case of victims over the age of
18, the state or the victims themselves must prove that they were recruited by
means of deception, fraud, violence, threat, intimidation, coercion or abuse of
authority.
"This law is a setback, because it creates the idea
that there is illegitimate trafficking that is penalised and legitimate
trafficking in which the victims supposedly give their consent to be
prostituted," said Fontenla. "But we believe that no one can consent
to their own exploitation."
The lawyer said the highest profile cases of trafficking, in
which women are kidnapped, actually make up a small portion of the total. Much
more common, she said, are girls or young women who are recruited by means of
deception or who knowingly enter into prostitution out of necessity.
"Those cases are also crimes; you shouldn't have to prove that violence
was used," Fontenla argued.
Sara Torres, coordinator of the Network, told IPS that the
new law runs counter to international treaties that establish that trafficking
in persons is a crime regardless of the victim’s age and whether or not they
gave their "consent."
Argentina is a signatory to the American Convention on Human
Rights and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, which means they have the force of law in this
country.
The women’s groups and human rights organisations are
considering asking President Fernández to partially veto the law.
But the representative of the IOM in Argentina, Eugenio
Ambrossi, said the approval of the law was "excellent news," above
and beyond the criticism it has drawn.
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