In recognition of International Human Rights Day, representatives from various student organizations came together Monday night in a forum focusing on the global mistreatment of women and children.
Monday was the last of 16 “Days of Activism Against Gender Violence.” Members of Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment, Men Opposing Sexual Assault, National Organization for Women, the East Timor Action Network and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Campus Center spoke about international issues regarding human rights and the United States’ potential role in improving this situation.
Austin King, UW-Madison senior and MOSA member, raised the issue of the sexual exploitation of children, or “sex tourism,” a practice in which agencies facilitate travel for mainly American and Japanese men to enable sex with minors.
King quoted United Nations statistics on the number of children in the sex industry in numerous countries, including 850,000 in Thailand and 500,000 in Brazil.
King called this “a vile, but all too common practice,” but said it is very difficult to monitor.
“The World Sex Archives Web site, a sex tourism site targeted toward Americans, comes out of Russia,” King said. “There are lots of loopholes like this, so it is hard to crack down on.”
King said the United States is not cooperating with organizations trying to improve these conditions.
“The United States and Somalia are the only two countries in the world that haven’t signed the U.N. ban on child sexual exploitation,” King said.
UW junior Lauren Besser, a NOW member, talked about the link between child exploitation and domestic child abuse.
Many children flee abusive homes and end up selling sexual services in order to financially support themselves, she said.
Besser said sexual abuse in North America is becoming more talked about, but the sexual exploitation of children that often follows is a “hush-hush” subject in the United States.
“326,000 U.S. children are victims of sexual exploitation,” Besser said. “This is something that needs to be stopped.”
UW student Yin Yan addressed the effect of the “one child” law in China. The law, which allows families to have only one child, preferably a son, is in conjunction with the idea of it being better to have a dog than a daughter.
As a result of the law, many female children are enslaved, mistreated or killed. Today, there are 69 million more men than women in China, presumably because of this law, she said.
UW graduate and ETAN member Diane Farsetta spoke of the devastation in East Timor in the past few decades. Farsetta addressed the actions of the Indonesian military against the East Timorese and the enslavement of women and children that followed the country’s independence in 1999.
Farsetta cited the economic relationship between the United States and Indonesia as the reason the United States failed to intervene during the 24-year period of terror in East Timor.
Farsetta also said since the Sept. 11 attacks, as the United States wages its war on terrorism, there is a strong dependence on Muslim allies to avoid the misunderstanding that the current conflict is a religious war.
“Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world,” Farsetta said. “So if the United States reinstates military support to Indonesia, we would be supporting the same [regime] that devastated East Timor.”
Farsetta said our impact on the international community is a burden we must all bear.
“As U.S. citizens, we really do have to take responsibility for the actions of our government and the effect we have on other countries,” she said.
All panelists addressed the responsibility of U.S. citizens to be aware, get involved and contact legislators.
“Our foreign policy needs to be more humane; right now it is driven by the dollar,” King said. “We need to put an end to all of it, but it involves knowing what is going on.”
