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Campaign against women trafficking

WOMAN TRAFICKING IN WEST KALIMANTAN

Background

In the coastal areas of Pemangkat and Sambas in the District of Sambas and in some part of Pontianak Municipality, cases of young woman being trapped into prostitution are strikingly high. Another phenomenon that attracts serious attention is the growing number of young women to be recruited as sex workers in the other side of the border (Sarawak, East Malaysia). On the other side, among the Chinese communities, women are also victimised by practices of "mail-ordered brides" or"ordered-marriage". Syndicates arrange this type of marriage. Men from abroad, mainly from Taiwan and Hong Kong look for wives via these syndicates. The highlight, however is not the getting married with a help of a syndicate, but the fact that many Indonesian Chinese woman getting married in this way are abused. There is not yet accurate official data on this matter, i.e. how many women are "trafficked" per year or how many women marry Taiwanese men and are abused. However, a survey made by eLPeKa lately showed that ten women staying in a hotel in Pemangkat being interviewed by eLPeKa staff all claimed to be women trapped into prostitution. In a neighbourhood consisting of 523 households, in which 167 were Chinese families, there were 6 women identified as victims of abuse of the ordered marriage.

On the one hand, economic harshness, gender bias and the absence of legal protection towards women serve as contributing factors of this condition. On the other, the poor awareness of the "victims" of the rights of women as well as their poor awareness of "healthy" sexual life play important role.

The social impact of this phenomenon is obviously serious. The unhealthy sexual practices surely have direct impact on the reproduction of women. The generation that comes out from such social context will be an unhealthy generation, physically, psychologically and socially. Such "sub-culture" is also a potential for spreading various venereal diseases including the HIV.

In response to this situation, eLPeKa especially concerns in rousing awareness of both the victims and the families in the potential areas. It is expected that the awareness of the victims will lead to attitude change while the awareness of the families in the potential areas will lead towards preventive measures. The weak law enforcement also accounts. The syndication prevails amidst the weak law enforcement. It is realised that to change the condition of weak law enforcement towards strong law enforcement does not merely requires awareness of the law enforcement body (the police) but also the change in the legal structure, legal content as well as legal culture. However, the awareness of the law enforcing body as well as the policy makers can become a start towards this change.

In the context of campaign against women trafficking, efforts are to be directed towards the following goal and objectives.

Goal

• The growing public awareness of the gravity of women trafficking as social problems in which crimes prevail and women's rights are violated.
• The growing public awareness of the urgency of local regulations to protect women from abusive conducts in general and from practices of women trafficking.

Objectives

1. Rouse the awareness of the families in potential areas of women's rights and urgency of protecting the girls and women of the families from falling into the traps of sex abusing power
2. Rouse the awareness of the law enforcing body, law makers and health service officials of gender sensitive so that they are more responsive towards the real situation

Activities

The main activities are media campaign, education and seminar.

1. Media Campaign

Media campaign is directed towards awareness building of the public of the gravity of women trafficking in the province. Local newspaper is chosen as a media campaign. Articles and news during the campaign will be those with relevant theme of the campaign that is a call for more serious attention to women trafficking. The seminar on women trafficking is also to be carried in the newspaper in order that wider range of readers know about the what of the seminar. Poster is another media of the campaign. The poster will be applied in strategic public places and distributed to local members of legislative body as well as to local police.

2. Education

The education is meant for awareness rousing of the families in the potential areas as well as for the "victims". The booklet containing Universal Declaration on Human Rights and Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women is one instrument for the target communities to go to the awareness of human rights and women's rights. eLPeKa personnel will facilitate discussions with participatory methods on human rights subjects and on their real situation.

3. Seminar

In the first place the seminar is to explore ideas, thoughts of the stakeholders (government, police, local legislature) to take action in response to the problem. In the second place the seminar is to remind the government whether or not it has paid attention to the problem and whether or not they have thought of granting protection and assume responsibilities of the vulnerable communities whose rights are violated. The seminar is also to remind whether or not the local legislatures have considered of issuing regulations on the matter, regulations that protect the citizen of abusive or exploiting conducts.

Impact Assessment