Sexual slavery

Sexual slavery occurs when someone claims ownership over another person or people, aiming to force them into sexual acts. This covers situations like coerced labor leading to sex, forced marriage, and sex trafficking, including the trafficking of children.

Africa

Throughout history, sexual slavery has appeared in many forms. These have ranged from individual ownership to ritual servitude tied to religious practices in places like Ghana, Togo, and Benin.

It has also been present in systems not primarily meant for sex, such as during the colonization of the Americas. There, forced labor for economic gain was accompanied by widespread non-consensual sexual activity. In some cultures, concubinage has served as a traditional form of sexual slavery; for example, in Islamic practice, concubines held specific rights and a recognized social position.

The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action calls for global awareness that sexual slavery violates human rights. UNESCO, with help from various international agencies, has studied and tabulated the incidence of sexual slavery by country.

Definitions

Definitions under the 1988 Rome Statute, which governs the International Criminal Court, list crimes against humanity including "enslavement" and "sexual enslavement" when part of a widespread or systematic attack on civilians. The Statute also defines sexual enslavement as a war crime and a breach of the Geneva Conventions during international armed conflict, and indirectly during internal armed conflict. However, the Court’s jurisdiction over war crimes does not cover internal disturbances, riots, or isolated violent acts. The Statute does not explicitly define sexual enslavement, but defines enslavement as exercising any or all ownership powers over a person, including in trafficking, especially of women and children.

Commercial sexual exploitation of adults

Commercial sexual exploitation of adults, often called sex trafficking, involves recruiting, transporting, or harboring people through coercion or abuse for sexual exploitation. This is not the only form of human trafficking, and estimates vary on what share of trafficking is for sexual slavery. A UNODC report cited by BBC News listed Thailand, Japan, Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Turkey, and the United States as common destinations for trafficking victims in 2007, with Thailand, China, Nigeria, Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine as major sources.

In 2012, the ILO reported 20.9 million people in forced labor, with 22% (4.5 million) in forced sexual exploitation, 300,000 of them in developed economies and the EU. In 2016, the ILO estimated 25 million people in forced labor, 5 million in sexual exploitation. Due to the hidden nature of sex trafficking, accurate statistics are hard to obtain.

Commercial sexual exploitation of children

Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) includes child prostitution, child sex tourism, child pornography, and other transactional sex with minors. YAPI describes CSEC as coercion and violence against children, a modern form of slavery. A 1996 Stockholm declaration defined CSEC as sexual abuse by an adult with payment in cash or kind to the child or a third party, treating the child as a sexual and commercial object.

Child prostitution, or child sex trafficking, is a form of sexual slavery where a child performs prostitution, often for an adult’s financial gain. It typically involves kidnapping or trickery into the sex trade, or survival sex for basic needs. It often overlaps with child pornography. Some people travel abroad for child sex tourism.

Research suggests up to 10 million children may be involved in prostitution worldwide, most commonly in South America and Asia, but it exists globally. Most are girls, though the number of boys is rising. India’s federal police estimated in 2009 that about 1.2 million children in India were involved in prostitution.