Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking of Aboriginal Women and Girls

1
Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking of
Aboriginal Women and Girls

• By Teresa Edwards,
• IAHR Director
• January 2015

2
Road Map

• Literature Review - Limitations
• Statistics A Snapshot
• Why are Aboriginal women and girls more
  vulnerable and at risk?
• Typical Experience In The Life PTSD
• Impacts of IRS
• Recruitment
• Survey Results
• Prevention
• What Have We Learned Needs, Exit Strategies
  Effective Supports
• Gaps in the Research
• Law Practice
• Recommendations

3
Literature Review / Research

• In March - May 2013, NWAC completed a literature
  review on the state of sexual exploitation and
  human trafficking of Aboriginal women and girls
  in Canada.
• This review examines relevant research,
  legislation and regulations in Canada and
  internationally, as well as related reports to
  examine, review, analyze, and subsequently report
  on, relevant research from 1998 2012.
• In May 2013, NWAC conducted Key Informant
  interviews and also collected data from
  experiential Aboriginal women via survey monkey.

4
Limitations

• Time
• Interviews - trauma
• Help hotline phone number
• Sample size

5
Statistics a snapshot

• Aboriginal women and youth comprise up to 90 of
  the visible sex trade (Save the Children, 2000).
• In Vancouvers Downtown Eastside, Aboriginal
  women account for nearly 80 of survival sex
  trade workers (Burgelhaus, M. and M. Stokl,
  Sheway, 2005)
• 4 out of 5 women in Aboriginal Communities will
  be sexually abused
• 82 of Aboriginal women involved in the sex trade
  are in need of urgent drug and alcohol treatment
• 80-90 of Aboriginal mothers in Winnipeg, Regina
  and Saskatoon are single mothers and live below
  the poverty level (RCAP 2006 from 2001 Census)

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Stats from the literature

• 70 of the street prostitutes were Aboriginal
  women under the age of 26 (Currie, 2000)
• 30 of sex workers that they surveyed identified
  as being Indigenous women (PACE Society, 2000)
• 52 out of 100 sexually exploited and trafficked
  women interviewed in Vancouver Downtown Eastside,
  BC identified as being First Nations (Farley,
  Lynne and Cotton, 2005)
• Studies on human trafficking in Canada conclude
  that the majority of people trafficked within
  Canada are Aboriginal women and children victims
  of sex trafficking (Barrett, 2010)
• Vancouver, BC Ottawa, ON and Winnipeg, MB as
  major centers for the sexual trafficking of
  Aboriginal women and children (Pierce, 2012)

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Why are Aboriginal women and girls more
vulnerable and at risk?
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Increased Risk/ Vulnerabilities

• Dysfunctional home environment / family violence
• Previous experience of sexual exploitation
  forms of abuse as a child
• Ongoing inter-generational impacts of IRS
• Systemic discrimination / colonization
• Race- and gender-based discrimination
• Lack of formal education
• Extreme poverty, financial hardship
• Homelessness
• Migration

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Increased Risk/ Vulnerabilities

• Lack of employment opportunities
• Lack of support networks
• Low self-esteem
• History of child welfare system
• Drugs substance abuse / addictions
• Lack of basic needs being met / survival needs
• History of family in prostitution
• Remote / rural community
• Lack of cultural identity

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Aboriginal children

• 52.1 of all Aboriginal children live in extreme
  poverty
• 53 of children on social workers caseloads are
  aboriginal and are 12.5 times more likely to be
  in care than non-aboriginal children
• Children from indigenous or ethnic minority
  populations are also frequently at greater risk
  of commercial sexual exploitation due to the
  harmful effects of systemic discrimination and
  social breakdown.
• (Save the Children, 2000)

• .

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Typical experiences In the life

• Farley, Lynne and Cotton (2005) reported on
  prostitution in Vancouver. The following data is
  a comparison between First Nations participants
  (52) and non-First Nations participants (48).
• 96 reported childhood sexual abuse vs. 82 by
  non-FNs
• 81 reported childhood physical abuse vs. 58 by
  non-FNs
• 88 experienced physical assault while in
  prostitution vs. 89 non-FNs
• 92 experienced rape in prostitution vs. 92 of
  non-FNs.
• 83 reported homelessness vs. 87 of non-FNs

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Health Risks

• Physical and Mental health conditions
• HIV and other STDs
• PTSD and trauma
• Chronic health conditions (respiratory illness,
  bronchitis and pneumonia)
• Substance abuse and addictions
• Reproductive health problems
• Increased risk of violence

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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• Out of 100 participants, including both First
  Nations and non-First Nations, 72 qualified for
  PSTD which is among the highest reported in
  populations where PTSD has been studied,
  including battered women, combat veterans,
  childhood trauma survivors, rape survivors, and
  torture survivors
• (Farley, Lynne, Cotton, 2005, p. 255)

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Indian Residential School (IRS)

• Placing First Nations children in foster care
  has been linked with many of the same tragic
  outcomes as children who attended residential
  schools such as cultural and linguistic erosion,
  poorer educational outcomes, over-representation
  in justice systems, and higher incidence of
  substance misuse and sexual exploitation
• (Blackstock ,2010)

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Impact of IRS experience

• Forced loss of culture, language and traditional
  values, sexual abuse, difficulty bonding with
  others and in forming relationships, lack of
  parenting and life skills, loss of
  self-respect/respect for others, use of drugs and
  alcohol to cope with painful memories
• More than 40 of Aboriginal women in prison have
  been to IRSs more than that have been placed in
  care or have parents who went to IRS

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Over-Policed Under-Protected

• Aboriginal Peoples in the justice system are
  classified as higher risk and higher need.
• One out of three (33.1) new female offenders in
  the federal corrections system are Aboriginal.
• Disproportionate number of missing and murdered
  women in Canada are Aboriginal.

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Recruitment

• Instead of the question, Did she voluntarily
  consent to prostitution? the more relevant
  question would be Did she have real
  alternatives to prostitution for survival?
  (Farley et al., 2003)
• Isolation, poverty, homelessness
• Violence
• Familial aspect (people they know), praise,
  lures
• Education (lack of)

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• Trends have been identified that show that
  Aboriginal girls are forced into situations or to
  use coping strategies that increase their
  vulnerability to violence, such as
• Hitchhiking
• Addictions
• Unsafe housing or homelessness
• Prostitution and the sex trade
• Gang involvement
• Trafficking/sexual exploitation
• Abusive relationships

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Survey Results

• 50 of those surveyed were first recruited
  between the ages of 9-14, 1 participant was under
  9 yrs when recruited.
• 85.7 were sexually abused, raped or molested
  before being sexually exploited or trafficked.
• 100 answered that they were expected to do
  everything the men wanted.

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Survey Results pt. 2

• 85.7 of participants had to do things they were
  not comfortable doing.
• Many participants indicated they were forced to
  have sex with professionals including Doctors,
  Judges, Police, and Social workers.
• 42.9 were not allowed to come and go freely.
• 85.7 said that they sometimes, often and always
  tried to resist and leave their situation.

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Survey Results pt. 3

• If caught trying to leave, 71.4 were beaten, 57
  were locked up, 71.4 faced increased debt
  higher quota, 43 were drugged or withheld food
  and water.
• 50 were not allowed contact with family or
  friends.
• 75 did not get to keep any of the earnings.

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Survey Results pt. 4

• 71.4 did not abuse drugs, alcohol and other
  substances BEFORE
• 71.4 abused drugs, alcohol and other substances
  DURING
• Only 14.3 are currently abusing drugs, alcohol
  and other substances
• 85.7 of bosses were involved in criminal
  activity

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Prevention

• Education awareness
• Healthy, stable environments
• Economic, housing, support options
• The Aboriginal community

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What Have We Learned ?
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What do you need?

• 88 drug or alcohol treatment
• 78 job training
• 67 individual counseling
• 63 self-defense training
• 61 home or safe place
• 53 peer support
• 41 medical/health care
• 33 legal assistance
• 24 legalized prostitution
• 16 childcare
• 4 physical protection from pimp
• (Sexually exploited Aboriginal womens answer,
  Farley, Lynne, Cotton, 2005)

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Exit strategies support

• People dont heal overnight. It took seventeen
  years to get all the shit inside of you and its
  probably going to take twenty years to get it out
  of you (Experiential woman from Seshia,
  2005)
• What works (flexible services judgement free
  understanding long term
• Survivors make the best health-recruits
• Education
• Opportunities support
• Long term programs with reliable support
• Adequate housing

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Effective Supports

• Judgement free
• Understanding
• Staffed by survivors
• Designed with experiential women input
• Long-term
• Flexible treatment
• Harm reduction
• Culturally appropriate
• Gender appropriate

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Gaps in the research

• Overly focused on Western Canada
• Findings on Aboriginal women and girls are often
  incidental
• No longitudinal research on support programs
• Lack of recent research in Aboriginal communities

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Gaps from the research, pt. 1

• Lack of services that are Aboriginal specific
• Too many obstacles for young Aboriginals
  attempting to get help
• Rigidity of program services
• Lack of participation in program development from
  experiential women

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Gaps from the research, pt. 2

• Lack of sufficient and reliable funding for
  supports
• Lack of data on a national level
• Lack of supports in rural Aboriginal communities
• Lack of capacity for running support services and
  doing research into the exploitation in
  Aboriginal communities

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Law and Practice

• Bill C-49
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Human
  Trafficking National Coordination Centre (HTNCC)
• British Columbias Office to Combat Trafficking
  in Persons (OCTIP)
• National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking
  (NAPCH) and
• Manitobas development of the Child Sexual
  Exploitation and Human Trafficking Act (Act).

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Recommendations

• The first step in addressing domestic
  trafficking of Aboriginal girls is to acknowledge
  the seriousness of the problem (Seshia, 2007)
• Because of the complexity of the trafficking
  situation for Aboriginal communities, any one
  anti-trafficking practice will be insufficient to
  solve the problem on its own (Barrett, 2010)

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Recommendations, pt. 2

• Equality
• Empowerment
• Culture
• Awareness education
• Economic opportunity
• Job skills life skills
• Complex, multifaceted solutions
• Initiatives built on cooperation and
  collaboration with Aboriginal communities and
  advocacy organizations

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Recommendations, pt. 3

• Aboriginal Community
• Keep kids in school Cultural mediators
  Survivor-led shelters and transition programs
  Strengthening Native culture
• Native communities, agencies, leaders need to
  be more active in addressing issues of sexual
  exploitation for Aboriginal people

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Recommendations, pt. 4

• Policy
• Acknowledgement and recognition honor Indigenous
  knowledge recognize diversity among Aboriginal
  peoples establish national strategy bridge the
  policy-practice gap alliance between Aboriginals
  and non-Aboriginals emphasis prevention over
  reaction culturally relevant services capacity
  building of NGOs capacity building in Aboriginal
  communities (Sethi, 2007)

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Recommendations, pt. 5

• Awareness campaigns
• Education on healthy touching
• Education on healthy living
• More services aimed at Aboriginal women and girls
  (culture- and gender-relevant)
• Preventative measures

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Conclusion Intersections of Ethnicity, Sex
Class

• Social and economic marginalization of Aboriginal
  peoples persists.
• Government policies undermine the culture and
  social fabric of Aboriginal communities
• contributing to poverty, substance abuse, loss of
  language, and traditional practices.
• Aboriginal women continue to face racism and
  sexism
• These, and a multitude of factors, lead to the
  drastic overrepresentation of Aboriginal women
  and girls in human trafficking for sexual
  exploitation in Canada

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Lessons Learned

• Need to continue to improve the socio-economic
  outcomes for Aboriginal women and families.
• Policy MUST be informed by evidence.
• We cant do it alone all levels of government
  and all justice officials need to work together
  to develop a coordinated plan.
• Leadership at all levels of Government needs to
  speak out.
• Men must take a stand and be part of the
  solution.
• Need for ongoing recognition that this is an
  issue affecting all Canadians through a National
  Public Inquiry and implementation of a
  comprehensive Plan of Action.

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WelalioqChi-MiigwetchNiawen Ko waThank
youMerci

• Teresa Edwards
• Director of International Affairs and Human
  Rights, In-House Legal Counsel
• Native Womens Association of Canada
• tedwards_at_nwac.ca
• 613-722-3033 x 235