by Siriporn Skrobanek

Prostitution is certainly not women's oldest profession, but it is a mode of reproduction in a male-dominated society in which women's sexuality is controlled and utilized for male sexual pleasure.

Formerly, when women sold their bodies to men, they were considered to be "fallen women" and thought to deserve negative and moral sanctions. Nowadays, as in the past, laws and programs tackling prostitution are based on the same bias against "fallen women." Instead of protecting women, who in many cases are deprived of appropriate means for earning a livelihood and forced into prostitution, most measures tackling prostitution. particularly the laws, tend to protect men from "bad" women. Most people do not distinguish between prostitutes as individual human beings and prostitution, which is an institution. Based on this lack of distinction, the suppression of prostitution is synonymous with arresting and penalizing women who are prostitutes.

This approach neglects other factors in prostitution, such as the criminal syndicates involved in trafficking women, and the rapid socio-economic and political transformations taking place in Southeast Asia, which are greatly influenced by multinational companies and agencies. In efforts to achieve rapid economic growth, governments and agencies such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have encouraged building up the tourism industry in most of Southeast Asia, This increase in tourism, accompanied by the unequal distribution of wealth between the rich and poor within developing countries, has greatly contributed to an increase in prostitution and the trafficking of women.

With the present world economic order, prostitution is not limited to one national boundary. Impoverished women are traded or sold to rich men the world over. One German marriage agency touts "Happiness without Barriers," but in the lives of many women, the result is "sexploitation without barriers." The direction of trade is not simply South to North. It flows from Latin America to southern Europe and the Middle East; from Southeast Asia to the Middle East and Central and Northern Europe; and from East Europe to West Europe.

This paper will first discuss the main factors contributing to mass prostitution and the trafficking of women in Southeast Asia, and then focus on case studies of strategies that either have been or should be undertaken to eradicate this form of violence against women.

Socioeconomic transformation

The development strategy undertaken by Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries aims at integrating its economy into the world market system. In order to attract foreign exchange in the local economy, many governments provide international firms with incentives such as tax free property, exemption from import taxes, and cheap labor. As a result, landless peasants migrate to the cities in search of employment, where they are transformed into wage earners with incomes often insufficient to feed their families.

Increasingly, peasant women are being forced by poverty to migrate to large cities in hopes of finding employment. Those women who find work in factories of international firms, manufacturers or agribusiness find themselves victims of policies that seek high profits from cheap, docile female labor (Vajrathon, 1984, p. 673). Due to their lack of skills, women receive lower wages and encounter hierarchical relations with male workers. They are considered workers of secondary status in market-oriented production and are in the position of last hired, first fired. Their wages are only considered supplementary to men's. For those women who are either the main or sole breadwinners of their families, supplementary income becomes a necessity. However, for many women, employment opportunities are very limited. Women, especially younger women, are more likely to find jobs in the service sector, and end up working in bars, night clubs, massage parlors and hotels, jobs which often lead to prostitution. In many cases, women take prostitution as an additional part-time job. In the international arena, the biggest demand for women from Thailand comes from the international sex business.

Sex tourism

One of the main contributing factors to the transnational sexual exploitation of women, especially in Third World countries, is the tourism industry. In 1990, tourism accounted for six percent of Thailand's gross domestic product, making it the country's largest earner of foreign exchange.

The late U.S. President John F. Kennedy's view that tourism would facilitate international understanding stimulated the introduction of the industry to developing countries. As a key component of the development strategy for Third World countries during the 1960s and 1970s, major multilateral and bilateral development agencies (such as the World Bank, the IMF and USAID) offered huge loans to develop a tourism infrastructure. Their rationale was that tourists from industrialized countries with purchasing power would introduce foreign exchange and facilitate "international understanding." Tourism became one of the main production sectors in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Many others in the Third World followed this lead in order to increase the flow of foreign currency into their countries.

The tourist industry in Thailand, which works closely with the sex industry (Vajrathon, 1984, p. 673), began approximately 25 years ago when U.S. soldiers fighting in Vietnam visited Thailand for rest and relaxation, and helped develop the now infamous Thai brand of sun, sea and sex. The one attraction for the soldiers then, and international tourists now, is what they consider the subservience of the Thai people, in particular Thai women. While the tourism industry in developed countries sells natural beauty and cultural heritage, tourism in developing countries also sells their people, who are advertised as being domesticated and trained to serve international tourists. This form of tourism, which is advertised by tourist agencies throughout Southeast Asia, is a remnant from the colonial period. The subservience of women may add an additional attraction for some men from industrialized countries, where the economic situation of most women may be better and they are less likely to be subservient.

When men are on business trips or vacations away from home, the guilt and/or social stigma associated with participation in prostitution in their own country may be discarded temporarily. The tourist industry in the countries of Southeast Asia provides a haven for sexual adventures, in which men may contract the service of a sex slave to cater to his needs. Most sex tours come as package vacations offered to European and Japanese men. Although they include airfare, accommodation and tourist attractions, the main feature is providing them with women for their unlimited sexual use. Some include the opportunity for men to purchase the women as wives. Often, these tours are offered by businesses who wish to provide additional work incentives to their male employees (Barry, Bunch and Castley. 1984, p. 38).

Sex tours are a relatively recent phenomena, arising from the combination of increased tourism, poverty, and the unequal distribution of wealth between the industrialized and developing countries. The price of a sex tour, when converted from foreign to local currency, is relatively cheap even for a man of low socioeconomic background in an industrialized country. Although prostitution is illegal in Thailand, it is tacitly accepted by the government because of the revenues it generates. However, it should be pointed out that in most cases the prostitutes keep only a small percentage of their earnings, with most of the earnings going to sex tour guides and hotels, bars, and brothels (Vajrathon, 1984, p. 670). This situation reinforces the dependency women have on pimps or bosses for their earnings; and the women themselves remain at an economic disadvantage which, along with their status in society as "fallen women," may lead them to believe that they have no other option but to continue working as prostitutes.

Sex tourists try to legitimize their actions by arguing that prostitution is part of the culture of the host country, and that they are merely using the sexual infrastructure already in existence. Further, they argue that they are bringing "development aid" to improve living conditions of women in tourist-receiving countries. Some male analysts display their sexist attitude by claiming that women working for tourists gain more, they earn enough to live, and they have the opportunity to ensure a good future by finding a husband or steady partner from a rich country. Unfortunately, these male analysts have not conducted any further research on these "lucky" women who bear a social stigma and are targets of discriminatory measures. This sexist and racist attitude is exemplified in excerpts from a pamphlet offered to Dutch men for sex tours to Thailand:

They (sex tours) offer meetings with the most beautiful and young Eastern creatures (age 16 to 24 years) in a soft and sexy surrounding and in the seductive and tropical night of the exotic paradise.... You get the feeling that taking a girl here is as easy as buying a packet of cigarettes....Many of the girls in the sex world come from the poor northeastern region of the country or the slums of Bangkok. It has become a habit that one of the nice looking daughters goes into the business. They have to earn money for the poor family.... With this little slave you can do practically everything in the field of sex the whole night and you will not be disappointed with the girl. She gives real Thai warmth (translation by Lin Lap in Barry, et al.. 1984, pp. 1230-125).

The international network in trafficking women

Developing in tandem with the sex tours is international trafficking in women and the mailorder bride business. As demonstrated in the above excerpts from a Dutch pamphlet, women of Southeast Asia have been portrayed in western media as "exotic sexual objects" with oriental beauty and a subservient character; they have no desires for emancipation and they exist only to serve and make men happy. Therefore there is a constant demand for women from Southeast Asian countries, with Thailand and the Philippines the major suppliers.

A number of intermediaries have been set up to fulfill demands of men in rich countries by supplying women from poor countries. Tour and travel agencies, mail-order bride companies, and mafia-type networks have mushroomed as never before. They enrich themselves from the labor and sexuality of women in poor countries. Many women have fallen prey to violence and physical abuse as a result of arranged marriages. A number of women are victims of Japanese and European mafia, to whom they become indebted and must pay off large amounts of money for travel costs by working in the sex industry of the industrialized country. Many Thai women work for a long period in bars and mobile brothels without receiving any share of their earnings. Some of them are sold to local bar owners after their arrival in foreign countries.

Life abroad for the women

Once displaced to other countries via sex trade networks, the women may end up working
as strippers, go-go dancers, performers in sex shows, or hostesses-prostitutes. They also work as prostitutes in clubs or brothels. Women who are married to pimps or to foreign men may end up working as prostitutes in their own homes. Women from Third World countries working in the sex industry abroad encounter a multitude of problems in addition to basic problems of language and culture.⁽¹⁾

1. Underpayment - Third World women working in the sex business in Europe are usually paid 40 percent of their total earnings, the rest goes to the bar owners. The women who work for pimps hardly earn anything at all. It is reported that in Japan, 38 percent of the women who have entered the country illegally to work as hostesses, striptease dancers or prostitutes receive no payment in return.

2. Working conditions - Women working as prostitutes in foreign lands have to depend on their employers a great deal since they are unable to communicate in the native languages. Because of this, they are unable to protect their own interests and have little bargaining power. They may be shifted from one city to another. In Japan, some women are not allowed to telephone or to venture outside their workplace unaccompanied. They have to work 10 to 12 hours a day. In West Germany, on the other hand, some Thai women are known to have refused work when they felt they were being exploited. However, the leaders of such protests have been fired and their applications to other bars rejected. They have eventually returned to Thailand.

3. Physical abuse - It is common for women to be physically abused by their agents or employers. Some are beaten or battered by pimps. Others are threatened when they refuse to pay protection fees to the local mafia. For example, a woman who rents her place to work not only pays double the average rent, but she is also coerced into paying protection money. If she refuses, then both her safety and her property are at risk. In Switzerland, some pimps and mafia members earn US$200 to $500 a night in protection money.

4. Arrest - Women who are sent abroad through illegal means obviously run the risk of being arrested and deported. According to the Japanese Immigration Office report, in 1984, 557 Thai women were deported. Often the women face deportation as soon as they arrive at the airports of their destination. Many end up destitute, with all of their savings wasted on expensive brokerage fees and traveling expenses. Having entered a country illegally, and engaged in illegal employment, the women will not approach the police or other government agencies for fear of being arrested. In some cases, state officials themselves are the ones to take advantage of the women. For example, when they raid a bar they may pocket the women's earnings, or sometimes the women under arrest have to service them sexually in order to avoid harassment.

5. Humiliation - Prostitutes working abroad are usually looked upon with contempt by native women, especially women whose husbands use prostitutes' services. In Japan, some Japanese housewives inform the police so that foreign women can be arrested. Some have prejudices, believing that Southeast Asian women are dirty. The foreign women are aware of the ill feelings and racial discrimination from locals. Thai women in Hamburg say that they are looked down upon and are refused help because of the fact that they are prostitutes. Thai or Filipino women married to western men are often asked how much their husband paid in order to buy them. Thai or Filipino women working in Japan lament the fact that only they are arrested, whereas Americans working illegally in language schools are not. Racial discrimination has led to death. Two Filipino women died in a fire that burned down a cabaret club in Okinawa, Japan in 1983. It has been alleged that firemen, realizing that the place was the residence of foreign prostitutes, took their time in braking open the window bars.

6. Competition - Native prostitutes often resent their foreign counterparts because of the cheaper rates they offer, which undercut their own incomes. Foreign prostitutes are fiercely competitive among themselves as well. Antagonism, quarrels and fights are common. Some Thai prostitutes say that because they are not well versed in the native language, they often resort to physical violence when they quarrel with the native prostitutes.

As can be seen, Thai, Filipino and other women from Third World countries are ill-treated in a number of ways that violate their basic human rights and dignity. This form of exploitation and violence against women can be considered a modern form of slavery.

How to deal with the problem

The experiences of Women's Information Center of the Foundation for Women demonstrates that strict measures taken against the women themselves meet with very little success in curbing sex tourism or the trade in women. The women are simply victims of traders and the sex tourism industry. The punishment should go to sex industry promoters and procurers, not the victims. Worse still, some trading networks have formed connections with people with government power who wish to sustain revenues generated by the sex industry. The only way to solve this problem is to eradicate the sex trade and tourism networks, rather than to punish the women and further marginalize them from mainstream society.

To tackle the problem, legal measures are needed to suppress and punish the traders and owners of trafficking and sex tourism agencies, as well as measures to prevent the women from falling prey to the sex industry. The strategies should be directed to three levels of cooperation; local, national and international. A number of organizations working on this problem have adhered to this view.

Learning from action

Today the widespread problems of sex tourism and international trafficking of women have become urgent issues for women and human rights groups in various countries. They are a reflection of the sad reality of an international society which aims at economic growth and maximizing profit by exploiting powerless groups in poor countries. The present economic order and its division of labor makes it possible for men to use their own economic advantage to exploit economically disadvantaged women. Therefore, measures tackling this form of exploitation and violence against women have to take into consideration the present global economic structure, so that women in poor countries are not blamed and discriminated against. Women in Asia and some European countries have initiated many actions against this form of exploitation.

1. Protest against Japanese sex tours - In 1981, women's groups in Japan, Thailand and the Philippines organized a protest against Japanese sex tours during the visit of then newly elected prime minister, Zenko Suzuki. Fearing that demonstrations at the airport might upset the State visitor and hamper development aid, the Thai government provided a forum for women's groups to voice their views on radio and television. Local media gave full coverage to the demonstrations in front of the Japanese embassy in Bangkok, and provided background information on Japanese sex tours. This resulted in a promise from Japanese authorities to take action against sex tour agencies in Japan.

2. Demonstration against "development aid" from the Netherlands - In April 1982. women in the Netherlands and in Thailand organized a collective action against sex tours. The sex tour operator in Hoorn argued that his operation was another form of development aid to poor women in Thailand. In his brochure (from which excerpts appeared earlier in this paper), he used his Thai wife to advertise sexual journeys to the "Land of smile" where slaves a waited their masters. The Dutch women organized a demonstration at Schiphol airport on the day of the group's departure. Thai women organized another demonstration at Bangkok airport on the day of its arrival. One of the posters carried the message "Thai women are against development aid from Hoorn." That was
the year when Bangkokians were preparing the bicentennial celebration of the present capital. Strong protest came from various government and non-governmental groups. Authorities from both countries, for the first time, expressed their concern over the problem of sex tours.

3. Action of "Rote Zora" -  Disturbed by the advertisements and the operation of a mail-order bride company, a women's group in Germany, which called itself Rote Zora, took violent action against the operators of the company. A man was abducted and found naked in a forest with a written message that he would stop trading women from developing countries. This form of action created mixed feeling among the general public. Although some supported this type of action, Rote Zora was criticized for using one form of violence to stop another

4. Tonsberg Court Case -  Another joint action against sex tourism is the Tonsberg court case which began in 1988 and can be considered the first court case in the history of sex tourism. A divorced Norwegian man organized sex tours to Thailand under the name of Scan Thai Travelers Club. In his brochure he stated: Getting sick of women's rights fanatics - join Scan Thai. On one hand, he argued that he was promoting Thai culture to his fellow men, but on the other, he obviously considered the information in his brochure to be sensitive. He suggested to club members to treat the brochure as confidential and to hide it from family members. The Women's Front in Norway learned of Scan Thai and obtained the brochure. The Women's Front protested against Scan Thai in Tonsberg and Oslo and criticized the club for trafficking in women, and for being racist and sexist.
The slogan used in a rally against Scan Thai and published in the March 8, 1988 edition of "Our Paper", the group's publication, led the club's owner to file a lawsuit against 14 women of the Tonsberg committee for libel, and demanding US$145,000 as compensation from the two women responsible for writing the article. Another lawsuit was filed against two members of the Women's Front in Oslo. The first trial in Tonsberg started in May 1988.<'> In his brochure, the club's owner gave the impression that Thai women were second class human beings who had no aspiration to be equal to men. By conserving the traditional image of women, the club's owner portrayed Thai women as being nicer and warmer than women in his own society. The overall message from the brochure was that Thai women know much better how to serve men because it is an integral part of their culture. Their rewards for prostituting themselves and fulfilling their subservient role were material gifts from their customers. In this kind of analysis, man is the patriarch in the family and in society, whereas the woman is subordinate and subservient to the man in exchange for gifts.

Superficially, one might consider such information as complimentary to women in poor countries who have been chosen by men from industrialized countries to substitute for women from their own countries. Indeed, in Thailand it is not uncommon to hear local men warn Thai women to be careful and not become emancipated or liberated, otherwise men might shy away from them and choose other, more subservient women.

The owner also countered criticism of women activists that his attitudes were racist, arguing
that he is married to a Thai woman and supports her children from a former marriage. Quite possible, he did not understand that women need not only material benefits, but also dignity. The owner apparently did not understand that the information he had disseminated was insulting not only to the people and customs of Thailand, but that it would also humiliate his own wife.

The Women's Information Center learned of the final outcome of the trial in August 1988, the victory went to the Women's Front. None of the defendants had to pay compensation to the club's owner To the contrary, the club's owner was required to pay 50 percent of the defendants' lawyer expenses. The court's verdict reads as follows:

Generally one must see prostitution as a form of exploitation of women, as oppression of women. When this oppression of women takes place in the Third World and is maintained by mass tourism from Western industrialized countries, an element of racial discrimination is undoubtedly added to the sexism....

5. Lisa's Struggle - Lisa is a Filipino from a rural village. She was offered a job as a receptionist at a five-star hotel in the Netherlands by the Chief Prosecutor of the local Court of Justice, who claimed to be a friend of the hotel's owner. The Chief Prosecutor told Lisa that he and another Dutch man living in the Philippines would make all necessary arrangements for her trip and that she could repay them with her earnings in the Netherlands. Lisa accepted his proposal and left for the Netherlands in October 1981.

After her arrival in the Netherlands, instead of working as a receptionist, Lisa was placed in a brothel. In May 1985 police invaded the brothel, and Lisa decided to press charges in the Philippines against the Chief Prosecutor and the Dutchman who arranged for her to go to the Netherlands. The Foundation Against Trafficking in Women rendered full support to Lisa's efforts to press charges. One of the Foundation's volunteers. Lin Lap, wrote the following account:

The work of the Foundation was just beginning then, and political recognition for the structural incidence of trafficking had yet to be won and the political will to combat trafficking was not yet established. Lisa's case suffered from this. The court was not convinced that there was a prima facie case, although the police had interrogated more than 40 persons in the course of their investigations and two women had pressed charges against the main suspect, Dutchman Jan S., for trafficking and rape. On merely formal grounds, the Public Prosecutor refused to hold the suspect in custody longer than the judicially allowed four days for further investigation. As soon as he was released, he fled the country and disappeared. For two years after that nothing happened. Subsequent prosecutors and Investigating Judges of the Court would not take up the case again, reasoning formally that it was not possible to continue because the accused could not be contacted for further questioning. Informally, it seemed that the officials handling the case were not clear themselves whether and what they should prosecute, and were confused by the voluminous documents which the suspect was sending (to the court) in which he attempted to present Lisa as a scheming and shrewd woman who had been a prostitute in the Philippines. They also alleged that Lisa had been informed about the work that she would do in the Netherlands.

The case became an example for the ignorance and laxity of the court. It was cited at all relevant political fora, not only as an illustration of the failure of the penal system to prosecute traffickers, but also as an illustration of the insensitivity towards the victims in such cases. They are actually the ones being punished because of the lack of recognition of the injustice done to them. Questions like "Didn't you really know what would happen to them here?" "Were you really not a prostitute before?" "Couldn't you know that this man was not to be trusted?" were hurtful and degrading.

After a press conference given by Lisa in the Philippines, women members of parliament who were sympathetic to her case, questioned the Minister of Justice about the lack of progress in Lisa's case. In January 1988, the Investigating Judge reopened investigations. On the basis of the information that the Foundation and Lisa had gathered in the Philippines, the judge decided that he would form a Rogatoire Commission to conduct investigations in the Philippines, especially to locate and interrogate the accused Dutchman, Jan S., who was still in the Philippines. With the cooperation of the Ministry of Justice and the Dutch Embassy in the Philippines, the commission succeeded in serving Jan S. with the charges against him and interrogating the accused Chief Prosecutor (who by this time was no longer in that position).

Jan S. was expelled from the Philippines, and finally stood trial in July 1988 before the Court
of Leeuwarden. He was convicted and sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment.

The new Chief Prosecutor, who had taken the place of the accused, was murdered on August 19, 1988. Suspecting this was connected with Lisa's case, the Foundation and other groups in the Philippines and the Netherlands organized a Petition Action to request the attention of President Aquino for the case. The Petition, with more than two thousand signatures, was presented to the Ambassador of the Philippines in the Netherlands.

The trial slowly continued. The accused ex-Chief Prosecutor denied all charges. After nine years of fighting for justice, Lisa lost the court case. According to the judge, there was insufficient evidence to corroborate the accusation and Lisa's moral background was more than questionable.

What do we learn from all these actions

Many strategies have been applied in fighting against this form of violence against women. Some actions are spontaneous, for example, the demonstrations at the airports. Others involve a long process requiring broad-based cooperation, as in Lisa's court case. The obvious lesson we learn from all the cases is that prejudice against women victims of international trafficking and sex tourism is very strong. The division of "good" versus "bad" women is strongly pronounced. There is no legal protection for "fallen women" because society believes that prostitutes cannot be victims. There are, however, four strategies worth special consideration.

Networking

Concerned women and groups can build cooperation between groups in countries affected. In many cases the cooperation goes beyond women's groups and includes political parties, human rights organizations and the media. It is important to have cooperation among various groups, but maintaining this cooperation among women's groups is most important. Frequently, demonstrations are the starting point for sensitizing the public to the problem and stimulating further action. But this is not always the case; some demonstrations turn out to be ends in themselves. Without follow up action and long-term political plans to combat this form of violence, such ad hoc actions and demonstrations very often aggravate the vulnerable situation of women and enforce racial prejudice against the very women they are trying to help.In order to overcome obstructions to international networking and solidarity, there should be continuing dialogue among groups in the involved countries. Action and collaboration should be based on partnership rather than paternalism.

Political lobbying

As we learned from Lisa's struggle, women victims and women's groups alone cannot succeed in fighting against this form of violence. Mafia networks often work hand in hand with influential people in the bureaucracies and the political system. While it is important to provide immediate assistance to women, one has to bear in mind that the goal of this work is not merely to improve the welfare of women victims, but also to achieve political ends. Therefore political lobbying is very important. Information must be systematically presented to politicians who are concerned with the problem and sympathetic to the plight of women victims. International agencies which have the potential to respond to the problem should also be lobbied.

Without direct intervention from politicians, political groups and both governments, Lisa's case would have been put on the shelf. By pressing charges and following through until there was a final verdict, at least a Dutch trafficker was arrested and sentenced to jail for two-and-a-half years. And the ex-Chief Prosecutor, although free, was forced to defend himself in local court.

At present, cooperation with political parties in a few countries has resulted in some progress. A small number of politicians in the industrialized countries have been sensitized and have gradually gained a better understanding of the problem. Punishment is very gradually shifting from the "fallen women" from poor countries, to those who enrich themselves from this inhumane practice.

Media cooperation

Sex tourism and the trafficking of women are selling points for the media in all countries involved. But most of the media coverage of these particular problems is sensational. Prostitutes and victims of international traffic are portrayed in Western media without respect for their basic human rights and dignity. Instead of creating public understanding of the problem and the plight of women, media reports encourage sex tourism in poor countries and legitimize the violence and the racist attitudes.

Nonetheless, there are media groups which try their best to provide accurate information that is sympathetic to women and women's groups. While being allied to these groups is beneficial to the work of women, providing information and cultivating a constant dialogue and understanding with all of the media is crucial. In the past, women tried to implement both strategies. For wider campaigns and actions, information is provided to all media groups. But for sensitive information which may have a traumatic effect on victims if reported in an incorrect or sensationalized way, careful selection of media people is required. It is important that the issue not be sensationalized or the seriousness of the situation neglected.

Public education

Of all the strategies to be undertaken, public education is the most important. For over a decade women's groups have worked hard at increasing public awareness of this form of female sexual slavery. The international community has responded positively to the demands and recommendations of women's groups. For example, the Social Council Commission on the Status of Women has addressed the issues of involuntary prostitution, sex tourism and trafficking of women in its 32nd session. Some women members of the European Parliament collaborated with European based women's groups searching for appropriate measures tackling this problem. Presumably, at the policy level there is a certain "movement" towards addressing this issue, but the problem lies in translating policies into effective actions. During the Tonsberg court case, the Women's Front received criticism from Third World women living in Norwegian society who feared that the case would worsen their living situations and increase discrimination against them. After it was explained to them that the Women's Front was attempting to achieve the exact opposite, much of this criticism subsided. It is obvious that movement only at policy level is not sufficient. It is necessary to educate all people, including the victims, on the issues. More emphasis is needed on public education and understanding in all countries involved. Many women from poor countries who live in industrialized countries have suffered from discriminatory measures stemming from racial prejudice, sexist media and lack of understanding of their vulnerable situations. Without sensitivity to racism, groups working to halt this form of violence against women will only reinforce the prejudice and further aggravate the vulnerable situation of women. And women of different colors belonging to different social strata will again be divided under patriarchal rule.

Finally and most important, popular education aimed at raising awareness among women from developing and industrialized society on this form of violence plays a significant role in promoting and improving understanding among all women. The preconceived notions of good and fallen women will first need to be dispelled from the minds of women from all socio-economic backgrounds before an international campaign can be successfully undertaken to end sex tourism and trafficking of women. Until all women form a solidarity based on understanding and cooperation, all other strategies aimed at changing the attitudes of men toward this issue, at best, will only be partially successful.

Notes:

1. Based on information gathered by Women's information Center in Bangkok, which provides information and assistance to women who are working or have worked as prostitutes in Thailand and abroad.

2. The author was requested to be one of the main witnesses for the defendants because her name and the organization in Bangkok of which she was co-founder, Women's Information Center, were mentioned in the club's brochure as references. This in itself was a surprise and an embarrassment since the Women's Information center is an advocate of women's rights and works against sex tourism. She went to Norway and witnessed the trial first hand.

References:

Barry, K., Bunch, C, & Castley, S. (Eds.). 1984 International Feminism: Networking Against Female Sexual Slavery New York, NY. International Women's Tribune Center, Inc.

Vajrathon, M. 1984 Thailand: We Superwomen Must Let Men Grow Up. In R. Morgan (Ed.), Sisterhood is Global. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.

From: Margaret Schuler, ed. Freedom from Violence: Women's Strategies from Around the World. New York: United Nations Development Fund for Women, 1992. pp. 121-137