Dreifuss says modern “slavery” of women is threatening society

The Swiss interior minister, Ruth Dreifuss, has warned a United Nations conference that more than 300,000 women are victims of slavery every year in Europe. She said the growth of the "trade" in women threatens to undermine society.

The Swiss interior minister, Ruth Dreifuss, has warned a United Nations conference that more than 300,000 women are victims of slavery every year in Europe. She said the growth of the “trade” in women will undermine society unless urgent action is taken.

“The trade of human beings is one of the most flagrant and widespread human rights violations in our region, Europe – a region that prides itself in being the birthplace of democracy and fundamental rights”, Dreifuss told more than 400 delegates from governments and women’s groups attending the meeting in Geneva.

The five-day gathering is meant to take stock of progress achieved since the high-profile UN conference on women in Beijing five years ago. Most of the slave trade highlighted by the Swiss interior minister involves eastern European women forced into prostitution in the west.

Ms Dreifuss said the “modern form of slavery” was outpacing efforts to control it.

She hinted that the measures in place to fight slavery paled in comparison to the economic interests involved in the “slave trade” since the 1980s.

“Organised criminal groups that lead the trafficking have access to financial means that are recycled in the legal economy, allowing them to buy complicity. Their ability to intimidate victims and witnesses hides the mechanisms involved in the slave trade” she said.

“The efforts of police are too dispersed, they lack information as well as resources and are sometimes easily corruptible. It is therefore important that states recognise that the trade in women and girl slaves is often linked to other illicit trafficking and is undermining our societies”.

Dreifuss appealed to governments to implement urgently five sets of measures at an international conference in New York in July:

– to improve the plight of victims through social and psychological support and protection against reprisals.
– a detailed study of the causes of the trade including the demand for sexual services by men in the west, to allow for better preventive education.
– to make sure western countries understand that the reduction in legal possibilities for immigration is encouraging illegal migration and increasing the opportunities for exploitation through smuggling rings.
– to improve contacts with pressure groups which are the only organisations providing aid to victims.
– to sign up to agreed international standards aimed at fighting women’s slavery.

The meeting in Geneva ends on Friday.

By Peter Capella