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ARGENTINA: Activists Criticise New Law on Trafficking in Persons
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Apr 10 (IPS) - Women’s rights groups that fought hard for a new law to crack down on trafficking in
persons in Argentina are opposed to the legislation that was finally passed by Congress after
years of debate because it requires victims over the age of 18 to prove that they did not give
their consent to be sexually exploited.
"It’s not what we wanted; we are going to ask the executive branch to veto it," feminist
lawyer Marta Fontenla, with the Women’s Association for Work and Studies (ATEM), told
IPS.
ATEM forms part of the Red No a la Trata de Mujeres (No to Trafficking in Women
Network), which also rejects the new legislation.
The law, which makes trafficking in persons a federal crime, was approved late Wednesday
by the Chamber of Deputies by a vote of 157 to 35, with six abstentions, based on a draft
law introduced by ruling Justicialista (Peronist) Party lawmaker Vilma Ibarra with the
backing of the Interior Ministry.
The new legislation had already made it through the Senate. It must now either be signed
into law or vetoed by President Cristina Fernández.
Ibarra and other advocates of the law say it protects women’s right to voluntarily engage
in prostitution.
However, the Association of Women Prostitutes of Argentina (AMMAR) was also opposed
to passage of the new law, Elena Reynaga, the head of the group, told IPS.
"To put an end to trafficking in persons, we have to put an end to hypocrisy, because in
Argentina there are a number of crimes related to trafficking that are already punishable
by law, but the problem is that these laws are not enforced, whether due to negligence or
intentionality on the part of the political powers-that-be or the judicial authorities. For
example, procuring is a crime, but it is practiced anyway," she said.
The No to Trafficking in Women Network has worked for over a decade to raise awareness
of the problem and increase its visibility.
In Argentina, around 90 percent of the cases of trafficking in persons involve commercial
sexual exploitation, while the remainder involves slave labour, domestic servitude, illegal
adoptions or organ theft.
According to the Network, some 500 missing women in Argentina are presumed to have
fallen prey to forced prostitution rings. In some cases they were kidnapped, but the
majority were lured in by promises of well-paid jobs or other forms of deception.
The Network and other human rights groups, with support from the International
Organisation for Migration (IOM), lobbied for a federal law against trafficking, in order to
accelerate legal cases that often run into hurdles and are bogged down because the
victims are moved from one province to another.
The penal code now establishes prison sentences of three to six years for those convicted
of participating in the entrapment, recruitment, transportation or reception of people for
the purposes of sexual or labour exploitation or organ harvesting. If the victim is younger
than 13, the maximum sentence climbs to 15 years.
The women’s organisations agree with that part of the law. But the new legislation also
states that in the case of victims over the age of 18, the state or the victims themselves
must prove that they were recruited by means of deception, fraud, violence, threat,
intimidation, coercion or abuse of authority.
"This law is a setback, because it creates the idea that there is illegitimate trafficking that
is penalised and legitimate trafficking in which the victims supposedly give their consent to
be prostituted," said Fontenla. "But we believe that no one can consent to their own
exploitation."
The lawyer said the highest profile cases of trafficking, in which women are kidnapped,
actually make up a small portion of the total. Much more common, she said, are girls or
young women who are recruited by means of deception or who knowingly enter into
prostitution out of necessity. "Those cases are also crimes; you shouldn't have to prove
that violence was used," Fontenla argued.
Sara Torres, coordinator of the Network, told IPS that the new law runs counter to
international treaties that establish that trafficking in persons is a crime regardless of the
victim’s age and whether or not they gave their "consent."
Argentina is a signatory to the American Convention on Human Rights and the Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which
means they have the force of law in this country.
The women’s groups and human rights organisations are considering asking President
Fernández to partially veto the law.
But the representative of the IOM in Argentina, Eugenio Ambrossi, said the approval of the
law was "excellent news," above and beyond the criticism it has drawn.
(END/2008)
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