Addressing Gender-based Violence: UNFPA Strategy and Framework for Action (pdf)
"This report identifies the particular areas where action is most urgently needed and proposes general policy frameworks for combating gender-based violence. The proposals, which focus on reducing gender inequality and discrimination, are aimed at UNFPA's overarching goal of eliminating violence against women and girls. The report critically examines existing policy frameworks, and suggests where future efforts need to be concentrated. "
Beyond Child Labour, Affirming Rights (pdf)
Beyond Child Labour shows how UNICEF and its major partners are working to end child labour, a cause of poverty.
Cambodia: Exodus to the Sex Trade? (pdf)
"This report suggests that the global financial crisis has led to an increase of women entering the sex trafficking industry in Cambodia. Women said they entered the sex trafficking industry mostly because of “difficult family circumstances,” and because they thought they could “easily earn a lot of money, in good working conditions." In order to combat this new trend, the report recommends strengthening social safety nets, linking women seeking jobs with alternative job placement assistance, targeted awareness raising and specific information outreach on accessing social services and how to utilize safer sources of loans and credit."
Child prostitution: global health burden, research needs, and interventions
"In this article we estimate morbidity and mortality among prostituted children, and propose research strategies and interventions to mitigate such health consequences."
Child Protection Information Sheets (pdf)
"This booklet comprises 14 information sheets which highlight how child protection is crucial to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Covering different forms of abuse, these sheets also outline how to build a protective environment for children and what UNICEF is doing on the ground to protect children."
Domestic Violence Against Women and Girls
"Highlights issues of abuse; femicide; forced prostitution; sexual abuse of children; sex-selective abortion, female infanticide and differential access to food and medical care; and, traditional and cultural practices that affect women's health and lives."
Eliminating Violence against Children (pdf)
"Jointly produced by UNICEF and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, this handbook describes measures parliamentarians can take to end violence against children: they can legislate, oversee government activities, allocate financial resources and, as leaders in their nations and communities, raise awareness of issues."
This report focuses on female migrant workers from Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka, who worked in the host countries of Bahrain, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates. Researchers' key findings concluded that female migrant workers are vulnerable to HIV during all stages of employment abroad. They face sexual assault, sexual exploitation and being trafficked into the commercial sex industry while applying for or being recruited into employment, or during transit between home countries and host countries. Home countries' policies can also contribute to the problem as banning women from working abroad serves to push worker migration underground.
"This report provides extensive research of the mail-order bride industry in the United Kingdom. The industry is linked to the promotion of trafficking, prostitution, pornography and slavery. The report suggests that this industry not only exploits vulnerable groups of women but also reinforces racial and ethnic stereotypes. Recommendations are given on what the government can do to further protect women."
Migrant Thai Women Subjected to Slavery-Like Abuses in Japan
"This article explores the system of coercion employed by trafficking networks to exploit migrant Thai women's labor in the Japanese sex industry and identifies other factors that contribute to trafficked women's inability to protect themselves from further abuse."
Migration, Sexual Exploitation, and Women's Health: A Case Report From a Community Health Center
"This article presents a case of a trafficked woman identified in the U.S. health system and describes the vulnerabilities to forced prostitution as a result of trafficking and the challenges in providing an effective and comprehensive response to meet safety and health care needs. Health care providers are in a unique position to identify and support U.S. sex trafficking victims; thus, education and training for health care professionals on trafficking is needed."
Modern-Day Comfort Women: The U.S. Military, Transnational Crime, and the Trafficking of Women
"The U.S. military bases in South Korea were found to form a hub for the transnational trafficking of women from the Asia Pacific and Eurasia to South Korea and the United States. This study, conducted in 2002, examined three types of trafficking that were connected to U.S. military bases in South Korea: domestic trafficking of Korean women to clubs around the military bases in South Korea, transnational trafficking of women to clubs around military bases in South Korea, and transnational trafficking of women from South Korea to massage parlors in the United States."
This study examines the risks posed to transvestite sex workers in Serbia. Violence, especially police violence was reported as a primary concern in connection to broader social forces of discrimination.
Prostitution of Children and Child-Sex Tourism: An Analysis of Domestic and International Responses (pdf)
"This paper addresses both domestic and international responses to the prostitution of children within the United States and abroad. The author highlights policy and practice issues regarding the legal system and social-service responses to prostituted children."
Prostitution, Violence, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
"In this paper, the authors discuss a study of the violence experienced by people working as prostitutes in a city in the USA., and some of the consequent harm to physical and emotional health."
"This study of a group of women engaged in sex work at a popular truck stop in South Africa was undertaken to explore the social context that places them at high risk for HIV infection, and to assess how this context influences their ability to reduce their risk."
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants
The author points out that female children are extremely vulnerable to gender-based violence during migration. Migration is often difficult and dangerous for female children due to “additional restrictions on travel” girls may face due to “male guardianships.” Female children are also vulnerable to human trafficking for sexual exploitation or forced labor during migration. The report concludes with recommendations for policy improvements on migration legislation.
Sex trading and psychological distress among women recruited from the streets of Harlem
"This study examines the relationship between sex trading and psychological distress and the implications of that relationship for prevention of human immunodeficiency virus among a sample of young women recruited from the streets of Harlem."
Sex Trafficking Into The United States: A Literature Review
"This study is an investigation of the literature relating to the trafficking of women and children into the United States for sexual exploitation. The intent is to discover the extent and complexity of the problem, the cost in both human and economic terms, and research directions toward the development of probable political, legal, economic, and social solutions.Recommendations are given for state statute creation, police training and paradigm change, and increased/broadened victims’ services."
Sex Trafficking Needs Assessment for the State of Minnesota
This 2008 report, focuses on trafficking for commercial sex exploitation and prostitution, highlights successes in combating sex trafficking and suggests ways to improve responses to this complex problem in Minnesota.
"The long-standing civil conflict in the Shan States of Burma is investigated as a contributing cause to the trafficking of ethnic Shan women and girls into the Southeast Asian sex industry, and to the subsequent high rates of HIV infection found among these women. The context of chronic human rights abuses in the Shan states is explored, as well as the effects of recent forced population transfers on the part of the Burmese Military Regime."
Shattered Hearts: The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of American Indian Women and Girls in Minnesota (pdf)
A groundbreaking report released by the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center (MIWRC) highlights the alarming and pervasive sex trafficking of American Indian women and girls in Minnesota. The first comprehensive report of its kind, it highlights risk factors for victims that include poverty, a disproportionate number of American Indian homeless, high incidences of overall sexual assault, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) and pervasive multi-generational trauma.
Social Development of Commercial Sex Workers in India: An Essential Step in HIV/AIDS Prevention
"This paper discusses HIV/AIDS prevention issues that relate to CSWs in India; issues that play a vital role in initiation, perpetuation, and expansion of economic activity of CSWs; and those factors that influence the HIV/AIDS preventive practices of CSWs."
The Facts About Child Sex Tourism (pdf)
"This fact sheet includes a definition of child sex tourism, both the global and U.S. response, and suggestions for what governments, citizens and business can do to combat child sex tourism."
The mental and physical health of female sex workers: a comparative study
"The objective of this study was to compare the mental and physical health, adult abuse experiences and social networks of female sex workers with data previously collected from two large community samples of age-matched women."
The National Plan to Prevent the Sexual Exploitation of Children (pdf)
This document addresses the need to reduce the societal demand for commercial and individual exploitation of children on a national level and outlines a strategy to prevent children from being perceived and used as sexual commodities.
The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: America’s Prostituted Children (pdf)
"The report reveals findings of three years of intensive research on the issue of child sex trafficking in America from ten locations across the U.S. The study found that at least 100,000 children are used in prostitution every year in the United States and that the average age of entry into prostitution is 13 years old. Also, prostituted girls are often controlled by a pimp who recruits them into sex trafficking by posing as a boyfriend, caretaker, and protector."
The Sex Trade Industry's Worldwide Exploitation of Children
"This study examines the current state of international trafficking of children and other child sexual exploitation."
This article's main emphasis is on the trafficking of Nigerian women and girls to Italy, and gives an overview of the trafficking problem for prostitution into Italy. Changes in trafficking patterns, activities carried out by the Italian government and non-governmental organizations in assisting victims, the legal policies used to combat trafficking, and government proposals to legalize brothels are examined.
Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation (pdf)
"This fact sheet provides a brief overview of sex trafficking of women and children in the Americas and explores the life-threatening health consequences of this type of human trafficking."
Transnational Trafficking and the Rule of Law in West Africa
"A recent report that highlights the problem of trafficking of West African women to Europe for forced prostitution. Women trafficked from West Africa are generally controlled by a debt bondage system. The UNODC found that trafficking has a significant negative impact on the rule of law in West Africa. The flow of trafficked people and goods rivals the GDP of some countries in West Africa. Corruption among government officials and law enforcement increases as organized crime groups gain more power and money through trafficking."