Globalization reinforces the inequalities between North and South and the precariousness of women working in the sex trade, according to an expert panel.

"My body is not a commodity." It was with this claim that journalist Ariane Emond opened a conference last week about the globalization of prostitution, quoting a petition launched by a feminist group last year in France.
Noting the indulgence associated with prostitution, five women, invited from Vancouver by the Association Québécoise des Organisations de Coopération Internationale, Togo, Brazil, Philippines and Belgium, denounced the negative effects of neo-liberalism and globalization on female dignity.
"No, it's not a job, it's a violation of human rights," insisted Colette de Troy, from the European Women Lobby.
All agreed on the fact that globalization reinforces the inequalities between North and South and the precariousness of women. According to Aurora Javate de Dios, from the Philippines Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, the link between globalization and prostitution is obvious in her country.
"The opening of the market, trade and investment leads to an erosion of the support system in rural regions, making the women force to move toward urban zones," she said.
"Half a million Filipino women go abroad to work as domestics or to entertain others," added Aurora Javate de Dios.
Every year, more than 1 million women and children are involved in sex traffic. The sex industry is very profitable, generating over $12 billion US per year, according to a study by the University of Rhode Island.
"The majority of prostitutes are foreigners from countries of the South and Eastern Europe," said de Troy, underlining that in Western Europe, prostitution is a market now controlled by the Mafia.
But beyond the denunciation of the economic factors and of the system, Priscila Siquiera, from the Brazilian non-governmental organization Marginalized Women Service, has new hopes "to build and increase solidarity between rich and poor, men and women, without any discrimination." She says these hopes were created by the world social forum in Porto Allegre last January.
It's this optimistic view that Gunilla Ekberg, a Vancouver jurist, carried on the discussion by raising the example of Sweden.
"Someone who obtains sexual relations in exchange for payment will be prosecuted" she explained, risking as much as 10 years in jail, the maximum allowed in Sweden. A 1999 law "against the purchase of sexual services" is depicting the consumer as the criminal, and the prostitute as the victim.
Ekberg contended that the law has until now provided good results, despite the difficulties that came with its implementation." The number of women subject to sexual trade is decreasing, traffickers preferring to choose other countries where the business is more profitable and the laws less severe," said Ekberg.
"This law is a breakthrough," she added. "It's the first time a country [is trying to] face the problem in concrete terms."
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