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Canada: Globalization, women and children |
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04-04-04 |
The Impact of Globalization on Women, Children and the Environment by Sheila Smith rscj, Province of Canada Photo: Lolín Menéndez rscj  | | One of the prime reasons that trafficking in women and children is able to continue to grow as a lucrative, multinational business is the fact that there is such a limited degree of awareness of the problem, its link to poverty and globalization. There is not a country on this planet that has been left unscathed by this phenomenon which represents what the International Labour Organization has called, the “underside of globalization”.
Globalization at its best unites the human community and is about a common good for all. As global trade swiftly sweeps away borders for economic purposes, a sense of a global human community has not caught up with it. Economic globalization has augmented the occurences of the environmental degradation of fertile land and the situations of desperate poverty for many in our world, particularly women and children, while the rich get richer.
Trafficking can look like a “way out” of the desperation caused by poverty. Promised a better life and then deceived and forced into a life of degrading sexual acts or labour against their will, violence and intimidation, the victims of trafficking are enslaved in a lifestyle that prevents them from having access to the very basic human rights.
Trafficked individuals in countries around the globe are ensnared in a lifestyle from which they cannot escape. Trafficked women and children are most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, violence, psychological trauma and physical diseases. Many trafficked individuals work in slave-like conditions for corporations who do not adhere to international human rights or environmental laws. As long as people are treated as commodities, it follows that the environment is treated with the same degradation.
The long-term environmental consequences of trafficking are draining on the social fabric, human health and ecological environments of any country. Developing countries feel the impact of this in the high social and health costs involved. Many of these could be eliminated and preventative health programs put in place were trafficking to be eradicated. If the poor were provided with the necessary resources and had a choice to safely remain in their own countries where they are connected with the culture and the land, trafficking would no longer look like their only solution.
By raising the awareness, Canadian religious are joining the global “NO!” to remaining unaware of our implication in the worldwide issue of trafficking in women and children. This awareness recognizes the changes we need to make in our lifestyle and in the social environment in which we raise our children. We say “NO!” to this lucrative, criminal, multinational business that operates at the expense of human victims and the environment. We are beginning to recognize the urgency of the situation and along with governments, enforcement, legal, human rights, community, church and academic bodies, we are joining the world in its fight to combat and eradicate this horrific exploitation of humanity and of the whole earth environment.
Sheila Smith is a transfer candidate with the Society of the Sacred Heart, Canadian Province . She works for the Canadian Religious Conference as Justice, Peace, Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Fieldworker. She is presently involved in organizing an educational awareness workshop in her region on the issue of Trafficking in Women and Children, which will bring together experts representing the various complexities of the issue. |
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Dernière mise à jour : ( 25-10-05 )
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