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Ena Lucia Mariaca Pacheco’s testimony — A lifelong journey to those that have been harmed by trafficking and human rights violations

Ena Lucia Mariaca Pacheco’s testimony — A lifelong journey to those that have been harmed  by trafficking and human rights violations

NOVEMBER 30, 2023 — GENEVA (SWITZERLAND)

The video of this full event is avail­able HERE.

My name is Ena Lucia Mari­a­ca Pacheco.  And I’m hon­oured to rep­re­sent the US Coun­cil  on Vio­lence Against Men and Boys as their Co-founder and Glob­al Ambas­sador.  Over the past 13 years,  I have worked with var­i­ous agen­cies world­wide  towards the com­mon goal of rais­ing aware­ness  and stop­ping human traf­fick­ing.  From reshap­ing Canada’s crim­i­nal code on human traf­fick­ing  and engag­ing with traf­fic vic­tims around the world,  to now work­ing on human secu­ri­ty research,  glob­al anti-traf­fick­ing projects,  and pub­lic advo­ca­cy on these crit­i­cal issues.  I can sum­ma­rize my sto­ry that brought me here in three moments.

Let me tell you about the first one.  The start of my jour­ney in 2010,  when I first saw a lit­tle girl named Ani­ta.  She was bare­ly two years old at the time  when she was dropped off in a card­board box  at the doorsteps of an NGO in San José, Cos­ta Rica.  On her body, her bones were shat­tered  and she was cov­ered with scars of cig­a­rette burns from her fam­i­ly.  I remem­ber her lit­tle laugh  when we would do phys­i­cal ther­a­py togeth­er.  She would laugh to try to hide the tears, but she was so strong.  Wit­ness­ing her resilience inspired me to ded­i­cate my life  to the fight against human traf­fick­ing and human rights,  espe­cial­ly for children.

The moment began a life­long jour­ney to those that have been harmed  by traf­fick­ing and human rights vio­la­tions.  For those that always think about mon­ey  and nev­er about the suf­fer­ing they inflict on their victims.

Let’s move on to the sec­ond moment in 2011.  When I found myself work­ing in remote rur­al vil­lages,  small areas and major cities in Cam­bo­dia on a human­i­tar­i­an aid mis­sion.  It was then when I first wit­nessed human traf­fick­ing with my own eyes.  Our team iden­ti­fied sev­er­al karaoke bars in Phnom Penh,  which open­ly sold sex­u­al ser­vices with chil­dren.  Small menus writ­ten in black mark­er list­ed many forms of abuse and exploita­tion  on sale for only a few dol­lars.  These kids sat close­ly togeth­er on these dirty couch­es,  and each on their shirt marked a num­ber  to help the cus­tomer choose their pre­ferred vic­tims.  These were just chil­dren,  scared and total­ly unpro­tect­ed from the per­pe­tra­tors just a few seats down.  This was no longer dis­tanced news sto­ries on web­sites,  but rather tan­gi­ble.  Help­less chil­dren were just an arm’s length away,  and I’ll nev­er for­get the pain that I wit­nessed that day.

Now I will share the third moment.  While work­ing at Inter­pol in 2018, I came across a report  that unveiled the severe online abuse  suf­fered by infants, tod­dlers and boys of all ages.  Male chil­dren scored high­est in the terms of sever­i­ty of their abuse  based on the cop­ing scale.  These boys were suf­fer­ing the most severe abuse  and they were vic­tim to unimag­in­able hor­rors  such as bes­tial­i­ty, live tor­ture and murder.

Before this moment, I had only worked with women and girls,  and my own inter­nal bias assumed that females were the main vic­tims,  and that this must not be a prob­lem for men and boys around the world.  But when my gen­der bias was chal­lenged,  it com­pelled me to learn more about male vic­tim­i­sa­tion.  But I noticed that there were few­er stud­ies and very lit­tle advo­ca­cy  and social ser­vices focus­ing on men and boys.

When I encoun­tered where a dom­i­nant soci­etal nar­ra­tive  that casts vic­tims as female and per­pe­tra­tors as male,  the lit­er­a­ture sug­gests that many front­line pro­fes­sion­als  strug­gle to even per­ceive boys  as poten­tial vic­tims of sex­u­al exploita­tion and abuse.

Today, I come here to chal­lenge these pre­con­cep­tions,  aim­ing to rede­fine the nar­ra­tive on vic­tims and per­pe­tra­tors  in the con­text of human rights.

Inter­na­tion­al and nation­al leg­is­la­tions aligned with legal frame­works  have promi­nent­ly focused on the vio­lence against women and girls.  Despite the inclu­sion of male vic­tim­i­sa­tion in some legal instru­ments,  the imple­men­ta­tion often asso­ciates male vic­tims  with the image of a vul­ner­a­ble girl.

For exam­ple, let’s do a quick lan­guage analy­sis  of the Pro­to­col to Pre­vent and Sup­press and Pun­ish Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons,  espe­cial­ly women and chil­dren  or also known as the Paler­mo Pro­to­col.  A key­word search reveals a stark imbal­ance in address­ing male and female vic­tims.  The word male, man, men or boy results in zero hits.  In com­par­i­son, eight hits when search­ing for just the word woman.  Even though the term child refers to a per­son under the age of 18  and of any gen­der, the infer­ence from the imbal­ance of word choice  is that the child is most like­ly a girl.  In arti­cle two,  the state­ment of pur­pose also high­lights that the focus is on pre­ven­tion  and com­bat­ing traf­fick­ing in per­sons by pay­ing a par­tic­u­lar atten­tion  and inter­est to women and chil­dren, while ful­ly respect­ing their human rights.  We can be more clear and more bal­anced,  and be more inclu­sive in our lan­guage when we use to describe these issues,  espe­cial­ly in these legal and nation­al frameworks.

Accord­ing to the Unit­ed States Depart­ment of Traf­fick­ing Per­sons, in 2019,  there are over 24 to almost 25 mil­lion peo­ple traf­ficked glob­al­ly,  and after COVID-19, it was esti­mat­ed that 49.6,  as you said, 50 mil­lion are in forced labour,  and of those, 27.6 mil­lion that are in forced labour,  6.3 are traf­ficked and forced into com­mer­cial sex­u­al exploita­tion.  This is a very clear indi­ca­tion that human traf­fick­ing and slav­ery  are increas­ing and at a very dras­tic speed.  We also know that sta­tis­ti­cians like these nev­er cap­ture the full extent  of the prob­lem, because with­in these sta­tis­tics,  we can only include those that we con­sid­er to be vic­tims.  We only count those that come forth, that seek help,  and are believed to be vic­tims by front-line pro­fes­sion­als  such as law enforce­ment, NGO work­ers and researchers.  Unless things change, these sta­tis­tics will most like­ly  always be under­re­port­ed for men and boys, as they are for women and girls.

In many coun­tries,  the absence of any con­vic­tion in human traf­fick­ing cas­es  with male vic­tims of sex­u­al exploita­tion reflects the impact  and a very real con­cern about under­re­port­ing.  To this day in Cana­da,  we do not have one con­vict­ed case of human traf­fick­ing  with a male vic­tim of sex­u­al exploita­tion.  To our sta­tis­ti­cians,  per­haps this is not sig­nif­i­cant­ly rel­e­vant or to front­line pro­fes­sion­als,  they may think this is clear­ly not happening.

But then how and why do I per­son­al­ly know so many male vic­tims and sur­vivors  of human traf­fick­ing all over North Amer­i­ca  who just wished to be lis­tened to and to be heard and to be believed?  Over the last six years,  I’ve worked close­ly with male vic­tims and sur­vivors,  and I’ve con­duct­ed dozens and dozens of inter­views,  learn­ing from first-hand accounts and what front­line pro­fes­sion­als have done  to sup­port vic­tims effi­cient­ly, but also learned as a col­lec­tive soci­ety,  what have we done that great­ly harmed vic­tims?  All the par­tic­i­pants in my research study report­ed  expe­ri­enc­ing sig­nif­i­cant gen­der bias and scep­ti­cism  about their vic­tim­i­sa­tion when deal­ing with front­line pro­fes­sion­als  such as police, med­ical staff, and men­tal health pro­fes­sion­als.  The sur­vivors told me that ser­vices rarely believe their claims,  and they were often dis­missed by the very same peo­ple  whose their jobs were to help them.

As report­ed by one of the par­tic­i­pants, whose alias is called Wai­son,  after unlock­ing repressed mem­o­ries of his traf­fick­ing dur­ing his adult­hood,  he checked him­self into a hos­pi­tal and dis­closed the inci­dences  that he had recalled to the men­tal health pro­fes­sion­als there.  Way­ton said that none of the men­tal health staff believed his sto­ry,  and instead placed them in an invol­un­tary hold  for a four-week psy­chi­atric hold and vis­it,  where he was forcibly med­icat­ed.  Wayson just want­ed to be free.  He had to take back his dis­clo­sure of his child sex­u­al abuse,  exploita­tion and traf­fick­ing  to the hos­pi­tal staff, even if this meant that he was forced  to deny his very real trau­mat­ic-lived expe­ri­ences.  This was just a few years ago in Canada.

I believe that the soci­ety con­struct­ed gen­der and social bias­es  are deter­min­ing fac­tors in these insti­tu­tion­al fail­ures,  because such bias­es serve as a cog­ni­tive short­cut.  These short­cuts lead front­line pro­fes­sion­als to mis­tak­en­ly assumed  that per­pe­tra­tors of sex­u­al abuse and exploita­tion and traf­fick­ing  must be men, and the vic­tims must be women and girls.  Again, front­line pro­fes­sion­als them­selves has report­ed  in oth­er stud­ies that these bias­es are actu­al­ly impact­ing them  when they’re in con­tact with poten­tial boy victims.

In my research, we see this belief is a big fac­tor that harms male sur­vivors.  When dis­clos­ing their sex­u­al exploita­tion to front­line pro­fes­sion­als,  many sur­vivors report­ed that they were met with scep­ti­cism, dis­be­lief,  a lack of under­stand­ing of the groom­ing, process and tac­tics,  and were met with an overt­ly gen­der bias where a per­son dis­clos­ing  had their expe­ri­ences dis­missed for male vic­tim­hood,  and in some cas­es, the dis­missal of female cul­pa­bil­i­ty  when there was a female per­pe­tra­tor to the sur­vivors,  ulti­mate­ly result­ing in no action being tak­en on their behalf.

As a soci­ety, we must first learn how to iden­ti­fy male vic­tims  and then find the most effec­tive way to pro­vide restora­tive ser­vices  and afford jus­tice to male vic­tims in line with their basic human rights  from the Uni­ver­sal Dec­la­ra­tion of Human Rights.

When think­ing about rein­te­gra­tion back into soci­ety after traf­fick­ing,  most vic­tims remain stuck in a cycle.  Occur­rence, when the traf­fick­ing hap­pens.  Silence, this inner strug­gle to not dis­close.  An era of act­ing out, this can be drug abuse, alco­holism,  faile­drela­tion­ships, vio­lence towards oth­ers.  If there is no inter­ven­tion at this stage, then a vic­tim can fall into the next stage  which is life­long ram­i­fi­ca­tions and con­se­quences.  This could be divorces,  lack of con­tact with their chil­dren, alco­holism, drug addic­tions, depres­sion,  long term health con­se­quences, and even suicide.

My research sug­gests that the inter­ven­tion  first needs to come from the vic­tims them­selves.  They must inquire for sup­port ser­vices  and dis­clo­sure to get out of this dan­ger­ous cycle.  But this means the inter­ac­tions with front­line pro­fes­sion­als like us here  can either bring them to end their era of silence  or keep them there longer, which can last up to decades.  It is imper­a­tive that we bear in mind  that indi­vid­u­als who have expe­ri­enced human rights abus­es,  par­tic­u­lar­ly those relat­ed to traf­fick­ing,  are not only heal­ing from the pain and the trau­ma that they have endured,  but also the ways that we have treat­ed them when they were ask­ing for help.

As both indi­vid­u­als and col­lec­tive,  we must exer­cise dis­cern­ment in our words and actions when offer­ing sup­port.  Abid­ing by the do no harm prin­ci­ple.  Recog­nis­ing that our actions have poten­tial to either wors­en their trau­ma  or con­tribute to the heal­ing process.  This under­lines the respon­si­bil­i­ty we bear  in fos­ter­ing a sup­port­ive and safe environment.

One of the par­tic­i­pants, a traf­fick­ing sur­vivor, told me this,  “Being believed today has helped inspire me  and pro­vide me with a small sense of clo­sure and peace.  How­ev­er, today was mere­ly the tip of the ice­berg  for the new chap­ter of my life.  It feels like the more you share, the more you realise you’re not alone  and it’s not your fault.  It’s not only pos­si­ble for adult sur­vivors of sex­u­al abuse, sex­u­al exploita­tion,  or human traf­fick­ing to make a tremen­dous impact to enhance the work of advo­ca­cy,  research, and front­line work and ser­vices to oth­ers who have been vic­timised.  But this is a must.”  All the sur­vivors want, regard­less of gen­der,  is to be active­ly lis­tened to and believed.  We see true heal­ing when they feel respect­ed,  gain a sense of auton­o­my from their trauma.

There­fore, as experts,  pri­ori­tis­ing solu­tions first and train­ing first is not always the solu­tion.  We need to remem­ber that these vic­tims and sur­vivors are peo­ple  with very human needs that need to be lis­tened to,  feel respect­ed, and regain a sense of dig­ni­ty.  These core human rights needs should be placed first  before address­ing the big­ger problem.

So this is what led to the cre­ation  and devel­op­ment of a US Coun­cil on Vio­lence against Men and Boys.  I just want­ed to share my insights and find like-mind­ed peo­ple  who want­ed to fight for human rights for all vic­tims, regard­less of gen­der.  The US Coun­cil is a ded­i­cat­ed col­lec­tive rep­re­sent­ing 25 cross sec­tors  of pro­fes­sion­als, lived experts, advo­cates, researchers, edu­ca­tors,  pub­lic health stake­hold­ers and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers that are com­mit­ted to dis­man­tling  the bar­ri­ers that per­pet­u­ate vio­lence and trau­ma against males in our soci­ety.  Estab­lish­ing with the con­vic­tion that every indi­vid­ual, regard­less of gen­der,  deserves to live free from vio­lence and its debil­i­tat­ing after­math.  We tire­less­ly work towards a more just and equi­table future for all,  and the Coun­cil’s pur­pose is clear to chal­lenge and change the nar­ra­tives  sur­round­ing vio­lence against males as a pub­lic health cri­sis.  Fos­ter­ing a soci­ety where all indi­vid­u­als  can thrive with­out fear, prej­u­dice or harm.  By illu­mi­nat­ing the root caus­es and effects of vio­lence and trau­ma,  we strive to empow­er com­mu­ni­ties, pol­i­cy­mak­ers, and insti­tu­tions  to make pos­i­tive change,  and the mis­sion of the US Coun­cil on Vio­lence Against Men and Boys  is to advo­cate, to research, and to edu­cate on mat­ters  on vio­lence and trau­ma expe­ri­enced by men and boys.  Root­ed in this pub­lic health frame­work,  we delve deep into the com­plex­i­ties of the issues,  aim­ing to erad­i­cate the impacts on the indi­vid­ual,  but also on the communities.

Our vision is one where a soci­ety  that val­ues the well-being and safe­ty of every per­son, regard­less of gen­der.  We envi­sion a world where boys can grow, learn, and thrive  with­out the shad­ow of vio­lence loom­ing over them.  Through data-dri­ven insights, lived expe­ri­ences,  research, and sci­en­tif­ic integri­ty,  we strive to cre­ate a future where vio­lence is the excep­tion  and no longer the norm.

We are work­ing togeth­er with our part­ners.  So just next week, we’ll be par­tic­i­pat­ing in the webi­nar,  Chal­lenges and Best Prac­tices in Human Traf­fick­ing Pol­i­cy,  Leg­is­la­tion, Inves­ti­ga­tion,  and Vic­tim Sup­port Ser­vices for Male Vic­tims.  This is the fourth in the series of webi­na­rs  that teach front­line pro­fes­sion­als about male vic­tim­i­sa­tion,  host­ed by Michel Veuthey and the Sov­er­eign Order of Mal­ta.  Thank you very much.  We are com­mit­ted to shar­ing knowl­edge  and resources with the pub­lic, pro­fes­sion­als and stake­hold­ers.  Our edu­ca­tion­al pro­gramme aims to empow­er indi­vid­u­als in our com­mu­ni­ty  with the tools and infor­ma­tion need­ed  to pre­vent and respond to vio­lence and trau­ma.  When the glob­al com­mu­ni­ty final­ly sees and under­stands  and engages with our con­tent,  then that’s when we final­ly see real change.

At the US Coun­cil,  we stand unit­ed in our pur­suit for a safer, more equi­table world for all.  Togeth­er, we can cre­ate a last­ing change to ensure that every indi­vid­ual,  regard­less of gen­der, can live in a free life from vio­lence and trauma.

As you can see here, in June 2024,  the US Coun­cil will host its very first glob­al con­fer­ence in Mia­mi, Flori­da. 

This con­fer­ence is sur­vivor-led and trau­ma-informed,  and we aim for it to be a trans­for­ma­tive pub­lic health inter­ven­tion,  and we aim for it to be edu­cat­ing and capac­i­ty-build­ing  to help address the often-over­looked issue of vio­lence against men and boys.  With a focus on redefin­ing this again as a health issue,  we’re hop­ing to bring to this con­fer­ence the pri­vate sec­tor,  gov­ern­ment, health care, social ser­vices, crim­i­nal jus­tice sec­tor  with­in this so we can gain prac­ti­cal knowl­edge and skills  that are nec­es­sary to pre­vent and respond effec­tive­ly to all forms of violence.

Through a height­ened aware­ness of the scope of trau­ma,  trau­mat­ic expe­ri­ences by males,  atten­dees will explore the struc­tur­al deter­mi­nants of numer­ous types of vio­lence  relat­ed to impacts on men­tal and phys­i­cal health,  edu­ca­tion attain­abil­i­ty, crim­i­nal jus­tice involve­ment,  re-vic­tim­i­sa­tion, finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty, and pub­lic safe­ty.  I take this oppor­tu­ni­ty to invite you all to Mia­mi next year  and sup­port of our work that includ­ing men and boys in our dis­cus­sion final­ly.  While it is so impor­tant to address human traf­fick­ing and human rights,  which demand are unwa­ver­ing atten­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tive efforts,  it is also impor­tant that we stand togeth­er and we are inclu­sive  when iden­ti­fy­ing poten­tial vic­tims  of some of the most severe vio­la­tions of our human rights.

Let’s not for­get that vic­tims can be of any gen­der and of any age,  and would like to fin­ish a quote from John-Michael Lan­der,  founder of An Ath­lete’s Silence, a lived expert,  and a man whose resilience and inner strength  inspires my ongo­ing com­mit­ment to advo­cate for uni­ver­sal human rights.  With his gra­cious per­mis­sion, I present his statement:

“We need to look at the long term effects  of sex­u­al abuse and traf­fick­ing as two sep­a­rate enti­ties,  the traf­fick­ing event itself  and num­ber two, the mean­ing the sur­vivors placed on the event.  Feel­ings and emo­tions.  The event is trau­mat­ic and extor­tion from the exte­ri­or pres­ence,  but the inner mean­ing we attach to under­stand and com­pre­hend why it hap­pened  can be much more detri­men­tal.  Since the expe­ri­ence,  sur­vivors strug­gle every day bat­tling against the inter­nal neg­a­tive self-talk  to appear and func­tion nor­mal­ly as pos­si­ble,  based on the stig­mas of our soci­ety bestowed upon us. 

In hind­sight, I realised I pun­ished myself through shame,  guilt and embar­rass­ment and neg­a­tive self-talk.  As sur­vivors pur­sue their heal­ing jour­ney, they are not very far from being trig­gered  by out­side influ­ences that will rapid­ly return their psy­che to the exact moment  of the event,  even if they have had per­fect in the numb­ing and dis­tance strate­gies  to pro­tect them­selves.  Since each sur­vivor is unique,  their heal­ing jour­ney needs to be indi­vid­u­al­ly devised for opti­mum suc­cess.  Shar­ing our sto­ries help oth­ers  while pro­vid­ing our­selves with the crit­i­cal insight to heal.  I want peo­ple to under­stand that heal­ing is a life­long jour­ney.  So human rights are non-nego­tiable and fun­da­men­tal,  guid­ing our col­lec­tive respon­si­bil­i­ty, as we have said,  towards a more humane and just soci­ety.” 

So I urge you here to take this knowl­edge gained from today’s meet­ing  and to turn it into action.  Whether you work in pol­i­cy, leg­is­la­tion, inves­ti­ga­tions or any oth­er field,  your con­tri­bu­tion mat­ters.  Togeth­er, we can make mean­ing­ful impact  and con­tribute to a world where human traf­fick­ing is erad­i­cat­ed  and sur­vivors are pro­vid­ed with the sup­port and care they deserve,  regard­less of their sta­tus,  their eth­nic­i­ty, their reli­gion or gen­ders because all sur­vivors matter.

Thank you very much.

OUR MISSION:

THE PURPOSE IS TO SHARE BEST PRACTICES AND PROMOTE ACTIONS AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING.

WE MAKE AVAILABLE TO YOU GUIDES AND RESEARCH ON TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS FROM THE MOST RECOGNISED LEGAL AND OPERATIONAL ACTORS.

NTD FRANCE — INTERVIEW WITH MICHEL VEUTHEY: RITUAL VIOLENCE, HUMAN TRAFFICKING: “WE’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A SPIRITUAL BATTLE”.

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FABRICE HADJADJ — VIRTUAL AND REAL WORLDS: HOW TO INHABIT THE DEVASTATED EARTH?

AN EXAMPLE FOR CATHOLIC ENTITIES TO FOLLOW: ERADICATE MODERN SLAVERY IN ALL ITS FORMS FROM THE OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAINS OF CATHOLIC ENTITIES IN AUSTRALIA — PROPOSAL OF ACTION PLAN – MODERN SLAVERY RISK MANAGEMENT PROGRAM FROM 2021 TO 30 JUNE 2023

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Adlaudatosi Webinars Videos YOUTUBE

Religious Helping Trafficking Victims along the Road of Recovery (ON-DEMAND VIDEO WEBINAR)

Religious Working In International Advocacy Against Human Trafficking (ON-DEMAND VIDEO WEBINAR)

Impact Of Human Trafficking On Health: Trauma (ON-DEMAND VIDEO WEBINAR)

Impact Of Human Trafficking On Health: Healing (ON-DEMAND VIDEO WEBINAR)

International Prosecution Of Human Trafficking — Where Are We Now? (ON-DEMAND VIDEO WEBINAR)

International Prosecution Of Human Trafficking — What can be done? (ON-DEMAND VIDEO WEBINAR)

International Prosecution Of Human Trafficking — Best Practices (ON-DEMAND VIDEO WEBINAR)

Demand As Root Cause For Human Trafficking – Sex Trafficking & Prostitution

Human Trafficking — Interview with Prof. Michel Veuthey, Order of Malta — 44th UN Human Right Council 2020

POPE’S PAYER INTENTION FOR FEBRUARY 2020: Hear the cries of migrants victims of human trafficking

FRANCE — BLOG DU COLLECTIF “CONTRE LA TRAITE DES ÊTRES HUMAINS”

Church on the frontlines in fight against human trafficking

Holy See — PUBLICATION OF PASTORAL ORIENTATIONS ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING 2019

RIGHT TO LIFE AND HUMAN DIGNITY GUIDEBOOK

Catholic social teaching

Doctrine sociale de l’Église catholique

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