Half Way Between Criminalization and Legalization: The Nordic Model

Prostitution laws are currently under review in the Dutch parliament after a petition was signed by about 42,000 young people.[1] These activists want to implement the Nordic model in the Netherlands which would criminalize buying sex. Currently, prostitution is legal in the Netherlands as long as it is between consenting adults. This movement, started by …

“The Chosen Ones”: Reflecting about Sexual Violence and Human Trafficking Through Movies

The first scene of the movie “The Chosen Ones” directed by David Pablos shows Ulises and Sofía, a young teenage couple, kissing. Don’t be fooled, however: this is not a love story. As the story progresses, we learn Ulises has been pushed by his family to lure young, beautiful women into the prostitution ring the …

Recap: 2018 Texas Symposium on Women, Peace, and Security

On Monday, November 5, 2018, the Bush School of Government and Public Service hosted the 4th Annual Texas Symposium on Women, Peace, and Security: Implementing the Vision of the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017. The symposium was started by Dr. Valerie Hudson, the head of the Women, Peace, and Security program at the …

Camptowns and Prostitution: Why Men Shouldn’t Need a Sexual Release

The mayor of Osaka, Japan threatened in December 2017 to cut ties with Osaka’s sister city of San Francisco, California. Why? Because of one statue depicting three comfort women.[1],[2] The term “comfort women” refers to the women—South Korean, Chinese, Filipino and others—enslaved and raped by the Japanese army around the time of second world war. …

“Femicide in Mexico. No More!”

I grew up hearing about women disappearing in Mexico, but I didn’t fully understand the extent of the issue until I stood in a room fully surrounded by stacks of files of unresolved cases of disappeared women. The room was part of a temporary exposition in the Museum of Memory and Tolerance in Mexico City. …

Data and Beauty Pageants

The Miss Peru contest begins with contestants giving their name, hometown and their bust, waist and hip measurements. This year, they still gave numbers, but instead of their measurements, all 23 contestants gave statistics about violence towards women in Peru. The rest of the evening, the contestants answered questions about how they would solve violence …

Removing the Veil: The Real Path to Prostitution

“Sexual exploitation is a practice by which person(s) achieve sexual gratification or financial gain or advancement through the abuse of a person’s sexuality by abrogating that person’s human right to dignity, equality, autonomy, and physical and mental well-being… it is the right of every human being to live free of exploitation… sexual power is a …

Most Prevalent Issue of 2016: ISIS

In 2014, after ISIS fighters invaded the Nineveh province in Iraq and kidnapped thousands of Yezidis, these ISIS fighters sexually tortured the Yezidi women and girls (2). ISIS fighters raped the captives repeatedly, justifying their actions it by saying that Islam allows sex with slaves or women who don’t subscribe to ISIS’s idea of Islam …

Syrian Refugees — by VLF

With the world’s attention focused on the Islamic State and the growing numbers of refugees fleeing Syria, it is easy to think of these people and of their plight in stale numerical terms. But as the United States considers whether or not to take in these refugees, it is important to understand what life actually …

Leading to Beijing +20: 12 Critical Areas of Concern — by RDM

The Beijing+20 platform for action has 12 critical areas of concern: women and the environment, women in power and decision-making, the girl child, women and the economy, women and poverty, violence against women, human rights of women, education and training of women, institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women, women and health, women and the …