McAlpine Alys, Hossain Mazeda, Zimmerman Cathy
Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, Kings Cross, London, WC1H 9SH, UK.
BMC Int Health Hum Rights. 2016 Dec 28;16(1):34. doi: 10.1186/s12914-016-0107-x.
Sex trafficking and sexual exploitation has been widely reported, especially in conflict-affected settings, which appear to increase women's and children's vulnerabilities to these extreme abuses.
We conducted a systematic search of ten databases and extensive grey literature to gather evidence of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation in conflict-affected settings. International definitions of "sexual exploitation" and "sex trafficking" set the indicator parameters. We focused on sexual exploitation in forms of early or forced marriage, forced combatant sexual exploitation and sexual slavery. We extracted prevalence measures, health outcomes and sexual exploitation terminology definitions. The review adhered to PRISMA guidelines and includes quality appraisal.
The search identified 29 eligible papers with evidence of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation in armed conflict settings in twelve countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The evidence was limited and not generalizable, due to few prevalence estimates and inconsistent definitions of "sexual exploitation". The prevalence estimates available indicate that females were more likely than males to be victims of sexual exploitation in conflict settings. In some settings, as many as one in four forced marriages took place before the girls reached 18 years old. Findings suggest that the vast majority of former female combatants were sexually exploited during the conflict. These studies provided various indicators of sexual exploitation compatible to the United Nation's definition of sex trafficking, but only 2 studies identified the exploitation as trafficking. None of the studies solely aimed to measure the prevalence of sex trafficking or sexual exploitation. Similar descriptions of types of sexual exploitation and trafficking were found, but the inconsistent terminology or measurements inhibited a meta-analysis.
Findings indicate there are various forms of human trafficking and sexual exploitation in conflict-affected settings, primarily occurring as early or forced marriage, forced combatant sexual exploitation, and sexual slavery. The studies highlight the extraordinary vulnerability of women and girls to these extreme abuses. Simultaneously, this review suggests the need to clarify terminology around sex trafficking in conflict to foster a more cohesive future evidence-base, and in particular, robust prevalence figures from conflict-affected and displaced populations.
性交易和性剥削现象已被广泛报道，尤其是在受冲突影响的地区，这些地区似乎增加了妇女和儿童遭受此类极端虐待的脆弱性。
我们对十个数据库和大量灰色文献进行了系统检索，以收集受冲突影响地区性交易和性剥削的证据。“性剥削”和“性交易”的国际定义设定了指标参数。我们重点关注早婚或逼婚、强迫战斗人员性剥削和性奴役等形式的性剥削。我们提取了患病率指标、健康结果和性剥削术语定义。该综述遵循PRISMA指南并包括质量评估。
检索确定了29篇符合条件的论文，这些论文提供了非洲、亚洲和中东12个国家武装冲突地区性交易和性剥削的证据。由于患病率估计很少且“性剥削”的定义不一致，证据有限且无法推广。现有的患病率估计表明，在冲突地区，女性比男性更有可能成为性剥削的受害者。在某些地区，多达四分之一的逼婚发生在女孩18岁之前。研究结果表明，绝大多数前女性战斗人员在冲突期间遭受了性剥削。这些研究提供了与联合国性交易定义相符的各种性剥削指标，但只有2项研究将这种剥削确定为性交易。没有一项研究专门旨在衡量性交易或性剥削的患病率。发现了类似的性剥削和性交易类型描述，但术语或测量方法不一致阻碍了荟萃分析。
研究结果表明，在受冲突影响的地区存在各种形式的人口贩运和性剥削，主要表现为早婚或逼婚、强迫战斗人员性剥削和性奴役。这些研究突出了妇女和女孩极易遭受此类极端虐待的情况。同时，本综述表明需要澄清冲突中性交易的术语，以建立一个更具凝聚力的未来证据基础，特别是来自受冲突影响和流离失所人口的可靠患病率数据。
