Women ' s trade – a growing concern for the Church Social Thought

The objectives of this article are to address a situation where life is threatened by international trafficking of humans and illustrate some serious concerns of the Church in this matter. This article emerges from experience, since one of the authors acted as a priest of the Catholic Church in East Timor in the border with Indonesia. UN studies show that human trafficking victims’ men and women, adults and children, and the sexual exploitation is one of the most dramatic and reported forms of it. The main motivation is economic, and this traffic generates billions of dollars in illegal profits each year. The Roman Catholic Church addressed the issue more clearly in the Second Vatican Council denouncing what was called "trade in women and children". Pope John Paul II situated this practice between the actions that are opposed to life and violate the human integrity. The Pope Francisco situated the problem under the current poor working conditions, as well as in the context of migration and refugees. Thus, human trafficking is an emerging theme in the Church, with concerns rising, appointed as attack on human dignity, crime, exploitation and result of poor working conditions that affects those who live in greater poverty on Earth.


Introduction
It is a very important part of the Church's mission, to promote life and defend human dignity when it is threatened. This is because the Church is an heiress of a tradition that professes that the human being was created in the image and likeness of God. The main objective of this article is to address a situation where human life is threatened by international human trafficking. This research emerges from experience, since one of the authors acted as a priest of the Catholic Church in East Timor in the border with Indonesia. About this, there have been work experiences in a parish near the border, for seven years, with knowledge about the movement of people in this area between East Timor and Indonesia. This people used to present their problems more easily in the Church, to priests and religious sisters, rather than to address local authorities. From this moment on there was a desire to be able to provide a more adequate comprehension of the human trafficking to help people and families of East Timor who suffered being victims of these situations. Therefore, the research emerged from the practical need to provide adequate instruction in order to avoid involvement in this serious problem. Rev. Pistis Prax., Teol. Pastor., Curitiba, v. 12, n. 1, p. 26-41, jan./abr. 2020 The United Nation (UN) in its report (2012), in a study on the world economy, detects the problem in both developed and underdeveloped countries. Trafficking human beings is increasing in the least developed countries, and the highest incidence is in women and children, who try to get out of the painful situations in a certain way and end up having even greater problem getting involved in the traffic. The issue has been posed as an international and human rights problem, so the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 4, states that: "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude, slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all its forms" (UDHR, 2009, p. 1).
The result of human trafficking is the submission of both men and women to situations of slavery, oppression, contempt, humiliation, forced involvement in situations of pornography and prostitution. These are mainly organized criminal actions and it brings to the victims numerous damages and various discriminations in the personal and well as the family. Globally speaking, the people who suffer the most in these cases are women, adolescents and children, as they are the main victims. Also, in the case of East Timor, women are the most exposed, so, this is the main focus of our work.
This article identifies the issue of human trafficking internationally and seeks to map out the Catholic Church's concern about human trafficking, initially referred to as women trade, identifying that this has been a growing concern.

Trafficking of Women in the World
Human Trafficking continues to be a current issue in Est Timor and internationally, even if it is almost unanimous condemnation by local and international leaders. This reveals two main aspects: the seriousness with which the government deals with the subject, and the situation of helplessness of the people victimized by this crime. Thus, from the ethical point of view, it can be said that this practice is done against human dignity.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which presents the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, attempted, for the first time in April 2006, to identify patterns of human trafficking. In 2009, in the second report, based on criminal justice data and victim assistance from 155 countries, it cataloged and analyzed the global response to this problematic event (UNODC, 2009, p. 6). In the 2009 report, UNODC³ presented five major points, such as the following: The first point is that from 2006 to 2009, it has doubled the number of countries that have taken steps to implement the main international agreement on combating human trafficking with the UN Protocol. However, some countries still lack the necessary legal instruments to combat them.
In the second point, it is observed that there is an increase in the number of convictions, although it is not a proportional increase, and there is a conviction that condemnation occurs only in some countries. The Report says that where the problem is more serious is not where it is more condemned. It points out that in 2007/08 two countries, out of five covered by this report, did not register a single conviction. With regard to this point, the document states and exhorts with emphasis: Either they are blind to the problem, or ill-equipped to deal with it. It calls on governments and other stakeholders to draw on UNODC's expertise, including the recently published Toolkit to combat trafficking in persons, to demonstrate their commitment.
In the third point, it presents a statistical result according to which, sexual exploitation is a more common form of trafficking in human beings (79%), followed by forced labor (18%). This may be the result of statistical bias. In general, the exploitation of women tends to be visible, in city centers or on highways. As it is most often reported, sexual exploitation has become the most documented type of trafficking in aggregate statistics. In comparison, other forms of exploitation are less reported: forced labor, domestic servitude, forced marriage, organ removal, and exploitation of children in begging.
In the fourth point, it emphasizes a first document on a disproportionate number of women, who are involved in human trafficking not only as victims, but also as traffickers. Offenders have a more prominent role in current slavery than in most Rev. Pistis Prax., Teol. Pastor., Curitiba, v. 12, n. 1, p. 26-41, jan./abr. 2020 other forms of crime. This needs to be addressed, especially in cases where former victims have become traffickers.
In the last point, UNODC notes that most national or regional trafficking is carried out by persons whose nationality is the same as their victims. There are also notable cases of long-distance traffic. Europe, for example, is the destination of the Rev. Pistis Prax., Teol. Pastor., Curitiba, v. 12, n. 1, p. 26-41, jan./abr. 2020 The first problem is that some countries are not even collecting basic data, and many are not collecting data in order to facilitate insight into the national situation, much less comply with international comparability standards. The state should be concerned with deepening the details to address the problem and avoiding incidents.
The second problem is that although this report addresses the collective global response to trafficking in human beings, the information collected does not show the fundamental issue. This is because of the nature of the information collected that says much less about what it should say in the actual crime fighting activity itself (UNODC, 2009, p. 13).
Countries with the largest amounts of combat activity may be oblivious to their data and far from being representative of coherence, while the appropriate legislative framework varies greatly in the resources available for implementation and the way these resources are directed. In order to combat trafficking in human beings, data must be shared with the same importance as collective efforts in an internationally standardized way. The content of information from so many different perspectives can offset many of the shortcomings of the data itself.
This information is vital, in the case of a world of limited resources, whose efforts can be focused with maximum effect. According to UNODC (2009), many countries have data and are willing to share. In addition to documenting substantial commitment, a wide range of countries have cut short the trade of people, providing some modest but fundamental knowledge in the hidden world of human trafficking.
Institutionally speaking this collection of information in ongoing cooperation program is similar to this drug venture or is used to monitor the implementation of the Traffic Protocol, within the framework of the United Nations Transnational Conference, Organized Crime Convention, is clearly a possibility and potentially invaluable (UNODC 2009, p. 13).
A second Global estimate of forced labor by the International Labor Organization (ILO) was released in 2014 that nearly 21 million people have been victims of forced labor and sexual exploitation. About 11.4 million women and girls, and 9.5 million men and boys participated in forced labor and sexual exploitation. Nearly 19 million victims are exploited by individuals or businesses, and more than 2 million by state or rebel groups.  In the Japanese invasion and occupation, during World War II, (1942)(1943)(1944)(1945) many Timorese women were subjected to serve the soldiers. There is still no statistic of how many East Timorese women and girls were taken and sold to other countries by the occasion of that war. The Japanese have not yet acknowledged how many violations the military practiced against the dignity of Timorese women, at that sad moment in the country's history, but the victims continue to claim their rights.
With regard to the occupation of Indonesia, violations occurred over 24 years . In this period, according to Belo (2016), women who fought the invaders suffered the most, some were arrested and tortured, others raped, and many women and girls were victims of sexual violence by the military.
East Timor is a relatively new country, since 2002, and still characterizes itself as a poor country, has been seeking to defend the dignity of its citizens as its main wealth.
However Rev. Pistis Prax., Teol. Pastor., Curitiba, v. 12, n. 1, p. 26-41, jan./abr. 2020 Department welcomes East Timor's "reactivated efforts to combat human trafficking" over the past year, noting that "building the partnerships and networks necessary to combat human trafficking, protects victims and prosecutes perpetrators" Despite the improvements, the 2016 report stresses that East Timor continues to be a source and destination for men, women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Occasionally, young men from rural areas are attracted to the capital with the promise of better prospects of employment or education and are in some cases victims of sexual trafficking or domestic servitude (GRAYLEY, 2016, p. 1).
The same author (2016, p. 1) reports that there was at least one case of a village chief involved in this type of trafficking. The report points to organized crime in Indonesia and China as sex trafficking in East Timor.

The concern of Catholic Church
The Slavery, prostitution, the sale of women and children, and poor working conditions, in which men are treated more as a means of income and not as free and responsible, abhorring that it is the poison that pollutes society, the degrading offenders and is the greatest insult to the Creator (GS, 27).
It is noted that the document refers to "selling women and children", and the term human trafficking, will only appear later. This issue returns in another passage of the document, inserting the problematic between the aggressions and the human dignity: In addition, everything that opposes life itself, such as any kind of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or intentional self-destruction, violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on the body or mind, tries to coagulate his own will. Any aggression against human dignity, such as arbitrary arrest, deportation, slavery, prostitution, sale of women and children and others, are treated as mere instruments of commerce and not and in global agencies that provide food aid, whose event is headed towards peace.
The document Octogesimo Advenines (1971) (OA), by Pope Paul VI, is an apostolic letter destined to mark the age of 80 years of RN. This document invites all members of the Church to act against poverty. Problems related to urbanization are seen as one of the causes of the birth of the "new poverty" as a poor country and community groups living in the suburbs. It also addresses issues of discrimination in skin color, origin, culture, sex, and religion. The Church encourages its people to act actively on political issues and insist on striving for values to evangelize the people. The light of truth will be a certainty or uncertainty of the phenomenon of the advancement of humanity related to justice, urbanization and its consequences, discrimination of rights in general.
In the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae (EV), Pope John Paul II (1993) took up the question of the 'trade of women and young people' as something that opposes life: All that is opposed to life, such as all kinds of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia and voluntary suicide, and everything that violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, bodily and mental torment, and attempts to own consciences, everything that offends the dignity of the human person, such as living conditions, infrastructure, arbitrary detention, deportation, slavery, prostitution, trade in women and young people, and degrading conditions of work, are treated as mere instruments of profit and not of freedom and responsibility (EV, 3).
Veritatis Splendor (VS) n° 80 indicates the importance of the subject on all elements exposed to error, whose element of Church teaching needs perhaps the strongest defense against current theories. Thus, the Pope describes the nature of these objects that "radically contradict the good of the person" and are "intrinsically Rev. Pistis Prax., Teol. Pastor., Curitiba, v. 12, n. 1, p. 26-41, jan./abr. 2020 evil". In this way, the Pope directly cites from Vatican II cases of acts that, according to their species, offend the integrity of the life of the human person: Everything that is opposed to life, [...] the commerce of women and youth, and also the degrading conditions of work, in which the workers are treated as objects and not as free and responsible people. All these and similar things are controversial, these actions corrupt human civilization and dishonor those who do so (VS, 80).
The Church understands that God created the human being as protector and to the mass migration that the world must face. It is already remarkable the "number of men and women who are forced to look for work far from their own country and this is cause for concern". They do not expect a better immediate future often find misunderstanding and exclusion, not to mention the occasions on which they experience tragedies and disasters. After they face such sacrifices, they often fail to find decent work and thus become victims of a certain "globalization of indifference". Pope Francis also says that effective cooperation in these fields will be greatly favored by the definition of future sustainable development goals. As he recently expressed to the Secretary-General and to the Executive Heads of the United Nations: The future objectives of sustainable development should be formulated with generosity and courage so that they can effectively address the structural causes of poverty and hunger and to ensure decent work for all and adequately protect the family, an essential element of any sustainable economic and social development (FRANCIS, 2014, p. 2).
The social doctrine of the Catholic Church is in favor of the initiatives taken by the ILO, which aim to promote the dignity of the human person and the nobility of work. Pope Francis (2014, p. 2), encouraged the ILO in its efforts to meet the challenges of the contemporary world, remaining faithful to these noble purposes. At the same time, the Pope says: "I invoke the blessing of God on all that you carry out, to safeguard and increase the dignity of work, for the common good of the human family".

Final considerations
Victims involved in trafficking are women and men, adult and children. It is a great problem of our time, since more than 40 million people in world is in this modern slavery. The problem is composed in many dramatic aspects, being the sexual exploitation one of the most related. Among the difficulties to address this issue is that many promoters are socially very well established, it means that its main motivation is economic, since forced labor in the private economy generates billions in illegal profits per year.
The issue of human trafficking in East Timor is like in many countries, is it formally forbidden but there are not effectives actions to prevent, combat and condemn it. There are as well local people involved as victims and as traffickers, and among these there are persons with social and local leadership.
The Catholic Church brought the question of human trafficking more clearly in the Vatican II Council denunciating what was initially called "trade of women and children". The Pope John Paul II situated the "trade in women and young people" among the actions opposed to life and that "violates the integrity of the human person". In these statements the Church points out that human being is treated are mere instrument of profit. Pope Francis has been situating this question in the context of actual works conditions as well in the context of migrations and refugees. He addresses the problem as "trafficking in human beings" and points it out as "crime".
The growing concern of the Catholic Church about trafficking in human express diverse and complex perspectives about this issue: it is an attempt to human dignity, a crime, an exploitation, a result of bad work condition impacted over those who are living in poverty on earth. Rev. Pistis Prax., Teol. Pastor., Curitiba, v. 12, n. 1, p. 26-41, jan./abr. 2020 The future objectives of sustainable development should be formulated with generosity and courage so that they can effectively address the structural causes of poverty and hunger and that they achieve substantial further results in favor of preserving the environment and ensure decent work for all and adequately protect the family, an essential element of any sustainable economic and social development.