Women as Commodity: Trafficking of Women in Bosnia & Herzegovina

The idea of human rights has been a sensitive issue for many years because of the vagueness of its definition, as evident in its own beginnings. Human rights have evolved substantially over the centuries. It first became a topic of discussion in the fields of philosophy and politics in the 17^th century; however, the terms associated with this idea were 'natural rights' or 'the rights of man' as opposed to 'human rights,' and rights were not necessarily directed towards alleviating the suffering of individuals, but more so as "a challenge to the reigning principles of political legitimacy" (Donnelly 28). Prior to the modern period, there were no rights that were universal for all human beings. Rulers were encouraged to rule with the common good for all citizens, which stemmed from ideas such as natural law. Natural law is defined by the Catholic Encyclopedia as "the rule of conduct which is prescribed to us by the Creator in the constitution of the nature with which He has endowed us" (Catholic Encyclopedia). However, there were no consequences for those rulers who failed to incorporate common good or, for that matter, natural law. John Locke's Second Treatise on Government introduced this theory of natural rights in which these rights are defined as "those rights which we are supposed to have as human beings before ever government comes into being. We might suppose, that like other animals, we have a natural right to struggle for our survival. Locke will argue that we have a right to the means to survive" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He argues further that natural rights cannot be protected without a government, thus the reason why citizens decide to establish governments. In a social contract, as termed by Locke, governments and citizens work together to ensure the protection of rights, and citizens are not obliged to obey governments if their rights are being violated. Unfortunately, his theory had several important flaws. It was, in reality, the middle class that claimed the existence of natural rights because they were acting out against the higher-class bourgeoisie. Additionally, Locke's theory was targeted towards only males and, even moreso, to land-owning males. Therefore, the universality of these natural rights did not even exist.

One of the simplest definitions of human rights is that human rights are "the rights one has simply because one is a human being" and, with new laws coming into effect at national, regional, and international levels, these rights are becoming, in theory, universal (Donnelly 1). Human rights are no longer solely for land-owning males but also for women; however, it seems as though women are often the ones to have their human rights violated the most. Countless laws have been passed that aim to protect the rights of women, and, in particular, against violations such as sex slavery and trafficking. The laws protecting women against sex slavery and trafficking are on the path towards the so-called gender justice of Martha Nussbaum in which woman's central human capabilities include bodily health and bodily integrity. Unfortunately, violations against both the bodily health and bodily integrity of women continue today. According to Refugees International, sex trafficking "is among the fastest growing criminal activities, occurring worldwide and within individual countries. Globally, at least 600,000 - 800,000 people, mostly women and children, are trafficked each year across borders, including 14,500 - 17,500 persons into the United States. Annual profits from human trafficking have been estimated at five to seven billion dollars" (Refugees International). Sex slavery and trafficking of women have existed for a long time, but the current trend of globalization has opened international borders to accommodate sex slavery and trafficking.