FOCUS AND SCOPE • The obligation to address demand rests primarily with the country within which the exploitation takes place, because it is within these countries that both consumer and employer demand is principally generated. • The links between demand and supply, noted above, also imply certain obligations on countries of origin. These are explored more fully in the discussion under Principle 5 and related guidelines, below. • The demand reduction required under the Trafficking Protocol and the Trafficking Principles and Guidelines is not restricted to demand for exploitative sexual services but encompasses demand for the full range of exploitative practices identified in the international definition of trafficking. • States are not precluded by international law from regulating prostitution as they consider appropriate, subject, of course, to their obligation to protect and promote the human rights of all persons within their jurisdiction.178 Accordingly, rightsbased strategies to address demand for exploitative/trafficked prostitution can be considered either separately from or in conjunction with strategies aimed at addressing demand for prostitution more generally. DEMAND AND DISCRIMINATION • Demand in the context of trafficking is often shaped by discriminatory attitudes (including cultural attitudes) and beliefs. Women may be preferred for certain forms of exploitation because they are perceived as weak and less likely to assert themselves or to claim the rights to which they are entitled. Certain ethnic or racial groups may be targeted for trafficking-related exploitation on the basis of See further the Legislative Guides to the Organized Crime Convention and its Protocols, Part 2, para. 33 and note 15. 178 racist or culturally discriminatory assumptions relating to, for example, their sexuality, servility or work capacity.179 • Demand for prostitution (often supplied through trafficking) may reflect discriminatory attitudes and beliefs based on both race and gender. • Rights-based strategies to address demand should focus on addressing discriminatory attitudes and beliefs; particularly those directed against women and migrants. THE ROLE OF THE STATE • States are able to shape demand for the goods and services produced by trafficking through laws and policies on a range of matters, including immigration, employment, welfare and economic development. For example, failure to provide legislative protection for certain individuals, such as domestic workers, “entertainers” or migrant workers, creates an environment in which the exploitation of these persons becomes both “possible and worthwhile”.180 • Laws and policies that institutionalize discrimination can also shape demand, as can a failure on the part of the State to challenge discriminatory social attitudes, practices and beliefs effectively. • By maintaining trafficking as a low-risk, high-profit crime, a failure on the part of the State to investigate, prosecute and punish trafficking and related exploitation effectively can contribute to the demand generated by traffickers and exploiters. • A more general failure on the part of the State to protect the rights of certain persons, including women, children and migrants, can further contribute to building demand Anderson and O’Connell-Davidson, op. cit., p. 42, noting that racism, xenophobia and prejudice against ethnic minority groups make it easier for consumers of the exploitation of trafficked persons to justify the practice. 179 180 Anderson and O’Connell-Davidson, op. cit., p. 41. COMMENTARY 101