Boys who are victims of sex trafficking learn to screen print at Urban Light, a non-profit, in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Picture courtesy: Urban Light. No one would connect the boys to the older, white men - and a pair of Chinese somethings - seated under a tree, or to the young man with the mobile phone leaning on a parked motorbike. But for Alezandra Russell, founder of non-profit Urban Light, this scene - which unfolds every evening in one of the country's most popular tourist stops - sums up everything that is wrong with Thailand's approach to trafficking and slavery. The boys, aged from 14 to 24, walk in pairs for greater safety, making eye contact with the men, who then communicate their choices to the man with the mobile phone.

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The ruling rejected the centuries old custom of men taking unofficial wives who live as slaves.
Sexual slavery and sexual exploitation is attaching the right of ownership over one or more people with the intent of coercing or otherwise forcing them to engage in sexual activities. Sexual slavery may also involve single-owner sexual slavery ; ritual slavery , sometimes associated with certain religious practices, such as ritual servitude in Ghana , Togo and Benin ; slavery for primarily non-sexual purposes but where non-consensual sexual activity is common; or forced prostitution. Concubinage was a traditional form of sexual slavery in many cultures, in which women spent their lives in sexual servitude. In some cultures, concubines and their children had distinct rights and legitimate social positions. The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action calls for an international effort to make people aware of sexual slavery, and that sexual slavery is an abuse of human rights. The incidence of sexual slavery by country has been studied and tabulated by UNESCO , with the cooperation of various international agencies. The Rome Statute which defines the crimes over which the International Criminal Court may have jurisdiction encompasses crimes against humanity Article 7 which include "enslavement" Article 7. It also defines sexual enslavement as a war crime and a breach of the Geneva Conventions when committed during an international armed conflict Article 8. The text of the Rome Statute does not explicitly define sexual enslavement, but does define enslavement as "the exercise of any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership over a person and includes the exercise of such power in the course of trafficking in persons, in particular women and children" Article 7. In the commentary on the Rome Statute, [6] Mark Klamberg states: [7] [8].
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By Stefanie Cohen. November 18, am Updated November 22, pm. Nadia Murad grew up dreaming of owning a beauty salon. The youngest of 11 children in a Yazidi family in northwest Iraq, she took photographs of all the brides in her tiny village, studying their makeup and hair.
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