MORE than two million girls aged five to 15 years are being forced into the commercial sex market each year, according to a new report from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Although the trade in young girls and women is largest in Asia, the sex industry is a global problem, the report says. Within the EU, for example, an estimated 500,000 women, largely from Eastern Europe, have been forced into commercial sex. More than 300,000 Nepalese women have been sent or sold into brothels in India.
The report says most of the children recruited into the sex industry come from poor rural families who migrate to the cities of the developing world. Demand there is driven by the wealthy, including some tourists. In some countries, police and local authorities are involved in the trade.
Sex trafficking is only one of the violations of women's human rights which are enumerated in UNFPA's report, The State of World Population 1997. Millions of women throughout the world are dying each year because their sexual and reproductive rights are being denied, the organisation says. Again, most of these are in the developing world.
According to, UNFPA, 585,000 women - one every minute - die each year from pregnancy related causes. Many more are disabled as a result of childbirth. "Much of this death and suffering could be averted with relatively low cost improvements in healthcare systems," the report states.
A further 200,000 deaths a year are the result of the lack or failure of contraceptive services.
The report calls for greater attention to human rights, especially the promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment. Women should have greater access to economic resources, and spending on primary health care should be increased.
It estimates the number of unwanted pregnancies each year as 75 million, out of a total of 175 million. These result in 45 million abortions, 20 million of which are unsafe. About 70,000 women die each year as a result of unsafe abortions.
Female circumcision remains widespread in 28 African and Asian countries; 120 million women have undergone some form of female genital circumcision, and another two million are at risk each year.
The report notes over the past 30 years, the use of modern contraceptives has increased greatly, from 15 per cent to 60 per cent.
Ireland has one of the lowest birth rates for teenage mothers in the world, according to the report. The birth rate for each 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 is 15, compared to a European average of 28.
Although fertility rates are declining in many countries, the world's population is still growing by 81 million a year. It currently stands at 5.85 billion.
