What kind of festival is International Women’s Day? There can be multiple interpretations, and different people have different views, but everyone should have a basic consensus: this festival can certainly “celebrate women’s achievements”, and can certainly look up to the heights that women at the top of the pyramid can reach, but it should also pay attention to and rescue disempowered women, those who are or have been subjected to the suffering of kidnapping, trafficking, and enslavement. Paying attention to their basic rights that have been deprived is paying attention to the basic rights of being human.
Women are individual, specific people; they are daughters, wives, and mothers. But it is only on their own free will, with mutual consent, that they become wives and mothers that it is glorious. New institutional economics believes that marriage is a contract and the family is a company, which is not bad in an economic sense: whether it is marriage or family, it must be established on the basis of mutual agreement, marriage is only effective as a contract, and family is only legitimate as a company.
What is the essence of the so-called “trafficking of women”? Human traffickers kidnap women through deception, drugging, threats, or binding, and then sell them to buyers, including forced prostitution organizations, “middlemen” (also human traffickers), and the so-called “husbands”. The so-called “husbands” will illegally detain them, deprive them of their personal freedom, rape them, and often force them to give birth to so-called “children”. This is the whole picture of the event based on the timeline.
Then, some women refuse to accept their fate and will try to escape from their so-called “husbands”, while some women reluctantly accept their fate. But regardless of whether they accept their fate or not, this does not change the criminal nature of the event: the entire event, from the human traffickers on the supply side to the so-called “husbands” on the demand side, are vicious criminals who have continuously committed multiple serious crimes against women; since they are criminals, regardless of whether the forced women prosecute or not, the law should prosecute them to the end. The criminal issues of the entire event will be further elaborated below.
Here, it is necessary to first clarify a popular misconception. In the eyes of some people, since these women and their so-called “husbands” have organized a “family”, and even have a “marriage certificate” and “children”, the established facts should be respected; and “these children are innocent” and should not be allowed to lose their “mothers”, or at least not to lose their “fathers”; in addition, many women later accept their fate, which seems to endorse the legitimacy of this so-called “marriage”, “family”, “husband”, “children”, “father-in-law”, and “mother-in-law”, so “the women’s wishes should also be respected”. These cognitions are wrong in theory and terrifying in practice.
Because the entire event is based on the forced enslavement of women, from the perspective of natural rights, the rule of law, and civilization, all the civil relations formed by the above-mentioned entire event are invalid: forced marriage is not marriage in the civil law sense, forced family is not a legitimate family, and the so-called “husband” as a rapist and enslaver is not a legitimate husband. Who helped to obtain the “marriage certificate” should also be investigated to the end. In a word, during the period of being forced and enslaved, all civil relations that women have should be invalid by default.
Even the so-called “children” born from rape are not of the same nature as the children born voluntarily by women. Women have no obligation to raise the so-called “children”. After the women are free or rescued, the theoretically reasonable approach should be: the minor children are forcibly taken over by government child welfare agencies, and then enter new families through foster care or adoption, and are separated from the so-called “family” and “biological father”. They should not be handed over to the “biological father” to continue raising them. For the “biological father”, prison is their proper destination. Even if the women themselves are willing or request it, such “children” should not live with them.
At this point, some people may still “say that the children are innocent and should be given a complete home”, and so on. But please remember that the so-called “children” are the product of rape and forced marriage, and there is no reason to sacrifice the rights of the forced women for the benefit of the children. Furthermore, the children’s separation from such a “family” is separation from “evil”, which can block the further production of “evil”. Will these children continue to buy wives in the future after growing up in such an environment? Growing up in government welfare agencies is better than this so-called “family”, and if there are good foster or adoptive families to accept them, it will be better for the children’s growth.
The “children” produced by forced marriage will be taken over by the government, which can block a major inducement for the kidnapping and trafficking of women: for the sake of “continuing the family line”. There is demand, and there will be supply. Doing so sometimes seems to be inconsistent with the wishes of the women involved, but only in this way can all other women walking on the streets and roads be safer.
After reaching a consensus on this basic cognition, the subsequent criminal disposal logic becomes simple. Without demand, how can there be supply? The so-called “husbands” are the most serious criminals in the entire event and should not be lower than the human traffickers. Conversely, the human traffickers should also be included for the crimes of the “husbands” such as rape + illegal detention + enslavement, which the human traffickers foresaw and actively promoted. Therefore, buying and selling are the same crime, and human traffickers and the so-called “husbands” should be regarded as mutual crimes or joint crimes.
In the current 1997 Criminal Law, there is the “crime of trafficking women and children” for human traffickers; for buyers or the so-called “husbands”, there is the “crime of purchasing trafficked women and children”, and they can also be punished with the crime of rape + illegal detention, intentional injury, and insult. However, in judicial practice, human traffickers are very commonly convicted, while buyers are relatively less convicted, often with probation, and multiple crimes are rarely punished together.
From a time sequence, human traffickers first kidnap women, and then they end up in the hands of the so-called “husbands”, so it seems that human traffickers are the most heinous; but from a logical perspective, it is the buyers or the so-called “husbands” who have this illegal demand, which leads to the supply of human traffickers kidnapping women. The degree of heinousness of the demand side is no less than that of the supply side, so both the buyers and sellers should be sentenced to the same serious crime.
In addition, those who knowingly participated in, assisted, or obstructed the women’s escape in the entire chain of kidnapping, trafficking, and enslavement; village officials who are responsible for their duties, and if there are women in the village who have been kidnapped, trafficked, and enslaved, it is presumed that they know about it, both of these types of people should be held criminally liable.
In particular, family members of the male who live with the so-called “husband” are also considered to be organized crime.
Finally, while pursuing criminal prosecution, the forced women should be given the right to civil compensation from all parties involved in the entire criminal chain. The amount of compensation should not only cover the economic losses they suffered during the period of forced enslavement, but also include mental compensation and punitive compensation, as compensation for the loss of human rights and dignity over the years. The family property of these criminals can be executed, so that all criminals pay a high economic price, and further increase the crime cost of kidnapping, trafficking, and enslaving women.
In short, society needs to gather consensus and form a joint force to completely end this ancient evil, so that every woman can be free from the fear of being kidnapped, trafficked, and enslaved, and enjoy the sweetness of free air, free choice, and even freedom itself.
This year’s National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the Supreme People’s Court’s work report proposed that the work outlook for 2023 is: listen to the voices of the masses, adhere to the problem-oriented approach, go towards the problems, and truly solve the problems… effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of women, children, the elderly, and the disabled. Undoubtedly, solving the problem of “disempowered women” who are kidnapped, trafficked, and enslaved should be an integral part of “protecting the legitimate rights and interests of women”, and its importance cannot be overemphasized, because it concerns the basic rights of being human. Once solved, it can greatly raise the level of protection of the rights of every woman and every person, and refresh the image of judicial civilization.
I believe this is the best gift for women.
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