Global Issues

Argentina

• Rape Victims’ Association reported more than 1,500 rape cases in Buenos Aires City and Buenos Aires Province in 2010.

• 9,000 such cases were reported between 2003 and 2009.

• 80% of victims under 18.

• Source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor

• Many sex trafficking victims from rural areas or northern provinces are forced into prostitution in urban centers or wealthy provinces.

• Foreign women and children, primarily from Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru, and to a more limited extent from Brazil and the Dominican Republic, are subjected to sex trafficking in Argentina.

•  Transit point for foreign women and girls trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation in Chile, Brazil, Mexico, and Western Europe.

• Some Argentine women and girls are found in forced prostitution in Western Europe.

 

Advocacy:

• Association of Women Prostitutes of Argentina formed in response to constant harassment and violence from the police. Later joined the Confederation of Workers of Argentina.

Sources: U.S. Department of State 2010 Human Rights Report; U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2011