Global Issues

Switzerland

• Destination and, to a lesser extent, a transit country for women and children subjected to sex trafficking.

• Majority of identified trafficking victims forced into nude dancing and prostitution.

• Victims originated from Eastern Europe, including Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.

• Victims from Latin America, Asia, and Africa are also exploited in Switzerland.

• In 2010, officials and NGOs reported an increase in the number of women in prostitution and children forced into begging after coming from other parts of Europe, especially Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. Many were ethnic Roma.

• 9% of women in Switzerland report intimate partner physical violence in their lifetime.

• 3% of women report sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime.

• 27% of women report intimate partner and/or non-partner physical violence in their lifetime.

• 25% of women report intimate partner and/or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.

• 80% of victims of domestic violence in 2008 had suffered previous assaults.

 

Advocacy:

Aspasie – solidarity association, created in Geneva in 1982 by prostitutes and their allies.

 

Sources: UN Women Violence against Women Prevalence Data: Surveys by Country 2011; U.S. Department of State 2010 Human Rights Report; U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2011