Originally published on the CGS blog on February 2, 2016.
East Asia neighbors South Korea and Japan have recently made international headlines in light of their brash resolution for “comfort women.” Heard of it before? Chances are more than likely you haven’t.
In arguably the most brutal crime against women in history, “comfort women” refers to the massive sexual slavery of thousands of Korean women at the hands of the Japanese government. Up until news of the recent “resolution” between South Korea and Japan regarding just this, the subject of comfort women has remained notably absent from the international conversation. But why all of the silence regarding such a pivotal part of history?
The answer is simple: the lives of women and the violence they too often suffer simply do not matter.
This is made alarmingly clear by the lackadaisical manner in which Japan and South Korea have “resolved” the comfort women debacle. Vacuous at best, the so-called comfort women resolution is a slap in the face to the very women who endured the unthinkable, the un-survivable. And despite the very public disapproval of Japan’s proposed resolution by surviving comfort women, the Korean government has accepted Japan’s settlement, which includes the removal of a statue honoring the legacy of the ever-resilient “comfort women.”
The passivity, and some may argue continued lack of acknowledgment, by the Japanese government trivializes this historic venom and shows us all just how undervalued the lives of women truly are.
Japan’s longstanding and blatant unresponsiveness to this historical obstruction of human rights parallels the global community’s tendency to pacify, trivialize, and/or ignore altogether human rights abuses against women.
The Center of Immigration Studies estimates that 10,000 mail-order brides enter the United States annually and mail-order bride websites garner over 2.5 million visits monthly. Although there is no empirical data on the number of deaths associated with this international trafficking and transactional treatment of women, a number of murders at the hands of men purchasing these young brides have surfaced. And as a result of being an expat in a foreign country, mail-order brides have little to no help or protection in their new home countries and often face deportation when seeking help.
Every year 15 million girls are married as child brides, some as young as six and seven years old. Yet the international community has done little to eradicate this distasteful practice. If present trends continue, it is estimated that 1.2 billion underage girls will be married by 2050.
Somehow, the international community fails to address these issues and other injustices affecting women as they continue to spread exponentially.
The global community is seemingly saying to women, “Chill, don’t be dramatic. It’s not that big of a deal.” Women should not take the back burner in the conversation surrounding human rights. The world can no longer turn a blind eye to the marginalization of women in the name of profit and the sexual pleasure of men.
Mail-order and child brides are both examples of systemically supported attacks on women globally. The time has come for governments and the global community as a whole to finally prioritize these injustices as 21st century threats to human rights. However, Korea and Japan’s dismissive resolution sets the bar alarmingly low for future advancements.
