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eridani

(51,907 posts)
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 09:34 AM Mar 2016

Supporting Women Includes Opposing TPP


http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/35625-supporting-women-includes-opposing-tpp

But something that has gone overlooked and under-discussed is the fact that the TPP will tie the United States to countries that do not value the rights of women.

One of those countries is Brunei Darussalam. Even while Brunei was participating in the TPP negotiations, that country was passing laws that harm women. Brunei’s new penal laws proscribe imprisonment for women who have an abortion or who have a child out of wedlock. The penalty for being found guilty of adultery or extramarital sex is flogging or death by stoning. Rather than condemn these repressive acts, the TPP would bring the United States in partnership with Brunei, a country that adopted Sharia law in 2014, causing condemnation from human rights groups.

The case of Malaysia is just as distressing. That country has a troubling and well-documented history of slave labor and serious human trafficking abuses. Every year, millions of people are forced into unpaid labor, with teenage girls forced to become domestic workers in unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Sadly, many also suffer sexual abuse or are driven into Malaysia’s sex trade, and mass graves were also recently discovered.

For years, Malaysia was on the list of worst countries for human trafficking but has shown no real progress in changing its ways. According to our own State Department’s 2014 trafficking report, Malaysia “made limited and inadequate efforts to improve its flawed victim protection regime,” and authorities there detained victims for over a year in some cases, all while decreasing trafficking enforcement.

In May 2015, authorities near the border with Thailand discovered 139 bodies in shallow graves, most likely the remains of trafficked migrants trying to escape persecution in Burma and Bangladesh. Yet, just a few short weeks later, the State Department actually upgraded Malaysia’s status. Questions have since been raised about whether this was done because the fast-track bill passed by Congress said the administration couldn’t rubber stamp any trade agreement with countries in the worst trafficking category.
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Supporting Women Includes Opposing TPP (Original Post) eridani Mar 2016 OP
Any way you slice it, TPP is just plain bad news StandingInLeftField Mar 2016 #1
1. Any way you slice it, TPP is just plain bad news
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 10:21 AM
Mar 2016

but, as the readersupportednews.com article points out, especially for the under-served, exploited and vulnerable women in developing and patriarchal societies. Yet some (ahem, Hillary, ahem) choose to turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to the most egregious transgressions of our soon-to-be trading "partners", many of which are being codified into law. According to the apologists, strong wording has been written into the pending agreements that would limit such behavior. Neither NAFTA, nor the TPP bear this out; women's and children's predicaments continue to deteriorate, and at an alarming rate.

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