"If demand ceases, they will have to find themselves another business"
By  Shirly Said

"La Tere" is Teresa Ulloa Ziaurriz, Regional Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking of Women and Girls for Latin America and the Caribbean (CATWLAC). With her affable manner, she inspires a feeling of sisterhood, which becomes increasingly enchanting as one begins to understand who she is.  Teresa was the first female lawyer to defend sexual and reproductive rights in front of the Mexican justice system; the founder of the civil association of Female Popular Defenders; also a professor, a specialist in gender violence, and a mother.  Amongst her other triumphs, she also forgets to mention her candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. Teresa is a woman of high achievement who presents herself unassumingly, using her nickname, “La Tere.”

She could refer to herself as "Tere," omitting the improperly used article "La," but, in her native Mexico, "la" is used to demonstrate affection and reflects the colloquial use of language. After learning more about her, one comes to think that her use of “la,” is not arbitrary. It might be a product of her work, or a habit she's acquired from always distinguishing females from males. Teresa never refers to a population made up of men and women using the customary masculine article “el,’” instead, she is precise to distinguish which gender she is referring to. She speaks of "the weaker males, the weaker females," "the excluded women, the excluded men," "the males and females that cannot defend themselves." She specifies, male or female… every time she speaks to, or about, groups of mixed gender. In an interview that lasts close to an hour, she doesn’t forget to specify gender even once.

"One would have to begin talking about the pedagogy of equality from a perspective of gender in all institutions that make up the process of socialization of girls and boys. This way, we can build a world without people that are considered inferior or superior; where the exertion of power is shared horizontally between men and women- she suggests.- To the extent to which we achieve this, we will lead a peaceful revolution from one generation to the next."

In our steady journey towards a society based on social consensus, the horizontal exertion of power between men and women becomes our goal. To reach this goal, the abolition of sexual exploitation networks stands as one of the most urgent steps forward. Amongst other programs, The “Get with it, man” program, started by Teresa, is contributing to the abolition of the industry by discouraging men and youth from soliciting prostitutes.  “In the workshops we explain prostitution through a perspective of gender; we talk about the industry’s patriarchal values, about the salient hate towards women it instills in all of us . Participants begin to realize that all the violence that exists in sexism affects them, women and society at large,” says Teresa.

In sight of this project, the strongest element of the project is the system of social relations, but this also, becomes its weakest point. Starting from the basics of any economic system, CATLWLAC describes a formula to put halt to the commerce of women: “Even though it is illegal, it follows laws of demand and supply, just like any other industry. If you manage to end the demand, those who recruit, transport, keep women hostage, and exploit them, will disappear, forcing them to find another businesses.”

The down side is that each element that makes up this system does belong to another business. Worst of all, those that should be putting an end to prostitution are in fact those that are key players in the system’s functioning. Teresa explains, “It’s been proven that the networks dedicated to drug trafficking are using their infrastructure for the trafficking of women, girls and boys; using connections with people in high ranks of the political and economic systems.”

In face with a mafia that transcends borders, plans of action are organized through “International Coalition,” a NGO that holds consultative status in the United Nations and acts as a nucleus for regional representations from Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean (of which this last one is lead by Teresa). Some of the network’s most important achievements include; campaigns for the criminalization of the demand of prostitution (that Sweden materialized in 1999), work with migration and airline employees to stop sexual tourism, and the signing in the year 2000 of an additional treaty as part o f the United Nation’s Convention Against Transnational Crime, in which human trafficking is recognized as a threat to public and national security.

But Teresa is not completely satisfied with this: “The UN was only thinking about transnational crimes and didn’t think about trafficking within borders, which in our countries is even more prevalent. Now governments in Latin America abide by this legislation and negate the 1949 Convention, which states that prostitution is a form of exploitation even with victim’s consent. It is very easy to put this convention aside when business interests are at stake.”
At this point in her interview, Teresa is not as calm as she was at first. She seems less enthusiastic and you can note a shift in her language and tone, now her accusations are explained in juridical terms. As if stronger than her, legal discourse takes over, leaving space for colloquial terms that filter naturally to reflect her anger. “Governments involved are incurring violations to the very principles they are to execute,” she begins by saying, “We cannot understand how the leaders of this industry operate and they still remain untouched by the rule of law,” she continues. “We have to call for action based on the Convention, and if it is necessary, take our governments to The Hague for the violation of ratified treaties,” she concludes.

At times she regains her optimism and ensures us that “if we can’t trust our countries’ authorities, there are always alternatives through international organizations such as the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, and the CEDAU Committee.” However, her conclusion is clear: “Unfortunately we have a Supreme Court that is very patriarchal.”
Teresa thinks that patriarchy is a structure that defines society, and she understands it in a broad sense, independent from gender. “We live in a system that is constantly renewed and becomes increasingly sophisticated. I would say we are in a neo-patriarchal system, were power belongs to those that have triumphed. Patriarchal attitudes hold, males stand against males, females against females, and also against males. The question becomes how to uproot this exertion of power that leads us to exploit, discriminate, and violate the human rights of males and females.”

The solution is that peaceful revolution that Teresa invites adults, youth, boys and girls to join. She merits the origin of this notion to the most difficult of her professions, “the only profession where you can’t say that you learn from your mistakes, is as a mother, because one’s mistakes can seriously affect the life of one’s child.” Teresa is the mother of a teenage girl and she feels her responsibility is to legate her with a world in which women’s rights are recognized.

The conversation is coming to a close, but Teresa hurries to say: “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on this today, the day that my inspiration, the one that has caused me to do many things from which I’ve learned from, who is my youngest daughter, is turning 18.” She is excited to see her daughter reach adulthood, and she signs-off by saying, “La Tere.” She says goodbye like always, informally, unassumingly and inspiring an overwhelming feeling of sisterhood.