3. Socio-economic and Cultural Structures. Education, the media and even families continue to reinforce the vulnerability of young women to sexual exploitation. Gender definitions of women as secondary human beings, passive sexual objects and homemakers on the one hand, and definitions of masculinity as aggressive, superior to women and sexually virile are at the base of gender-based violence that includes sex trafficking, where women and children become the majority of victims, and men become the perpetrators. These, combined with poverty, discrimination based on race/ethnicity and age, exacerbates the vulnerability of women and children to trafficking, especially those coming from the rural areas or indigenous groups. “Marrying up” is being seen as a channel for women’s economic and social uplift. Meanwhile, men from the North are on the flipside of the coin and are attracted to the exoticized images and vulnerability of women in the South. Between the vulnerable women and children on the one hand, and the men who are buying on the other, is the globalized business of trafficking where exploiters profit. Finding a huge market among men across societies socialized by their own families, even by schools and by the media to act out exploitative sexuality, more and more sectors of profiteers are drawn to trafficking – from the procurers, to the illegal recruiters, to travel agents, to shippers, airline personnel, immigration officials, pornographers, establishment owners and drug pushers. Those who profit from this huge business have become a politically potent sector as they overlap with those in power, even promoting the idea that prostitution is acceptable. They also push the idea that the sex industry should be tolerated as long as the women are free from HIV/AIDS. This is the general context where challenges in the implementation of international standards reside. In the region of Asia-Pacific, laws against trafficking may have been passed but a huge majority are protective of children but provides conditions or qualifies protection of adults trafficked, especially to prostitution. In India, the Immoral Trafficking in Persons Act is yet to be amended to remove penalties against women and to punish the buyers, as pushed by anti-trafficking advocates. The Anti-Trafficking Law in Nepal punishes both those who engage in prostitution (which can be the women), as well as the buyers. India, Nepal and Pakistan in South Asia have not ratified the UN Anti-Trafficking Protocol. Countries receiving trafficked persons in Asia, such as Malaysia, Japan and Singapore address the supply side of trafficking but have yet to comprehensively address the local demand for trafficked women and children. Malaysia continues its raids targeting undocumented migrants, including trafficking victims. Japan has not yet ratified the UN Anti-Trafficking Protocol and has no comprehensive anti-trafficking law. Singapore denies human trafficking as a significant local problem and has no comprehensive anti-trafficking law as well. Domestic Implementation of International Standards Combating Human Trafficking ❙ 53