A/HRC/4/23 page 18 54. Some countries have put in place awareness-raising or prosecution mechanisms that address demand. For example, in Sweden, as described in the 2004 and 2005 annual report of the Swedish National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings, legislation targeting the demand for women and girls for prostitution by prohibiting the purchase of sexual services “continues to function as a barrier against the establishment of traffickers in Sweden”. The Swedish legislation that prohibits the purchase of sexual services also functions as a deterrent for those men who would seek women and children for sexual exploitation. There is evidence that the number of buyers has decreased by 75-80 per cent since the coming into force of this legislation in 1999.20 55. According to the NGO Women in Need Development Consortium (WINIDECO), perpetrators of forced marriage in Kenya are reported to the relevant authorities and charged in court. Also, in 2004 in Burkina Faso, where one in three girls is married before the age of 18, the Government has addressed the problem of child marriage through education programmes that include addressing the tradition of male demand for young brides.21 56. There is a high risk of trafficking of women and girls in cases where marriage-brokering agencies are involved. In this context, the Special Rapporteur refers to her first report, (E/CN.4/2005/71), in which she highlighted a concern about reports regarding marketing of women and children via the Internet or in the guise of marriage-brokering services and pen pal clubs as factors fostering the demand for the sexual exploitation that promotes human trafficking. 57. The marriage-marketing trade feeds on unrealistic and contradictory expectations about marital relationships.22 Moreover, as stated in paragraph 14 of CEDAW general recommendation No. 21, poverty and unemployment increase opportunities for trafficking in women. In addition to established forms of trafficking there are new forms of sexual exploitation, such as organized marriages between women from developing countries and foreign nationals. These practices are incompatible with the equal enjoyment of rights by women and with respect for their rights and dignity. There is an unequal balance of power that puts women at special risk of violence and abuse, particularly when it is the man who is paying money to marry the woman concerned. 58. Moreover, marriages instigated by the Internet and mail-order bride agencies often become forced marriages as women are not free to leave them because of their dependence on their husbands for legal immigration status, their isolation from their families and friends, their economic dependence on their husbands and their fear of their husbands especially since many 20 Gunilla Ekberg, “The Swedish Law That Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual Services: Best Practices for Prevention of Prostitution and Trafficking in Human Beings”, Violence against Women, vol. 10, No. 10 (2004), pp. 1187-1218. 21 22 “Burkina Faso: Government tackles tradition of girl brides”, IRIN News (23 March 2004). See e.g. Marie-Claire Belleau, “Mail-order brides in a global world”, Albany Law Review, vol. 67, Issue 2 (Winter 2003), pp. 595-607.