Advocacy

Written on 10 April 2023.

From GAATW’s beginnings in the early 1990s, advocacy has been a core part of our work. GAATW-IS supports Member’s advocacy by developing advocacy tools for Member Organisations; ensuring evidence-based policy making; identifying opportunities for advocacy in international human rights treaty bodies and mechanisms; advocating for human rights principles in criminal justice frameworks; shifting public narratives around trafficked persons by working with media; and calling for the accountability of anti-trafficking stakeholders in all responses to trafficking.

GAATW identifies opportunities for advocacy at the international level, both to advocate to the governments of the countries we research and to share our analysis with other states and the broader NGO community.

Achievements to date include: joining a coalition of groups to call for an internationally recognised definition of trafficking, now enshrined in the Human Trafficking Protocol; demanding and ensuring greater human rights protections for migrant women through the United Nations process; raising awareness of the dangers of anti-trafficking approaches that are not grounded in the lived experiences of trafficked persons; and building a strong network of advocates for trafficked persons’ rights worldwide.

GAATW’s international advocacy work has been facilitated by the Alliance successfully obtaining consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations in 2006.

From GAATW’s beginnings in the early 1990s, advocacy has been a core part of our work. GAATW-IS supports Members’ advocacy by developing advocacy tools; ensuring evidence-based policy making; identifying opportunities for advocacy in international human rights treaty bodies and mechanisms; advocating for human rights principles in criminal justice frameworks; and pushing for feminist responses to trafficking by anti-trafficking stakeholders.

GAATW conducts advocacy at the international and regional level, to both influence international laws, policies and practices in the sphere of migration, labour rights and anti-trafficking, and also to encourage progressive reforms by the governments of the countries that our Members work in. GAATW also seeks to influence the advocacy priorities of the broader NGO community through our research and analyses.

Achievements to date include: joining a coalition of groups to call for an internationally recognised definition of trafficking, now enshrined in the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children; demanding and ensuring greater human rights protections for migrant women through the United Nations processes; raising awareness of the dangers of anti-trafficking approaches that are not grounded in the lived experiences of trafficked persons; and building a strong network of advocates for trafficked persons’ rights worldwide.

GAATW has been granted consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations since 2006.

Strategic Thematic Directions

Written on 07 April 2023.

At the beginning of 2020, GAATW adopted a new Strategic Plan to guide our work in the next ten years. It was the result of a two-year process that involved an external assessment of the Alliance, four regional consultations with GAATW Members in South and Southeast Asia, Europe, and South America, and a Theory of Change exercise guided by an external facilitator.

The Strategic Plan responds to the following socioeconomic and political context that impacts the lives of migrant and trafficked women, as well as the specific challenges of anti-trafficking work:

The neoliberal economic model puts profits over people, demands reduced government and no regulations for businesses, as well as the privatisation and dismantling of social protections and public services. It has resulted in growing inequality between rich and poor in both developed and developing countries.
The weakening of labour rights, trade unions and collective bargaining, and a rise in zero-hour, piece-rate contracts and the gig economy, all of which have led to erosion of the hard-won victories of the labour movement and increased precarity of work. Digitalisation and technology are accelerating these changes.
The climate crisis is destroying people’s homes and livelihoods, especially subsistence farming. This is pushing people into distress migration to cities or other countries to find salaried work.
Patriarchal social attitudes are the cause of violations of women’s rights. One of the underlying reasons for women’s exploitation is the undervaluation of women’s work. The gender wage gap is widely recognised by activists and policymakers but less so is the unpaid domestic, care and household work, which women perform between 1.5 and 4 times more than men worldwide.
Rising inequality and the uneven benefits of globalisation are leading to a crisis of democracy and the rise of authoritarian, “strongman”, populist leaders. These men are promoting nationalist policies and undermining the international rules-based order and multilateralism. International institutions like the UN are either ignored or actively destroyed. There is a rollback of hard-won rights, especially for women and LGBTI people.
Governments are cracking down on civil society and human rights work, criminalising solidarity, and forcing NGOs to register as foreign agents.
Anti-trafficking work is dominated by simplistic narratives of evil criminals and helpless victims while ignoring the larger socioeconomic and political issues. Simplistic narratives lead to simplistic “solutions”, such as the criminalisation of clients of sex workers, or restrictions on women’s migration, as well as, more broadly, stricter law enforcement and border controls. Such measures do nothing to ensure decent jobs and working conditions but cause enormous negative consequences, especially for migrants and sex workers.
Donors contribute to the marginalisation of civil society, as their funding is increasingly short-term and project-based, forcing NGOs to spend a huge amount of time fundraising and reporting, and to become merely service providers while abandoning their role of watchdogs. There is little time left to reflect and analyse everyday work and many become more and more disconnected from communities and social movements.

Within this context, our Strategic Plan 2020 – 2030 sets the following four broad goals:

To contribute to a change in the discourse on trafficking from an issue of law enforcement and crime to one at the intersections of gender, migration, labour, and development.
To contribute to a change in the policies and responses to trafficking so that they are respectful of women’s agency and based on a labour rights approach rather than protectionist and criminalisation approaches.
To create spaces for intersectional, inter-movement dialogues built upon a shared feminist, rights-based analysis of labour migration.
To challenge the social and economic invisibility of women’s work, promote policy recognition of women workers, and support their mobilisation, collective voice, and bargaining power.

We will achieve this through our four core strategies:

Research and feminist knowledge-building
Communications and publications
Advocacy and influencing
Alliance strengthening and movement support

Realising Rights

Written on 03 March 2009.

Groups of marginalized and vulnerable women are organising to address their own problems and promote their own rights and needs. The Realising Rights Programme is one way GAATW supports the work of self-organised groups (SOGs) and their allies in the Alliance.

‘Self-organised group’ describes women with direct experience of the issue they’re working on. For example, sex workers organisation comprised of sex workers and survivors of trafficking organisations directed by survivors of trafficking. These groups and their ‘members’ are diverse – migrants, sex workers, domestic workers, trafficked women, racialised women, poor women. Space and opportunity are created through coming together. Women can share experiences, struggles, ideas for change, and create meaningful and supportive relationships.

GAATW-IS believes the knowledge, experiences, voices, and hopes of these women must be central to any work that we do on trafficking, migration, and women’s rights. We hope through this programme to have strong self-organized members working for social change and contributing to GAATW’s understanding of the issues.

The vision of the Realising Rights Programme is to have strong self-organized members that are able to work for social change and to contribute to civil society discourses on women's rights and empowerment.

ABOUT THE PROGRAMME

Objective

The objective of the Realising Rights programme is to build the capacity and empower groups through trainings, mutual learning opportunities, and incorporating their voices and experiences into international debate.

History of the Programme

ACTIVITIES

Self-help Health Training

Video Advocacy, “Documenting our Lives” project
“Documenting our Lives” (2001-2004) was a continuation of GAATW’s commitment and solidarity with the struggle of women within the informal economy for social, political and legal rights.
The project aimed to strengthen the self-representation efforts of the participants and recognised the advocacy work of the self-organised groups. Training in the use of handheld video cameras was organised for the entire group after which the groups themselves sought help from local film makers and enhanced their skills. This was also an important aspect of the project. The fact that small self-organised groups do work in solidarity with many local groups and in several instances engage in the larger movements of social justice, was recognised and encouraged. In late 2002, GAATW International Secretariat organised Partners in Change, a conference which brought together sex workers, domestic workers, factory workers, and formerly trafficked persons who have formed groups.

Social Enterprises – ISD, STP
Getting Our Voices Heard (synopsis of the 2nd annual consultation with SOGs, 2006)
Our Bodies (and minds), Our Selves (synopsis of the 1st annual consultation with SOGs, 2005)

WHO WE ARE

SOG Members List (Click on the names of the organisations below to read more about their work and contact information)

PUBLICATIONS

Respect & Relevance, GAATW Report 2007
Speak Out, Take Action (Sex Worker’s organisations in Bangladesh, Cambodia & India raise their voices against police brutality, GAATW 2004)
“Partners in Change” Conference (2002) – stories of women’s collectives & report
Advocacy video project on Overcharging - IMW's say NO to Overcharging

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Access to Justice

Written on 03 March 2009.

Access to justice means access to a fair, respectful and efficient legal process, either through judicial, administrative or other public processes, resulting in a just and adequate outcome.

As trafficking in persons continues to gain increasing attention as a global issue, countries around the world have enacted anti-trafficking legislation and sought to combat trafficking as a form of organised crime. This law enforcement approach has made the prosecution of traffickers a key anti-trafficking strategy and thus trafficked people, the main witnesses in prosecutions, have been put in close contact with the justice system. While terrible human rights violations occur in the trafficking process and the need to combat this crime is evident, there is also a need for conscious and critical reflection on the impact of anti-trafficking efforts.

The Access to Justice Programme looks critically at the law enforcement approach to combating trafficking, and tries to analyse the extent to which this approach is protecting the human rights of trafficked persons.

At the same time, the Programme aims to support GAATW members to improve access to justice for victims of human trafficking by:
• Researching global patterns and strategies for prosecuting traffickers while protecting victims rights
• Promoting a participatory model of policy-making on access to justice by including all voices in discussions, such as policy-makers, court actors, service providers and affected groups, particularly women who have been trafficked
• Fostering communication, coordination and sharing of information, resources and experiences among members and other NGOs that provide legal assistance to trafficked persons
• Raising awareness about access to justice as a key human rights issue within anti-trafficking circles
• Contributing to other GAATW programmes on prevention, protection and advocacy by informing them access to justice for trafficked persons.

As part of this programme, GAATW created a website focussing on Access to Justice, featuring legal resources, country information, and a lawyers forum. For more information about this programme, and to access these resources, go to: www.gaatw.org/atj

Activities
Main activities in 2008

Developing the Access to Justice Handbook for Victims of Human Trafficking (Nigeria), involving Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of trafficking in Persons and other related maters (NAPTIP), UNIFEM, and GAATW Handbook to be published in October 2008

Activities in 2006 and 2007:

National Consultation on Access to Justice for Trafficked Persons (Kathmandu, Nepal - 2007)
National Consultation on Access to Justice for Trafficked Persons (Abuja, Nigeria - 2007)
Workshop on Access to Justice (MAP Women Exchange Meeting, Chiang Mai,Thailand - 2007)
Study trips to Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia (2007)

Key findings from the Global Consultation on Access to Justice:

1. The vast majority of trafficking survivors do not enjoy their right to access the justice system. Problems with identification and poor legal knowledge mean that most victims never become aware of their rights. Even if they do, lack of training and resources to police, poor prosecutions, weak legal systems, discrimination and many other factors make bringing trafficking cases a long and arduous road.

2. Even where a case is successful, it is extremely rare for a victim to receive restitution for the violations suffered. Of the three cases in which survivors presented their stories, none had received any compensation.

1. Overwhelmingly participants agreed that obtaining justice could be an essential step to claiming back one’s life, but that the choice to seek justice should be the victim’s alone. Many trafficked persons choose not to press charges and that should be respected.

2. All countries seeking to tackle trafficking are doing so, at least partly, through their legislative and judicial systems. Further, all advocates have the same general goals for these systems: comprehensive legislation, effective police action, successful prosecutions that do not further victimise the victims of this crime, adequate sentences, and compensation. Different countries are achieving these goals to greater and lesser extents, but clearly lessons can be shared across jurisdictions.

3. Anti-trafficking legislation was highly valued by participants from countries that did not have such legislation in place, whereas for participants already working within such a framework, much more emphasis was placed on implementation.

6. The commitment of the trafficked person and her lawyer was essential to a successful case. In all cases, the survivor’s determination, patience and courage to fight for her rights had been crucial to the case being finalised.

7. Creative solutions – successful cases often relied not only on laws criminalising trafficking but used labour laws, other criminal laws, the media and human rights mechanisms.

8. Networking between NGOs and law enforcement, and among NGOs, both nationally and internationally, is essential to improving access to justice for victims.

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Communications and Information

Written on 03 March 2009.

The objective of GAATW’s communication and information is to empower people through sharing information and knowledge.

The Communications team facilitates information services and through the use of various communication tools carry forward the voices of members, partners and affected groups at the local, regional and international levels.

The team is responsible for the creation and distribution of publications (monthly e-bulletins, bi-annual Alliance News, and material for GAATW’s programmes), video editing and production, GAATW-IS’s internal information management system, members and partners database, and visual documentation.

Activities for 2008: