No. 6 Special Issue–Prosecuting Human Trafficking

Written on 30 May 2016.

2016

Guest Editor: Anne T Gallagher

Prosecuting human trafficking is widely viewed as one of the main pillars of an effective national response to trafficking. But worldwide, the number of prosecutions for trafficking and related exploitation remains stubbornly low, especially when compared to the generally accepted size of the problem. Very few traffickers are ever brought to justice and the criminal justice system rarely operates to benefit those who have been trafficked.

Issue 6 of the Anti-Trafficking Review analyses human trafficking prosecutions in different regions of the world and from a range of different perspectives. With five themed articles focusing on Russia, the United States, the Balkans and Western Europe, the issue provides important insights into the practical and policy issues surrounding human trafficking prosecutions.

See Complete Issue in PDF

No. 5 Forced Labour and Human Trafficking

Written on 28 September 2015.

2015

Guest Editors: Nicola Piper and Marie Segrave

Human trafficking is now associated, and sometimes used interchangeably, with slavery and forced labour. As this issue highlights, this shift in how we use these terms has real consequences in terms of legal and policy responses to exploitation. Authors - both academics and practitioners - review how the global community is addressing forced labour and trafficking. In 2014 governments across the globe committed to combat forced labour through a new international agreement, the ILO Forced Labour Protocol. Assessing recent efforts and discourse, the thematic issue looks at unionsstruggling to champion the protection of migrants' labour rights, and at governments fighting legal battles with corporations over enactment of supply chain disclosure laws. At the same time, authors show how regressive policies, such as the Kafala system of 'tied' visas for lower paid workers, are eroding these rights. This issue features short debate pieces which respond to the question: Should we distinguish between forced labour, trafficking and slavery?

See Complete Issue in PDF

No. 4 Fifteen Years of the UN Trafficking Protocol

Written on 14 April 2015.

2015

Guest Editor: Jacqueline Bhabha

2015 marks the 15^th anniversary of the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. Is this a time to celebrate progress or has the Protocol caused more problems than it has solved? What changes are taking place on the ground, after 15 years of building anti-trafficking into government, NGO and INGO programming? How do those who negotiated the Protocol view it now? What aspects of the Protocol’s definition of trafficking continue to be problematic or controversial? As well as reviewing legal frameworks around trafficking and related human rights abuses, this issue examines how the Protocol can be more useful in the decades ahead to people who are trafficked, as well as to women, migrants and workers who are also affected by anti-trafficking policy.

See Complete Issue in PDF

10 years on from the ASEAN Declaration Against Trafficking in Persons: Civil Society expects progress in the forthcoming ASEAN Convention on Trafficking in Persons

Written on 18 December 2014.

Joint NGO Statement
18 December 2014

Ten years ago, ASEAN Member States adopted the ASEAN Declaration Against Trafficking in Persons Particularly Women and Children. After several years of work, Member States are expected to complete the first reading of the draft ASEAN Convention on Trafficking in Persons (ACTIP) by the end of this year. The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW), Legal Resources Center (LRC-KJHAM) Indonesia, and Legal Support for Children and Women (LSCW), Cambodia, call on ASEAN Member States to ensure that the new Convention situates trafficking in the context of measures to enable individuals to be able to migrate safely and undertake decent work in the country of destination. These are some of the issues that need to be fully addressed in the draft:

• No roll back on agreed standards: The ACTIP must not roll back States' obligations under existing international law on trafficking in persons. Eight of the 10 ASEAN Member States are party to the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the international law on the issue. The ACTIP should reaffirm States' existing commitments to address trafficking in persons and human rights under the international instruments to which ASEAN Member States are parties.
• The human rights framework: The human rights of trafficked persons must be at the centre of the ACTIP and all efforts to prevent and end trafficking and to protect, assist and provide redress to trafficked persons. This includes ensuring that anti-trafficking measures do not adversely affect the human rights of trafficked persons, or of migrants, internally displaced persons, refugees and asylum-seekers.
• An inclusive definition of trafficking in persons: The definition used in the ACTIP must not abrogate the internationally agreed definition of trafficking in persons in the UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol. The definition must recognise that trafficking occurs in all labour sectors and that individuals of all genders can be trafficked. Whilst it must be inclusive, the definition of trafficking must be clear, specific and non-discriminatory, to avoid an expansion of anti-trafficking measures that have negative consequences for other migrants and workers.
• Protection of the rights of trafficked persons: It is not sufficient to seek to prevent trafficking and punish traffickers, States must protect the rights of trafficked persons. The ACTIP should address issues including: rapid and accurate victim identification procedures in collaboration with other relevant actors including support organisations, provision of an adequate reflection period with non-conditional support, no prosecution or detention of trafficked persons, adequate support for trafficked persons, and access to an effective remedy.
• Monitoring process: To ensure the ACTIP is being used to effectively prevent trafficking and to protect and assist trafficked persons with full respect for their human rights, ASEAN Member States need to include the establishment of and assured and adequate funding for an independent expert monitoring body in the ACTIP. Members of this body should have expertise on and draw from a broad evidence base on trafficking in persons, including a process for consideration of alternative reports from civil society. States should agree terms for comprehensive and transparent reporting on their implementation of the ACTIP and identification of technical assistance needs. The ACTIP should also endorse State Party to establish national monitoring mechanism on the anti-trafficking activities.

The process of the development of the Convention is as important as the inclusion of these issues in the draft ACTIP. This cannot be a closed process, but must be inclusive of civil society and of the individuals best able to advise on the needs of people who have been trafficked: trafficked persons themselves.

Background

ASEAN Member States adopted the ASEAN Declaration Against Trafficking in Persons Particularly Women and Children on 29 November 2004 in Vientiane, Lao People's Democratic Republic. We understand that States are currently finalise negotiations of the draft ASEAN Convention on Trafficking in Persons (ACTIP).
Of the 10 ASEAN states, Brunei Darussalam and Singapore have yet to join the other ASEAN states and ratify the UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol. We urge them to do so as soon as possible.