Human Rights
at home, abroad and on the way...
Human Rights
at home, abroad and on the way...
Ms. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India
Shastri Bhavan
New Delhi -110001
Chetan B. Sanghi, IAS
Joint Secretary
Ministry of Women and Child Development
Government of India
13 July 2018
Most media stories, politicians’ speeches and NGO campaigns typically focus on the horrors of life in trafficking and dramatic rescues and escapes. The only thing we usually hear about what happens next is something like “she was reunited with her family and loved ones” or “now he is helping others like him”.
But after trafficking, most trafficked persons don’t simply go on to live happily ever after. They have different needs, and have to go through a number of bureaucratic hurdles to access support and be able to move on. These include identification, short and long-term assistance, residence permits, compensation and family reunification.
And all of this occurs in a context where countries of destination, in particular, are hostile towards migrants and reluctant to provide assistance to foreigners, including victims of trafficking.
These were some of the concerns that prompted us to focus the latest issue of the Anti-Trafficking Review on “life after trafficking”.
The papers in this issue cover a wide range of countries that are considered both origin and destination: Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Azerbaijan, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Nigeria, United Kingdom and United States. Below are some of the main issues highlighted in the articles.
Launch of Issue 10 of the Anti-Trafficking Review ‘Life after Trafficking’
Guest Editors: Denise Brennan and Sine Plambech
Editor: Borislav Gerasimov
Media, policymakers and NGOs typically focus on the horrors of life in trafficking and ‘rescuing’ trafficked persons, but much less attention is paid to life after trafficking. This special issue of the Anti-Trafficking Review documents the challenges that people face after exiting situations labelled as trafficking, as well as those whose exploitation garnered no legal protections or service provision.
Outcome of the Knowledge-sharing Forum on Women, Work and Migration, Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 2018
1 May 2018
If current trends continue, by the year 2030, two-thirds of all global wealth will be owned by the richest one percent of people.[1] This statistic is no accident. It is the outcome of economic and social systems that engage in structural violence to reproduce massive inequality.
As workers, worker organisations, feminist, women’s and migrant rights organisations, academics and journalists, from South, Southeast and West Asia, who met in Colombo in April 2018, we welcome the current initiative to address the root causes and consequences of violence and harassment in the world of work through a binding ILO Convention and Recommendation.
Women make up 49.4 percent of the global paid labour force yet their labour participation remains highly gendered. Irrespective of where they work, there are several factors that are common to women’s working and living conditions. Women workers are concentrated in occupations that are unpaid, underpaid and informal, and their economic contributions are consistently undervalued (such as being paid below minimum wage levels, or lower than their male counterparts). Given societal attitudes, women also face gender-specific mobility restrictions including migration bans on women, segregation in living spaces, and the confiscation of passports. Of grave concern is the fact that women workers are subject to gender-based violence (GBV). The risk of exposure to violence is greater in occupations where work is informal, precarious, or low compensated, where work is segregated by gender, where employer accountability is low and where workers are prevented from joining or forming trade unions. With growing international conflict and economic stagnation, there is the risk of women’s working conditions worsening across occupational sectors. There is a need to understand and reflect on such global trends, identify common challenges and positions, and share experience on how to develop solidarity and advocacy through strategic coordinated action.
