The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) believes that the impact of anti-trafficking initiatives is best understood from the perspective of trafficked persons themselves. In 2013, 17 GAATW member organisations across Latin America, Europe, and Asia undertook a participatory research project to look at their own assistance work from the perspective of trafficked persons. GAATW members interviewed 121 women, men and girls who lived through trafficking to find out about their experience of assistance interventions and their recovery process after trafficking. The project aimed to make the assistance programmes more responsive to the needs of the clients and to initiate a process of accountability on the part of all anti-trafficking organisations and institutions.
These briefing papers highlight the main findings of what people who have been trafficked say about 3 important themes:
Unmet Needs: Emotional support and care after trafficking [English, Spanish]
Rebuilding Lives: The need for sustainable livelihoods after trafficking [English, Spanish]
Seeking Feedback from Trafficked Persons on Assistance Services: Principles and ethics [English, Spanish]
The project of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW), "Towards greater accountability - Participatory Monitoring of Anti-Trafficking Initiatives”, aims to reaffirm the right of surviving victims to express their voices, by monitoring initiatives that are intended to benefit them.
The research study aimed to identify victims’ perceptions and views of the support services they received, which would be reflected in the respective country reports. The participant organisations in the research had provided some form of assistance to surviving victims that had participated in the study. Seven of the organisations that participated in the research are from Latin America and the Caribbean: The Civil Human Rights Association of United Women Migrants and Refugees in Argentina (AMUMRA) of Argentina; Renacer, Hope Foundation and Space Corporation Foundation Women of Colombia; Ecuador Hope Foundation; Street Brigade Support Women "Elisa Martinez", AC of Mexico and Alternative Forms of Human and Social Capital (CHS Alternativo) of Peru.
This toolkit provides guidance to NGOs engaging in the CEDAW review process. It hopes to enable NGO reporting to provide more thorough information on the situation of trafficking in women and the exploitation of women migrant workers and to link these areas of concern with migration, labour and discrimination issues. It also provides lobbying tools for NGOs to facilitate effective advocacy to the Committee on these issues, in order that the Committee is better equipped to address trafficking and the exploitation of migrant women workers with states under review. Download the toolkit
The need to reduce ‘demand’ for trafficked persons is widely mentioned in the anti-trafficking sector but few have looked at ‘demand’ critically or substantively. Some ‘demand’-based approaches have been heavily critiqued, such as the idea that eliminating sex workers’ clients (or the ‘demand’ for commercial sex) through incarceration or stigmatisation will reduce trafficking. In this publication, we take a look at the links between trafficking and: (1) the demand for commercial sex, and (2) the demand for exploitative labour practices. We assess current approaches used to reduce each of these types of ‘demand’ and consider other long-term approaches that can reduce the demand for exploitative practices while respecting workers’ and migrants’ rights (e.g. enforcing labour standards, reducing discrimination against migrants, supporting sex workers’ rights).
There has been a lot published on the supposed link between sporting events and trafficking, but how much of it is true and how much of it is useful? In this guide, we review the literature from past sporting events, and find that they do not cause increases in trafficking for prostitution. The guide takes a closer look at why this unsubstantiated idea still captures the imagination of politicians and some media, and offers stakeholders a more constructive approach to address trafficking beyond short-term events. We hope this guide will help stakeholders quickly correct misinformation about trafficking, develop evidence-based anti-trafficking responses, and learn what worked and what didn't in past host cities.
This research explores and assesses the evaluation of anti-trafficking policies and programmes worldwide, including three international, two regional and nine national anti-trafficking initiatives. It highlights common themes and emerging patterns between a range of approaches to evaluation in this sector and finds overwhelmingly that anti-trafficking initiatives are not being sufficiently evaluated, impeding the effectiveness of anti-trafficking responses and limiting progress in combating trafficking. Urgent action in the form of adequate evaluation systems is imperative to ensure anti-trafficking programmes are effectively targeted and delivered.
Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) Series
This CD contains the results of the Feminist Participatory Action Research organised by GAATW. It demonstrates the ways in which women are taking action and steering change in their communities. It shares their stories of resilience, hope and strength; it reveals the complexities of their lives; and raises their voices so we can hear them loudly and clearly, and take action.
Agency has always been at the core to GAATW’s message, and this topic was further looked at in a 2nd Roundtable (February and March, 2009). This Roundtable focused on ‘macro’ issues such as trade, security regimes, and global economics, and their impact on migrant and trafficked women and their space for agency and decision-making.
This specific research report seeks to contribute to this on-going analysis by GAATW by looking at these issues in the context of a programme of female temporary migration within the agriculture sector in Huelva, Spain; we aim to connect macroeconomics to a micro example of reality lived on the ground.
The report features self-organised members in the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW). Discussions highlighted the importance of empowering internal relationships within the organisation and respectful partnerships with external stakeholders, organising processes that accomodated women's individual circumstances and needs, and the need to have opportunities where women could learn from shared experiences with other women.
This report reviews the impact of anti-trafficking measures on human rights in 8 countries: Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, India, Nigeria, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Each country chapter provides an overview of human trafficking, the current legal framework concerning all aspects of anti-trafficking efforts, specific laws and policies and their implications on key groups of people, and a critical analysis of the human rights impact of these measures specifically on women. This anthology emphasises the critical need for a re-assessment of anti-trafficking initiatives around the globe in order that human rights do not get written off as ‘collateral damage’ in combating human trafficking.
This is a collection of stories of Women’s Collectives, but these are not the mainstream groups about whom we read everyday. The women featured in this booklet do not have much formal education, nor do they have the advantage of wealth. Stigmatised in their communities as ‘prostitutes’ or ‘trafficked women’ they have endured humiliation and yet come together to claim their space in society.
Read about Langson women’s Group; Vietnam, Shakti Samuha; Nepal, Dok Orr Women’s Group, Thailand, Cambodia Prostitutes Union, Phnompenh, EMPOWER Foundation, Thailand, Durjoy & Ulka; Bangladesh and many more…
This is the result of a collaborative effort involving a number of activists from South East Asia. The manual aims to promote direct assistance for trafficked women and children within a human rights framework.
A broad-based manual, containing general strategies that can be easily adapted to local contexts, this has proved to be an extremely valuable resource for NGOs worldwide. This manual clarifies the concepts of human rights and trafficking in persons and provides concrete rights-based strategies that can be carried out at all levels, from local to international, in the context of trafficking.
Available in English, Spanish, Russian, Polish (Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
The HRS is a collation of international human rights instruments which can be used to protect the rights of trafficked persons. A joint effort of member organisations and colleagues from like minded groups this has been used as a Lobby Document nationally and internationally.
This manual was developed as part GAATW’s campaign to promote safe migration and fair working conditions. It provides practical information on arranging travel documents, and work permits, workers rights and wages, as well as suggestions on how to protect one’s rights.
Also available in Bahasa Indonesia (Download the chapter on Know Your Rights! in PDF format).
If you are in Thailand and would like to order a free copy of the Thai version, contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
A report presenting the results of an international investigation on trafficking in women, forced labour & slavery-like practices in the contexts of marriage, domestic labour and prostitution, this document marks a major turning point in thinking and activism around trafficking. Initiated in 1995 in response to the invitation of the then UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, (SRVAW) the investigation was carried out by the Dutch Foundation Against Trafficking in Women (STV) and GAATW. A condensed version of the report was submitted to the SRVAW and the complete report was published in 1997.
A reprint with some revision, mainly in the layout and chapter division was brought out in 1999.
You can download the book here or buy it from Amazon.com.
GAATW’s first effort to support groups working at the grassroots level this handbook contains information gathered from governmental organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and legal and health experts. Written in a clear and simple style, this manual created a forum for discussion on the everyday aspect of anti-trafficking work among practitioners and promoted understanding of the human rights framework. (Out of Print)
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