Our roots
GAATW’s beginnings represent a significant moment in the feminist movement, as women recognised that the vision of global sisterhood comes with many complexities and tensions, including those related to class, race, sexuality, and nationality. Our founders learnt the importance of listening to others before speaking on behalf of different groups of women.
GAATW’s history represents women’s stories shaped by solidarity for political action and a recognition that alliances are built around unequal power relationships. This story also marks a moment of maturity in the feminist movement when women:
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Acknowledged that the vision of global sisterhood is fraught with numerous tensions – including those of class, race, sexuality and nationality - and began to understand that they need to listen before speaking on behalf of other women;
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Recognised that alliances, feminist or otherwise, are built around unequal power relationships;
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Understood that solidarities for political action can only be effective if one is able to negotiate different agendas.
The Launch of the Alliance
In 1991-93, Foundation for Women, a women’s rights organisation in Thailand, carried out pioneering feminist participatory action research on returnee migrant women. This early study examines the complexities of working-class women's cross-border migration, including their entry into sex work as well as various forms of exploitation. Its findings, presented to an international audience in 1994, resonated with feminist activists, leading to the formation of the Global Alliance against Traffic in Women (GAATW).
Since then, GAATW has shifted the trafficking conversation from a security and control approach to one that highlights the agency and aspirations of migrants, advocating for their rights in migration and the workplace.