Cosmopolitanism and Trafficking of Human Beings for Forced Labour (From Sex as Crime?, P 137-155, 2008, Gayle Letherby, Kate Williams, Philip Birch, and Maureen Cain, eds. -- See NCJ-224405)

• NCJ Number: 224410
• Author(s): Christien van den Anker
• Date Published: 2008
• Length: 19 pages
• Sale Source: Willan Publishing
• Publication Format: Book Chapter
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

After identifying the wide range of human rights violations that can occur in human trafficking, this chapter notes that the human rights violations heavily publicized in trafficking for sexual exploitation also can occur in trafficking into other industries, assesses existing responses to human trafficking, and proposes a “cosmopolitan” approach that emphasizes international cooperation.

Abstract

The cases of human trafficking that receive the most media attention and the most extensive action by governments, police, and nongovernmental agencies involve trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation. The growing awareness of human rights violations in these cases resulted in the development of new international law and a host of national and international initiatives. In order to develop a list of some of the human rights violations that can occur in any trafficking case, this chapter presents four case studies from recent research. The cases involve forced work in a family shop during the day and prostitution at night; migrant work in multiple industries that include agriculture, construction, the food industry, and restaurants; and coercion in various types of work, including late payment of wages, confiscation of papers, and threats of reporting them to the authorities or not renewing work permits. Current approaches to countering trafficking in humans fail to address prevention effectively, as they focus on sex and crime. Even organizations that address prevention too often emphasize short-term measures. Those that address longer term prevention stop at national measures. Current policy responses to trafficking are too restricted if they focus only on migration law enforcement and violations of human rights law. This chapter proposes a cosmopolitan approach to the long-term prevention of trafficking. This includes an analysis of global root causes of human trafficking and strategies that include local, national, and international components. 9 notes and 25 references