Trafficking Policy
Research Project:
Examining the Effects of
U.S. Trafficking Laws and Policies
Labor Migration - Sex Work - Trafficking Laws
and Policies - Forced Labor & Slavery
This site collects and presents research and commentary regarding the effects
of United States Trafficking Laws and Policies in the US and internationally.
The Trafficking Policy Research Project provides an outline of alternative analyses
and strategies for the global problems of trafficking and forced labor, prioritizing
welfare of sex workers in the context of migrant labor. Trafficking in the sex
industry is examined within the range of abuses within the sex industries with
goals of decriminalization and sex industry reform. Links are primarily from
Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women,
Network of Sexwork Projects , the
International Human Rights Law Group, and
Human Rights Watch.
"Sex
Trafficking" in San Francisco
Visit this link which highlights issues specific to San Francisco.
Current Issues and Reports:
Trafficking Laws and Policies
Resisting
The Repression HR 3887: When The Alliance of Progressives, Christian and Feminist
Fundamentalists Attempt to Federalize Crimes Involving Voluntary Commerical
Sex (November 2007-January 2008)
Human rights activist object to the recent version of the TVPRA (in concert
with the US Department of Justice). The House version of HR 3887 puts all commercial
sex under the jurisdiction of the Federal government.
DMSC,
Indian Sex Workers' Organization and Self-Regulatory Model to Combat Trafficking
(Launched Dec 2007)
"Ever since 1997, when DMSC activists articulated the issue at the First
National Conference of Sex Workers, the Organisation has grappled with the problem
of underage girls trafficked into sex work sites and of unwilling women duped/coerced/forced
into sex work. DMSC is active in addressing and challenging the structural issues
that frame the everyday reality of sexworkers lives as they relate to their
material deprivation and social exclusion. From this standpoint, it stands against
any form of exploitation and infringement of rights of human beings that includes
sexworkers and their children. DMSC is explicit, too, about its stand vis-a-vis
forced or coerced labour in any form- if sexwork is work like any other, then
it must be subject to certain norms and conditions- decided upon and enforced
by the workers in the trade- that must be fulfilled before anyone can start
as a sexworkers..."
Summary
Report:Human Rights Impact of Anti-trafficking Interventions: Developing an
Assessment Tool (July-07):
"In recent years, non-governmental organisations, specialists and advocates
in the field of trafficking in human beings, migrants’ rights and sex
workers’ rights and related fields have observed with growing concern
various negative consequences of anti-trafficking interventions." Published
by HOM, Aim for Human Rights
Sex
at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry by
Laura María Agustín
This
groundbreaking book sets out to explode several myths: that selling
sex is completely different from any other kind of work; that migrants
who sell sex are passive victims; and that the multitude of people out
to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a
passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked'
does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry'
disempowers them. Based on extensive research amongst migrants who sell
sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different
analysis. Frequently, says Agustín, migrants make rational choices
to travel and work in the sex industry. Although they are treated like
a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both
powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those
who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between
sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice.
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Taking the
Pledge is a 13-minute film featuring sex workers from Bangladesh, Brazil,
Cambodia, Mali, Thailand and more! They describe the problems created
by the 'anti-prostitution pledge' required to receive USAID and PEPFAR
funds.
Produced by the Network of Sex Work Projects. http://www.nswp.org
In English, Khmer, Thai, French, Portuguese and Bengali, with English
subtitles. Watch in full-screen mode to read the subtitles. |
Anti-Prostitution
Advocate, Sigma Huda, UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking Found Guilty in
Corruption Case, Sentenced to 3 Years (8-28-07)
Former Board member of Coalition Against Trafficking in Women recently convicted
and sentenced in Bangladesh.
Recent Media Reports:
Trafficking and Moral Panic
Trafficking: return of the ‘white slavery’ scare (1-31-08)
Anti-Human Trafficking Bill Would Send FBI Agents on Trail of Pimps (11-29-07)
Enslaved by Definition (1-13-08)
Human
Trafficking Evokes Outrage, Little Evidence-U.S. Estimates Thousands of
Victims, But Efforts to Find Them Fall Short (9-22-07)
Definitions of Trafficking and Commentary
The definition
of trafficking has been the center of the debates on strategies to combat forced
labor, and for some, to combat the sex industries. For an extensive discussion
of the implications of these definitions, read Contemporary
Anti-Trafficking Legislation in the United States.
Trafficking:
Defined in United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking
in Persons...
Trafficking:
Defined in United States Trafficking Victims Protection Act
Analyses: Trafficking, Sex Worker Rights, Labor Migration
Strategies
for Alliances
"...to address the
concerns of those who may be adversely affected by government measures to combat
trafficking, in an effort to encourage the development of strategies supporting
all women's rights."
Anti-Slavery
International -Redefining Prostitution as Sex Work on the International Agenda:
Jo Bindman (w/Jo Doezema)
Migration,
Trafficking and Sex Work: Links and Papers from Laura Agustin
Bilingual: Espanol - English
Critiques of US (and Intl.) Trafficking Law, Policy and Practice
Implications
of Anti-trafficking Policy and Practice
This page links to a number of papers compiled through Soros'
Sexual Health and Rights Project (Sharp)
Human
Trafficking by David A. Feingold. Feingold, International Coordinator for HIV/AIDS
and Trafficking Projects for Unesco, Bangkok and writer/director of movie 'Trading
Women' with Anjelina Jolie dispels common myths about trafficking
News:
The New Abolitionists: How did the anti-trafficking crusade evolve, and is it
being overhyped? (Links between feminists and Christian Fundamentalists)
Trafficking
in Politics Bush's strong rhetoric on sex slavery masks policy failures.
Only
rights can stop wrongs: A critical assessment of anti-trafficking strategies
News:
Debate Roars Over Anti-Trafficking Funds
The U.S. government is striking out at the global sex slave trade
with new vigor, focusing on prostitution as the cause for the practice. Some
critics say, however, the new plan misses the point and actually is a disservice
to women.
Mother
Jones on Bush Administration's Anti-Trafficking Policies May 2005
The
Call for a Gender-Sensitive Perspective in International Law
This paper discusses the history of trafficking laws and the way
the concept of agency for women is denied in this framework.
Mission
Statement of Sex Worker Across Borders
This document discusses the sex worker/migrant and blabor rights
agenda in the context of anti-trafficking policies.
The
Trafficking Debate: Collection of Papers on BAYSWAN
These papers are an early compilation of sex worker rights responses to trafficking
issues and discourse.
Human Rights Watch
U.S.
State Department Trafficking Report a "Mixed Bag" - July 2001
Report "glosses over the problems of state complicity and corruption"
and "concentrates too much on trafficking for "sexual exploitation," to the
exclusion of trafficking into other forms of forced labor.
U.S.
State Department Trafficking Report Undercut by Lack of Analysis - June 2003
For the third consecutive year, the State Department report fails to give hard
figures on the number of people being trafficked. The report "fails to weigh
and condemn harmful immigration policies..." "lacks specificity... is often
vague or cursory ...undue credit for minimal effort..ignores government practices,
such as summary deportation and incarceration, that effectively punish trafficking
victims.
Additional Analysis and Reports
Global
Alliance Against Traffic in Women North American Report 2004
This report contradicts US estimatesof number of trafficked persons
and presents a more balanced account of US efforts.
Analysis
of the TVPA: Contemporary Anti-Trafficking Legislation in the United States.
Was
story about sexual trafficking exaggerated?
Harvard Journal: Re/productions: Issue #2, Dedicated to the Discourses on Trafficking,
Sex-work & Prostitution
Evolving U.S. Sex Trade Polcies: Feminists and Fundamentalists
Anti-Trafficking
Rhetoric and the Making of a Global Apartheid
This essay critically examines the historical and contemporary discursive practices
of anti-trafficking campaigns. Such campaigns within the global North, often
led by feminists, constitute the moral reform arm of contemporary anti-immigrant
politics that targets negatively racialized migrants. As in the past, current
campaigns collude with a state-backed international security agenda aimed at
criminalizing self-determined migrations of people who have ever-less access
to legal channels of migration. (Nandita Sharma)
Unholy
Alliance On January
15, 2003, field missions around the world for the United States' international
aid agency (USAID) quietly received notice that, henceforth, no more funding
for projects against trafficking in people would go to "organizations advocating
prostitution as an employment choice or which advocate or support the legalization
of prostitution." (Anna Louise Crago)
Feminists
organize against commercial sex
In a plea to bill sponsor, the late Senator Paul Wellstone, mainstream US feminists,
request that the Anti-trafficking legislation "ensure that all women and girls
who are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation can benefit from its
provisions." Their solution is to characterize ALL SEX WORK AS FORCED and to
combat the sex industry in general.
Hillary
Clinton Supports Sex Trafficking says right wing fundamentalist magazine (siding
with Gloria Steinem, et al)
The
Pimping of Hillary Clinton by Patrick Califia
The Negotiations on the UN Protocol on Trafficking in Persons
Dr. Ditmore documents the history of construction on the UN Trafficking Protocol
as it applies to sex workers through a fascinating account of negotiations between
GAATW and CATW.
Professor
Weitzer: Growing Moral Panic Over Prostitution and Sex Trafficking
Links to Trafficking Protocols and Policy: United Nations
and United States
United States-Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000
United
Nations-Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially
Women and children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational
Organized Crime.
Palermo
Protocol- Sept 2003 Amendments to UN Protocol
US Trafficking
In Persons (TIP) Report, 2005
CIA Report on
Trafficking- November 1999
International Trafficking in Women to the United States: A Contemporary
Manifestation of Slavery and Organized Crime by Amy O'Neill Richard
US
AID Strategy Prohibits Funds to Groups Supporting Sex Worker Rights
Page 7- "Organizations advocating prostitution as an employment
choice or which advocate or support the legalization of prostitution are not
appropriate partners for USAID anti-trafficking grants or contracts. Missions
will avoid contracting or assistance agreements with such organizations as primary
or sub-grantees or contractors."
International
Trafficking and Human Rights Protocols: US and UN compiled by Global Alliance
Against Trafficking in Women
Network
of Sex Work Projects Compiled Legislation-International
California
Anti-Trafficking Legislation
Commentary on
Trafficking Protocols
Sexual
Exploitation: Definition from Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women
Annotated
Guide to The Complete UN Trafficking Protocol
Commercial
Sex Information Services : Commentary On The Draft Protocol To Combat International
Trafficking
Network
of Sex Work Projects Commentaries
Analysis
of Application of United States Trafficking Victims Protection Act by Carol
Leigh
International
Human Rights Law Group on Trafficking
Human Rights Standards
for the Treatment of Trafficked Persons
Anti-Slavery
International
"...despite police
and government claims that they do focus their attention on traffickers, in
practice we receive consistent information from many countries that victims
of trafficking and women involved in prostitution are victims of double jeopardy
when they fall into the hands of the police - and are in turn punished as illegal
migrants or illegal practitioners of prostitution when in fact they are victims
of a serious human right violations. "
Effects of U.S. (and Intl. )Trafficking Policies
Sex
slaves or harassed sex-trade workers? Being 'rescued' by police means imprisonment
Of
Human Bondage A coalition against human trafficking
