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The new UN Trafficking Protocol

DOI:10.1016/S0277-5395(02)00320-5
Authors:
Janice G. Raymond at University of Massachusetts Amherst
Janice G. Raymond
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Abstract

The new Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, is a wide-ranging international agreement to address the crime of trafficking in persons, especially women and children, on a transnational level. It creates a global language and legislation to define trafficking in persons, especially women and children; assist victims of trafficking; and prevent trafficking in persons. The trafficking in persons protocol also establishes parameters of judicial cooperation and exchanges of information among countries. Although the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children anticipates accomplishing what national legislation cannot do on its own, it is also intended to jumpstart national laws and to harmonize regional legislation against the trafficking in women and children.This article summarizes the key points of the new trafficking in persons protocol, the debate over the definition of trafficking, which was the most contentious part of the Protocol, how the Protocol is being interpreted, and its implications for regional and national policy against human trafficking. The article also addresses the connections between prostitution and trafficking for sexual exploitation, arguments of those who would dispute these connections, and policy and legislative trends in countries that are seeking to legalize/regulate prostitution as “sex work.”
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... • According to Article 3(a) of the Trafficking in Persons Protocol, trafficking in persons is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation [13]. ...
... d. Kidnapping through warfare: This is also referred to as the "gun-slave cycle" [13]. It was an agelong method of capturing people for slavery and enslavement. ...
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  • Oct 2023
This paper seeks to investigate human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and enslavement as global phenomena, public health concerns, gross violations of human rights, and crimes against humanity and the state. The twenty-first century slavery revolves around illegal control, including forced labor, debt bondage, forced marriage, slavery and slavery-like practices, and human trafficking. Thus, SDG Targets 5.2 and 8.7 stipulated that immediate and effective measures should be taken by all concerns to eradicate forced labor- end modern slavery, human trafficking, sexual and other types of exploitation, as well as to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor among others. The desktop approach was used to identify the varied forms of these menaces and their perpetrators. A wide range of secondary sources of data in peer-reviewed and edited conference proceedings, workshop proceedings, and published articles in local and international journals were consulted to obtain an in-depth appreciation of the problem being investigated. The paper further highlighted the psychosocial effects of human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and enslavement. The article concludes with recommendations for ending all forms of slavery in the global community in line with the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.
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... The inclusion of key words particularly prostitution and demandwere taken as a chance to present an interpretation of the UN Trafficking Protocol as a document that favours the criminalisation of male purchasers of commercial sexual services. A leading member of CATW soon produced a "Guide to the New UN Trafficking Protocol" (Raymond 2001) that delivers insight into the radical feminist interpretation of demand. Raymond highlights the demand paragraph (9.5) and discusses it in a section entitled "Combat the trend to legalize/ /regulate prostitution as work". ...
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Book
Full-text available
  • Jun 2015
The 2000 UN Trafficking Protocol has obliged states to discourage demand that fosters exploitation that leads to trafficking. Fifteen years later, there is still no shared understanding of what demand means in the context of debates on trafficking in human beings (THB). The terms “trafficking” and “demand” display a lexical and referential ambiguity. This paper provides a history of the occurrence and usage of the concepts “trafficking” and “demand” in the context of debates on trafficking and explores the different meanings and understandings attached to these terms in past and present debates.The paper covers debates on trafficking in human beings since the 1860s and shows that terminological confusion was and still is a constant feature of these debates. The term abolition referred initially to the abolition of state regulation and not – as it is understood in the present-day debates - to the abolition of prostitution. The term trafficking is introduced in past and present debates with a confusing diversity of meanings, referring to the kidnapping of girls for the purpose of prostitution, fraudulent procurement of unsuspecting women for prostitution abroad, procurement of consenting women for prostitution, abetting of irregular border crossing or fraudulent abetting of irregular migration with the purpose of exploiting migrants after arrival andother issues. The term demand was introduced in past and present debates and has a diversity of meanings. It can refer to the biological drive of males, to a demand generated by a system of state regulation of prostitution, to a demand of brothel owners and pimps, or to a demand of male clients to purchase commercial sexual services.Thus, when the issue of demand is raised in debates of trafficking, the meaning attached to the term in a communication context is usually not clear; and the same speaker can often use the term demand rather metaphorically with changing meanings. The paper shows that terminological confusion is effect and cause of ongoing and unsolved controversies about the legal handling of prostitution.The paper shows how the issue of demand originally entered the UN Trafficking Protocol and how subsequent attempts failed to develop an authoritative definition. Although debates are characterised by terminological ambiguity, even the claim that a definition is a necessity is denied. Conceptual confusion hampers mutual understanding, prevents reasonable dispute and undermines the capacity to develop policy approaches which effectively provide protection from trafficking and exploitation.The paper closes with the observation that the controversy surrounding the meaning of demand in the context of anti-trafficking efforts has the effect of raising attention to deal more directly with the issue of exploitation.
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... The only solution to the "male sex right" and "prostitution" contracts is to place a moral limit to sexual markets (Satz, 2010) and reinforce it with repressive and restrictive policies. Punitive measures are justified as gender equality initiatives and place the spotlight on "prostituted women" exploited by male buyers, pimps, and traffickers (Coy, 2008;Farley et al., 2004;Raymond, 2002). MLWID may be even more susceptible to exploiting the male sex right, as they more easily absorb messaging that women exist for pleasure and will tolerate harassment (Jones, 2013). ...
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Sexuality scholars have historically understudied the link between disability, sexual exclusion, and social justice, including equal rights for people living with disabilities (PLWD) to enjoy a sexual and intimate life in adulthood. There have been some recent efforts to rectify this situation, with studies emerging concerning strategies for promoting their sexual rights. Our Target Article explores one contentious service option—the possibility of “sexual assistance” for PLWD, which ranges in meaning across countries from sex surrogacy to physical contact with paid sexual assistants. We conducted a knowledge synthesis using a scoping review methodology to identify the breadth of the academic scholarship available and assess its alignment with current ethical and moral debates and recent policies and practices surrounding the sexual scripts of PLWD as they relate to sexual assistance. We categorized the relevant articles in our scoping review into two broad classes: those that support sex-negative perspectives (i.e., framing sexuality as risky, adversarial, etc.) and those that support sex-positive perspectives (i.e., framing sexuality as normative, consensual, etc.). Our results show that sex-negative cultural scripts call for limitations of the sexual rights of PLWD due to their inherent vulnerability as having disabled sexualities and/or due to their heightened risk of exploiting sexual partners, especially cis women who sell sexual services. The sex-positive cultural scripts understand PLWD as having the same rights to sexual citizenship as non-disabled individuals and that to achieve this, equitable access to sexual health services in decriminalized and regulated service environments is needed. We conclude with limitations of our investigation and recommendations for further research on this understudied topic, including the possible integration of positive disabled sexuality and abuse prevention.
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Traffic in Women
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  • Feb 2007
Traffic in women denotes the practice of transporting women away from their home to a distant location where they are coerced or forced into work or prostitution in slave‐like conditions to the profit of their traffickers. Some 2–4 million women are trafficked annually. Women typically are lured into initial cooperation through the deceitful promise of employment at better wages than available in their home area. Traffickers target impoverished regions with few employment opportunities and transfer women to more affluent areas with a market for their labor or sexual services. Some victims are sold into trafficking by relatives or fellow villagers. Most fall prey to criminal organizations with extensive international networks which profit greatly from this lucrative trade. In many regions, legal businesses participate in trafficking under the guise of tourism or entertainment. States profit through taxes on these businesses, and corrupt officials benefit from bribes to protect the industry. In some areas, military installations and peacekeeping operations provide a customer base for trafficking. The international community has responded to trafficking with a Protocol calling on states to enact laws to criminalize all involvement in traffic in women. Heads of state have labeled this growing practice a new slave trade requiring concerted international action.
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  • Jun 2020
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International Trafficking in Women to the United States: A Contemporary Manifestation of Slavery and Organized Crime
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  • Nov 2000
this report will predominantly focus on trafficking in women. Moreover, information on trafficking in children to the United States is limited. It is also necessary to treat trafficking in adult women and children separately as children receive different kinds of rights and protections than adults, both internationally and domestically. Children also generally exercise less decision-making control to fully exercise their rights.
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