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Abstract
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Over the last fifteen years the parameters of anti-trafficking have shifted considerably. This shift has not been immediate or seismic. It has been a gradual shift, and what was once advocated for as a specific practice of trafficking is now associated with, and at times used interchangeably with, slavery and forced labour.
Why does this matter? It matters because the consequences are real. The slippage that occurs in the application and operationalisation of these labels for exploitation can have significant consequences for how we conceptualise, understand and respond to exploitation in legal and political (that is, advocacy) terms. It can transform the institutional response to victims and the extent to which we look to states or others (such as non-governmental organisations, trade unions, international organisations and corporations) to take responsibility and action. It matters because the outcome can be a broader international conversation that is confused and clouded by various stakeholders whose understanding of 'the problem' and how best to address it are informed by very different approaches. Is it possible, for example, for labour-focused advocacy, which may call for unionisation to protect workers, to sit alongside advocacy that problematises the label 'sex work' as a failure to recognise that this work is inherently gendered and exploitative? This is also a moment in which some stakeholders are leaving behind anti-trafficking's earlier core work of addressing sexual exploitation, and focusing instead on any sector but sex work.
Evidence of the shift away from the emphasis on sex work is the International Labour Organization's (ILO) Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 19301 (Forced Labour Protocol) which, in part, recognises debt bondage, human trafficking and other forms of modern slavery as all forms of forced labour. Arguably such an approach recognises the interconnection between exploitative practices--namely the overlap of issues around citizenship, migration status, poor working conditions and/or absence of workplace protections. This may enable a more united global effort to address the broad contributing factors that lead to the occurrence of such exploitation. However, there is also the potential for an expansive approach, which allows labels to be used interchangeably, to result in a lack of focus. This Special Issue of the Anti-Trafficking Review highlights the importance of attending to what we mean when we talk about human trafficking, forced labour and slavery...
Language: en |