Born unto Brothels—Toward a Legal Ethnography of Sex Work in an Indian Red-Light Area by Prabha Kotiswaran
The global sex panic around sex work and trafficking has fostered prostitution law reform worldwide. While the normative status of sex work remains deeply contested, abolitionists and sex work advocates alike display an unwavering faith in the power of criminal law; for abolitionists, strictly enforced criminal laws can eliminate sex markets, whereas for sex work advocates, decriminalization can empower sex workers. I problematize both narratives by delineating the political economy and legal...
Read MoreTrafficking in Human Beings: the Slavery that Surounds Us by Ann Jordan
At the end of the last century, the world witnessed the growth of a modern form of slavery — trafficking in human beings. These modern traffickers treat women, men and children as commodities to abuse, sell, and move across borders like illegal drugs or stolen weapons. Modern traffickers have many faces. They are diplomats who import domestic workers and hold them in isolation and forced labor in their homes.1 They are members of organized criminal networks that move people into forced...
Read MoreFact or fiction: what do we really know about human trafficking? by Ann Jordan
“64 percent of all the world’s statistics are made up right there on the spot “82.4 percent of people believe ‘em whether they’re accurate statistics or not”1 Statistics form the core of many policies, funding decisions and program designs around human trafficking into forced labor and debt bondage. But are the statistics accurate? How can people decide whether statements such as the following ones are supported by evidence? Issue-Paper-3 Fact or Fiction – What Do...
Read MoreSlavery, forced labor, debt bondage, and human trafficking: from conceptional confusion to targeted solutions by Ann Jordan
Human trafficking has grabbed the headlines around the world but what is human trafficking and what is its relationship to forced labor, debt bondage and slavery? Has the focus on human trafficking and particularly trafficking into forced prostitution, undermined or marginalized efforts to address forced labor, debt bondage and slavery? The answer to the first question is that, although they are interconnected, they are not the same in international law or in practice, which has led to much...
Read MoreHuman Trafficking and Globalization by Ann Jordan
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the opening up of China, the world has experienced one of the greatest – and quite possibly the greatest – migrations of people in history. Millions are migrating worldwide, some out of choice and some out of dire necessity. Human Trafficking and Globalization
Read MoreFrom the International to the Local in Feminist Legal Responses to Rape, Prostitution/Sex Work and Sex Trafficking: Four Studies in Contemporary Governance Feminism by Hila Shamir
Co-authored with Janet Halley, Prabha Kotiswaran, Chantal Thomas Feminist advocacy projects on rape and prostitution have, by now, a signiccant track record of achievement in international law. Feminists have scored important advances in international humanitarian law governing rape in armed conflict and have helped to devise international protocols and aid/sanctions schemes governing sex trafficking. We came together in this conversation in order to figure out whether feminist achievements...
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