Trafficking Infrastructure Grows: New York’s Statewide Initiative
In the past month, the State of New York has introduced 11 new Human Trafficking Intervention Courts (including Buffalo and Rochester, near where I live in upstate NY). According to the New York Times, the new courts are modeled after three pilot projects that had been established earlier in New York City, and the “initiative is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation.” The NY law resembles the federal U.S. law in targeting force, fraud and coercion (what the national...
Read MoreHuman Rights, Labor, and the Prevention of Human Trafficking: A Response to A Labor Paradigm for Human Trafficking by Jonathan Todres
Abstract: This Essay responds to an article by Hila Shamir previously published in the UCLA Law Review, in which she suggests that human rights has failed as a framework for addressing human trafficking and that instead a labor model would be more successful. Although her article identifies potentially important benefits of a labor perspective, the binary framework it establishes, pitting human rights and labor against each other, is counterproductive. Her article mischaracterizes...
Read MoreLaw, Otherness, and Human Trafficking by Jonathan Todres
Despite concerted efforts to combat human trafficking, the trade in persons persists and, in fact, continues to grow. This article suggests that a central reason for the limited success in preventing human trafficking is the dominant conception of the problem, which forms the basis for law developed to combat human trafficking. Specifically, the author argues that “otherness” is a root cause of both inaction and the selective nature of responses to the abusive practice of human...
Read MoreThe Private Sector’s Pivotal Role in Combating Human Trafficking by Jonathan Todres
Executive Summary: The attached article explores the ways in which the private sector can help address trafficking and exploitation of persons, including children. It examines how the private sector’s (1) position in relation to streams of commerce, (2) focus on innovation, and (3) access to resources, position it as a potentially valuable partner in combating trafficking and exploitation of human beings. The article examines each of these three key features of the private sector. It does not...
Read MoreReconceptualizing Approaches to Human Trafficking: New Directions and Perspectives from the Field(s) by Kathleen Kim and Grace Chang
Scholars and advocates across several movements have attempted to develop approaches to human trafficking that would best serve the needs and support the rights of all migrant workers and survivors of trafficking. Many U.S.-based and international groups organizing for immigrant, labor, sex worker, and sexual and reproductive health rights, understand the need for collaborations among them. Yet, such connections have been largely obstructed by the U.S. federal government approach to...
Read MoreThe Trafficked Worker as Private Attorney General: A Model for Enforcing the Civil Rights of Undocumented Workers by Kathleen Kim
This Article seeks to prioritize the civil workplace rights of undocumented immigrants over the goals of immigration enforcement by placing primacy on the role of the immigrant undocumented worker as private attorney general. In developing this concept, this Article draws from the legal framework addressing human trafficking. In theory, undocumented workers victimized by exploitive employment practices may act as private attorneys general in the enforcement of workplace harms and may sue their...
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