Labor abuse in the name of “cultural exchange,” courtesy of the J-1 visa program (again)
On March 6, 2013, student guestworkers from around the world held a surprise strike to expose severe exploitation at McDonald’s restaurants near Harrisburg, PA. The students guestworkers, who came from Argentina, Peru, Chile, Malaysia, among other Asian and Latin American countries, each paid $3000 to participate in the U.S. State Department’s J-1 “cultural exchange” program. They were expecting to come to the United States to experience cultural exchange and decent...
Read MoreCongratulations to Anne Gallagher, AO!
Congratulations to Dr. Anne Gallagher, who was recently honored for her pathbreaking work on human trafficking. On June 11, 2012, Dr. Gallagher was named an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours list, in recognition of Dr. Gallagher’s “distinguished service to the law and to human rights as a practitioner, teacher and scholar, particularly in the areas of human trafficking responses and criminal justice.” Earlier this...
Read MoreTrafficking and the Human Rights of Women by Janie Chuang and Anne Gallagher
The term human trafficking refers to the trade in human beings, within and between countries, for the purpose of their exploitation. Over the past few years, human trafficking has moved from the margins to the mainstream of international political discourse. Trafficking is now widely recognised as a major revenue earner for transnational organised criminal groups and a source of political, social and economic insecurity for States as well as for individuals. Few countries have escaped the...
Read MoreThe United States as Global Sheriff: Unilateral Sanctions and Human Trafficking by Janie Chuang
In recent years, the issue of human trafficking – the recruitment or movement of persons by means of coercion or deception into exploitative labor or slavery-like practices – has moved from the margins to the mainstream political agenda. The rapid proliferation of international, regional and domestic anti-trafficking laws bespeaks universal condemnation of the practice, but belies deep divisions among States over how to define and approach the problem. It is thus significant that...
Read MoreRescuing Trafficking from Ideological Capture: Prostitution Reform and Anti-Trafficking Law and Policy by Janie Chuang
In the decade since it became a priority on the United States’ national agenda, the issue of human trafficking has spawned enduring controversy. New legal definitions of “trafficking” were codified in international and U.S. law in 2000, but what conduct qualifies as “trafficking” remains hotly contested. Despite shared moral outrage over the plight of trafficked persons, debates over whether trafficking encompasses voluntary prostitution continue to rend the anti-trafficking advocacy...
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