Human 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 MoreThe International Labor Recruitment Working Group
Formed in October 2011, the ILRWG is the first coordinated effort to strategically address abuses in international labor recruitment across visa categories. The Working Group is comprised of organizations working in various industries and with workers with a wide variety of visa types. The Working Group seeks to end the systemic abuse of international workers who are recruited to the U.S., by collaborating across labor sectors to develop comprehensive policies and advocate for reforms,...
Read MoreIs Trafficking in Human Beings Demand Driven? A Multi-Country Pilot Study by Bridget Anderson & Julia O’Connell Davidson, International Organization for Migration (2003)
Abstract: This article is concerned with the role of debt in contemporary practices of mobility. It explores how the phenomenon of debt-financed migration disturbs the trafficking/smuggling, illegal/legal, and forced/voluntary dyads that are widely used to make sense of migration and troubles the liberal construction of ‘freedom’ and ‘slavery’ as oppositional categories. The research literature reveals that while debt can lock migrants into highly asymmetrical, personalistic, and often...
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