Looking Back, Looking Forward: The UN Trafficking Protocol at 20: Recent Episodes
GAATW-IS
In 2020, to mark the 20th anniversary of the UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol, Borislav Gerasimov and Sharmila Parmanand of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women led a series of conversations about the Protocol and the anti-trafficking work, their successes and failures, and opportunities for improvement.
Guests include scholars and activists Bandana Pattanaik, Archana Kotecha, Simanti Dasgupta, Martina Vandenberg, Marija Andjelkovic, Graziella Rocha, Ishita Dutta, Nadia Kozhouha, and Laura Agustín.
In this episode, we speak with Laura Agustín, author of 'Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry'. We discuss migrant women's decision to go abroad and find work, the ways in which they do this, and the ordinary language they use to describe their experiences vs. the extraordinary language that NGOs and policy-makers use. We also discuss social actors' preoccupation with sex work and the rise of the 'rescue industry'.
Music: "Bending Truth" by Remember the Future
Nadia Kozhouharova from Animus Association/La Strada Bulgaria reflects on the developments in the area of human trafficking in Bulgaria - in terms of trends in victim recruitment and exploitation, as well as government response - since 2000. She shares that much has been achieved but there is more work to be done, especially in understanding who the victims of trafficking and at-risk groups are.
Music: "Bending Truth" by Remember the Future
Ishita Dutta from the NGO International Women's Rights Action Watch - Asia Pacific speaks about the challenges for women's rights activists to engage with state institutions and what women's rights advocacy should look like. She compares states' obligations to address human trafficking under the Trafficking Protocol to those under the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and reflects on the strengths and weaknesses of the new CEDAW General Recommendation on human trafficking.
Music: "Bending Truth" by Remember the Future
In this episode, we speak with Graziella Rocha from the Brazilian NGO ASBRAD - Associação Brasileira de Defesa da Mulher da Infância e da Juventude. Graziella reflects on the developments in the area of human trafficking in the country - in terms of trends in victim recruitment and exploitation, as well as government response - since 2000. She points out that in order to be more successful against human trafficking, Brazil needs to do much more to address underlying conditions of vulnerability related to violence against women, labour rights and the treatment of Indigenous people.
Music: "Bending Truth" by Remember the Future
Marija Andjelkovic from the Serbian NGO ASTRA- Anti-Trafficking Action reflects on the changes in the situation with human trafficking in Serbia - trends in the recruitment and exploitation of victims, as well as the responses by the government and NGOs - since 2000. She emphasises the need for the government to implement its obligations in practice, as well as to strengthen the protection of victims.
Music: "Bending Truth" by Remember the Future
In this episode, Martina Vandenberg from the Human Trafficking Legal Center - a US-based NGO that provides legal assistance and advice to survivors of human trafficking describes the many challenges survivors face in the US, especially those related to their immigration status, and access to justice. She reflects on the implementation of the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and shares how she thinks anti-trafficking work needs to change in the coming years - both in the US and globally.
Music: "Bending Truth" by Remember the Future
Simanti Dasgupta, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Dayton, Ohio, speaks about her long-term research and advocacy with sex workers from Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee-- the largest sex worker movement in Sonagachi in Kolkata, India. She reflects on how the anti-trafficking framework has impacted the lives of sex workers in India, and on the value of long-term ethnographic research for understanding the lived experiences of sex workers and victims of trafficking.
Music: "Bending Truth" by Remember the Future
Archana Kotecha from Liberty Shared argues that the current anti-trafficking approaches which focus only on prosecuting traffickers are not sufficient. Instead, anti-trafficking measures need to address the root causes which make people vulnerable to trafficking.
Music: "Bending Truth" by Remember the Future
Bandana Pattanaik, International Coordinator of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) reflects on the origin of GAATW, the changes she has seen in the anti-trafficking field since 1999, and the direction she thinks anti-trafficking work needs to take.
Music: "Bending Truth" by Remember the Future