Trafficking refers to trading human beings to exploit them. Violence, deception, or coercion are used to recruit, harbor (i.e., receive and hold people), transport, and exploit people by forcing them to work against their will. Such exploitation includes forced prostitution, forced labor, forced marriage, servitude, and even organ removal and is regarded as modern-day slavery. Traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion to lure their victims and look for people who are especially vulnerable such as those experiencing economic hardship, falling (...) outside social safety nets, and victims of natural disasters or political instability. (shrink)

Based on an ethnography of French trials for trafficking in human beings and aggravated procuring, this article seeks to contribute to the analysis of the reframing, in penal terms, of the struggles engaged in the name of social justice and women’s rights, of which anti-trafficking policies are particularly emblematic. Studying the judging practices and logics at stake during trials reveals how fantasized representations of the pimp and the victim take on substance. In particular, I argue that judges invoke (...) a set of gendered, sexualized and racialized extra-legal norms, which, along with their legal foundations, constitute their knowledge base and impose a moral and penal hierarchy among litigants. Therefore, not only does this analysis contribute to defining the contours of the elusive figures of the pimp and the victim in the penal arena, it also exposes how maintaining public order is based on the perpetuation of a gendered and sexual national order in the name of gender justice. (shrink)

Human trafficking is one of the most lucrative international criminal activities and is widespread across a variety of industries. The response to human trafficking in corporate supply chains has been dominated by analyses of due diligence obligations. Existing scholarship, however, has cast doubt on the effectiveness of corporate due diligence in addressing human trafficking, because human trafficking is the outcome of macro-level social structures that are created by and consist of multiple actors, including business. The outsourcing (...) and sub-contracting model provides incentives throughout the global supply chain to sub-contract further to reduce the cost of labor, which has led to human trafficking remaining a pervasive problem. Business responsibility for human trafficking derives from the fact that business decisions and strategies enable the conditions that allow for human trafficking to occur within their supply chains. To address human trafficking, we propose a social connection and political responsibility model, based on Iris Marion Young’s analysis of social connection and structural injustice, that is holistic, forward-looking, and outcomes-oriented. We differentiate between businesses with a strong connection to human trafficking and businesses with a weak connection, and within this distinction delineate different pathways that firms can take to meet their political responsibilities to address human trafficking. We conclude with implications for future research. (shrink)

This chapter explores whether “host” countries—destinations for trafficking in persons—have special obligations to provide trafficked persons with support needed to escape trafficking and to deal with the damage it has caused. It demonstrates that anti-trafficking laws are seriously under-enforced in order to point out that trafficking presents an example of “partial compliance” theory in the classic Rawlsian sense of non-adherence to just laws. Although trafficking is also a problem of non-ideal theory, the chapter contends that (...) the partial compliance aspects of trafficking generate a persuasive argument for special obligations to trafficked persons. These special obligations may include providing asylum, healthcare, food, and shelter, at least for an initial period of time. Unfortunately, confusion about whether obligations to trafficked persons rest loosely on non-ideal theory may explain some of the reluctance of host countries to provide those who have been trafficked with needed forms of support. (shrink)

Since the collapse of the Soviet regime, post-communist states have rapidly learned the modern face of slavery. Slavic women have been trafficked to the sex markets of Western Europe, Asia, and North America. The surge in human trafficking is the result of numerous factors, including the dramatic fall of the economic system and complete deterioration of the social safety net. This paper explores the causes and conditions of the growth of the trade in persons in the region, the profile (...) and typical behavior of the victims, and the public perception of the trafficking problem. It identifies the inefficiencies behind the national and international responses to trafficking and the complications for policymaking associated with the stigma attached to sex workers. (shrink)

Advocacy and scholarship addressing sex trafficking as a human rights issue has become a transnational effort, but there has been less attention to sub-national efficacy. Through analyzing progressive justice system responses to domestic violence in Duluth, Minnesota that have been adopted worldwide, this paper demonstrates how to effectively apply these local advances in order to address sex trafficking on a global scale. This paper makes a theoretical contribution to understanding the intersections between domestic abuse and sex trafficking. (...) A key empirical finding is that a coordinated community response is crucial for advancing domestic abuse training, monitoring, and legislation—and this coordination can also be productively utilized for improving responsiveness to victims of sex trafficking across a diverse range of socio-legal and economic contexts. (shrink)

Organ trafficking in all its various forms is an international crime which could be entirely eliminated if healthcare professionals refused to participate in or be complicit with it. Types of organ trafficking are defined and principal international declarations and resolutions concerning it are discussed. The evidence for the involvement of healthcare professionals is illustrated with examples from South Africa and China. The ways in which healthcare professionals directly or indirectly perpetuate illegal organ transplantation are then considered, including lack (...) of awareness, the paucity of both undergraduate and postgraduate education on organ trafficking, turning a blind eye, advocacy of organ commercialism, and the lure of financial gain. (shrink)

The Trafficking Victims’ Protection Act of 2000 has been presented as an important tool in combatingthe exploitation and abuse of undocumented workers, especially those forced into prostitution. Through a close reading of the legislation and the debates surrounding its passage, this article argues that the law makes strategic use of anxieties over sexuality, gender, and immigration to further curtail migration. The law does so through the use of misleading statistics creating a moral panic around “sexual slavery,” through the creation (...) of a gendered distinction between “innocent victims” and “guilty migrants,” and through the demand that aid to victims be tied to their willingness to assist in the prosecution of traffickers. As a result, the legislation is less a departure from, than of a piece with, other recent antisex and antiimmigrant policies. (shrink)

Since the collapse of the Berlin wall, women and girls have been trafficked from central and eastern Europe to work as prostitutes in the European Union. This paper looks at the response of the international community to the problem of sex trafficking as it impacts on the EU. The focus is on criminal justice intervention with respect to protection of and assistance to ‘victims’, and a specially witness protection, in the light of the following: the tensions and promises between (...) treatment of trafficked women as ‘victims’ of crime and criminal justice informants; and the need to re-focus on a ‘woman-centred’ approach to criminal justice intervention for trafficked women. Given the diverse nature of law and criminal justice practice between EU Member States, the paper necessarily presents a generic critique of current EU and international ‘best practice’ recommendations, with some commentary on practice based on the author's research, with respect to what ‘gold standards’ of practice offer in theory and what is delivered in reality. The question of ‘victim-centred’ justice and/or ‘woman-centred’ justice is raised in an effort to promote effective policy recommendations. (shrink)

This chapter discusses the issue of organ trafficking raised by the film _Dirty Pretty Things_ (2002). The film portrays the adventures of Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a Nigerian physician who is an undocumented alien in London, and Senay (Audrey Tautou), a Turkish woman seeking asylum, when they encounter an organ trafficking ring that operates out of the hotel where they are employed. The chapter addresses the question of whether human organs should be bought and sold like other commodities; the (...) risks posed by organ trafficking to donors and to recipients; and the issue of autonomy, such as why should individuals be prohibited from selling their organs? Who “owns” your insides? (shrink)

While the effect of humanitarian intervention on the recurrence and intensity of armed conflict in a crisis zone has received significant scholarly attention, there has been comparatively less work on the negative externalities of introducing peacekeeping forces into conflict regions. This article demonstrates that large foreign forces create one such externality, namely a previously non-existent demand for human trafficking. Using Kosovo, Haiti, and Sierra Leone as case studies, we suggest that the injection of comparatively wealthy soldiers incentivizes the creation (...) of criminal networks by illicit actors. We theorize further that the magnitude of increase in trafficking should be directly proportional to the size of the foreign force, with larger forces producing larger increases. We find that both hypotheses hold with varying levels of confidence across our three case studies. Despite the benevolent intent of peacekeeping missions, the possibility that they may contribute to human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation runs counter to the spirit of such interventions. This is especially problematic given that trafficking rings, once established, may be adapted to provide weapons and narcotics, thereby planting the seed of further destabilization. (shrink)

This study examines how cybercriminals exploit deceptive recruitment tactics and digital platforms to entrap and exploit victims in human trafficking within the cybercrime context. It employs Migration and Transnationalism perspectives to elucidate the intersection of human trafficking and cybercrime operations in Cambodia. Using thematic analysis of victim testimonies, we identify six main themes: (1) Deception and Recruitment, (2) Manipulation and Control, (3) Exploitation and Forced Labor, (4) Trading and Movement, (5) Scamming Methods, and (6) Escape and Rescue. While (...) the following analysis explores the victim’s first-hand experiences within these themes, it also reflects the accounts of other victims referenced in his story. Human traffickers enticed victims with fraudulent job offers and misleading promises, compelling them to pay significant recruitment fees. After recruitment, they manipulated victims through tactics such as visa deception and bribery at immigration to ensure compliance and control. They subjected victims to harsh working conditions, enforcing extended hours, unrealistic targets, and physical punishments for underperformance. Strict security measures and trading between companies and compounds further complicated escape efforts. Criminals trained victims to forge identities and exploit targets via social media, effectively turning them into online fraudsters. However, some managed to escape with assistance from NGOs, highlighting the vital role of organizational support in rescue operations. We highlight the need for targeted interventions and support for victims of such complex cybercrime enterprises. (shrink)

Drug-trafficking in Colombia has been a widely researched phenomenon, especially now, as the country undergoes a transition process with its older guerrilla. Now more than ever it is fundamental to examine how drug-trafficking organizations violent activities affect the consolidation of peace. This article considers different approaches to study violence derived from drug-trafficking, in order to advance towards the objectives of transitional justice. For that matter, this work is based on the idea that drug-trafficking directly generates and (...) reproduces violence which is fueled by the structural violence present in the Colombian context. My thesis is that this phenomenon deters non-repetition guarantees and weakens democracy, which is why there will be three main arguments presented that will revolve around the lack of consensus and the implications of considering drug wars as civil wars, how decisions related to the conceptual apprehension limit the competence of international humanitarian law, and the need for holistic strategies capable of facing drug-trafficking’s political and violent power. Later, alternatives will be explored around the possibilities that each argument offers, as well as which aspects could contribute to a more appropriate approach to combat drug-trafficking. Lastly, I will defend why implementing bottom-up oriented actions can advance towards transitional justice’s intermediate and final objectives, as it is the only alternative that escapes fatalist, utopian or interventionist scenarios. (shrink)

My aim is to extend and complement the arguments that others have already made for the claim that women who are citizens of economically disadvantaged states and who have been trafficked into sex work in economically advantaged states should be considered candidates for asylum. Familiar arguments cite the sexual violence and forced labor that trafficked women are subjected to along with their well-founded fear of persecution if they’re repatriated. What hasn’t been considered is that reproductive rights are also at stake. (...) I explain how reproductive rights are implicated in sex trafficking. Moreover, I contend that sex traffickers’ abuse of women’s reproductive rights is persecutory and that that this persecutory abuse obliges destination states to offer asylum to transnational sex trafficking victims. I start by sketching reproductive human rights doctrine. I then examine studies of women who are in post-trafficking recovery programs in order to ascertain the impact of their past experience of forced sex work on their reproductive freedom and health. On the basis of these findings, I maintain that, among other outrages, sex trafficking systematically violates victims’ reproductive human rights. In view of this abuse, women trafficked into sex work might seem to be prime candidates for asylum in destination states. Yet, economically well-off destination states are not particularly receptive to this idea, and international law provides some justification for their chilliness. Preliminary to challenging them, I explicate four ways in which international anti-trafficking law and international refugee law interfere with viewing women trafficked into sex work as refugees and approving their applications for asylum. The second half of my paper aims to overcome those legal obstacles. In the interest of parsimony and because there are many continuities between U.S. refugee law and anti-trafficking law and the policies of similar destination states, I focus mainly on the U.S. in this part of the paper. To anchor my argument, I spotlight two precedents in refugee law for taking reproductive human rights seriously and several precedents for treating trafficked women as members of a distinct social group as required by refugee law. I then urge that a law enforcement gestalt has gained undue influence over U.S. legal practices where anti-trafficking law intersects with refugee protection law. A human rights gestalt is needed as a counterweight, for otherwise victims of sex trafficking and the reproductive abuse they’ve suffered are erased. Taking up a human rights perspective and mobilizing the precedents I’ve identified, I show that respecting the reproductive human rights of women who have been trafficked into sex work entails that affluent destination states must recognize their right to asylum. (shrink)

This article focuses on examining the situation of organ trafficking in Africa from the aspect of pragmatist ethics. In the mainstream thought, the broader ethical dilemma of organ trafficking is viewed within the moral contestation of altruism as a rule for organ procurement and the resulting worldwide organ shortage. The incapability of altruistic transplant orthodoxy to serve as an applicable foundation for a public policy is considered as a reason for organ trafficking. In fact, to battle organ (...) trafficking, utilitarian-inclined studies suggest organ selling, compensated donations, and non-directed paid donations as practical alternatives. However, when investigating the context of organ trafficking in Africa, the issue goes beyond the mere moral dilemma of altruism and organ shortage. In the region, organ trafficking is rooted within more systemic, structural, socio-economic, and political problems, grounded in the abuse of transplantation, and connected to transplant tourism and migration, which needs a pragmatic multimodal solutions than the earlier mainstream pathways. In pragmatist ethics, the moral assessment and solutions to the underlying problems depend on the context wherein the moral problem arises. Pragmatist ethics does not stick to absolute moral theories; instead, it focuses on the relevant assessment of the felt moral problem in a given context and aims at seeking solutions afresh. Thus, in the subsequent sections, this article looks at the context of organ trafficking in Africa and reassesses it by incorporating it into the ethical debates of transplantation and organ procurements and trading. The final part of this article reflects on solutions with the reconsideration of the context of transplantation and organ trafficking in the region. (shrink)

Human trafficking is both a human rights violation and the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. This article examines cross-border trafficking of girls and women in Nepal to India. It gives a brief explanation of what is meant by trafficking and then looks at the reasons behind trafficking. In Nepal, women and children are trafficked internally and to India and the Middle East for commercial sexual exploitation or forced marriage, as well as to India and (...) within the country for involuntary servitude as child soldiers, domestic servants, circus entertainment, and factory workers. Nepal and India are both signatories to international conventions and bound by domestic law to combat trafficking, and yet, this scourge continues. There are many laws in place, both in Nepal and India, which regulate the trafficking and prostituting of girls and women. This article looks at how effective these laws and regulations actually are and will look at the reasons for the continuation of trafficking. Despite the formal recognition of girl trafficking as a major problem and the existence of laws to curtail it, trafficking continues. The major problem with Nepal’s and India’s domestic laws is in the lack of enforcement. Finally, this article will look at ways to fight trafficking and make the governments of India and Nepal more effective in their fight against trafficking. (shrink)

The passage of the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children in 2000 marked the first global effort to address human trafficking in 50 years. Since the passage of the UN Protocol international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and individual states have devoted significant resources to eliminating human trafficking. This article critically examines the impact of these efforts with reference to the trends, political, and empirical challenges in data collection and the limitations (...) of international law. I argue that current international law disproportionately addresses the criminal prosecution of traffickers at the expense of trafficking victims’ human rights, and has therefore not yet reached its full potential in the fight against human sex trafficking. (shrink)

Efforts to address child trafficking require intensive collaboration among professionals of varied disciplines. Healthcare professionals have a major role in this multidisciplinary approach. Training is essential for all professionals, and policies and protocols may assist in fostering an effective, comprehensive response to victimization.

Canada’s anti-trafficking efforts deploy security mechanisms through a diffused set of actors, including police and prosecutors, but also non-governmental organisations (NGOs), health care providers, educators, the travel and hospitality industry, private corporations, the media, and the public, to name a few. This article brings together two large research studies to focus on the particular and complex ways in which police and NGOs in the province of Ontario, Canada carry out anti-trafficking security tasks in cooperation, negotiation, and contention with (...) each other, while simultaneously producing knowledge around trafficking, exploitation, and consent. We rely on Marc Schuilenburg’s (The Securitization of Society: Crime, Risk, and Social Order, New York University Press, New York, 2015) work on the securitisation of society and ‘security assemblage’ to make sense of anti-trafficking risk management functions, considering how, where, and to what extent police and NGOs negotiate on-the-ground security work in their practices, revealing the contradictions and tensions that unfold in the process. (shrink)

Human trafficking is predominantly framed as a criminal justice issue with sensationalised, highly visible violence. Stereotypical figures of young women in danger, passively poised to be rescued by figures of the state or vigilante justice, animate public discourse and policy. Yet the reality of trafficking is often far more complex than the linear narratives presented in the mainstream. In this article, I argue that human trafficking is more readily accessible as slow violence, the accumulation and accretion of (...) the consequences of systematic oppression over time. I use Nixon's Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor to articulate a stance against the flash of trafficking's ‘master narratives’. Slow violence offers three key elements for theorising human trafficking, i.e. that the harms are so gradual or delayed they: become imperceptible; compound over protracted durations of time; and may be so mundane and unspectacular to not even register as ‘violence’ in our vernacular. Aligned with a critical trafficking studies approach that draws attention to power dynamics and imbalances, slow violence focuses on the forms of exploitation and precarity that are taken for granted or assumed to be static. I use a collection of artifacts and examples from dominant anti-trafficking organisations and media to demonstrate the urgency required to both rethink trafficking against these flattening overgeneralisations and recommit to a transformative practice that makes more lives liveable. In the tradition of feminist anti-violence scholarship, I conclude by shifting from the micro-level examples of trafficking that fuel misinformation campaigns to the systems that perpetuate violence, exploitation and extraction – and must be eradicated if we are committed to ending human trafficking locally and globally. (shrink)

The analysis in this article provides an alternative interpretation of trafficked women’s self-presentation before the courts. I use complete observations of German judges deposing women in camera who are witnesses in criminal proceedings against their traffickers. My objective is to develop and inform a different account of the women’s self-presentation by prioritising the narrative accounts of their ‘lived’ experiences of trafficking. Invoking Judith Butler’s analysis of the complex transactions between subjectification and subversive agency and emerging debates in the health (...) arena in psychosocial theory on resilience, I ask: How is trafficked women’s self-presentation in criminal proceedings an expression of their agency and resilience? (shrink)

Trafficking in persons is often referred to as a global problem that can only be resolved through collaborative action involving the entire global community. Since the early 2000s, the United Nations (UN) has spearheaded efforts to lead the global anti-trafficking campaign and advocate for the humane treatment of trafficked persons. This paper examines the effects of various legal documents and advocacy campaigns to argue that, for the present moment, the UN-led anti-trafficking collaboration fails on both counts—end (...) class='Hi'>trafficking and provide protection and support to trafficked persons. It further argues that the global anti-trafficking unity is maintained at the expense of solving the actual problem: identifying someone to blame and criminalize takes precedence over resolving socio-economic conditions, which are often at the root cause of trafficking. An extreme emphasis on criminality and morality, while well aligned with states’ anti-immigration objectives and public outcries against illegal migration and prostitution, also leads to further ostracization of those in need of protection and options for reintegration. (shrink)

Human trafficking is increasingly recognized as an outcome of economic insecurity, gender inequality, and conflict, all significant factors in the region of southern Africa. This paper examines policy responses to human trafficking in southern Africa and finds that there has been a diffusion of international norms to the regional and domestic levels. This paper finds that policy change is most notable in the strategies and approaches that differ at each level: international and regional agreements emphasize prevention measures and (...) survivor assistance, but national policies emphasize prosecution measures. Leaders across the region have adapted these policy norms to fit regionally specific conditions, including HIV/AIDS, conflict, traditional leaders, and prostitution. Yet, national policies often fail to incorporate preventative solutions to address gender inequality, human rights, and economic development. Until appropriate funding and preventative measures are introduced, the underlying issues that foster human trafficking will continue. (shrink)

This article concentrates on the rapid growth of trafficking in women from Eastern and Central Europe who end up working in the sex industry in Athens. Such movement of people is constituted around global networks of female labour. The social processes and mechanisms that produce and reproduce the somatic and social exploitation of female migrants caught in the web of the sex industry are analysed. These processes are responsible for a continuation and accentuation of women’s loss of power to (...) represent their interests, to seek viable economic alternatives. The living and working spaces of these women rest upon their isolation and individuation and total control of their everyday activities. Ethnicity, age and racialized exclusions all intersect with sexist relations and practices within Greek society and the ethnic communities under study. The interplay of these processes operates differently within different ethnic groups of women to produce different outcomes. (shrink)

Lysosomes are the site of degradation of obsolete intracellular material during autophagy and of extracellular macromolecules following endocytosis and phagocytosis. The membrane of lysosomes and late endosomes is enriched in highly glycosylated transmembrane proteins of largely unknown function. Significant progress has been made in recent years towards elucidating the pathways by which these lysosomal membrane proteins are delivered to late endosomes and lysosomes. While some lysosomal membrane proteins follow the constitutive secretory pathway and reach lysosomes indirectly via the cell surface (...) and endocytosis, others exit the trans‐Golgi network in clathrin‐coated vesicles for direct delivery to endosomes and lysosomes. Sorting from the Golgi or the plasma membrane into the endosomal system is mediated by signals encoded by the short cytosolic domain of these proteins. This review will discuss the role of lysosomal membrane proteins in the biogenesis of the late endosomal and lysosomal membranes, with particular emphasis on the structural features and molecular mechanisms underlying the intracellular trafficking of these proteins. (shrink)

This paper argues that potential cases of oppression, such as sex trafficking, can sometimes comprise autonomous choices by the trafficked individuals. This issue still divides radical from liberal feminists, with the former wanting to ‘rescue’ the ‘victims’ and the latter insisting that there might be good reasons for ‘hiding from the rescuers.’ This article presents new arguments for the liberal approach and raises two demands: first, help organizations should be run by affected women and be open-minded about whether or (...) not the trafficked individuals should remain in the sex industry. Second, the career choices of trafficked individuals should be expanded by the introduction of an opportunity-extending right to asylum. (shrink)

The aim of this chapter is to draw attention to an overlooked dimension of sex trafficking—namely, its abuse of women’s reproductive rights; to diagnose a tension between international anti-trafficking and refugee law and US anti-trafficking and immigration law; and to show that US anti-trafficking and immigration law is enforcing a misguided conception of victims that denies recognition to agentic victims of human rights abuse. Although women who have been trafficked into sex work should be prime candidates (...) for legal protection, they aren’t. Criminal and legal practices amount to a three-way struggle over women’s bodily integrity and autonomy. Because misconceptions about victimhood perpetuate this cyclical struggle, I argue for legal reforms based on a credible conception of victimhood. (shrink)

Can we do justice in an unjust world? The obvious reply is that it is only because of injustice that we need to seek justice. But what about the way existing structures of injustice can also condition the results of our interventions? The attempt here to say something useful about this difficult question will focus on the progress achieved so far by the Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons. Is the use of such human rights (...) instruments in the fight against human trafficking a way of moving toward more global justice? Or is it another example of how many struggles against injustice are undone by continuing social, economic and political inequalities which, at best, this sort of approach is unable to tackle, and, at worst, actually help to reinforce? (shrink)

While the effect of humanitarian intervention on the recurrence and intensity of armed conflict in a crisis zone has received significant scholarly attention, there has been comparatively less work on the negative externalities of introducing peacekeeping forces into conflict regions. This article demonstrates that large foreign forces create one such externality, namely a previously non-existent demand for human trafficking. Using Kosovo, Haiti, and Sierra Leone as case studies, we suggest that the injection of comparatively wealthy soldiers incentivizes the creation (...) of criminal networks by illicit actors. We theorize further that the magnitude of increase in trafficking should be directly proportional to the size of the foreign force, with larger forces producing larger increases. We find that both hypotheses hold with varying levels of confidence across our three case studies. Despite the benevolent intent of peacekeeping missions, the possibility that they may contribute to human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation runs counter to the spirit of such interventions. This is especially problematic given that trafficking rings, once established, may be adapted to provide weapons and narcotics, thereby planting the seed of further destabilization. (shrink)

Proteins and RNAs move between the nucleus and cytoplasm by translocation through nuclear pore complexes in the nuclear envelope. To do this, they require specific targeting signals, energy, and a cellular apparatus that catalyzes their transport. Several of the factors involved in nucleocytoplasmic trafficking of proteins have been identified and characterized in some detail. The emerging picture for nuclear transport proposes a central role for the small GTPase Ran and proteins with which it interacts. In particular, asymmetric distribution of (...) these proteins between nucleus and cytoplasm appears to be responsible for the vectorial nature of nucleocytoplasmic transport. Here, we summarize the role of Ran and Ran-binding proteins in nuclear trafficking of proteins with classical nuclear localisation signals. We also discuss examples of the growing number of alternative pathways that are involved in transport of proteins across the nuclear envelope. BioEssays 21:579–589, 1999. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (shrink)

In this article I put forward three lines of argument. Firstly, the current debate on trafficking in human beings focuses narrowly on exploitation in the sex industry. This has produced a stand-off between moralists and liberals which is detrimental to developing strategies to combat trafficking. Moreover, this narrow focus leads to missing out the large numbers of women who are trafficked into other industries. It also masks some of the root causes of trafficking. In this article I (...) therefore compare the practice of trafficking for prostitution with forced labour in other industries in order to show that the sole focus on trafficking for prostitution is detrimental to the efforts to combat trafficking. This analysis is based on recent research and reports on its methodology as well as its outcomes. Secondly, I relate these findings in the article to the agenda for the women's rights debate. The women's rights literature has looked separately at the sex industry and labour migration. In the light of our research outcomes, it makes sense to have a much more intimate exchange between these areas, in order to discern the central role of root causes like globalization, patriarchy and other forms of discrimination. Thirdly, whereas a dichotomy between universalism and particularism has produced its own trenches in this field, I propose a balanced approach which addresses all forms of violence against women, including the central area of exploitation of migrant women in any sector or domestic context. (shrink)

Why was Anti-Slavery International (ASI) so effective at changing norms slavery and even mobilizing the support that ended the transatlantic slave trade at the end of the nineteenth century, and why has that success not continued on into subsequent eras? This article claims that ASI's organizational structure is the key to understanding why its accomplishments in earlier eras have yet to be replicated, and why today it struggles to make modern forms of slavery, such as human trafficking, salient political (...) issues. Organizational structure is defined by how an NGO distributes power over agenda-setting (proposal and enforcement power) and its implementation. Those NGOs that centralize agenda-setting and decentralize the implementation of that agenda will be most effective at changing international norms. This paper demonstrates the tractability of that claim with a comparative analysis of ASI past and present to show that changes in organizational structure have led to differences in their effect on international norms, in spite of the fact that slavery in its modern forms persists as a political and social problem. (shrink)

This paper examines the UN 2000 Trafficking Protocol in the context of international responses to the issue of people trafficking. Attention is drawn to the conceptual flaws in this new instrument regarding the failure to address domestic trafficking, not incorporating the purchasing and selling of people as defining characteristics of trafficking, and the lack of clarity around issues of prostitution. Framing the discussion within feminist theory, the essay concludes that women’s campaigning will continue to be crucial (...) to putting issues such as human trafficking on the international political agenda. This is extended to affirm that people’s struggle against oppressive circumstances will lead the tackling of the underlying causes of trafficking. (shrink)

Research into human trafficking for sexual exploitation often conceptualizes the experience through the lens of migration and/or sex work. Women’s bodies are often politicized and the corporeal experiences of trafficking are neglected. The gendered stigma attached to women who have been trafficked for sexual exploitation is clearly evident across cultures and requires further analysis as part of wider societal responses to sexual violence. Through the analysis of letters written by women who have been trafficked and sexually exploited from (...) post-Soviet countries to Israel, this article argues that conceptualizing women’s bodies as bounded spaces allows an investigation of the transgression of those boundaries and opens up a thought-provoking framework for theorizing experiences of, and social responses to, sexual violence, stigma and social exclusion. It explores themes of pollution and dirt as ways to communicate social exclusion through references to boundaries crossed and spaces rendered abject. Women’s narratives of trafficking are examined utilizing the theory of abjection, and the embodied effects of sexual violence and body boundary transgression are elucidated. This analysis shows that the women in this study articulate an embodied narrative of trafficking that is experienced in relation to body boundaries and expressed through motifs of dirt, smell, disgust and pollution. (shrink)

In organ transplantation, the demand for human organs has grown far faster than the supply of organs. This has opened the door for illegal organ trade and trafficking including from children. Organized crime groups and individual organ brokers exploit the situation and, as a result, black markets are becoming more numerous and organized organ trafficking is expanding worldwide. While underprivileged and vulnerable men and women in developing countries are a major source of trafficked organs, and may themselves be (...) trafficked for the purpose of illegal organ removal and trade, children are at especial risk of exploitation. With the confirmed cases of children being trafficked for their organs, child organ trafficking, which once called a “modern urban legend”, is a sad reality in today’s world. By presenting a global picture of child organ trafficking, this paper emphasizes that child organ trafficking is no longer a myth but a reality which has to be addressed. It argues that the international efforts against organ trafficking and trafficking in human beings for organ removal have failed to address child organ trafficking adequately. This chapter suggests that more orchestrated international collaboration as well as development of preventive measure and legally binding documents are needed to fight child organ trafficking and to support its victims. (shrink)

The last decade or so the concept of female trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation has lent itself to rigorous analysis and exploration. A plethora of domestic and transnational studies and reports have attempted to address the aetiology of human trafficking, as well as its epidemiology, often drawing from sources such as statistics, narratives, documents, and observations. While the great majority of such studies are engaged, if not preoccupied, in ‘unmasking’ the particularities of sex trafficking by (...) taking into account the detection, identification, rehabilitation, and repatriation of trafficked women, the prosecution and adjudication of sex trafficking cases are often left unexamined. With this in mind, this article sets out to explore the various forces that often come into play while sex trafficking cases in Cyprus are being processed by the domestic justice system. To this end, this article considers two dimensions, the trafficked women and the judiciary. (shrink)

Human trafficking for organ removal (HTOR) should not be reduced to a problem of supply and demand of organs for transplantation, a problem of organized crime and criminal justice, or a problem of voiceless, abandoned victims. Rather, HTOR is at once an egregious human rights abuse and a form of human trafficking. As such, it demands a human-rights based approach in analysis and response to this problem, placing the victim at the center of initiatives to combat this phenomenon. (...) Such an approach requires us to consider how various measures impact or disregard victims/potential victims of HTOR and gives us tools to better advocate their interests, rights and freedoms. (shrink)

This article draws on a five-year, multi-sited transnational research project on the global traffic in human organs, tissues, and body parts from the living as well as from the dead as a misrecognized form of human sacrifice. Capitalist expansion and the spread of advanced medical and surgical techniques and developments in biotechnology have incited new tastes and traffic in the skin, bones, blood, organs, tissues, marrow and reproductive and genetic marginalized other. Examples drawn from recent ethnographic research in Israel, the (...) Palestinian Authority and Turkey serve to cast light on the dark side of organs harvesting and transplantation. The article focuses on the dangers of the `fetishized kidney' for both sellers and buyers, for whom this new commodity has become an organ of opportunity and an organ of last resort. The bodily sacrifice is disguised as a donation, rendered invisible by its anonymity, and hidden under the medical rhetoric of `life saving' and `gift giving'. It suggests that the ultimate fetish as recognized long ago by Ivan Illich is the idea of `life' as object of manipulation. (shrink)

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act legislation has established the US as a global humanitarian leader on the issue of human trafficking. Through the use of formulaic victim narratives, appeals to masculinist protection, and invocations of slave abolitionism, legislators frame the law as a work of compassion and protection of migrant people. On the other hand, legislators often take a suspicious and unsympathetic approach to irregular migrants. This article describes the humanitarian posture adopted by the US in relation to (...) anti-trafficking, contrasting it with an anti-immigration sentiment, evidenced in two attempts to limit or rescind the benefits of anti-trafficking legislation for migrants. When considered together the humanitarian and anti-immigration focus of anti-trafficking law and policy make for an internally inconsistent approach to tackling trafficking. (shrink)

Human trafficking is associated with a variety of adverse health and mental health consequences, which should be accurately addressed and documented in electronic health records.

Planar cell polarity, the polarization of cells within the plane of the epithelium, orthogonal to the apical‐basal axis, is essential for a growing list of developmental events, and – over the last 15 years – has evolved from a little‐studied curiosity in Drosophila to the subject of a substantial research enterprise. In that time, it has been recognized that two molecular systems are responsible for polarization of most tissues: Both the “core” Frizzled system and the “global” Fat/Dachsous/Four‐jointed system produce molecular (...) asymmetry within cells, and contribute to morphological polarization. In this review, we discuss recent findings on the molecular mechanism that links “global” directional signals with local coordinated polarity. (shrink)

Proteins of the exocytotic (secretory) pathway are initially targeted to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and then translocated across and/or inserted into the membrane of the ER. During their anterograde transport with the bulk of the membrane flow along the exocytotic pathway, some proteins are selectively retained in various intracellular compartments, while others are sorted to different branches of the pathway. The signals or structural motifs that are involved in these selective targeting processes are being revealed and investigations into the mechanistic (...) nature of these processes are actively underway. (shrink)

Interaction of ligands such as epidermal growth factor and interferon‐γ with the extracellular domains of their plasma membrane receptors results in internalization followed by translocation into the nucleus of the ligand and/or receptor. There has been reluctance, however, to ascribe signaling importance to this, the focus instead being on second messenger pathways, including mobilization of kinases and inducible transcription factors (TFs). The latter, however, fails to explain the fact that so many ligands stimulate the same second messenger cascades/TFs, and yet (...) show distinct gene activation profiles. This is particularly apt in the case of the seven STAT TFs that are held to be the mediators of the distinct cellular functions of over 60 ligands. The current review focuses on five representative nuclear localizing ligands for which there is documentation of translocation into the cytosol and nucleus through well‐characterized pathways, in addition to a role in gene activation by ligand/receptor in the nucleus. BioEssays 26:993‐1004, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)