HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Sara Birkenthal

A Human Rights Abuse with Global Dimensions

Human trafficking is, by nature, a transnational issue. This article compares the advantages and disadvantages that state governments, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) bring to bear on the issue. It suggests a multilateralist approach that capitalizes on the advantages of these three institutions, namely state governments ability to pass preventive legislation, IGOs ability to coordinate internationally, and NGOs ability to provide grassroots aid to victims. The success of this multifaceted approach requires increased coordination among these institutions to raise awareness and contribute to protecting the world's most vulnerable individuals from exploitation. This analysis is grounded in the liberalist, realist, and constructivist paradigms of international relations theory.1 Keywords: human trafficking, state governments, nongovernmental organizations, intergovernmental organizations I.

ecause human trafficking is a transnational problem, it must be targeted through a multilateral approach. This article will first examine what needs to be done to effectively combat the problem of human trafficking, and subsequently discuss the comparative advantages and disadvantages of actions on the part of state governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). This article will conclude with suggestions for how state governments, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)or a combination of the three can best address the problem of human trafficking while bearing in mind their inherent advantages and disadvantages. This analysis will be framed in several theories of international relations and will be not be centered on any one paradigm, but rather will be analyzed through the lens of liberalism, realism, and constructivism, respectively.2
B.A., International Relations and Middle East Studies, with a concentration on human rights, Claremont McKenna College, 2013. Birkenthal is a founder and contributor to the international undergraduate research journal, Olive Roots, on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Additionally, she is a recipient of the Jack Stark Fellowship in Security Studies and the Carolyn and Gerald Camp Award for International Relations. She would like to thank Professor Jennifer Taw for her inspiration and skillful oversight in the writing and editing of this paper as well as Professors Bassam Frangieh, Edward Haley, and Roderic Camp for providing nurturing guidance and never closing their office doors. She would also like to thank the CMC Center for Human Rights Leadership and the influential individuals at both Human Rights Watch and the Council on Foreign Relations with whom she has had the opportunity to work. Last but not least, her family, who support her every step of the way. 1 Jennifer Taw, The Theory of International Relations, lecture at Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA (21 Jan. 2010)(on file with author). 2 See id.

INTRODUCTION

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II. OVERVIEW OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING Despite the fact that every country has made it illegal to exercise complete control over another person, human trafficking remains one of societys most pressing human rights concerns. 3 Although lacking an objective, widely agreed-upon definition, human trafficking is the movement of persons within or across borders by any means (such as force or fraud) into forced labor, slavery, or servitude.4 While human trafficking has existed for millennia, its unprecedented growth over the last quarter of the twentieth century has caused alarm within the international community. Although wholly accurate statistics do not exist, it is estimated that human trafficking, in its wide array of forms, now represents a multibillion dollar industry. Somewhere between a few hundred thousand and 1 million people are trafficked annually. Experts agree that impoverished girls and women are disproportionately trafficked, due to their unfortunate vulnerability in many societies and their value in the international sex trade.5 Contrary to popular belief, trade in humans is not unique to any area of the world. It has been documented in states as diverse as Ukraine, Germany, Burma, Thailand, Mexico, the United States, Russia, Israel, China, the Philippines, Kuwait, Nepal, India, Brazil, and Cambodia.6 The human rights abuses that inherently stem from this worldwide practice are numerous. Most fundamentally, the victims of trafficking, through servitude, are denied their fundamental right of freedom. 7 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a 1948 United Nations document that has retained its relevance to the international community, states in Article 4 that No one shall be held in slavery or servitude and prohibits slavery and the slave trade in all their forms.8 In addition to this most obvious infringement, trafficking, by its very nature, renders victims vulnerable to extreme exploitation and abuse. Individuals are often lured into trafficking situations by the false promise of a job, a contrived marriage proposal, or kidnapping. Traffickers have been known to use a variety of methods to condition their victims, including starvation, confinement, beatings, physical abuse, rape, gang rape, threats of gang violence to the victims and the victims families, forced drug use, and the threat of shaming their victims by revealing their activities to their families and their families friends.9
Kevin Bales, UNDERSTANDING GLOBAL SLAVERY: A READER 3-4 (2005). See id at 146. 5 Ann D. Jordan, Human Rights or Wrongs? The Struggle for a Rights-Based Response to Trafficking in Human Beings, 10:1 GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT 28, 28 (2002). 6 Shelley Case Inglis, Expanding International and National Protections against Trafficking for Forced Labor Using a Human Rights Framework, 7:5 BUFFALO HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW 55, 55 (2001). 7 Tomoya Obokata, TRAFFICKING OF HUMAN BEINGS FROM A HUMAN RIGHTS PERSPECTIVE: TOWARDS A HOLISTIC APPROACH 209210 (International Studies in Human Rights, Martinus Nijhoff Brill Publishers, 2006). 8 United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 Dec. 1948. 9 U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Sex Trafficking Fact Sheet, Washington: GPO, 2000, www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/fact_sex.pdf.
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Human trafficking is often defined as an international crime and therefore a transnational threat. In the countries or regions of origin, trafficking is most commonly caused by abject poverty, especially among women, a lack of political, economic or social stability, a shortage of reasonable, legal job prospects, situations of armed conflict or oppression, domestic violence or disintegration of the family structure, gender discrimination, and a lack of access to education. On the other end, in destination countries, causes of trafficking include the expense of charges that employers need to pay legally hired workers, an increased demand for cheap laborers in the construction, agricultural, and industrial sectors, and a rise in the demand for sex workers in a highly lucrative and globalized sex industry. Universal causes of trafficking, applicable to both origin and destination countries, include increased restrictions on legal migration, a lack of public awareness of the dangers of human trafficking, the high profit potential for those engaged in criminal activity, the sophisticated networks of human traffickers, a lack of effective human trafficking legislation or a lack of effective enforcement if such legislation does exist, global economic policies that foster exclusion of marginalized people, disintegration of social protection networks, and widespread corruption.10 At the individual level, victims of trafficking pay a horrible price. Psychological and physical harm, including disease and stunted growth, often have a permanent effect. Victims of sex trafficking may also face exposure to sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, permanent damage to reproductive organs, and, depending on the age at which they are trafficked, missed critical opportunities for social, moral, or spiritual development. On a broader scale, trafficking causes the loss of community social support networks and creates profits that are often used to fuel other kinds of criminal activities. According to the UN, human trafficking is the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world, generating an estimated $9.5 billion in annual revenue. There have also been documented links between human trafficking and terrorism. Profits from trafficking and prostitution have been used to support terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda. According to Christine Dolan, a panelist at the Terrorism Nexus seminar hosted by the World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C., in the spring of 2002, trafficking and terrorism are linked. 11 Dolan claimed, terrorists use the transportation networks of smugglers and traffickers to move operatives.12 Even if states do not have an explicit interest in stopping human trafficking, they certainly share a common interest in ensuring national and international security by countering terrorist activities. Another grave risk to societies in which human trafficking exists is the widespread loss of human capital. Trafficking has a negative impact on
10 Caritas, ROOT CAUSES OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING (2010), www.caritas.org/activities/women_migration/caritas_migration_trafficking_and_women.ht ml?cnt=431. 11 See IAST Report, TERRORISM & TRAFFICKING: FINDING THE NEXUS (Spring 2002), www.iast.net.reports.htm. 12 Colonel Sandra L. Keefer, HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND THE IMPACT ON NATIONAL SECURITY FOR THE UNITED STATES, Strategy War Project, U.S. Army War College 3 (2006).

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labor markets, which leads to an irretrievable loss of human resources. Some effects of trafficking include depressed wages, fewer careers left for the aged, and an undereducated next generation. Most significantly, these effects can lead to the loss of future productivity and earning power, as forcing illegally employed individuals to work 10- to 18-hour work days denies them access to education. This inevitably widens the gap between developing and developed nations. Thus human trafficking reinforces the cycle of poverty and illiteracy that stunts national development.13 III. WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE If human trafficking is to be effectively addressed, a coordinated international effort between single state governments, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) must be undertaken. First and foremost, an objective definition of human trafficking must be created and publicized via effective awareness campaigns. Equally important, trafficking must not only be universally criminalized, but traffickers must be effectively prosecuted for the crime. From the origin-country perspective, education and legal, viable work opportunities must be made available so that people do not resort to trafficking out of economic necessity. Efforts need to be undertaken to minimize instances of domestic violence and to discourage gender discrimination so as to create a mentality of equality. On the destination side of the issue, the price gap between paying legal and illegal workers, especially in the agricultural, construction, and industrial sectors, must be minimized or eliminated. Universally, transnational networks of traffickers must be broken down and corruption must be eliminated. Effective mechanisms for reporting suspected traffickers must be implemented and critical services, including group therapy and repatriation, must be provided to victims. IV. EFFORTS BY VARIOUS SECTORS OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY A. Efforts by Single Governments The interests of each respective state have largely dictated single government efforts against human trafficking. Because state governments are in a position to pass legislation and allocate funding, and have jurisdiction over the actions of their residents, they are best equipped for prevention and interdiction. According to the liberalist paradigm of international relations, states cooperate, communicate, and pool resources with other states, IGOs, and NGOs, despite the fact that states may not have a direct interest in dealing with the human rights issues surrounding human trafficking. Regardless of the aforementioned effects of human trafficking, trafficking as an institution neither poses an existential threat nor has serious implications for the power of state governments. This
13

OPINION (10

April Palmerlee, HUMAN TRAFFICKING: COMBATING AN INTERNATIONAL CRISIS, ON LINE Nov. 2004), www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=2727.

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confirms the liberal theory that states will act on an issue that does not directly harm their existence. So why do state governments act on the issue? Presumably, for the same reason that they act on any other human rights issue. According to Andrew Moravcsik, a professor of politics at Harvard University, The most fundamental influence on international cooperation is not relative power, as the realist theory asserts. 14 Rather, the most fundamental influence is the desire to safeguard free, fair, and open societies.15 However, trafficking, as previously mentioned, is directly linked to grave issues of national security in which all states have a common interest, which prompts action on the part of state governments. According to the realist paradigm of international relations, state governments place national security above all other concerns. Unfortunately, this means that most states cannot justify putting significant amounts of resources into an issue that does not pose an existential threat. While states acting unilaterally do not have issues of national sovereignty to consider, they operate predominantly within their own borders and most certainly do not prioritize human trafficking, a human rights issue, over issues of economic and political security. If single state governments do choose to act unilaterally on human traffickinga transnational issuethey are at an inherent disadvantage. That being said, single state efforts have generally included such actions as interdiction, passage of legislation to criminalize human trafficking, discussion of human trafficking as a normative issue, creation of domestic campaigns to raise awareness of the issue, and development of domestic programs for victims. Under such international agreements as the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the 1976 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, states have an obligation to take action against trafficking committed by nonstate actors. Specifically, states are required to prohibit torture, slavery, forced labor, and degrading treatment, all of which are undeniable components of human trafficking. 16 Therefore, the obligation to investigate, prosecute, and punish nonstate actors with due diligence is established under international legal jurisprudence. However, because other issues are often prioritized over human trafficking, many states fail to live up to this legal obligation altogether or only partially fulfill their protective duties. Nonetheless, there have been single governments that have made great strides toward raising awareness, introducing and passing legislation aimed at making human trafficking illegal, working effectively with NGOs, and identifying and protecting victims.17 The United States, arguably living up to its relative advantage of being a hegemonic power, is a leader in combating human trafficking. The United Statess Be Smart, Be Safe
14 Andrew Moravcsik, Explaining International Human Rights Regimes: Liberal Theory and Western Europe, 1:2 INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS REGIMES 157, 189 (1995). 15 The International, LIBERAL INTERNATIONAL, www.liberal-international.org/editorial. asp?ia_id=508 (last visited 11 May 2010). 16 See Obokata, supra n. 7 at 89. 17 United Nations, GLOBAL TV CAMPAIGN ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING (17 Feb. 2002), www.undoc.org/undoc/en/trafficking_tv_campaign_2002.html.

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campaign publicizes what women can do to protect themselves and to uphold the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA). TVPA establishes T visas for victims of trafficking that wish to stay in the United States. The U.S. Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report ranks other nations on their compliance with TVPAs minimum standards. In 2009, the countries ranked in Tier 1 include: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.18 According to this ranking, these countries have taken effective steps to address and combat the problem within their borders. The U.S Department of State claims to rank and regulate the nations of the world in an effort to encourage the utmost cooperation and ensure a synchronized approach to curtailing human trafficking. The United States, both a transit and destination country, is a fitting case study for antihuman trafficking action by a powerful single government. The United Statess actions reflect its hegemonic status and its access to monetary resources. Not only does the nation lead the way in interdiction and legislation to criminalize human trafficking, it has also taken on the role of overseer. This reflects the realist tenant that there is no ultimate authority in the world of international politics, which explains why powerful states step up to fill leadership and oversight roles. The U.S. benefits from its hegemonic oversight role by its accumulated power in the eyes of the international community. South Korea is a nonhegemonic nation ranked in Tier I of the TIP Report. Considering that South Korea is a source country for the trafficking of women and girls to the United States, often through Canada, Mexico, Japan, Hong Kong, Guam, Australia, and New Zealand for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation, it is logical that the South Korean government has enacted interdiction policies similar to those of the United States. South Koreas state-level response has been motivated by its liberal interests in collaborating and receiving funding from the United States and protecting its own citizens from global networks of traffickers. The 2004 Act on the Punishment of Intermediating in the Sex Trade and Associated Acts criminalizes commercial sexual exploitation, which carries penalties similar to those for rape. The Labor Standards Act criminalizes forced labor and carries penalties of up to five years in prison. In addition, the Juvenile Sexual Protection Act criminalizes sexual exploitation of children.19 While South Korea has not taken on a human trafficking oversight role, it has certainly taken adequate domestic steps to comply with the standards set by the United States, most notably its efforts to care for victims and raise awareness of the issue. The South Korean government provides funding for 47 shelters, 5 long-term group homes, and 27
18

See United States Department of State, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT (2 Dec. HUMANTRAFFICKING.ORG (2010)

2009).
19 Andrea M. Bertone, South Korea, www.humantrafficking.org/countries/south_korea.

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counseling centers for national and foreign trafficking victims. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF) sponsors a 24-hour hotline that provides referrals for victims to shelters. Trafficking victims are eligible for medical, legal, vocational, and social support services. Furthermore, the South Korean government offers G-1 visas, similar to the American T visa, for victims who face hardship or retribution at home. In an effort to raise awareness, the South Korean MOGEF has held antitrafficking seminars, placed 6,380 advocacy posters in public places, and held John Schools to educate male clients of prostitution. To prevent labor trafficking to South Korea, the government created the Employment Placement System, which recruits foreign workers through government-togovernment channels to replace private labor agencies that recruit for trafficking.20 Although the United States certainly has greater access to resources to create and implement antihuman trafficking programs, South Korea creates similar programs out of its desire to curtail human trafficking and maintain its Tier I status. B. Efforts by Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) Antihuman trafficking efforts undertaken by IGOs are restrained by that fact that IGOs have little authority in the international community. States, out of a realist desire to maintain power, avoid submitting to authoritative IGOs and as a result, IGOs are often ineffective. Despite the inherent weakness of many IGOs, mainly due to states desire to maintain sovereignty, IGOs are in an ideal position to operate internationally and coordinate across states. IGOs continue to take action to combat human trafficking regardless of the fact that they maintain no apparatus for policing or oversight. Human trafficking has gained much attention nationally, regionally, and internationally and major IGOs, including the UN and the International Labor Organization (ILO), now deal explicitly with the issue. The approach undertaken by an IGO depends on its focus and mission. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), for example, deals with the issue in the context of attempting to create universal definitions and helping states to draft laws; the ILO focuses on the economic exploitation involved in the process.21 A few commonalities exist among IGO actions against human trafficking: IGOs recognize that human trafficking is a human rights abuse; punishment is difficult to enforce due to realist concerns of state sovereignty; and there is an attempt to pool international political, economic, social, and communication resources to most efficiently define and combat the problem. The United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (also referred to as the Trafficking Protocol) represents one of the most significant gains of the international community in attempting to band together and combat human trafficking. Thus far, 117 countries have signed this protocol, adopted by the United Nations in Palermo, Italy, in 2000. UNODC is
20 21

Id. See Obokata supra n. 7 at 113.

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responsible for implementing the Trafficking Protocol, which offers practical help to states with drafting laws, creating comprehensive national anti-trafficking strategies, and assisting with resources to implement them.22 In March 2009, UNODC launched the Blue Heart Campaign to fight human trafficking, raise awareness, and inspire action. 23 This campaign represents the most comprehensive role that an IGO can play, coordinating large-scale efforts between sovereign nations, NGOs, and other nonstate actors. However, while it may seem like this UN-sponsored awareness campaign would be more effective than a similar campaign sponsored by a single nation, its sponsorship by an IGO makes it no more effective because member states, out of a desire to maintain sovereignty, structure IGOs such that they are not forced to comply. As such, IGOs such as the UN are fraught with bureaucratic complications. For example, the UN Security Councils five permanent members, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, can utilize their veto power to leverage influence over other Security Council and nonSecurity Council member states. While these powerful nations appear at the surface level to be sacrificing some of their individual interests to work cooperatively in IGOs, in reality they oftentimes make use of these IGOs as another tool for maintaining power. The efforts undertaken by the UN, an IGO with a wide political, economic, and social focus, differ from those taken by an IGO focused solely on economics and labor, such as the ILO. Preventing the trafficking and labor exploitation of children and young people is an obligation of ILO members, all of which have ratified Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. The ILO has tackled the challenges posed by human trafficking through the creation and implementation of the Mekong Subregional Project to Combat Trafficking in Children and Women. According to the website of the ILO, This project has spent eight years researching, collaborating with partners and implementing a series of proven approaches and practices to combat human trafficking, particularly in the Mekong subregion, which is the most at-risk region in the world.24 One facet of the Mekong Human Trafficking Project that is not included within the jurisdiction of the broadly focused UN is its work with businesses and unions. Through this project, the ILO has worked to contact and acknowledge employers who have taken an active role in avoiding and denouncing human trafficking. Conversely, the project has also worked with companies who abuse workersfor example, receiving
22 See United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Model Law to Help States Fight Modern Slavery (6 Jul. 2009), www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2009/July/model-law-on-trafficking-inpersons.html. 23 See United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000) http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=XVIIIa&chapter=18&lang=en. 24 See International Labor Organization, Building the Knowledge Base (24 Oct. 2008), www.ilo.org/public/english/region/asro/bangkok/child/trafficking/buildingknowledge/inde x.htm.

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migrant workers for the purpose of exploitation through coercion, deception, underpaying them, locking them up, or denying them their legal benefits. The project also targets national and international workers organizations, which are natural allies in the fight against human trafficking.25 As a case study of a more specialized IGO, the ILO is able to focus its limited resources and personnel on an economics-centered approach to combating human trafficking. The UNODC, on the other hand, puts its personnel and resources toward a broader set of goals. Both organizations, however, must grapple with issues of state sovereignty. C. Efforts by Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs)

According to the realist paradigm, NGOs hold no tangible power on the international stage. While the liberalist paradigm is slightly more accepting of NGOs as fulfilling an important role in the international system as nonstate actors, NGOs are still largely under the control of state governments, from which they often receive the majority of their funding. NGOs as an institution, however small their influence in the international community may be, are ideal for specializing in a specific region. NGOs, by their grassroots nature, can draw government attention to a particular region, garner international resources to their region of focus, and provide aid to trafficked individuals, who are often overlooked by government and IGO-sponsored programs in favor of larger-scale legislative goals. As human trafficking becomes more sophisticated and widespread, the relative absence of effective government and international grassroots initiatives means that NGOs have taken up the challenge of organizing locally, nationally, and internationally to spread awareness of the problem and to advocate for and meet the needs of victims. Despite their limited resources, most local NGOs take the lead in combating trafficking in their respective communities. 26 While governments and IGOs have much broader win sets, most NGOs that address human trafficking are focused almost entirely on this issue. Because different measures and services are required depending on the cultural context, country laws and policies, resources, and the support of local institutions, NGOs, due to their limited geographic scope, are best equipped to handle a problem as geographically diverse as human trafficking.27 NGO support for victims is grassroots in nature and is often administered to trafficking survivors post-repatriation. NGOs have also succeeded at creating programs to identify victims of human trafficking, provide aid services to these victims, and help them move on with the rest of their lives. NGOs, such as Transitions Global, Shared Hope International, and the Counter Trafficking in Persons Initiative, often
25 See International Labor Organization, Working with Businesses and Unions (24 Oct. 2008), www.ilo.org/public/english/region/asro/bangkok/child/trafficking/workingwith business/index.htm. 26 Marina Tzvetkova, NGO Responses to Trafficking in Women, 10:1 GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT 60, 68 (2002). 27 Id. at 63.

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meet victims at the airport and provide them with first aid, emergency housing, food and other supplies, medical care, and immediate psychological assistance. In some cases, they may help survivors get in contact with their families. 28 Many NGOs have formal and informal referral services and have formed reliable networks of trust and information within their country or region of service.29 These are essential services that governments and IGOs often fail to provide. Just as many national governments comply with the standards set by the U.S. TIP Report, NGOs wishing to receive funding from the U.S. government must also comply with TIP standards. NGOs apply for U.S. funding through a grant competition. The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons International Programs Section and the U.S. Department of State announce funding opportunities to antitrafficking NGOs around the world. Grants of $750,000 are awarded for projects covering a period of 36 months. NGOs are selected for U.S. grants based on two key criteria. First and foremost, the grantmakers investigate whether the NGO operates by applying the Three P Strategy: prevention of trafficking, protection and assistance to victims of trafficking, and prosecution of traffickers. This is a strategy specified in the TIP Report. The second key consideration is the region in which the NGO operates. The U.S. government primarily grants funding to NGOs that work in Tier II and Tier III nations where trafficking problems are most severe, according to the statistics provided in the TIP Report. According to a writing from Sameer Zuhad, the founder and CEO of fundsforngos.org, the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report . . . remains a critical document on the basis of which the programs and interventions are designed under this grant competition for the Watch List countries.30 The problem with the U.S. Three P approach to countering human trafficking is that it shallowly targets the ramifications of trafficking instead of focusing on the root causes. For example, rather than focusing on improving economic stability and educational opportunities in source nations, the U.S. strategy focuses resources on prosecuting traffickers. While this strategy is certainly worthwhile, it has not proven the most effective, as evidenced by a 2009 UNODC report, which states that human trafficking for the sex trade or forced labor market appears to be getting worse, not better.31 The Lutrena Project in West Africa is an ideal case study of an NGO receiving U.S. grant money whose programs directly reflect the goals set forth in the TIP Report. The Lutrena Project for the Mobilization and Building Capacity of Road Haulers formed an alliance with the National
Id. at 67. Smarajit Jana et al., A Tale of Two Cities: Shifting the Paradigm of Anti-Trafficking Programmes, 10:1 GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT 69, 79 (2002). 30 Sameer Zuhad, Grant Competition for NGOs: Projects to Combat Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery, www.fundsforngos.org/latest-funds-for-ngos/grant-competition-forngos-projects-to-combat-trafficking-and-modern-day-slavery/#axzz0mTHa7MMR (last visited 13 Apr. 2010). 31 Andrew F. Tully, UN Says Human Trafficking Appears to be Worsening, Radio Free Europe (13 Feb. 2009).
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Truckers Union in Burkina Faso to intercept and repatriate human trafficking victims. This alliance represents compliance with the United Statess overarching goal of protection and assistance to victims. The Lutrena Project also established an antitrafficking alert system at bus stations in 7 of the 13 regions where child trafficking is most prevalent. The program has successfully intercepted 549 children. In 2006 alone, the Lutrena Project enabled the prosecution of 29 traffickers. This demonstrates compliance with the United Statess other overarching goal of prosecuting traffickers.32 It is no surprise that the Development and Education Programme for Daughters and Communities in South Africa, an NGO that does not receive U.S. grant funding, does not comply with the Three P strategy. Because this NGO is not forced to allocate its funding to the rigid objectives of protection, prevention, and prosecution, it is free to provide more unique and regionally specialized services such as education and vocational training. Specifically, the Development and Education Programme focuses on providing half-day school, community learning centers, craft training, and sports opportunities to its target group of young girls. In place of U.S. grant funding, the Development and Education Programme receives funding from Switzerland, Finland, and Japan, three nonhegemonic nations whose funding stipulations are less restrictive than those of the United States.33 The stipulations specified for receiving grant funding undoubtedly influence the programs created and implemented by NGOs. The fact that some NGOs are required to comply with the Three P strategy in order to be awarded a grant ensures that a great deal of the work done to combat human trafficking is done using this strategy. NGOs, by their very nature, are strapped for funding and as their role in opposing human trafficking expands, the need for money to run their operations becomes even more critical.34 By maintaining tight control over grants provided to governments and NGOs, the U.S. achieves a realist goal of influencing the international communitys approach to combating human trafficking. Both national governments and NGOs are forced to turn to the United States for project grants, but must comply with the United Statess narrow Three P approach. V. THE QUESTION OF SUCCESS According to Pardis Mahdavi, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and an assistant professor of Anthropology specializing in trafficking, the sex trade, and human rights at Pomona College, the problem surrounding human trafficking at the policy
32 Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State, NGOS WORK TO ERADICATE HUMAN TRAFFICKING HELP VICTIMS (12 Jun. 2007), www.america.gov/st/washfileenglish/2007/June/20070605161941bcreklaw0.5122492.html. 33 Development and Education Programme for Daughters and Communities Center, Funding Situation 2003/2004, DEPDC IN DETAIL (Feb. 2004), www.depdc.org/assets/eng/reference/DEPDC_in_Detail.pdf. 34 Hari Srinivas, NGO Fund Raising Strategies, The Global Development Research Center, www.gdrc.org/ngo/funding/fund-raising.html (last visited 28 Apr. 2010).

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level is that there exists no clear, internationally recognized definition of human trafficking. Although IGOs such as the UN have attempted to define trafficking, their definition of trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other means of coercion is murky at best.35 The main problem that Mahdavi finds with this definition is that it only views trafficking in terms of prostitution. I am very critical of the way in which the trafficking discussion has been framed, stated Mahdavi in a phone interview on April 28, 2010.36 While it is nearly impossible to determine what percentage of victims are trafficked into the sex industry, contrary to popular conception, most trafficked individuals are not forced into the sex trade but into the construction or garment industries.37 The result of this popular misconception is two-fold: first, all women in the sex industry are hyperscrutinized; second, abuses outside of the sex industry have been eclipsed. Although the trafficking situation certainly appears grim, tangible success can be attained if national governments, IGOs, and NGOs capitalize on their respective advantages. As emphasized by Mahdavi, those NGOs that have been successful are the ones that have given up trying to comply with U.S. government definitions and have taken up local grassroots efforts, such as harm reduction outreach to migrant workers. Mahdavi explains that the international community needs to recognize that trafficking should not be defined through the lens of the sex trade, but rather as simply migration gone awry. Programs undertaken by NGOs that choose not to follow the strict standards of the United States often include lobbying for labor law reform with the overall goal of offering more protection to migrants so that they do not feel as if they are trapped. As it stands, in many states, labor laws do not seek to account for complicated, culturally-sensitive migratory patterns. Most significantly, successful NGOs have a narrow regional focus and excel at doing grassroots projects that are often overlooked by governments. They recognize the problem within its appropriate context of migration and labor reform. This success, however, has not been absolute, as the number of trafficked individuals rose throughout the last century and international criminal and trafficking networks run rampant.37 VI. CONCLUSIONS: STRATEGIC REFORM Drastic institutional reform of the system of antihuman trafficking programs is needed if any effective change is to be brought about. As the system currently stands, the U.S. government furthers its dominance and control through its system of stipulated grant giving to state governments and NGOs. This hegemony negatively affects antihuman trafficking
35 See United Nations, GENDER AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING 2010, www.unescap.org/esid/gad/issues/trafficking/index.asp. 36 Interview by author with Pardis Mahdavi, Claremont, CA (28 Apr. 2010) (on file with author). 37 Id. 37 See Jordan, supra n. 5 at 37.

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efforts because it ensures that national governments and NGOs compete for U.S. funding and subsequently take a narrow approach to the problem. Considering the relative advantages of single state governments, namely authority over their residents and the ability to allocate funding to the problem, some policy recommendations include: providing educational and economic opportunities to encourage legal employment; passing legislation to criminalize the act of trafficking, effectively prosecuting traffickers; enacting culturally sensitive awareness campaigns to discourage gender discrimination; creating shelters and hotlines for victims; narrowing the price gap between hiring legal and illegal workers; and, in the case of developed nations with adequate resources to allocate, offering alternative grant programs to NGOs. These recommendations would be success on several levels. First, underfunded NGOs whose programs do not fit within the confines of the United Statess strict provisions would receive an increase in funding. Second, innovation would be encouraged among antitrafficking NGOs, which have already proven themselves more engaged in the problem at the grassroots level than either national governments or IGOs. Thirdly, states that previously felt overpowered by U.S. dominance of antitrafficking programs would feel empowered to take an active role in alleviating the problem. It is unrealistic to believe that other states offering grants to national governments and NGOs would not have their own sets of goals with which grant-seekers would be forced to comply. However, if other developed nations became more involved in the process of awarding grants, single governments and NGOs seeking such grants would have a wider set of possible goals to appeal to. Ideally, the United States would change its focus from the Three P strategy to target the root causes of the problem. Either way, the goals of other grant-awarding states might focus more on the root causes of the problem, allowing other state governments and NGOs the opportunity to look beyond the ramifications of human trafficking to its origins. Why would nations that do not currently offer human trafficking grants begin to do so? Because there is a current trend toward growing awareness of the issue of human trafficking. According to the constructivist paradigm of international relations, raising awareness can increase pressure for action as perceptions change and the international community begins to realize the importance of this issue. In todays increasingly globalized society, concern for this egregious issue will likely spread. Considering the relative advantages of IGOs, namely their ability to operate internationally and coordinate across states, some policy recommendations include: objectively defining trafficking and publicizing this definition via international awareness campaigns, understanding the problem more as immigration gone awry than as strictly confined to the sex trade, and maintaining accurate statistics on the types and conditions of global human trafficking. Considering the relative advantages of NGOs, most notably a narrow regional expertise, well-developed information networks, grassroots programs that target the individual, and the ability to bring international

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Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Rights Law

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resources via grants to bear locally, some policy recommendations include: applying for non-U.S. grant funding in an effort to broaden the narrow focus of the Three P strategy; working with state governments to establish hotlines; attempting to catch traffickers in the act in central international travel hubs; educating victims; putting victims in contact with their families; working with state governments to establish shelters for victims; repatriating victims; and lobbying state governments on the issue. Cooperation and communication is necessary between national governments, IGOs, and NGOs if resources are to be used most effectively and countertrafficking innovations are to be made. If this strategic reform, which delegates institutional responsibilities based on the relative strengths of each institution, is not enacted, the world risks turning a blind eye to the exploitation and abuse of its most vulnerable individuals.