scholarly journals Bringing the problem home: The anti-slavery and anti-trafficking rhetoric of UK non-government organisations

Politics ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 026339572096240
Author(s):  
Nick Turnbull ◽  
Rose Broad
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Policy Framing ◽  
Female Victims ◽  
Policy Problem ◽  
The Past ◽  
Problem Framing ◽  
Labour Exploitation ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Problem Frame ◽  
Historical Rhetoric

Rhetoric is a way to explain policy problem framing by recognising the practical necessity to persuade audiences in contextual situations. Modern slavery and human trafficking is a complex and emotive problem, simplified through rhetorical demands to motivate an audience of supporters. This article analyses rhetoric by 212 UK anti-trafficking and anti-slavery non-government organisations (NGOs) to uncover rhetorical practices and their effects on policy framing, supplemented by archival research to compare past and present anti-slavery oratory. Our data show NGOs use rhetoric to motivate supporters and promote a humanitarian problem frame, in opposition to a state-driven security frame. Findings confirm other research in identifying an emphasis on female victims and on sexual over labour exploitation. Past and present rhetoric are equivalent in terms of liberal, Christian values (ethos) and appeals to pathos through sympathy for victims. Historical rhetoric is distinctive in arguing for the equal human status of slaves, whereas contemporary activists argue victims are denied agency. Contemporary rhetoric represses the question of migration, whereas past rhetoric is more deliberative. Rhetoric varies with the requirements of persuasion related to contextual distance, between unlike humans in the past, but in regard to geographical distance today.

scholarly journals Human Trafficking and Heroic Consumerism

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 51-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Unintended Consequence ◽  
Political Consumerism ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
Ethical Consumerism ◽  
World Vision ◽  
Labour Exploitation ◽  
Modern Slavery

Consumers are the new activists in the fight against modern slavery, with awareness campaigns urging citizens to use their consumer power to demand an end to labour exploitation. The contribution of political, or ethical, consumerism campaigns to the trafficking narrative is examined in this article through an analysis of the characterisation of consumers and corporations in campaigns from SlaveryFootprint.org, Stop the Traffik UK, and World Vision Australia. This article argues that campaigns urging political consumerism depict consumers as the heroic rescuers of enslaved victims, and embed solutions to modern slavery within a culture of unquestioned capitalism. This approach may have the unintended consequence of sidelining victims from the trafficking story as the focus of the narrative becomes the product, rather than the victim, of labour exploitation.

The labour exploitation continuum

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Scott
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Child Labour ◽  
Chattel Slavery ◽  
Labour Exploitation ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
Legal Frameworks ◽  
The Continuum

This chapter outlines the various forms of labour exploitation that exist. At the extreme end of the ‘continuum’ there is worker fatality both at work and through work. There are then extreme forms of non-fatal harm, including: chattel slavery; modern slavery; forced labour; human trafficking; and child labour. All of these extremes have criminal–legal frameworks associated with them that are designed to minimise their prevalence. Often, however, these criminal–legal frameworks are either inadequate or are not enforced, and so extreme forms of exploitation and harm go unpunished. Moreover, a great deal of exploitation and harm, as argued in the introduction, goes on above these criminal–legal baseline definitions. This book, is particularly interested in the labour exploitation continuum that includes, but is certainly not limited to, illegal employer practice.

scholarly journals Framing the Mother Tac: The Racialised, Sexualised and Gendered Politics of Modern Slavery in Australia

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 192
Author(s):  
P. G. Macioti ◽  
Eurydice Aroney ◽  
Calum Bennachie ◽  
Anne E. Fehrenbacher ◽  
Calogero Giametta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Gendered Politics ◽  
Labour Exploitation ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Structural Roots ◽  
Migration Pathways

Centred on the slavery trial “Crown vs. Rungnapha Kanbut” heard in Sydney, New South Wales, between 10 April and 15 May 2019, this article seeks to frame the figure of the “Mother Tac” or the “mother of contract”, also called “mama tac” or “mae tac”—a term used amongst Thai migrants to describe a woman who hosts, collects debts from, and organises work for Thai migrant sex workers in their destination country. It proposes that this largely unexplored figure has come to assume a disproportionate role in the “modern slavery” approach to human trafficking, with its emphasis on absolute victims and individual offenders. The harms suffered by Kanbut’s victims are put into context by referring to existing literature on women accused of trafficking; interviews with Thai migrant sex workers, including Kanbut’s primary victim, and with members from the Australian Federal Police Human Trafficking Unit; and ethnographic field notes. The article unveils how constructions of both victim and offender, as well as definitions of slavery, are racialised, gendered, and sexualised and rely on the victims’ subjective accounts of bounded exploitation. By documenting these and other limitations involved in a criminal justice approach, the authors reveal its shortfalls. For instance, while harsh sentences are meant as a deterrence to others, the complex and structural roots of migrant labour exploitation remain unaffected. This research finds that improved legal migration pathways, the decriminalisation of the sex industry, and improved access to information and support for migrant sex workers are key to reducing heavier forms of labour exploitation, including human trafficking, in the Australian sex industry.

Labour Exploitation in Human Trafficking Law

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Weatherburn
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Trafficking In Persons ◽  
Transnational Organized Crime ◽  
Labour Exploitation ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Agreed Definition

The 2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime provides the first internationally agreed definition of the human trafficking. However, in failings to clarify the exact scope and meaning of exploitation, it has created an ambiguity as to what constitutes exploitation of labour in criminal law. <br>The international definition's preference for an enumerative approach has been replicated in most regional and domestic legal instruments, making it difficult to draw the line between exploitation in terms of violations of labour rights and extreme forms of exploitation such as those listed in the Protocol. <br><br>This book addresses this legal gap by seeking to conceptualise labour exploitation in criminal law.

Practitioner's Insights – The Importance of Strategic Litigation to Fight Human Trafficking and (Labour) Exploitation

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-120
Author(s):  
Suzanne Hoff
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Systemic Change ◽  
Legal Action ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Labour Exploitation ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
High Level ◽  
Strategic Litigation

This article calls for an increased use of strategic litigation in the anti-trafficking field to ensure long-lasting systemic reforms. While generally, the prosecution of human trafficking or related severe forms of labour exploitation, like forced labour, is quite challenging and prosecutions and convictions lag seriously behind, it is argued that strategic litigation, meaning continuing legal action, aimed at achieving rights-related changes in law, policy, practice, and/or public awareness, can help to ensure that justice is delivered to victims, as several landmark cases also show. Efforts to counter human trafficking through strategic litigation by NGOs remain in their infancy, among others as they are resource-intensive and require access to experienced lawyers in high level courts. The author discusses some examples and dilemmas and identifies needs for NGOs to use strategic litigation more often as an effective tool to effectuate systemic change.

Can history improve big bang health reform? Commentary

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 251-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory P. Marchildon
Keyword(s):  
Universal Health Coverage ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Policy Problem ◽  
The Past ◽  
Major Reform ◽  
Universal Health

AbstractAt present, the professional skills of the historian are rarely relied upon when health policies are being formulated. There are numerous reasons for this, one of which is the natural desire of decision-makers to break with the past when enacting big bang policy change. This article identifies the strengths professional historians bring to bear on policy development using the establishment and subsequent reform of universal health coverage as an example. Historians provide pertinent and historically informed context; isolate the forces that have historically allowed for major reform; and separate the truly novel reforms from those attempted or implemented in the past. In addition, the historian’s use of primary sources allows potentially new and highly salient facts to guide the framing of the policy problem and its solution. This paper argues that historians are critical for constructing a viable narrative of the establishment and evolution of universal health coverage policies. The lack of this narrative makes it difficult to achieve an accurate assessment of systemic gaps in coverage and access, and the design or redesign of universal health coverage that can successfully close these gaps.

scholarly journals Victimization, perception of insecurity, and changes in daily routines in Mexico

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
María Elena Ávila ◽  
Belén Martínez-Ferrer ◽  
Alejandro Vera ◽  
Alejandro Bahena ◽  
Gonzalo Musitu
Keyword(s):  
Public Security ◽  
Male Victims ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Protective Measures ◽  
Protection Measures ◽  
Female Victims ◽  
Daily Routines ◽  
The Past ◽  
Everyday Activities ◽  
High Crime

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To analyze the relationships between victimization, perception of insecurity, and changes in routines. METHODS The 8,170 subjects of both sexes (49.9% women and 50.1% men) aged between 12 and 60 years, selected from a proportional stratified sampling, participated in this study. The measuring instrument was an adaptation of the National Survey on Victimization and Perception of Public Security. Chi-square tests were performed. RESULTS The results show significant differences on victimization and sex regarding perception of insecurity, restrictions on everyday activities, and protection measures. 13.1% of those interviewed claimed to have been victims of a crime in the past 12 months. 52.7% of women considered their municipality as unsafe or very unsafe. In the case of men, this percentage was 58.2%. Female victims reported significant restrictions in everyday activities when compared to non-victims. In relation to men, the percentage of victims with a high restriction of activities was higher in male victims than non-victims. In the group of victimized women, the segment of women who opted for increased measures of protection against crime was larger than expected, while those of non-victims who took less protective measures was lower than expected. These same results were observed in the group of men. CONCLUSIONS The experience of victimization implies a greater perception of insecurity. However, the climate of insecurity is widespread in a large number of citizens. Gender differences in a high-crime environment show the importance of investigating in depth the roles of both genders in the perception of insecurity and changes in routines.

Narratives of human trafficking: Defining policy, practice and positioning in a contested field

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Bryony Cornforth-Camden
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Local Responses ◽  
The Past ◽  
Crime Type ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
The Way

<p><b>This research uses narrative criminology to investigate the way the problem of human trafficking is narrated in New Zealand and international settings. It draws on accounts from professionals who are responsible for defining and responding to human trafficking, and reports, policy, and other guiding documents. The main issue driving this research is the contested nature of human trafficking. Human trafficking is a crime type that has been highly politicised resulting in shifts and changes to the way the problem of trafficking has been approached over the past 20 years, with differing trends coming to the fore and dominating trafficking practices at different times. The internationally dominant approaches which emphasise prostitution, harsh criminal responses, and border security have come under criticism for having harmful impacts for migrant workers. This research aims to understand how human trafficking is defined, what discourses are drawn on, and how international narratives may be influencing local responses with the overall aim of identifying new and less problematic ways of conceptualising human trafficking and responding to migrant exploitation.</b></p> <p>This thesis finds that different ways of narrating human trafficking are constitutive of different trafficking realities. Narratives determine the shape the problem takes, who is involved, what the causes and solutions are, who responds, and who are classed as victims and perpetrators. This research concludes that as narratives structure reality and action, in order to change how we deal with certain problems, the way the problem is narrated must also change.</p> <p>The findings of this thesis reflect current challenges in the wider international anti-trafficking field of how to avoid positioning western states and systems as outside of the problem of trafficking, issues with broadening definitions of victimhood, and questions of the role of international versus local bodies in defining problems involving migration and crime. As well as reflecting these current challenges, the findings from this research provide insights for moving forwards by proposing an alternative narrative. This counter narrative is created through drawing together components of narratives identified in this research. It avoids the issues of western exceptionalism, narrow forms of victimhood, and a focus on sex trafficking, and provides a different method for conceptualising migration, exploitation, and harm.</p>

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