Resources

This paper tries to give an impetus to further explore the meaning of a human rights based approach in the field of trafficking.

Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights
and Human Trafficking
Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights to the Economic and Social Council.

You can download this 16 page PDF resource above. This resource is in English.

The Annotated Guide to the new UN Trafficking Protocol is a tool to assist advocates in the development of a human rights framework for national anti-trafficking laws and policies. In December 2000, the UN adopted international instruments to fight transnational organized crime and additional agreements or protocols to combat trafficking in persons, smuggling and firearms.

One might think that there would be no objections to reaching out to help trafficked persons. However, as this interview with Jo Doezema of the Network of Sex Work Projects reveals, even well-intended efforts to help one group can sometimes cause harm to another group. In this case, attempts to rescue trafficked girls from brothels can trample on the rights of voluntary sex workers. In addition, some groups inappropriately label all sex workers as trafficked persons, believing mistakenly that no one would willingly enter or stay in this occupation.

This review, rather than addressing the dearth of literature on trafficking prior to 1990, reviewed primarily academic works, research reports, and various organizational publications available on the internet to identify the main parameters of the issue of trafficking and organized crime, as well as suggest some areas in which future research is needed.

This document is a collection of a number of papers presenting a broad overview of current research and data on trafficking in particular regions of the world. Nine of the articles focus on specific regions, and three of the articles explore issues relating to research methods. The papers, in total, give readers an opportunity to not only see the current state of research on global trafficking, but to also consider the suggestions by some authors for areas in need of more study.

You can download this 9 page PDF resource above. This resource is in English.

The global flow of money, goods, culture and ideas has been accompanied by a global flow of people. Yet, with increasing migration levels, also various exploitative and abusive forms of migration have become more prevalent. Attention for the topic of trafficking in migrants has found so far most resonance within human rights organizations, numerous non-governmental and international organizations, bodies and lobby networks, as well as in sensationalist media.

“Demand” is a current buzzword among some anti-trafficking activists, in which they argue that demand for sex work drives trafficking in persons, and that arresting clients who patronize sex workers will reduce the problem. However, demand for sex work is not a predominant driving factor for trafficking, which is driven by poverty, race, and gender inequities.

You can download this 1 page PDF resource above. This resource is in English.

You can download this 9 page PDF resource above. This resource is in English.

This resource looks at Raymond's 'ten reasons' and discusses why each reason is poorly thought out, or missing crucial information.

You can download this seven page PDF resource above.

This resource is in English.

This letter was sent to Michel Sidibe to request a meeting to address concerns about the Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work, as well as to build collaboration and address the need for a working group specifically for HIV and Sex Work.

This Guidance Note addresses the urgent need to provide and increase access to HIV programming for sex workers of all genders, HIV positive or negative. The Millennium Development Goals such as girls education, gender equality and poverty reduction, form the background contextual setting for this document. This Guidance Note will assist UN agencies and UNAIDS country programmes to develop sex work and HIV policy and services that are in line with governments commitments to improve their response to HIV/ AIDS, and with the ultimate objective of moving towards Universal Access to comprehensive prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010.

This Guidance Note has been developed to provide a unified approach by the UNAIDS Cosponsoring agencies to the reduction of HIV vulnerabilities in the context of sex work, where sex workers are defined as adults, 18 years and over. Its specific focus is the urgent need to provide access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for all sex workers, and to provide life choices and occupational alternatives to sex work, including for sex workers living with HIV.