Focus on Human Trafficking

The UN General Assembly just adopted by resolution a Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons. The official version of the resolution is not yet available but you can view the draft text by going to the official document system of the UN (ODS), and entering the document symbol A/64/L.64 in the relevant field of the simple search box. The plan of action is included as the annex.

One of the strategies called for in the plan is for member states to "Conduct research and collect suitably disaggregated data that would enable proper analysis of the nature and extent of trafficking in persons." Human trafficking has been a growing focus of research, as witnessed by the recent publication of two special issues in the following journals:

International Migration, vol. 48, no. 4 (August 2010) [contents]
- Articles include "Untold Stories: Biases and Selection Effects in Research with Victims of Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation," "Trafficking in Persons and Development: Towards Greater Policy Coherence," "Biopolitical Management, Economic Calculation and 'Trafficked Women'," "Economics of Human Trafficking," "Trafficking and Contract Migrant Workers in the Middle East," and "Minors Travelling Alone: A Risk Group for Human Trafficking?."

Women and Criminal Justice, vol. 20, nos. 1&2 (2010) [contents]
- Articles include "Human Trafficking: The Local Becomes Global," "International News Coverage of Human Trafficking Arrests and Prosecutions: A Content Analysis," "Measures Against Human Trafficking in Japan," "Taking Trafficking to Court," "Victims of Sex Trafficking in Turkey: Characteristics, Motivations, and Dynamics," "Pimp Control and Violence: Domestic Sex Trafficking of Chicago Women and Girls," "Understanding the Complexities of Human Trafficking and Child Sexual Exploitation: The Case of Southeast Asia," "T Visas: Prosecution Tool or Humanitarian Response?," "Doors Wide Shut: Barriers to the Successful Delivery of Victim Services for Domestically Trafficked Minors in a Southern U.S. Metropolitan Area," "Methodological and Ethical Challenges to Conducting Human Trafficking Studies: A Case Study of Korean Trafficking and Smuggling for Sexual Exploitation to the United States," and "Human Sex Trafficking: The Global Becomes Local."

Note: The latter set of articles will be published in book form by Routledge in October 2010.

Undertaking appropriate and methodologically sound research remains a challenge in this subject area, as highlighted recently in this blog post, "South African trafficking report with no methodology: is this an epidemic?" The report referred to is "Tsireledzani: understanding the dimensions of human trafficking in southern Africa" and the critique is "Of Nigerians, albinos, satanists and anecdotes: A critical review of the HSRC report on human trafficking."

Tagged Publications and Periodicals.