Human Trafficking: Round-up of New Resources

Human Trafficking: A Global Perspective is a forthcoming title from Cambridge University Press. (See also Amazon's description.) The author, Louise Shelley, "examines all forms of human trafficking globally, revealing the operations of the trafficking business and the nature of the traffickers themselves. Using a historical and comparative perspective, it demonstrates that there is more than one business model of human trafficking and that there are enormous variations in human trafficking in different regions of the world."

Another new book focuses more particularly on Europe: Human Trafficking in Europe: Character, Causes and Consequences, edited by Gillian Wylie and Penelope McRedmond and published by Palgrave Macmillan. It presents "[c]ase studies from around Europe [to] address the knowledge gaps surrounding trafficking, while at the same time raising critical questions about the responses of states and NGOs to the existence of trafficking."

An upcoming symposium, "New Approaches in Preventing Human Trafficking: Integrating the European Knowledge, Brussels, 16-17 November 2010," will attempt to harness both knowledge and experience to address human trafficking in Europe. Hosted by the Centre for Parliamentary Studies, its aim is to "encourage greater political will, facilitate policy discussion and explore comprehensive and integrated solutions to fighting the ‘hidden’ crime of human trafficking." Register by 17 September 2010 to receive the early booking rate.

Two recent papers analyze the various ways different camps have tried to frame the issue of human trafficking. "The Role of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Contemporary Anti-Trafficking Discourse" (August 2010) considers the use of the trans-Atlantic slave trade as an analogy for the current phenomenon, while "Rescuing Trafficking from Ideological Capture: Prostitution Reform and Anti-Trafficking Law and Policy" (posted September 2010) "offers a historical account and critical assessment of the prostitution-reform debates' considerable influence on anti-trafficking law and policy development over the last decade" with the express desire of exposing "the difficulties of translating ideology - understood here as closely held moral and ethical beliefs - into effective governance strategies." (Note: The latter article was published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, vol. 158, no. 6, May 2010, whose special issue on human trafficking is now available in full-text.)

Global governance strategies in the human trafficking context are explored in two articles in the current issue of Refugee Survey Quarterly (vol. 29, no. 1, 2010), namely "Global Governance and International Migration: A Case Study of Trafficking of Human Beings" and "The Refugee–Trafficking Nexus: Making Good (The) Connections."

Another type of nexus, or interlinkages among ethnic/religious divides, types of conflict, the presence of IDPs/refugees, and incidences of trafficking, is empirically investigated in "Ethnic Fragmentation, Conflict, Displaced Persons and Human Trafficking: An Empirical Analysis" (August 2010), while "Left Out in the Cold: Trafficking Victims, Gender and Misinterpretation of the Refugee Convention’s 'Nexus' Requirement" (Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, vol. 16, no. 2, 2010) presents a legal analysis of the "nexus" requirement in the Refugee Convention, i.e., to qualify for asylum, a trafficking victim must demonstrate "that she was persecuted for reasons of a Convention ground, such as her race or her membership in a particular social group."

The author of a recent thesis, A Study of the Protection Afforded to Persons at Risk of Trafficking by Article 1A(2) of the Geneva Convention Regarding the Status of Refugees (1951) as Amended by the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (1967) (Oct. 2009), also considers protection for trafficking victims under the Refugee Convention and concludes that it "may sometimes prove more fruitful to claim complementary protection under the European Union Refugee Qualification Directive or Art. 3 European Convention of Human Rights."

Alternatively, protection may now be afforded under Art. 4 of the ECHR after a recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights. The case is assessed in the Human Rights Law Review article, "Rantsev v Cyprus and Russia: The European Court of Human Rights and Trafficking as Slavery."

Tagged Publications and Events & Opportunities.