Based on long-term ethnographic research, including documentary research, qualitative interviews and observations made at a Portuguese shelter for “sex trafficked women,” this paper explores the counter-trafficking apparatus questioning who benefits from it. The discussion explores the contrasts between an institutional commitment to constructing this apparatus and the actuality of procedural efforts purporting to support “trafficking victims.” The author argues that the higher goal of building a countertrafficking apparatus — in itself a political objective — limits the rights of “victims,” making processes that claim to be part of their protection de facto neo-liberal anti-political exercises in reenforcing bureaucratic state power.
This report examines how states and localities across the country—both red and blue, with and without a long history of labour-protection regimes—are developing innovative strategies to enforce labour standards, and to do so more strategically. M...Read More
Out of the shadows: Shining light on the response to child sexual abuse and exploitation, a 60-country benchmarking index, examines how countries are responding to the threat of sexual violence against children. It explores the environment in whic...Read More
Hivos commissioned an assessment in April 2020 to establish the impact of Covid-19 on women workers in the horticulture sector. This was assessed with special focus on their current employment status, living conditions, shifts in their household exp...Read More
“The 2021 Survivor Alliance World Congress marked a pivotal moment for survivor leadership in the international fight against modern-day slavery and human trafficking. For the first time, survivor leaders outnumbered our allied colleagues as plann...Read More
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