Is It Time to Open a Conversation About a New United Nations Treaty to Fight Human Trafficking That Focuses on Victim Protection and Human Rights?

Abstract

This chapter makes the case for negotiating a new UN Treaty on Human Trafficking that takes account of accumulated knowledge and good practice, with a primary theoretical underpinning of human dignity and human rights rather than crime and immigration control. An updated Treaty could provide opportunities to enable legal changes that enhance the scope for securing more convictions, for changing the dynamics of the law to free more people from human trafficking and slavery-like conditions. It could provide the space for more precise legal definitions for all forms of human trafficking, slavery, or servitude, adding newer forms explicitly. Decided cases could influence these more precise legal definitions from domestic, regional, and international courts. For instance, more inclusive/progressive legal meanings of “vulnerability,” “coercion,” and “exploitation” that more accurately reflect our more nuanced understanding of how victims become vulnerable, how they are recruited, held, and controlled, and the different methods employed to exploit them. Actions to help potential and actual victims/survivors exit vulnerable situations should equally be part of any new Treaty that uphold, respect, and protect their dignity.