Trafficking in Workers: The Human Rights Paradigm to Trafficking in Persons and the Challenge of Labor Rights
Abstract
The past decade witnessed growing interest in the legal category of human trafficking in international and national law. Anti-trafficking laws and policies that proliferate around the globe are influenced predominantly by a transnational crime framework, and a human rights framework to trafficking. Surprisingly, although human trafficking is defined in international instruments as an issue of labor exploitation, anti-trafficking policies are not informed by a labor rights framework. The article argues that the language and methods of human rights do not suffice to effectively counter human trafficking, and that for anti-trafficking efforts to become effective trafficking needs to be understood predominantly as an issue of economic labor market exploitation, that should therefore be dealt with using the tools of labor and employment rights. The article explores the reasons for the absence of a labor framework to anti-trafficking regimes, and argues that there is a conceptual tension between labor rights and human rights concerning trafficking. The two frameworks pursue different goals, operate under different assumptions, and use different legal strategies to bring about change. The deep tension between the human rights and labor rights frameworks suggests that in order to incorporate a labor framework into the current human rights framework to anti-trafficking significant adjustments to the current regime – both discursive and structural – are required.