Global Solutions? Efforts, Challenges and Contradictions of Global Anti-Trafficking Policy

Recent decades have witnessed the growth of global awareness and policy formulation in relation to social problem of human trafficking. With the passage of the Palermo Protocol aimed at preventing, suppressing, and punishing human trafficking in 2000, many governments have participated in its ratification as well as establishment of national anti-trafficking policies. The range of these policies includes forms of criminalization of human trafficking, prevention campaigns, and protection and rehabilitation measures. Other actors of these global anti-trafficking policy include international governmental organizations (e.g., International Organization for Migration, Interpol), and international and local nongovernmental organizations (e.g., Anti-Slavery International, ECPAT – End Child Prostitution and Trafficking, and others). This paper analyzes the shifting international context in which global anti-trafficking policy is taking place. By using several cases (Russia & Ukraine, USA, Turkey, and others), the paper discusses persistent challenges in local/global interactions within global anti-trafficking policy (e.g., adoption and negotiation of international protocols, standards, and procedures; translations of laws; differences in cultural contexts; power issues in geopolitical context, etc.). The focus of the paper is on three institutional levels – governments, international organizations, and local nongovernmental organizations.