Looking Back, Looking Forward-the UN Trafficking Protocol at 20, Ep. 7: Trafficking & Women's Rights
Channel: GAATW IS
Date: 2020-12-22

In 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (UN Trafficking Protocol). The Protocol obliged states to criminalise human trafficking, prosecute traffickers, and assist victims. Twenty years later, it is one of the most ratified UN instruments and human trafficking is a major issue of international concern and activism. However, it has also attracted considerable criticism for leading to serious human rights violations of trafficked persons and other vulnerable groups. 

In 2020, to mark the 20th anniversary of the Protocol, the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women partnered with Sharmila Parmanand to lead a series of conversations about the Protocol and anti-trafficking work more broadly, their successes and failures, and opportunities for improvement.

In this episode, we speak with Ishita Dutta from the NGO International Women's Rights Action Watch - Asia Pacific. Ishita speaks about the challenges for women's rights activists to engage with state institutions and what women's rights advocacy should look like. She compares states' obligations to address human trafficking under the Trafficking Protocol to those under the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and reflects on the strengths and weaknesses of the new CEDAW General Recommendation on human trafficking.