In 1998, the International Human Rights Law Institute (IHRLI) began examining the trafficking of women and children for purposes of sexual exploitation within a human rights framework. Its research targeted international reports on trafficking by various United Nations bodies and Special Rapporteurs as well as existing national laws. A review of these efforts and a study of the publicly available literature on the subject suggested that a global approach was needed for an appropriate understanding of the phenomenon that could take into account various cultural, economic, and geographic differences. IHRLI’s global research perspective highlighted the common elements of this practice to modern day slavery and its consequences for every nation. It also underscored the need to establish and support a worldwide response regime to this human rights, social, and criminal problem.
Several important steps were taken in recent years to build
momentum for an international response. The international community
ratified the United Nations Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime (2000), which entered into force on September 29,
2003, and its supplemental Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (2000), which
entered into force December 25, 2003. In 2002, the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a set of universally
applicable Recommended Principles and Guidelines for Human Rights
and Human Trafficking.
And the United States government as a result
of recent legislation has begun collecting information and reports on
the status of trafficking around the globe and, in 2003, the State
Department sponsored a conference that brought delegates from 120
nations to Washington, DC, to discuss effective strategies to combat
sex trafficking. As these developments continue, research on the
particular needs of countries and regions will become more important
to ensuring the effectiveness of international efforts.
In 2000, IHRLI began to focus its efforts more specifically on
Latin America and the Caribbean, given its long standing involvement
in human rights work in the region and the general lack of information
on human trafficking in that context.
Due to the clandestine and criminal nature of the phenomenon,
as well as inadequate monitoring by law enforcement agencies and
public confusion about the nature of the problem, it was impossible to
obtain accurate quantitative data on the subject. In fact, available data
was purely speculative and based largely on extrapolations. The
existing regional literature, as in the general global case, demonstrated
that most of what was known about sex trafficking was based on
anecdotal reports in the media and derived from certain human rights
organizations, particularly those that assist victims.
IHRLI, therefore, developed an innovative methodology to
study the practice of sex trafficking that would elicit a more reliable
level of anecdotal data and combine with other data and information to
achieve a richer and more nuanced assessment of patterns of conduct
and public policy responses. IHRLI also sought a method that would
be both able to record the cultural, linguistic, historical, economic, and
social patterns that may figure into the realities of sex trafficking as
they may exist in the region.
The resultant methodology, which is explained in detail within
this report, is explorative. It includes broad public consultation and
field investigation aimed at encouraging a discussion of definitions and
perspectives on trafficking considering the important conceptual
differences between smuggling and trafficking, the challenges of
defining "sexual exploitation", and the varying standards of treatment
for women and children. Field investigations were aimed at providing
a qualitative review of information and an explanation of why
quantitative data may or may not be available. By clearly identifying
and defining the problem, IHRLI hoped to facilitate the collection of
increasingly accurate information about the nature and extent of the
problem.
Also contributing to the methodological framework were the
more policy oriented aims of the project: to heighten government
attention to this phenomenon, increase public awareness, and contribute
to the public and private debate on the types of policies needed to
prevent and suppress trafficking without further harming victims. By
focusing greater attention on the plight of victims, IHRLI hoped that
more would be done by governments and international organizations to
reduce the level and number of victims and to provide them with
greater material and human support.