SCARPA S. (2004) “Universalism and Regionalism: The Synergy to Fight against Trafficking in Human Beings” HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW p. 4-19. (original) (raw)
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There has been a flurry of legislative action at the international and regional levels to address the global problem of trafficking in persons, which victimises epidemic-proportions of individuals and generates one of the largest proceeds of organised crime. The harmonisation of national legal responses based on minimum standards around prevention, prosecution, and protection as espoused by those international and regional instruments is a prerequisite for effective and wide cooperation among countries of origin, transit, and destination. However, the reluctance of states to lift to the lofty heights of international consensus the contentious policy issues surrounding trafficking, including prostitution, has resulted in the adoption of rather ambiguous anti-trafficking norms and obligations, which allow states to individually determine what constitutes ‘trafficking in persons’ within their own jurisdictions. The subsequent divergence in national responses reveals that legal harmonis...
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This study aims to explore the right of trafficked victims of forced prostitution to remain in destination countries through the application of legal standards and victim protection mechanisms found at the national, regional and international level. The study also highlights the importance of State recognition that trafficked persons are victims of serious human rights abuses. Premised upon the principle that nondiscrimination is a fundamental human right, this paper argues that States need to take steps to safeguard the legal rights and protective needs of trafficking victims regardless of their immigration status or willingness to cooperate with law enforcement officials. The study further considers the feasibility of the position that trafficked persons should have the right to temporary residence and work permits, thereby serving the dual interests of both enabling trafficked persons to recover and rebuild their lives, and enabling the effective prosecution of traffickers by encouraging victims to report to the authorities and to act as witnesses. Also under examination is the thesis that trafficked persons should be given the opportunity to apply for permanent residence permit under national and international laws. According to this position, victims should be allowed to seek and receive asylum if their State of origin is unable or unwilling to offer protection, as provided by the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. Finally, the paper aims to highlight the need to widely acknowledge (and not only in exceptional cases) that trafficking in women can be considered as gender-based persecution and that women victims of trafficking comprise a particular social group, one of the enumerated grounds of the 1951 Convention. We must work from the perspective of those who most need their human rights protected and promoted...By placing human rights at the centre of our analysis, we are forced to consider the needs of the trafficked person-and thereby to confront the poverty, inequality and discrimination which is at the root of the phenomenon..." 1