Natalia Szablewska

Anti-Trafficking (ILL-)Efforts The Legal Regulation of Women’s Bodies and Relationships in Cambodia

Global imaginations on human trafficking have been captured by a robust mythology that constructs the consenting Third World sex worker as simply a victim of trafficking for sexual exploitation. This anti-trafficking discourse has influenced Cambodia’s legal reform, which has resulted in an increase of abuse against sex workers and has denied Cambodian women their right to marry foreign men. Despite evidence indicating the diversity of the sex industry and its correlation to different levels of sex workers’ autonomy, decision-makers have failed to revise the anti-trafficking framework to reflect the reality of the divergent lives of women who engage in sex as a livelihood.

Social justice within transitional justice: the case of human trafficking and sex-work in Cambodia and Myanmar

Most post-conflict societies are defined by poverty, unemployment, social injustice and gender inequality, making them an ideal environment for trafficking in human beings (THB) to flourish. Against this backdrop, the necessity for transitional justice processes to address THB and its underlying causes has been recognised. Trafficking for sexual exploitation in particular has received global attention and has triggered heated debates, and while it has been met by significant policy reform at the global, regional and national levels such initiatives have often proven to have dangerous consequences for women’s rights. At the forefront of THB initiatives are the women who work in the sex industry. Using Cambodia and Myanmar as case studies, we demonstrate in this chapter how transitional justice mechanisms and processes can facilitate women’s empowerment by engaging better with counter-trafficking efforts. We call for the field of transitional justice to expand its mandate beyond formal mechanisms to encompass efforts that aim to achieve durable peace by addressing deep-rooted gender inequalities leading to widespread human rights abuses. Bringing THB within the transitional justice discourse can facilitate creating policy initiatives that do not occur at the expense of undermining the already fragile status and position of women in transitional societies.

The Nexus Between Sex-Work and Women’s Empowerment in the Context of Transitional Societies of Southeast Asia

In this chapter we attempt to create a dialogical space exploring the need for transitional justice processes to engage in development issues by examining the meaning of women’s empowerment within the sex-work discourse in transitional societies. Drawing on sex workers’ narratives in Southeast Asia we discuss the diversity of the sex industry and the motivations to enter into it. Inclusion of sex workers’ narratives in the debate becomes instrumental in helping to appreciate the complexity of pathways of women’s empowerment in transitional societies by highlighting how women’s sexual relationships define and affect women’s political, social and economic empowerment. By focusing on sex-work within the empowerment discourse we attempt to illustrate the dangers of generalisations and the negative impact of development and transitional justice mechanisms that lack sensitivity to the local context. We argue that for wider social transformative changes to take place in transitional societies women’s rights must not merely be acknowledged, but rather transitional processes and mechanisms must prioritise the facilitation of empowerment of the vulnerable, including women and the particular groups within.

Anti-human trafficking campaigns : a systematic literature review

This study aims to systematically identify and review studies on anti-human trafficking campaigns published in peer-reviewed journals to determine the extent to which such campaigns have been critically and rigorously evaluated so as to guide future policies and practice in this area and to identify the main characteristics, problems, and challenges associated with the campaigns in the identified studies. This systematic literature review identified 16 studies that have assessed anti-human trafficking campaigns but found that none of these included outcome, process, or impact evaluations. As identified in our study, anti-human trafficking campaigns tend to rely on advertising techniques to target vulnerable groups and the wider public, with the primary aim of informing and educating. Further, a thematic analysis of the studies identified problems in eight areas that require attention in the future development of anti-human trafficking campaigns: stereotyping, compounding human trafficking with migration, conflating prostitution with human trafficking, sexualization/erotization of women, victimization, role of anti-human trafficking organizations, data shortcomings, and oversimplification of human trafficking. Studies presenting the results of evaluations of social marketing anti-human trafficking campaigns are urgently needed to show which social marketing tools work and to provide an evidence base for future campaigns.

Social marketing targeting Indigenous peoples: a systematic review

Social marketing is a discipline focused on the application of marketing principles to induce socially desirable behaviour change. As social marketing remains one of the main behaviour change approaches pursued by governments and international organisations, it is important to consider its use in relation to vulnerable groups that are particularly exposed to discriminatory practices, marginalisation, exclusion and destitution. The aim of this systematic review is to identify the extent to which Andreasens (2002) six social marketing benchmark criteria were reported in social marketing interventions targeting Indigenous peoples. A total of 20 articles covering 13 social marketing interventions were identified for review. Although none of the interventions gave evidence that they addressed all six of the benchmark criteria, they appear to have been effective in challenging some of the issues faced by Indigenous peoples. However, the criteria of segmentation, exchange and competition remain underused in the identified interventions. Social marketing interventions targeting Indigenous peoples tend to rely on television and radio advertising, showing potential for more use of product, place and price to influence, facilitate and maintain socially desirable behaviour change.

Current issues in transitional justice : towards a more holistic approach

This volume is an inter-disciplinary scholarly resource bringing together contributions from writers, experienced academics and practitioners working in fields such as human rights, humanitarian law, public policy, psychology, cultural and peace studies, and earth jurisprudence. This collection of essays presents the most up to date knowledge and status of the field of transitional justice, and also highlights the emerging debates in this area, which are often overseen and underdeveloped in the literature. The volume provides a wide coverage of the arguments relating to controversial issues emanating from different regions of the world. The book is divided into four parts which groups different aspects of the problems and issues facing transitional justice as a field, and its processes and mechanisms more specifically. Part I concentrates on the traditional means and methods of dealing with past gross abuses of power and political violence. In this section, the authors also expand and often challenge the ways that these processes and mechanisms are conceptualised and introduced. Part II provides a forum for the contributors to share their first hand experiences of how traditional and customary mechanisms of achieving justice can be effectively utilised. Part III includes a collection of essays which challenges existing transitional justice models and provides new lenses to examine the formal and traditional processes and mechanisms. It aims to expose insufficiencies and some of the inherent practical and jurisprudential problems facing the field. Finally, Part IV, looks to the future by examining what remedies can be available today for abuses of rights of the future generations and those who have no standing to claim their rights, such as the environment. Since the late 1980s massive political and legal transformations have taken place in Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and Southern Africa, which has challenged many of the presumptions of legal and political foundations of a nation-state including the questions of how to build a nation-state in divided societies or the role of law in democracy building in the face of such massive societal changes driven by a holistic mix of players. This process is by no means over as one can judge but the most current ‘Arab Spring’ or even the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ type of movements across the world, including in the developed states. Participators of these events call for their rights to be upheld and protected; some others lobby for new rights to be recognised and realised. These worldwide phenomena challenge the existing international (legal and political) system and call for some novel and innovative means by which the new challenges can be addressed. Despite the vastness of research done on the subject matter this monograph suggests an innovative, if not challenging, way of utilising what the field of transitional justice has acquired in the process of examining how societies deal with past abuses to meet victims’ legitimate expectations of justice, truth and reparation. This manuscript will look to expand the field even further by suggesting that there are emerging fields which will, and in some instances already have, influenced the way we think about human rights in a global context. It will set forth new dimensions in conceptualising human rights and how their current and future instances of abuse can be addressed. This is a call to look ahead and into the future by trying to define the inadequacies of the current international system in recognising emerging trends. Understanding the world-wide developments, even if not yet fully legally defined, contributes to the work on combating impunity and ensuring respect for victims’ rights. As it is widely accepted that societies have different means of dealing with past (human) rights abuses thus it would be sensible to suggest that widening understanding of the relationship and cross-reference between the different fields and branches of international legal and political scholarship (all which affect human rights field) should also be encouraged. The Changing International Landscape of Transitional Justice: Emerging Trends and Issues will be a scholarly resource bringing together current knowledge and debates in the field and developing the many areas that are currently underdeveloped in the literature. The book will provide full coverage of the arguments relating to hot topics and controversial issues (e.g. hybrid threats, ecocide, ecological jurisprudence, case studies by practitioners from the human rights field). The invited contributors are all experienced academic writers and practitioners in their respective areas of expertise (law, politics, public policy, cultural studies).

Current Issues and Future Challenges in Transitional Justice

This chapter reflects upon the current status and the potential for the field of transitional justice, its theoretical aspects and practical application, to respond to the new and emerging challenges and threats of global significance. We propose a new understanding and approach to transitional justice, which is more responsive to the different types of transitions and conflicts by prescribing varied forms of justice through the different processes and mechanisms, formal and customary. Despite recognising the dangers and disadvantages of over-expanding the field, in order to accommodate the changing needs and experiences of the notion of transitional justice globally there is a necessity to open up new dimensions for exponential development of the field. We conclude with an observation that the notion and concept of transitional justice will continue to change and evolve as the needs of global society for achieving justice develop along new lines of conflicts and future global challenges.