Susan York Kneebone

Trafficking in Women and Forced Migration: Moving Victims Across the Border of Crime into the Domain of Human Rights

Abstract The response to the trafficking of women is primarily dominated by the discourse of criminal law both internationally and nationally. By contrast, in the refugee law context, women are constructed as victims in a ‘culturally relative’, patriarchal society. This paper explores the tensions between these constructs and the practical responses to protecting trafficked women. Taking Australias policy response to the trafficking of women in the Asia-Pacific region as an example, the paper describes how the trafficking/smuggling distinction is blurred by constructing trafficked women both as victims/witnesses and as free agents rather than as rights bearing individuals. This profoundly affects the way that government agencies and decision-makers respond to the issues.

Transnational crime and human rights : responses to human trafficking in the Greater Mekong Subregion

1. The Discourse on Trafficking: Transnational Criminal Justice and Human Rights 2. Anti-Trafficking Discourses and International Migration: the Origins 3. The Greater Mekong Subregion: Discourses and Regional Responses in the 1990s 4. Implementing the Trafficking Protocol in the Greater Mekong Subregion: the Trafficking Definition 5. Prevention and Cooperation in the Greater Mekong Subregion: Compliance, Legitimacy and Norm Re-Enactment 6. Protection of victims of trafficking: Criminal Justice and Human Rights in the Greater Mekong Subregion 7. Conclusion

AIDS assassins : Australian media’s portrayal of HIV-positive refugees who deliberately infect others

The media representations of refugees who are HIV-positive often revolve around criminal transmission cases. This study examines the approach the Australian mass media have taken toward the case of two men from refugee backgrounds and how this stigmatizing language is unhelpful in discussions of HIV. An extensive search of the Factiva database was undertaken for all newspaper articles in the major dailies that mentioned “HIV,” “AIDS,” and “refugee” between 2002 and 2008. Analysis was guided by several approaches to media analysis in an attempt to understand the representations of HIV-positive refugees. When analyzing the media articles of criminal cases relating to HIV we found that refugees who are HIV-positive were portrayed in a negative fashion, with the concept of “otherness” prominent throughout most newspaper media reports. Considering this is the main source of information for most people concerning HIV, this representation carries the potential to lead to further stigma and discrimination to both people living with HIV and refugees.

Comparative regional protection frameworks for refugees: Norms and norm entrepreneurs

This article analyses the strengths and limits of regional approaches to refugee protection. It compares three regions; namely the EU, Latin America and the Southeast Asian (SEA) region. It refers to two refugee protection crises to highlight the importance of regional approaches to refugee protection: namely the Rohingya “boat people” crisis which unfolded in the Indian Ocean in May 2015 and the advance of Syrian refugees towards Europe which escalated from the same period. It identifies the norms of refugee protection which have been “internalised” in the three regional contexts and contextualises the regional processes. It argues for the importance of looking closely at the underlying norms, and the identities and activities of the relevant “norm entrepreneurs” at the regional level. It concludes that regional solutions for refugee protection will be most effective when the norms have been solidly embedded in legal systems and institutions.

Introduction Migrant Workers Between States: In Search of Exit and Integration Strategies in South East Asia

Abstract This Introduction analyses the rights of migrant workers in Southeast Asia according to the obligations of sending and receiving states as provided in the 2007 ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and the Promotion of Rights of Migrant Workers. The implementation of such rights is discussed at three levels of policy: the national, bilateral and multilateral. Gaps in strategies relating to exit and integration of migrant workers are identified. It is argued that migrant workers are situated between the sending and receiving states, but that it is unclear to which they can turn for protection.

The rights of strangers: refugees, citizenship and nationality

In this paper I argue that the Australian courts have given the non-refoulement obligation in art 33 of the Geneva Refugee Convention 1951 (the Convention) a minimalist interpretation which fails to take account of the underlying principle requiring states to provide ‘effective nationality’ to asylum seekers. I describe how nationality is used as an exclusive rather than inclusive concept in the interpretation of the Convention. This interpretation sanctions the use of a safe third country principle and the use of temporary protection for asylum seekers. The effect of this is that the status of many asylum seekers is in limbo. I critique a line of cases including Minister for Immigration v Thiyagarajah, that have arisen from interpretation of art 1E of the Convention to demonstrate my argument.

Combating Transnational Crime in the Greater Mekong Subregion: The Cases of Laos and Cambodia

As in other regions of the globe, attention to trafficking issues in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (‘GMS’) began with a gendered focus on women and children and exploitation in the sex industry at the end of the last decade. And as in other regions, legal responses to trafficking issues quickly became framed in a predominantly criminal justice and anti-immigration discourse when countries in the region signed up to the 2000 United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (‘CTOC framework’) including the Trafficking Protocol, which contains the three ‘Ps’: Prevention, Prosecution and Protection. In this chapter, taking the responses of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (‘Lao PDR’) and the Kingdom of Cambodia (‘Cambodia’) as case studies of two countries for trafficking within the GMS, we highlight lessons about the strengths and limits of criminal justice and anti-immigration responses to trafficking to this profoundly human problem. Additionally, the comparison of the Lao PDR and Cambodia demonstrates the importance of stable institutions, and of what is loosely known as ‘the rule of law’, for the success of such responses. This has implications for international programs and assistance to such countries. In this chapter we show that to date the predominant response to trafficking in the Lao PDR and Cambodia has focused upon Prevention and law enforcement measures, including Prosecutions. The third ‘P’, namely Protection, has received the least attention in anti-trafficking measures. This is hardly surprising, given the limited resources available to combat the trafficking problem. But we argue that a victim-centered approach is needed in order to understand the nature of trafficking in the GMS and to fight against exploitation of individuals. We begin by explaining the patterns of movements that involve trafficking from and within the Lao PDR and Cambodia. We then describe national legal and criminal justice responses, and conclude with an evaluation of such responses in light of the problem we have described.