Human trafficking and media myths: federal funding, communication strategies, and Canadian anti-trafficking programs

Abstract

This article looks at debates over human trafficking by considering the linkages between federal funding, media myths, and non-governmental organization (NGO) activities and by examining the textual and visual content of NGO websites. By highlighting the ways in which NGOs echo government communication strategies, we argue that these debates are constrained not only by the current political terrain, but also by an ingrained and problematic anti-trafficking discourse. Further, we interrogate the language and emotive appeals of NGOs that receive federal funding for anti-trafficking programming through the exploration of counter-discourses developed by both scholars and independent organizations that are critical of dominant narratives and policies. We conclude by suggesting that alternative narratives and media strategies are needed for the development of more nuanced and authentic conceptions of labour, migration, and sex work

The Impacts of Gender-Related Factors on the Adoption of Anti-Human Trafficking Laws in Sub-Saharan African Countries

“…Relying on the traditional feminist networks (Johnson, 2009; Mohanty, 2003; Tripp, 2006), women’s INGOs are more likely to exert their power on policy-making processes through lobbying in the international area (Weiss & Gordenker, 1996). There is some evidence to support the conducive role of women’s INGOs on the adoption of anti-human trafficking laws outside of the African context: post-Soviet region (Dean, 2016), Asia and Europe (Limoncelli, 2016), and North America (De Shalit et al, 2014; Musto, 2008).…”

Courting Victims: Exploring the Legal Framing of Exploitation in Human Trafficking Cases

“…As noted, given that most prosecutions involve cases of sex trafficking with female victim-complainants and male accused, there is an inherently gendered component to the ways trafficking is conceptualized, which must be understood in conjunction with how women in the sex trade are discursively framed (Bernstein 2019; Durisin and Heynen 2015; De Shalit, Heynen, and van der Meulen 2014). Indeed, the standards of reasonableness and objectivity obfuscate how law actively constructs the concept of exploitation.…”

Anti-trafficking saviors: Celebrity, slavery, and branded activism

“…Instead, marketing and branding strategies, exemplified by apparel sales and online participatory activism, prompt us to claim an abolitionist subjectivity. Anti-trafficking campaign materials are littered with images of chains and other signifiers of bondage ( De Shalit, Heynen, and van der Meulen, 2014 ). The Demi & Ashton Foundation (n.d.) website we encountered earlier provides one example; another is the logo of Free the Slaves (n.d.) , a fist in the shape of an opened lock that matches their slogans for action which implore us to “Open the lock.…”