The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) has been working on issues associated with human trafficking since 1994. While trafficking has always been a core component of our work, we are well aware of the negative and counter-productive effects that anti-trafficking interventions frequently produce. And these effects have caused us to question whether it is better strategically to be on the inside, outside or somewhere in between – the main thematic focus of this feature – many times.
GAATW’s members made this a key question at our tenth anniversary meeting in 2004. This was a major event in the history of our organisation, with more than 200 participants from 42 countries around the world. We welcomed representatives from our member and partner organisations, some of our donors, organised sex workers and domestic workers, academics, colleagues from the UN including the first special rapporteur on trafficking, and individual experts who had worked with GAATW since its inception. It was a forum for honest discussion, respectful debate, and strategic planning for the alliance.
We knew that it would not be easy to arrive at a consensus in such a diverse gathering. However, we were not prepared for the divide which emerged amongst people who otherwise agreed with each other on many core issues. Colleagues were in solidarity with sex workers and working-class migrants. They were worried that the anti-trafficking framework was being used to violate the rights of migrants and sex workers. They agreed that policies should be based on evidence. They were unanimous in their position that states must move away from a protectionist approach towards women that curtails their right to mobility and self-determination and focus on protecting their rights instead.
