International legal instruments are supposed to provide clarity and precision regarding key concepts, yet they are frequently silent or unhelpful when it comes to many of the concepts that are central to our everyday lives. Exploitation is one such idea. It is a term frequently invoked but rarely defined, apart from, that is, in the UN’s Palermo Protocol.
In defining ‘human trafficking’, article three of the protocol states that trafficking comprises:
Actions, i.e. “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of persons”;
Means/methods, i.e. “the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person”;
Ends, i.e. “exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude, or the removal of organs.”
This definition may initially seem straight-forward, but in practice it leads to much contention and confusion. For example, the expression “prostitution of others” or “other forms of sexual exploitation” are used by many state parties to continue to criminalise all sex work. But the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) has long warned of “the dangers of conflating trafficking with sex work”, which many organisations and states do on the assumption that sex work is inherently exploitative. This conflation leads to the criminalisation of sex work, often in the name of the Palermo Protocol, and in turn provides justification for all kinds of arbitrary and tyrannous ‘raids’ and related enforcement measures. Despite being justified in humanitarian terms, these anti-trafficking interventions routinely deny dignity, rights, and freedom of work to people who engage in voluntary sex work. This especially true for migrant sex workers.
