Law Commons^™

Human Rights And Human Trafficking: Quagmire Or Firm Ground? A Response To James Hathaway, Anne T. Gallagher

Anne T Gallagher

In a Fall 2008 article published in the Virginia Journal of International Law, James Hathaway questions whether the elimination of trafficking is a worthy objective and an appropriate focus for international law. Specifically he charges that while the elimination of trafficking is billed as the answer to contemporary slavery, the focus on trafficking has unfairly 'privileged' a small group of exploited individuals and diluted efforts that could have been better spent addressing the much broader problem of human enslavement. Hathaway also asserts that those human rights advocates and practitioners engaged on the issue of trafficking have been hoodwinked by preferred …