“Praise Be, Prostitutes as the Women We Are not.” White Slavery and Human Trafficking – an Intersectional Analysis

The History of the Global Anti-Human Trafficking Agenda, with a Focus on Prostitution and Sexual Exploitation

10.1093/oso/9780192845702.003.0012 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 151-161

Author(s):

Heli Askola

Keyword(s):

Human Trafficking ◽

Sexual Exploitation ◽

Early History ◽

White Slavery ◽

Government Organizations ◽

Trafficking In Women ◽

Recent Developments ◽

History Of ◽

Women And Children ◽

International Instruments

Heli Askola examines the early history of international instruments for the suppression of the trafficking in women and children involved in so called ‘white slavery’ as precursors to the more recent developments relating to human trafficking. She challenges the notion of the linear progression in the development of the law and illustrates that the contests between various NGOs and government organizations meant that this development was neither smooth nor uncontested.

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Nation, Internationalism, and the Policies against Trafficking in Girls and Women after the Fall of the Habsburg Empire

Remaking Central Europe ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198854685.003.0012 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 259-282

Author(s):

Martina Steer

Keyword(s):

Human Trafficking ◽

New World ◽

World Order ◽

League Of Nations ◽

Domestic Institutions ◽

New World Order ◽

Habsburg Empire ◽

Habsburg Monarchy ◽

White Slavery ◽

Democratic State

Interwar Poland inherited the problem of prostitution and human trafficking from its three predecessor states, above all from the Habsburg Monarchy. It soon came into the focus of interest of the League of Nations’ anti-trafficking agencies. Exploring the interaction between the recently acquired national sovereignty of post-Habsburg Poland and the new world order with the League of Nations as its pivotal force is tantamount to understanding how a nation state tried to tackle a transnational problem such as ‘white slavery’, as well as how it struggled with commitments resulting from its new position as a sovereign actor in interwar international politics. This chapter investigates governmental and non-governmental activities against prostitution and human trafficking in Poland, along with the government’s stance on the League’s recommendations. Whereas prewar international Jewish activities to save women from prostitution came to an end, domestic institutions seized opportunities provided by a democratic state and took their place.

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16. Human Trafficking

Human Rights: Politics and Practice ◽

10.1093/hepl/9780198708766.003.0017 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Andrea M. Bertone

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Human Trafficking ◽

Western Europe ◽

Slave Trade ◽

The United States ◽

Late Nineteenth Century ◽

White Slavery ◽

Global Issue ◽

Late Nineteenth

This chapter examines how the international community has defined and framed the issue of human trafficking over the last century, and how governments such as the United States have responded politically to the problem of human trafficking. Contemporary concerns about trafficking can be traced back to a late nineteenth-century movement in the United States and Western Europe against white slavery. White slavery, also known as the white slave trade, refers to the kidnapping and transport of Caucasian girls and women for the purposes of prostitution. The chapter first considers the definitions of human trafficking before discussing the anti-white slavery movement and the increase in international consciousness about the trafficking of women. It then traces the origins of the contemporary anti-human trafficking movement and analyses how trafficking emerged as a global issue in the 1990s. It also presents a case study on human trafficking in the United States.

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