Filmmaking-in-Place

In Meek’s Cutoff (2010) and Eden (2012), filmmakers Kelly Reichardt and Megan Griffiths (respectively) negotiate the interconnection between women, nature, and patriarchal capitalism through their emphasis on place, or one’s separation from it. Ecofeminist aesthetics resonate with regional production when directors emphasize relationships with environments and people over typical neoliberal concerns of production such as cost and infrastructure. A particular political aesthetics emerges when the approach emphasizes building community and the politics of place, rather than the bottom line. Reichardt’s Meek’s Cutoff shifts from the panoramic landscape shots of the classical Western to allow gendered engagement. This framing redirects the viewer away from the supposedly “male” action and instead focuses on the constant work of the women, which is the real action of survival. In Eden, Griffiths similarly frames human trafficking victim Hyun Jae in closed spaces where she is forced into sex work. Such cinematography is drastically juxtaposed with the open framing that signals potential emancipation. In each film, feminist politics intertwine with aesthetics of space to resist patriarchal capitalism co-opting women’s labor, an approach relevant to both environmentalism and feminism.

Effects of Involving Specialists in Human Trafficking Victim Support and Protection

As the level of criminality at European level in continuous growth, a recently introduced legislative package aiming to protect and promote victims’ rights has been introduced by the European Commission. The provisions of the “Victims Directive”, alongside of the First European Strategy to protect and promote victims’ rights are practically urging the member states to a full reversal of the victim’s position both within the civil society and within the justice system, as the victim goes from being the passive subject of a crime, to the active subject within the European support and protection mechanism. The present article reveals the results of a research conducted in the main source country for victims of human trafficking, Romania, with the aim of examining the extent to which the new provisions have been introduced into the national framework and into the national practice. By involving both practitioners and victims of crimes into the qualitative research, a series of systemic and procedural gaps have been identified and addressed and some positive, transferable practices could be revealed and promoted. Through the study interpreting data collected by means of structured interviews we came to the conclusion that most provisions of the new legislative framework have not been integrated into the generic victim support practice for reasons stemming from the obvious lack of funds to accommodate considerable societal institutional changes in a quick manner, to lack of personnel training and in some cases, attitudinal deficiencies of practitioners. On the other hand, a multidisciplinary, victim centred approach based on a public private partnership has proved to have positive results in the field of human trafficking victim support and crime prevention.

Telling the Right Story at the Right Time: Women Seeking Asylum with Stories of Trafficking into the Sex Industry

Exploring the (re)emergence of human trafficking as a global social problem, this article presents an analysis of asylum determinations where claims for Asylum and/or Humanitarian Protection included accounts of trafficking to the UK. The article traces the emergence of trafficking as a credible claim for refugee status and argues that this recognition was time-specific and story-specific. Trafficking victims were identified by the UK Home Office where a claimant’s narrative mirrored the narrowly defined female ‘sex trafficking victim’ presented in campaigns and fictional depictions of human trafficking in the early 21st century. Through an exploration of the work that trafficking stories did in establishing an ‘ideal’ trafficking victim in asylum determinations, this article illustrates how social problems and legal judgments can be profoundly shaped by situated and strategic storytelling. These findings develop an understanding of the social construction of, and relationships between, social conditions and micro-meso-macro narratives of identity.

Protection of the Rights of the Victims of Human Trafficking: Has Malaysia done Enough?

Human trafficking is a grave threat to human rights. Statistic shows that yearly almost thousands of men, women and children grieve in the hand of traffickers as human trafficking victim, in their own countries or abroad. Thus, there is a need for Malaysia to take the necessary step to combat human trafficking and at the same time to provide effective protection for victims of trafficking as enacted under the Malaysian Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 (ATIPSOM 2007). The first part of this research examines the international law standards on human rights protection of the victim of human trafficking while the second part analyses any legal and policy measures adopted within the Malaysian context. In this analysis, attention will be made on numerous protection mechanisms such as provision for a shelter, or a place of refuge, appointment of Protection Officers, medical treatment, right to work and safe repatriation. This research further examines and assesses the adequacy and effectiveness of the current measures and laws especially in terms of their enforcement by the relevant enforcement bodies. Analysis on the existing legal framework within other ASEAN States, including Indonesia, is also done so as to provide relevant best practices for consideration and adoption by the Malaysian government. In conclusion, this research provides a number of solutions to address the problems and challenges within the existing legal framework in Malaysia with the ultimate aim at providing better protection for the victims of human trafficking.

The Protection of Women and Children as Victims of Human Trafficking in Jambi Province

The research aims at studying the policy of the Regional Government in protecting the victims of human trafficking, especially females and children. This legal research is based on an empirical study at Regional Police (POLDA), P2TP2A, and Social Services office in Jambi Province. The Law Number 35/2014 on the Amendment of The Law Number 23/2002 on Child Protection provides a greater portion for the Regional Government to take active roles in providing child protection and Presidential Regulation Number 69/2008 about Task Force Prevention and Handling the Criminal Act of Trafficking Victim. Using analysis of descriptive qualitative, it is learned that the handling of the women and children as victims of trafficking remain partially. The responsible institutions have not well-coordinated because a task force as commissioned by Presidential Regulation number 69/2008. The results show that Jambi Province has passed Jambi Province Regional Regulation Number 2/2015 on Prevention and Handling of Human Trafficking towards Females and Children. However, the study also shows that the regulation has not been applied by related parties since Governor’s regulation as implementing regulation is inexistent.

NGOs and the Rescue Narrative

In this chapter, I interrogate the experiences of those whose work responded to the supposed trafficking “victim”—the employees of abolitionist anti-trafficking NGOs in Thailand whose organizations provided shelter to former sex workers and advocate for policy change. Through an analysis of interviews, I show how NGO employees narrated the issue of trafficking to members of the public as well as to themselves, and how this “rescue narrative” gave voice—or failed to give voice—to the lived experiences of the female migrant laborers who their organizations were trying to help. I explore five dominant narratives that highlighted the challenges employees faced navigating the intercultural dimensions of their work, and the struggles they experienced trying to implement policies related to rescue. I suggest that these narratives reveal deeper personal struggles encountered by the employees, and consider how such struggles may risk hindering the effectiveness of their work.

Comparative analysis of the criminal offence of the trafficking of human organs in the recently-formed countries of the Balkans

The trafficking of human organs is a complex crime. In this respect, law enforcement institutions are confronted with wide-ranging problems in following the right path, beginning with the identification of criminal activity, the identification of the trafficking victim, the full investigation of the case and the taking of measures to bring the case to court so that the criminal has to face deserved punishment. The purpose of this article is to make a comparative analysis of the criminal offence of the trafficking of human organs in those states formed out of the former Yugoslavia, including the types and weights of criminal sanctions that are foreseen in the criminal codes in these states. It is apparent that some states in the region need to make changes to the provisions of their Criminal Codes in order to incriminate some forms of this offence, including as regards potential victims including children, women, elderly people, disabled people and others with limited capacities. Further work also needs to be done concerning potential perpetrators including corporate entities, medical professionals and criminal groups.