Charting the international legal framework applicable to modern day human trafficking

[摘要] This thesis argues that the international legal framework applicable to human trafficking is inadequate to address contemporary challenges. It also explains why and how human trafficking is a controversial phenomenon due to its complex nature, which is shaped by real-world incidences. Overall, this thesis stresses that human trafficking is real, and that survivors are human beings, who do matter.Drawing on international law, in order to capture the inadequacy of international legal framework, this thesis discusses the definition of human trafficking in comparison to the terms modern-day slavery and migrant smuggling, and considers obligations to protect, including identification and non- criminalisation of human trafficking victims. In the context of definitional analysis, this thesis not only looks at the international legal regulations pertaining to related phenomena, but also critically reviews international law to help address how human trafficking is defined and understood by the international community, including the media, scholars and international courts, alongside real-world incidents.The definition of human trafficking and obligations to protect are evidently interrelated; without defining human trafficking, identification of trafficking victims, as required by the obligations of protection, is not possible. In this respect, there are two main aspects in which international law does not adequately respond to human trafficking crimes: defining human trafficking and identifying its ‘victims’/survivors, as is explained in this thesis.

[发布机构] University:University of Glasgow;Department:School of Law

[关键词] international law, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, slavery.