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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

international treaties, sex trafficking norms, anti-trafficking, policy formation

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Political Science

Abstract

Sex trafficking is a growing problem worldwide. My research explores two questions: first, are states who sign the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (2000) more likely to comply with anti-sex trafficking norms than countries that do not? Second, if states do comply is it because of societal respect for women’s rights, or because of economic or membership incentives with anti-trafficking entities such as the United States and the European Union? The theory advanced by my research is that ratifying the Protocol, which is a pledge by the country to combat trafficking, will not by itself increase compliance with anti-trafficking norms; rather, a value for women’s rights will cause a country to comply. I also tested an alternative hypothesis, which is that compliance is based on dependency on anti-trafficking entities such as the US or EU. To test this, a time-lapsed qualitative analysis of ten Eastern European countries, five of whom ratified the Protocol early (defined as pre-2005) and five of whom ratified it late or never (2005 to the present), was performed.

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