The Promise and Pitfalls of Unilateral Pressure to Combat Human Trafficking: U.S
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1 THE PROMISE AND PITFALLS OF UNILATERAL PRESSURE TO COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING: U.S. PRESSURE ON ISRAEL, THE PHILIPPINES, AND THAILAND A dissertation presented By Noam Perry to The School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the field of Law and Public Policy Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts December 2016 2 THE PROMISE AND PITFALLS OF UNILATERAL PRESSURE TO COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING: U.S. PRESSURE ON ISRAEL, THE PHILIPPINES, AND THAILAND A dissertation presented By Noam Perry ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Law and Public Policy in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities of Northeastern University December 2016 3 Abstract In the late 1990s, the United States started pressuring other countries to combat human trafficking. Since 2001, the State Department has been evaluating the anti- trafficking efforts of governments around the world. The analysis is published annually in the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, which has become the cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy on this issue. Governments whose efforts are deemed “insignificant” may be subject to economic and diplomatic sanctions by the U.S. government. Through analysis of media coverage, government proceedings, and interviews with select stakeholders, this study explores the ways in which the U.S. system of unilateral pressure influenced the anti-trafficking policies of Israel, the Philippines, and Thailand. Findings show that, for U.S. anti-trafficking pressure to be successful, it had to be combined with pressure “from below” by civil society organizations. These organizations leveraged U.S. pressure to further their own agenda vis-à-vis their governments. This study further reveals that the domestic policymaking process is highly susceptible to pressure by other countries, particularly during the agenda setting phase. Specifically, the U.S. TIP Report has a demonstrated capability to forcibly open policy windows, to act as a policy transfer agent, and to generally accelerate the socialization of states into compliance with international norms. However, U.S. pressure also has unintended consequences, particularly in the form of anti-trafficking policies that violate human rights and harm the people they purport to protect. 4 Acknowledgments It is a pleasure to thank everyone who helped and supported me through writing this dissertation. First and foremost, I would like to thank the members of my dissertation committee. I thank my advisor, Jack McDevitt, for his extreme and endless patience and support, and for being kind and reassuring throughout this process. I thank Amy Farrell for guiding me in strengthening the methodology of my research, and for being the reason I chose to study at Northeastern University in the first place. I thank Val Moghadam for her great contribution to the theoretical framework of my research and for her ongoing encouragements. I enjoyed working with you all. I thank the staff of the Law and Public Policy Program at Northeastern University, particularly Jennifer Mocarski and Kathie Simmons before her, whose care and support helped me navigate the bureaucracy of graduate school. To the interviewees who participated in this research I thank for their time and candidness, as well as for the work they do to fight human trafficking. You have each been an inspiration to me and I hope this research accurately reflects your work. I thank my teachers and mentors, Daphna Golan and Orit Kamir, whose teachings and writings laid the foundations for this research. 5 I thank Ilana Hammerman, whose book on sex trafficking in Israel planted the seed that grew into this dissertation. I thank my colleagues in the Human Rights Program at San José State University, William Armaline and Edith Kinney, for their ongoing friendship and encouragements, and to my many students at San José State University for sharpening my understanding of human rights and their limitations. I thank my friend Ayelet for making me a feminist. Finally, I would like to thank my family. I thank my mother Edna and my father Moshe for believing in me and supporting me no matter the choices I make. I thank my child, Ilan, who has brought new light into my life and always keeps me grounded. Most of all, I thank my spouse and best friend, Debra Guckenheimer, whom I met as I was embarking on this research endeavor, and without whom I would not have made it. Debra, you are my rock. Words cannot express how much I love you. I would not have been able to complete this dissertation without you. Thank you all. 6 Table of Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgments 4 Table of Contents 6 Chapter 1: Introduction 9 Research Problem and Questions 11 Broader Significance of this Study 12 Overview of Dissertation 14 Chapter 2: Background and Literature Review 16 Human Trafficking and the Global Response 17 Human Trafficking in U.S. Foreign Policy 25 International Pressure, Compliance, and Human Rights 38 Policy Transfer/Diffusion 46 Chapter 3: Research Design and Methodology 54 Case and Site Selection 55 Data Collection 62 Analytic Approach 68 Chapter 4: Israel 70 Case Background: Israel 72 1995-1999: Trafficking in Women Rises to the Public Sphere 75 2000: Initial Government Response - Laying the Foundations 84 2001-2004: Swift Government Action 90 2005-2007: Shift to Labor Trafficking 102 7 2008-2015: Perceived Success 111 Conclusion: Israel 114 Chapter 5: The Philippines 117 Case Background: The Philippines 119 1992-2001: Pioneering Cooperation Efforts 123 2002-2008: Legislation Thwarted by Corruption 133 2009-2015: Move toward Implementation 153 Conclusion: The Philippines 165 Chapter 6: Thailand 168 Case Background: Thailand 170 1985-2000: Early Anti-Trafficking Response 174 2001-2003: Stagnation despite Growing U.S. Pressure 178 2004-2009: The “War on Trafficking” 186 2010-2015: Shift to Labor Trafficking 199 Conclusion: Thailand 212 Chapter 7: Understanding the Outcomes of U.S. Anti- Trafficking Pressure 215 Overview of the Three Cases 217 Agenda Setting 222 State Compliance and Human Rights Socialization 229 Policy Diffusion/Transfer 237 Conclusion: U.S. Pressure Outcomes 242 Conclusions and Further Research 243 U.S. Pressure Outcomes 244 Agenda Setting 246 Norm Socialization 247 Policy Transfer 250 8 Practical Implications 251 Plan for Further Research 252 Appendix A: Interview Protocol 254 Appendix B: The Sampled Newspapers 255 References 256 9 Chapter 1: Introduction Human trafficking is a grave abuse of human rights that affects millions of people worldwide. Under its internationally accepted definition, “human trafficking” is an umbrella term that includes multiple types of exploitation, which achieved through force, coercion, fraud, or the abuse of power. In its most extreme cases, trafficking in persons amounts to contemporary manifestations of slavery or slavery-like conditions (United Nations, 2000). While statistics on trafficking are notoriously problematic (Savona & Stefanizzi, 2007), state authorities reported to have identified nearly 300,000 trafficked persons worldwide between 2008-2014 (United States Department of State, 2015). Research-based estimates, which try to account for unreported and misidentified cases, put the number of trafficked persons globally around 20 million (Bales, 2004; International Labour Office, 2012; Kara, 2009). At the turn of the 21st century, human trafficking emerged as one of the most urgent problems on the global agenda (Gallagher, 2010; Shelley, 2010). Since the mid-1990s, trafficking has received much attention from the news media and was also featured in popular culture. It sparked a global social movement and triggered the establishment of numerous new specialized civil society organizations and initiatives, while shifting the focus of other existing organizations. It prompted the formation of a new international legal regime, including global and regional treaties, and it inspired the creation of a plethora of national domestic laws, policies, programs, and action plans. Despite a great deal of ideological and political controversy, within a relatively short time, the term “human trafficking” transformed from an obscure, poorly understood concept into common parlance. 10 I became interested in the topic during my service in the Israeli Military, when I was exposed to pictures of women who were trafficked from Eastern Europe, as they were arrested in Egypt while attempting to cross the border illegally into Israel. This was in the late 1990s, before the concept of human trafficking entered public discourse in Israel. A few years later, when I read Ilana Hammerman’s (2004) book, on the experiences of women trafficked into Israel for prostitution, I was horrified at the gruesome stories of violence and victimization and was driven to do something about it. I became an anti-trafficking activist and initiated several projects to raise awareness on the topic. Only later I became aware of the problematic history and politics of this collective Western “zeal to save others” (Mutua, 2013), a zeal that is ever so present among anti-trafficking activists in the Global North (Brysk, 2009; Kempadoo & Davydova, 2012). During my time raising awareness to human trafficking in Israel, I learned that the Israeli response to human trafficking was heavily influenced by the United States. Many of my colleagues credited U.S. pressure for getting the Israeli government to enact anti-trafficking measures. We were all very appreciative of the involvement of the United States and praised it for its strong commitment to push our country to address this human rights issue. After I began my doctoral studies in the United States, I was exposed to the voices of sex workers, human rights activists, and scholars who were highly critical of the U.S. foreign policy on human trafficking. I soon realized that in Israel I was only exposed to one side of a multifaceted story. This clash of viewpoints sparked my academic curiosity and planted the seed for this research project.