Sex, Slavery and the Trafficked Woman ─ Myths and Misconceptions About Trafficking and Its Victims

Sex, Slavery and the Trafficked Woman is a go-to text for readers who seek a comprehensive overview of the meaning of a€?human traffickinga€? and current debates and perspectives on the issue. It presents a more nuanced understanding of human trafficking and its victims by examining - and challenging - the conventional assumptions that sit at the heart of mainstream approaches to the topic. A pioneering study, the arguments made in this book are largely drawn from the authora€?s fieldwork in Ukraine, Vietnam and Ghana. The author demonstrates to readers how a law enforcement and criminal justice-oriented approach to trafficking has developed at the expense of a migration and human rights perspective. She highlights the importance of viewing trafficking within a broad spectrum of migratory movement. The author contests the coerced, female victim archetype as stereotypical and challenges the reader to understand trafficking in an alternative manner, introducing the counterintuitive concept of the a€?voluntary victima€?. Overall, this text provides readers of migration and development, gender studies, womena€?s rights and international law a comprehensive and multidisciplinary analysis of the concept of trafficking.

A human rights lawyer and activist, Ramona Vijeyarasa is the Senior Programme Manager for Womena€?s Rights at ActionAid International. Ramonaa€?s career spans a range of human rights non-governmental and international organisations, including the International Organisation for Migration (Hanoi and Kiev), the Center for Reproductive Rights (New York) and the International Center for Transitional Justice (New York). Ramona holds a PhD from the School of Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney. She has published extensively in the field of gender and human rights, including in edited volumes, leading international journals and online.