Narratives of Human Trafficking in International Issue Arenas with Implications for Policy Formation

Human trafficking is a challenging social problem to overcome. There is overwhelming scientific evidence of the linkages between inequality and human trafficking. Also power-relations impact the endgame: policy making. The causes and effects are interwoven, and there are no easy solutions that are readily available that could be used to prevent and/or tackle human trafficking.

However, relating to human rights issues, such as human trafficking, often the theory rest on the notion of universal human rights which all actors agree upon. Moreover, human rights theory is often based on law. Researchers such as Meriläinen (2014; 2015; 2019) have a different approach in their theoretical and empirical human rights research. In reality human rights policies are based on selective narratives, which are created by using selective framing. Also, human rights work and policies focus more on creating and sustaining power of actor(s) than solving human rights violations such as human trafficking. The understanding of human rights issues is created by narratives. Consequently
the gatekeeper(s)’ narratives function as a basis of policy formulation. To understand human rights realities, narratives and the selective formulation of them, together with power-relations during the formulation processes, should be studied. This underlines the importance of multidisciplinary research of the narratives that various actors use to create understanding of complex issues such as human trafficking.

For there to be effective real-world policies and solutions as well as theoretical understanding regarding human trafficking, there first should be a shared understanding of the human rights realities thru case studies, such as studying narratives that political decisions are consequently based upon. The purpose of this multidisciplinary research was to create multidisciplinary human rights theory which combine and to empirically explore the various narratives of human trafficking by three gatekeeper actors including Amnesty International (Amnesty) Human Rights Watch (HRW), and the European Parliament (EP) and the power-relations between actors. The research questions addressed were the following: (1) What narratives are found regarding human trafficking? and (2) How do the actors frame human trafficking in their narratives? To answer these questions, a systematic content analysis was completed of documents that included official statements and research reports of NGOs, as well as resolutions and recommendations of the EP. Altogether 298 documents were analysed in detail.

The findings indicate that Amnesty, HRW and EP are all gatekeepers in the human rights networks and create multiple narratives via selective framing and agenda setting when addressing human trafficking. Each actor has a different method of correlating human trafficking with other social issues, thereby emphasizing different causes and effects in their narratives, while at the core sharing the same narratives relating to the causes and effects of human trafficking. The theoretical and empirical finding suggest that the formulation of various human rights policies in the international arenas are deeply affected by selective narratives and power-relations that include the dynamic interrelatedness between various human rights violations, and other political issues, actors and events.