Despite concerted efforts to combat human trafficking around the globe, the practice continues, influenced by a shifting landscape of conflict, economic inequalities, and restrictive immigration policies. Responding, predominantly security- and criminal justice-based strategies tend to neglect the dignity and autonomy of trafficked persons. This article argues that a human rights-based approach (HRBA) provides a more ethical and effective framework to addressing human trafficking. It analyzes conceptual features of HRBAs, disassembles dominant anti-trafficking orthodoxies, and distinguishes legal and empirical ramifications via comparative analysis and case study.

One of the most widespread manifestations of modern slavery is human trafficking. It dishonors many aspects of human dignity and freedom. Men, women, and children are deceived, coerced, and forced into appalling situations of bondage that should not exist in modern society. Some persons are used for sexual exploitation; many more are forced to work under horrific conditions that violate multiple labor rights. Children are snatched from their families and communities and used for any number of degrading purposes. Statistics are notoriously hard to come by, but those that do exist show a grave indictment of today's society. Nearly 50 million people were living in modern slavery in 2021, including 27.6 million in forced labor and 22 million in forced marriages.

Countries and global organizations have reacted with a mixture of international treaties, criminal laws, and border controls. One such treaty, which is directly relevant to the issue of human trafficking, is the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, which supplements the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime; better known as the Palermo Protocol. Despite many of these efforts to address trafficking, they are generally embedded within security-based frameworks that give precedence to immigration enforcement and prosecution, rather than prioritizing the safety and protection of trafficking victims. This article argues for a shift toward a human rights-based approach (HRBA) that centers the victim as a rights-holder rather than merely a passive recipient of state protection or a witness in criminal proceedings.

Key Features of the Human Rights-Based Approach

A HRBA to human trafficking is based on core human rights principles articulated in various international instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in 2002. It is organized around five interrelated principles:

1. Primacy of human dignity: Trafficked persons should be treated as persons capable of exercising agency rather than simply as "victims" or "illegal migrants." The HRBA obliges states to refrain from treating trafficked persons as vehicles for attaining criminal justice goals.
2. Accountability of duty-bearers: States and institutions must ensure that they legally respond to their obligations to prevent trafficking, investigate and prosecute the perpetrator, and ensure victims have access to remedies including compensation and rehabilitation.
3. Participation and empowerment: Victims should be able to have a voice in all matters affecting their lives, including legal proceedings, care, and repatriation; this principled approach resists top-down interventions.
4. Non-discrimination: HRBA emphasizes that anti-trafficking mechanisms attend to systemic discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnicity, migration status, sexual orientation, and so forth.
5. Focus on root causes and prevention: As opposed to punitive approaches, HRBA recognizes that trafficked persons have multi-faceted vulnerabilities to trafficking and requires structural interventions at the level of root causes, for example, combating poverty, gender inequality, and conflict.

Limitations of Security-Oriented Anti-Trafficking Frameworks

Although they are widespread, criminal justice or law enforcement based approaches frequently yield unintended outcomes. The Global Slavery Index and research show that law enforcement led systems that are overly focused on criminal prosecution and responsiveness to border security generally ignores the need for victims. For example:

• Criminalization of victims: Many migrants who are trafficked for sexual purposes or as undocumented workers will be detained, deported, or prosecuted, rather than protected.

• Conditional protection: There is often a request for victims to assist law enforcement in cases of prosecution or deal-making for investigative purposes. If victims cooperate with law enforcement agencies, all conditions of residency may be upheld. However, failing to co-operate could mean losing residence or also services in the form of support services.

• Gendered surveillance: Women, especially sex workers, are the preferred targets of contextual misinterpretations of trafficking laws and women's rights, usually with no notion of informed subjective consent.

Placing national security above and beyond the rights of individuals is unsurprising and goes back to the critiques of the security state, or ´securitocracy´. Securitization speaks to the need for security discourse and making rights violations sensible under goodwill stemming from the need for necessity.

Comparative Practices and Gaps

Certain national policies embody HRBA principles. For example:

• Sweden has granted unconditional residence permits and provided access to all support services for identified victims regardless of their cooperation with the police.

• The Philippines has instituted community-based programmes that promote survivor reintegration and psychosocial care.

• In conflict-affected states such as Libya or Yemen, the insufficient institutional context does not provide even basic access to protections, and perpetrators of trafficking are sometimes state actors who are part of the trafficking networks.

The regional level is important. The European Court of Human Rights affirmed in Rantsev v. Cyprus and Russia (2010) that States have a positive obligation under Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which requires States to take positive measures to curb trafficking. However, the ruling has been underused in national legal systems.

Operationalizing the Human Rights-Based Approach

Effecting change in responses to human trafficking will require committed action on multiple fronts:

1. Legal reform: Victims of human trafficking must not be prosecuted for crimes related to their trafficking (such as illegal border crossing or prostitution). The Council of Europe (2005) Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings includes non-punishment clauses.
2. Capacity building: Training must be provided to law enforcement, border enforcement agencies, and judicial officers to assist them in identifying trafficked persons and responding to identified cases according to human rights principles.
3. Service provision: Victims must have unconditional access to housing, legal aid, health care, and psychosocial support.
4. Data protection and privacy: The sharing of information must be done by agencies in a way that respects victims' rights to confidentiality and informed consent.
5. Survivor participation: Programs must include survivors in policy design and evaluation to ensure that programs are responsive and ethically appropriate.
6. International cooperation: Countries must cooperate not just in law enforcement, but also in offering migrant workers safe pathways for migration, regulating recruitment agencies, and funding development programs that address root causes of trafficking.

Human trafficking is not merely a criminal issue, but a grave human rights issue. The framework of punitive, security-focused responses dominates the current human trafficking landscape and often impedes the protection of and recovery for, victims. The human rights-based model provides a more comprehensive, ethical, and sustainable way forward by prioritizing survivor empowerment, preventing re-trafficking of survivors and recognizing and addressing structural determinants, rather than just punishing perpetrators. By analogy to the securitisation of counterterrorism, a human rights critique of anti-trafficking policies shows how civil liberties are often compromised in the name of security. The world can only uphold its obligations to combat modern slavery and ensure justice for trafficked persons when we reconfirm the norms set by international human rights law and center trafficked persons in all efforts.

This article was produced as part of the legal awareness campaign led by the first cohort of students participating in the Legal Clinic Program in Oujda, Morocco, as part of the "Promoting Civil Society-University Engagement – Oriental Region" project, implemented by the High Atlas Foundation and funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

The program aims to strengthen collaboration between universities and civil society organizations, equipping students with practical skills to address social and legal issues and promote community awareness in the Oriental region. The content reflects the author’s views and does not necessarily represent the positions of the supporting or implementing entities.