This essay will argue that human trafficking, especially transnational sexual exploitation of women and girls, has received disproportionate attention in ways which reflect fundamental characteristics of the international human rights regime. The communicative action dynamic of framing grants greater shaming resonance to certain types of violations, victims, and even regions. In the short-run, this spotlight may limit attention to equally salient abuses and represent a shortfall in the universality and indivisibility of rights. However, in the long run, a distorted emphasis on trafficking may well be a politically beneficial spur to wider consciousness of a linked set of 'private wrongs', as well as legitimately addressing a significant stream of especially heinous abuses that do affect large numbers of victims. Moreover, ultimately a human security approach linked to complementary state interests and multilateral mechanisms may be the best way to institutionalise the mobilisation sparked by the international human rights regime. © RMIT Publishing.

Human trafficking Human security and human rights

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