Abuses and sexual misconduct have been present in the aid sector for decades. In 2013, a UN investigation declared sexual exploitation and abuse the most significant risk to UN peacekeeping missions. Nevertheless, the culture of impunity and hypocrisy still prevails in the aid sector. A recent report supports that one in three UN workers has been sexually harassed over the last two years. In the momentum of the #MeToo movement and of timely disclosures of various cases of sexual abuses and harassment in the international aid sector, people soon started to use the hashtag #AidToo on social media to highlight the prevalence of sexual harassment and misconduct within the industry. This study examines the major trends and the findings of an analysis conducted on the use of the hashtag #AidToo on Twitter over a ten-month period. As of the creation of the hashtag at the end of November 2017 and until the end of September 2018, over 13,000 tweets have used #AidToo in their content. Aid workers, journalists, NGOs, as well as news media compose the primary contributors of #AidToo tweets. Although limited to the political sphere and of limited reach, the movement has been sustainable and constant over its first year. Survivors and whistleblowers are the first to acknowledge that #AidToo has created a new safe space for discussion and has incited additional victims to speak up and share their experience. Aid organisations are now under constant scrunity, along with their values, integrity, and funding. However, the online campaign has mainly been a Northern conversation, and one can wonder if the use of the hashtag on Twitter failed to include the Global South and to give a voice to the actual victims of sexual exploitation and abuse. The #AidToo campaign represents a real and welcomed opportunity as a wake-up call for the aid sector, although it is too soon to observe the long-lasting impacts.

For many years human trafficking has transcended national borders and posed a major challenge to countries around the world. The European Union is one of many supranational organizations that has prioritized the eradication of sex trafficking on their policy agenda. Public policies not only contain aims and approaches to achieve objectives, but they also contain a problematization of the issue at hand. The way a phenomenon is constructed in public policies can influence society and its citizens in terms of how the issue and those involved should be perceived. The aim of this study is to examine the way EU represents sex trafficking in their public policies. In order to achieve the research objective, the following two policy documents by the Union have been examined, namely Directive 2011/36/EU and The strategy towards the eradication of sex trafficking in human beings 2012–2016. A discourse analysis has been applied in this study. The method of choice is Carol Bacchis What’s the problem represented to be. The questions presented in Bacchis approach, and the theory of Governmentality has been applied to analyze the policies at hand. The result of this study showcases that human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is constructed as an issue of inadequate legal action, crime against human rights, benefiting gender-based inequality and jeopardizing democratic values and the safety within the Union and its member states. Trafficking victims are represented as forced participants in trafficking, a perception that doesn’t necessarily correspond with reality. EU’s problem representation promotes gender stereotypes while also excluding and silencing other perspectives.

The objectives of this study are as follows: a) To examine the history of human trafficking and the various international legal instruments adopted to address it. b) To examine the trafficking of women and girls for sexual purposes and sexual exploitation as well as to examine the various human rights (of female victims) violated during and after the process of human trafficking. c) To examine the context of trafficking within Mozambique, Zambia and South Africa and explore how these three countries are addressing human trafficking through legislation. d) To examine Europe’s measures against trafficking and whether there are lessons for the SADC region. / Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Dr Christopher Mbazira, Faculty of Law, Makerere University, Uganda. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

The objectives of this study are: (1) To analyse the legal framework of peacekeeping operations to determine its strengths and weakness in addressing the issue of SEA (Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, (2) To determine whether the UN’s present accountability mechanism can adequately support protection of children’s rights in peacekeeping operations and (3) To explore the question of prosecution as a way to enhance the accountability mechanism in peacekeeping missions, particularly for TCC (Troop Contributing Countries). This study is mainly a non-empirical analysis of the UN (United Natrions) approach on SEA in its activities with a focus on peacekeeping missions. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2007. / A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Dr Heny Odimbo Ojambo of the Faculty of Law, University of Makerere, Uganda. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Voices of women affected by trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation (THBSE) are often marginalized and they are not usually included in the design and implementation of anti-trafficking campaigns. Although these campaigns present themselves as Communication for Social Change, the final result often betrays the principles of this form of communication. This thesis aims to tackle that gap, in partnership with the Serbian NGO Atina and their Youth Advocacy Group. The objective is to understand what is the perspective of women affected by THBSE in regards to institutional imagery of anti-trafficking campaigns and its persuasive potential for social change. The methodology was informed by a feminist participatory approach which included a) a focus group where participants were shown examples of anti-trafficking imagery, b) a workshop where participants designed their own campaign, and c) two expert interviews. After analyzing a sample of 21 images of anti-trafficking campaigns from 12 countries (Serbia, USA, Canada, France, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Brazil, Luxembourg, Colombia, Ukraine and Israel), this thesis finds that anti-trafficking campaigns tend to fail at their potential for social change. This is due to misrepresentations that ignore the complexity of THBSE as a system of exploitation and by perpetuating harmful stereotypes about what a victim should or should not look like, thereby contributing to the silencing and marginalization of victims. Anti-trafficking campaigns also tend to rely on awareness-raising rather than promoting social change. This thesis also presents what a campaign designed by women affected by sexual exploitation would look like, which focused on systemic change rather than individualized narratives. Based on the research, it was also possible to propose guidelines for participatory approaches to communication against THBSE.

Victims of child sex trafficking in prostitution in the United States are often overlooked, misidentified, and among the most underserved type of child victim of crime. The majority of previous research on child sex trafficking has been conducted without a theoretical framework or reliable sampling methods. In this study, a schematic composed of a series of stepping-stones from childhood abuse to prostitution, which has been described by gendered pathways researchers, served as a sensitizing template for the study's development of a strain-reactive pathway into child sex trafficking. Agnew's general strain theory provided the primary theoretical basis for the proposed pathway, supplying both explanations of the generative factors of the pathway and the mechanisms operating within the life trajectory terminating in child sex trafficking in prostitution. Based on this theoretical framework, this study utilized structural equation modeling to examine the pathway by investigating the effects of caregiver strain, child maltreatment, and risk-inflating responses to strain on vulnerability to victimization in child sex trafficking in prostitution. Four structural equation models, incorporating different forms of child maltreatment, were assessed using data from a matched sample of 174 minority females who were residents of one U.S. city and participated in a longitudinal study on the effects of child sexual abuse. Findings show that the occurrence of child maltreatment including child neglect, child physical abuse, and juvenile sexual victimization increased with caregiver strain. Consequentially, neglected and abused children were more likely to have engaged in the risk-inflating responses of running away and earlier initiation of drug or alcohol use, and they also reported higher levels of relational shame. Both running away and early initiation of substance use impacted vulnerability to victimization in child sex trafficking in prostitution. Lastly, implications of the findings related to protection and intervention strategies that are projected to obstruct the progression of minors along the analytically identified pathway into child sex trafficking in prostitution are presented for criminal justice professionals, child protection investigators, and social service providers.

Despite their peacekeeping role in the management of internal armed conflicts, some military peacekeepers have sexually exploited local populations in host countries, resulting in dire social and health consequences and threats to the success of international peace operations. Although researchers have examined sexual violence committed by peacekeepers, few researchers, if any, have used routine activities theory to examine sex offending by peacekeepers. The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which situational opportunities influenced international military peacekeepers' engagement in the sexual exploitation of civilians in the Central African Republic, a peacekeeping host country. Data were collected from face-to-face interviews with 15 research participants, including local witnesses, military officers, representatives of civil society organizations, and United Nations policy makers, and from public records obtained from online sources. Data were coded using an inductive coding strategy and then analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings indicated that both the local and peacekeeping conditions, including lack of deterrence and accountability mechanisms, heightened the vulnerability of local populations to sex predation and motivated peacekeeper sex offenders to engage in sex offending. Local community leaders, civil society organizations, peacekeepers, and policy makers could use study findings to promote educational programs on the institutional responsibility to protect vulnerable civilians as well as shape policies to prevent the commission of sexual exploitation by peacekeepers. These actions may also help susceptible civilians, especially women and girls, to be aware of the risks linked to their vulnerability and empower them to seek legal redress.

This study studies the way trafficking for sexual exploitation is constructed by the EU and the ASEAN by analyzing their discourse in their policies. Further, the study also seeks what potential implications exist in the policiesand how it is problematized. The following policy documents; Directive2011/36/EU, The EU Strategy on Combatting Trafficking in Human Beings 2021-2025, ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and lastly, ASEAN Plan of Action Against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, were analyzed in order to meet the aim of the study. The discourse analysis of the thesis is called “What’s the problem represented to be?” and will be used as the analytical framework, while the framing theory acts as the theoretical framework. The results of the study reveal that trafficking for sexual exploitation is a problem of law enforcement and judicial cooperation, a violation of human rights, and due to gender inqeuality according to the EU, while the ASEAN consider the issue as a regional problem benefitting from poor regional instruments, a violation of human rights and increasing government corruption and lacking criminalisation. Further, the way the organizations construct victims endorses gender stereotypes.

Throughout the past few decades, accusations of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers have emerged against the United Nations, ultimately proving to be true. This thesis investigates the UN’s own narrative surrounding sexual misconduct of its peacekeeping personnel, identifying the dominant frames present within UN response to these events. Investigating these frames is a vital contribution to research within SEA, as understanding every angle of an issue can lead to a more competent approach to eventual solutions. Press releases, reports, transcribed interviews, and policy documents are analyzed using framing analysis to do so. Three frames are suggested as reference points, with opportunity for new frames to present themselves during analysis of the material. Ultimately, the study proposes that four multiple frames are present within the UN discourse, however three are of distinct influence, and two are clearly dominant. Finally, the study comes to the conclusion that the UN frames sexual violence perpetrated by peacekeeper as a primarily systemic issue, with individual peacekeepers responsibility playing a secondary role. Further research is encouraged within the field of study, specifically in regards to the ways other actors within the peacekeeping context frame SEA.

Following paper examines how conflicting interests inside the UN organisation can be identified in the UN:s policy output regarding conflict-related violence (CRSV) and sexual exploitation and abuse by UN-personnel (SEA). The study applies former criticism against SEA, regarding nuance and an individualistic approach, on UN resolutions from both policy areas in a structured, focused comparisons. The purpose is to analyse if there are any differences regarding the framing of violence, its causes and where responsibility can be placed. Furthermore, the differences that are detected are then analysed and explained through a theoretical framework consisting of theories regarding framing and legitimating strategies. The analysis shows that resolutions regarding CRSV are more nuanced and connected to broader structures such as gender discrimination. Resolutions regarding SEA are more focused on the individual perpetrator. The differences identified in the comparison is then understood through the organisational interest of preserving legitimacy, where “means-end-decoupling” can be detected as a strategy used in SEA resolutions to legitimate the UN organisation.