ABSTRACT
In the aftermath of the events of 11 September 2001, the United States has emphasized the links between human traffi cking and national security. Joined by other governments, the United States has also focused on the ways counterterrorism strategy should incorporate efforts aimed at the eradication of traffi cking in persons. This post-9/11 merging of the anti-terrorism and antitraffi cking agendas coincided with the initial implementation of the core international and US domestic anti-traffi cking frameworks. This striking confl uence has fundamentally shaped both the capacity of, and means by which, those instruments could realize anti-traffi cking objectives, including particularly the protection of the human rights of traffi cked persons. This chapter traces the emergence of the traffi cking-terror nexus in US policy and practice and assesses its human rights dimensions and impacts. It examines how a securitized approach to traffi cking has affected: (1) the nature of antitraffi cking initiatives and the balance struck between activities aimed at strengthening border security, international cooperation, and human rights; (2) the understanding of who is a victim of traffi cking in persons; and (3) the nature of violations involved in traffi cking and its perpetrators. The chapter concludes by querying the extent to which the assertion of a traffi cking-terror nexus obscures the choices that are in fact made to prioritize counter-terrorism goals over those of anti-traffi cking, and specifi cally human rights, objectives.
