ABSTRACT
Public concern about the issue of trafficking in persons has a long history; the history of concerns related to women's economic independence, their mobility, and autonomy is still longer. This chapter describes the discussion of the definition of trafficking in persons for the United Nations Optional Protocol on Trafficking and recent changes in US funding policy for organizations addressing trafficking around the world, both of with were greatly affected by the various efforts of advocates for women. Lobbying factions at the deliberative meetings during the drafting of the UN protocol were drawn largely from two main non-governmental organizations working with outside allies. Sex workers are not the only group likely to be affected by policy that is formulated based on a conflation of prostitution and trafficking. Projects that involve sex workers are the most successful at combating abuses within the sex industry around the world, but because such projects often advocate legalization of prostitution, they may find themselves cut off from funding.
