3071-The political economy of new slavery

David Ould 63
Union. These and other sources suggest there has been a move away
from the developing countries in Africa and Asia towards new sources
from Central and Eastern Europe, particularly post-conflict areas.
Traffickers use various methods of recruitment today. Modelling
agencies create large databases of attractive and ambitious young women
seeking work abroad and these are brought into contact with traffickers
who offer such work. Similarly marriage agencies dealing in ‘mail-order
brides’ may also act as a cover for traffickers. Once the women arrive in
Western Europe they may be forced into the sex industry by a mixture
of threats, violence and debt-bondage.
Changes in trafficking legislation
There were various suggestions after the Suppression of Traffic Convention
was adopted in 1949 that the definition of ‘traffic in persons’
should be extended to cover forms of recruitment not directly linked to
prostitution, when they were linked to the use of coercion or deception
about the situation that awaits them. ILO Convention No. 143 recognized
that trafficking occurs for purposes in addition to prostitution
(ILO, 1975). In 1994 a United Nations General Assembly resolution
offered a de facto definition of trafficking in women and children.
Resolution 49/166 of 23 December 1994 condemned the
illicit and clandestine movement of persons across national and
international borders, largely from developing countries and some
countries with economies in transition, with the end goal of forcing
women and girl children into sexually or economically oppressive and
exploitative situations for the profit of recruiters, traffickers and crime
syndicates, as well as other illegal activities related to trafficking, such
as forced domestic labour, false marriages, clandestine employment
and false adoption.
Until very recently there was considerable confusion around what the
term ‘trafficking’ actually meant. In its Resolution 53/111 of 9 December
1998 the General Assembly established an intergovernmental ad hoc
committee for the purpose of elaborating an International Convention
against Transnational Organized Crime and discussing the elaboration
of international instruments addressing trafficking in women and
children and the illegal trafficking in and transporting of migrants,
in addition to illegal trafficking in firearms. This eventually led to the
adoption by the UN General Assembly on 15 November 2000 of the