Human Trafficking: The Unintended Effects of United Nations Intervention
| Author | Charles Anthony Smith,Heather M. Smith |
| Published date | 01 March 2011 |
| Date | 01 March 2011 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0192512110371240 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Corresponding author:
Charles Anthony Smith, University of California – Irvine, 5100 Social Science Plaza, Irvine, CA 92697-5100, USA
[email: casmith@uci.edu]
Human Trafficking: The
Unintended Effects of
United Nations Intervention
Charles Anthony Smith and Heather M. Smith
Abstract
International relations literature is well developed on the effects of United Nations intervention on the
duration of crises. The global human rights community has on a case-by-case basis addressed some of the
unintended effects of UN inter vention, namely, substantial increases in the human sex trafficking trade into
crisis areas. We bridge these two literatures and evaluate the effects of UN involvement in Kosovo, Haiti and
Sierra Leone. We look beyond the intended effects of UN intervention and consider the unintended effects in
a systematic and generalizable way. We argue that UN involvement has the unfortunate and unintended effect
of increasing the rates of human trafficking in these crisis areas. Our work concludes that the UN should
proceed with caution into crisis areas and have plans in place to avoid the potentially devastating externalities
of otherwise well-intentioned efforts.
Keywords
human trafficking, UN intervention, peacekeeping human rights, women
Introduction
In July 1999 the Kosovo Protection Force (KFOR) entered Kosovo, the war-torn province of
Serbia, in order to protect ethnic Albanians. This United Nations (UN) force was large by UN
standards. More than 20,000 troops were on the ground within days of the passage of the authoriz-
ing UN Security Council Resolution. Within months the global human rights community drew
attention to the establishment and intensification of human sex trafficking into Kosovo.1 In August
2004, Amnesty International reported that young women from Eastern Europe were being abducted,
drugged, and sold into human trafficking rings in Kosovo.2 This report linked the introduction of
the NATO and UN troops to the sharp increase in human trafficking.
Although the effects of UN intervention on the duration and intensity of conflict have been
given tremendous attention, the development of human trafficking rings is an understudied effect
International Political Science Review
32(2) 125–145
© The Author(s) 2010
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DOI: 10.1177/0192512110371240
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126 International Political Science Review 32(2)
of UN intervention. We consider four cases: Kosovo, Haiti and Sierra Leone, where the UN intervened,
and Nepal, where it did not. We demonstrate that the introduction of UN peacekeeping forces into
a crisis area leads to an increase in the rate of human trafficking. We also find that the size of the
force determines the magnitude of the increase in human trafficking.
Definitions
We narrow our consideration to sex trafficking because our primary focus is the aggravating circum-
stances and costly externalities of UN intervention. Many volumes have been and will be written
explicating other dimensions of human trafficking.3 Specifically, the dynamics of economic disparity,
the role of gender and race in society, and the impact of globalization at the intersection of these sepa-
rate identities and concerns are all emerging issue fields (Agathangelou, 2004; Agathangelou and
Ling, 2003; Razack, 2004; Samarasinghe, 2007). While UN intervention may lead to an expansion of
human trafficking in other dimensions beyond sex workers, we limit the scope of our analysis in order
to identify more fully the causal mechanism behind the expansion in trafficking.
Graycar (1999) suggests an important distinction, on which we rely, between trafficking and
smuggling. He (1999: 2) argues that smuggling is the method by which people are moved across
borders, while trafficking is a more complex set of processes involving labor exploitation in the
destination country that hinges on the concept of consent. He suggests that the two form a contin-
uum. At one end individuals are trafficked completely against their will. Specific forms can include
abduction, kidnapping and confinement by their abductors. At the other end is undocumented vol-
untary migration, wherein migrants ‘freely choose’ to work overseas (Graycar, 1999: 2). While
smuggling is a means for transferring undocumented workers across borders, and it may or may
not be associated with human rights abuses, trafficking is a far more severe process that exploits
the labor of the victim. Although coercion is not a uniformly accepted or settled distinguishing
feature between trafficking and smuggling (Haque, 2006), for analytical clarity we adopt Graycar’s
distinction and focus our analysis on trafficking for the purposes of sexual slavery (Kyle and
Koslowski, 2001).4
The distinction between those who choose to be smuggled into a country to work in the sex
industry and those who are so engaged wholly against their will may not always be easily discern-
ible. Still, as we demonstrate below, by using data at the macro-level we can discern changes in
scale if not in precise specifics.
Generally, the extant literature is concerned with the impact of UN or third-party intervention
on the duration of conflict between combatants. This is likely a product of the mission: if the inten-
tion behind UN intervention is to quell hostilities and foster peace, then naturally a concern involves
determining whether the UN is effective.5 However, the focus on conflict duration has come at the
expense of a fuller consideration of the range of externalities of UN intervention. We seek to rem-
edy this oversight by examining the impact of introducing UN peacekeeping forces on human
trafficking.
Emergence of Human Sex Trafficking Rings
Theories of the emergence of markets in human trafficking often use an economic approach (Bales,
2005; Schloenhardt, 1999; Salt and Stein, 1997). That is, human trafficking is considered simply a
morally suspect business (Bales, 2005). Others argue that trade in persons is best conceived of as
an international crime (Aronowitz, 2001; Schloenhardt, 1999). These ap proaches overl ap where
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