Trafficking in Persons Report

I talk in the preface about my work with, uh, my advisor, Sally Merry, whom I had the privilege to work with at NYU.

And so she was really interested in this question of: How does the quantification of human rights performance, how is that becoming a form of global governance, right? So I was working with her as her research assistant in India on her project, um, as part of which I had examined the politics of the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons report, which is produced annually by the US State Department.

I was exploring the politics of that in India, and, um, I learned that the Indian government, you know, clearly resisted an external entity like the US unilaterally evaluating India's anti-trafficking performance.

And so because of, of that resistance, which is completely understandable, um, the US relied then heavily on NGOs to carry out its anti-trafficking agenda, not just in India, but in other Global South countries as well, right? So, um, what was interesting about this was that NGOs, if you also include the predecessors to the current NGO form, have long been involved, right, in, in helping the Indian state to curb prostitution.

Um, instead of seeing sex trafficking as a structural problem in a broader context, right? Which is a, a problem that is rooted in poverty, in gender equality, in gender discrimination, in, in migration gone wrong, um, you know, when, when, when migrants don't have access to safe migration or are...

or sort of connections to other forms of labor exploitation.

So this impacts what areas of intervention the US funds Global South NGOs for, and that's something that the book brings up, right? So, uh, I already mentioned how the US State Department has this annual Trafficking in Persons report, which it uses as a unilateral mechanism of global governance to rank other countries in the world.

This was all pre-Epstein, or not, not pre-Epstein, but pre the publicization of the Epstein case.

I talk in the preface about my work with, uh, my advisor, Sally Merry, whom I had the privilege to work with at NYU.

And so she was really interested in this question of how does the quantification of human rights performance, how is that becoming a form of global governance, right? So I was working with her as her research assistant in India on her project, um, as part of which I had examined the politics of the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report, which is- Produced annually by the US State Department.

I was exploring the politics of that in India, and, um, I learned that the Indian government, you know, clearly resisted an external entity like the US unilaterally evaluating India's anti-trafficking performance.

And so because of, of that resistance, which is completely understandable, um, the US relied then heavily on NGOs to carry out its anti-trafficking agenda, not just in India, but in other Global South countries as well, right? So, um, what was interesting about this was that NGOs, if you also include the predecessors to the current NGO form, have long been involved, right, in, in helping the Indian state to curb prostitution.

And so all of these other actors that I mentioned were also kind of supporting that approach, right? So, um, sort of more arrests, more prosecutions of alleged traffickers, more convictions.

Um, instead of seeing sex trafficking as a structural problem in a broader context, right, which is a, a problem that is rooted in poverty, in gender equality, in gender discrimination, in, in migration gone wrong, um, you know, when, when, when migrants don't have access to safe migration or are-- or sort of connections to other forms of labor exploitation.

So this impacts what areas of intervention the US funds Global South NGOs for, and that's something that the book brings up, right? So, uh, I already mentioned how the US State Department has this annual Trafficking in Persons report, which it uses as a unilateral mechanism of global governance to rank other countries in the world.

This was all pre-Epstein, or not, not pre-Epstein, but pre the publicization of the Epstein case.

The New York Times states the report is based on anonymous sources.

In other US policy news, Israel has been restored to Tier One status in the US State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons report.

This marks the highest category for Israel following five consecutive years in Tier Two.

The report assessed Israel's efforts during twenty twenty-five and found full compliance with US minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking, noting significant progress in enforcement, victim protection, and prevention.

Ambassador Huckabee has denied the report, calling the sources cowardly.

In positive news, Israel has returned to tier one, the highest category, in the US State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons report, marking the first time since twenty twenty-one.

Domestically, the Shin Bet announced it uncovered a terror cell in the Negev composed of Israeli citizens, modeled after West Bank groups, planning attacks on locations including a police station, a bus station, and a nightclub in Beersheba.

The agency also reported seventy-two arrests for terror activities in the South since the start of twenty twenty-six.

And finally, an IDF chief reportedly raised the possibility of an Iran war forcing Israel to postpone elections during talks with senior US officials.

On the diplomatic front, Israel has been restored to Tier 1 status, its highest ranking, in the US State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons report, for the first time since 2021.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin called this a recognition of Israel's intensive work against human trafficking however a report by the new york times citing anonymous sources alleges that a senior u.s embassy aide david milstein used his position to suppress reports on israeli activities in the west bank aiming to present the netanyahu government and policies aligned with the trump administration in a favorable light ambassador mike huckabee and former ambassador david friedman have strongly refuted the report with Huckabee calling it a hit piece based on cowardly anonymous sources.

In antisemitism news, a Jewish man in London reportedly suffered a beating after confronting vandals.