Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Human trafficking Government policy Australia'

This thesis looks at the role of British anti-trafficking NGOs in the development of the British policy response to human trafficking. Anti-trafficking NGOs are classified as insiders in the policy process which allows them access to the decision makers during policy developments. Through their insider status, NGOs have promoted their policy agenda for a victim-centred, balanced policy response to human trafficking to the government. A balanced policy response to human trafficking that contains a law enforcement approach with adequate and supportive measures for the protection and support of trafficked victims, has been internationally hailed as being required to tackle human trafficking at a national level. Although the British government has welcomed the input of NGOs in policy developments in response to human trafficking in Britain, the government's primary association of human trafficking with illegal immigration has prevented NGOs from achieving influential success. This thesis argues that the government's associations of human trafficking with illegal immigration have prevented it from further developing its human rights response to trafficking. A victim-centred approach to trafficking will support the existing law enforcement response in achieving an increase in successful prosecutions against the traffickers. Further, it is noted that policy developments in Britain are incremental and slow and the development of a policy response to human trafficking is no exception. By looking at the latest stage of British policy developments on human trafficking, the possibility of a balanced response has emerged for the first time. However, although the government has indicated its commitment to achieving such a response, no practical policy initiatives have been developed or implemented to affirm this commitment. This thesis contributes to the existing and growing body of literature on human trafficking policy in the UK. It aims to contribute to an understanding of how British anti-trafficking NGOs have used their status as insiders in the policy making process in order to influence policy developments, and to understand the limited success that they have experienced.

The homeless have been subject to considerable scrutiny, historically and within current social, political and public discourse. The aetiology of homelessness has been the focus of a large body of economic, sociological, historical and political investigation. Importantly, efforts to conceptualise, explain and measure, the phenomenon of homelessness and homeless people has occurred largely within the context of defining “the problem of the homeless” and the generation of solutions to the ‘problem’. There has been little consideration of how and why homelessness has come to be seen, or understood, as a problem, or how this can change across time and/or place. This alternative stream of research has focused on tracing and analysing the relationship between how people experiencing homeless have become a matter of government concern and the manner in which homelessness itself has been problematised. With this in mind this study has analysed the discourses - political, social and economic rationalities and knowledges - which have provided the conditions of possibility for the identification of the homeless and homelessness as a problem needing to be governed and the means for translating these discourses into the applied domain. The aim of this thesis has been to contribute to current knowledge by developing a genealogy of the conditions and rationalities that have underpinned the problematisation of homelessness and the homeless. The outcome of this analysis has been to open up the opportunity to consider alternative governmental possibilities arising from the exposure of the way in which contemporary problematisation and responses have been influenced by the past. An understanding of this process creates an ability to appreciate the intended and unintended consequences for the future direction of public policy and contemporary research.

This thesis examines one of the premier "big science" projects of the contemporary era - the globalised genetic mapping and sequencing initiative known as the Human Genome Project (HGP), and how Australia has responded to it. The study focuses on the relationship between the HGP, the biomedical model of health, and globalisation. It seeks to examine the ways in which the HGP shapes ways of thinking about health; the influence globalisation has on this process; and the implications of this for smaller nations such as Australia. Adopting a critical perspective grounded in political economy, the study provides a largely structuralist analysis of the emergent health context of the HGP. This perspective, which embraces an insightful nexus drawn from the literature on biomedicine, globalisation and the HGP, offers much utility by which to explore the basis of biomedical dominance, in particular, whether it is biomedicine's links to the capitalist infrastructure, or its inherent efficacy and efficiency, that sustains the biomedical paradigm over "other" or non-biomedical health approaches. Additionally, the perspective allows for an assessment of whether there should be some broadening of the way health is conceptualised and delivered to better account for social, economic, and environmental factors that affect living standards and health outcomes, and also the capacity of globalisation to promote such change. These issues are at the core of the study and provide the theoretical frame to examine the processes by which Australian policy makers have given an increasing level of support to human genomic research over the past decade and also the implications of those discrete policy choices. Overall, the study found that globalisation is renewing and extending the dominance of the biomedical model, which will further marginalise other models of health while potentially consuming greater resources for fewer real health outcomes. While the emerging genomic revolution in health care may lead to some wondrous innovations in the coming decades, it is also highly likely to exacerbate the problems of escalating costs and diminishing returns that characterise health care systems in industrialised countries, and to lead to greater health inequities both within and between societies. The Australian Government has chosen to underwrite human genomic research and development. However, Australia's response to the HGP has involved both convergences and variations from the experiences of more powerful industrial nations. The most significant divergence has been in industry and science policy, where until the mid-1990s, the Australian Government displayed no significant interest in providing dedicated research funding, facilities, or enabling agencies to the emerging field. Driven by the threat of economic marginalisation and cultural irrelevance, however, a transformation occurred. Beginning with the Major National Research Facilities Program of the Department of Industry, Science and Technology, and then the landmark Health and Medical Research Strategic Review, support for human genomic research grew strongly. Comprehensive policy settings have recently been established to promote the innovation, commercialisation, promotion and uptake of the products of medical biotechnology and genomics. As such, local advocates of a broader model of health will be forced to compete on the political and economic stage with yet another powerful new area of biomedicine, and thus struggle to secure resources for perhaps more viable and sustainable approaches to health care in the 21st century.

This dissertation fundamentally explores the nature of change, and the development interventions that aim to bring this change into a particular society. What emerges is the notion of a ‘spiral’: imagining the dynamic relationship between paradigms and discourses, the institutions and programmes operating in a place, and the way individual identities are constructed in intricate and contradictory ways. Within this spiral, discourse has power – ‘words matter’ – but equally significant is how these words interact dialogically with concrete social structures and institutions – ‘it takes more than changing words to change the world’. Furthermore, these changes are reacted to, and expressed in, the physical, sexed body. In essence, change is ideational, institutional, and embodied. To investigate the politics of change, this dissertation analyses the spiral relationships between gender discourses, institutions, and identities in contemporary Indonesia, focusing on their transmission across Java. It does so by exploring the Indonesian state’s gender policies in the context of globalisation, democratisation, and decentralisation. In this way, the lens of gender allows us to analyse the dynamic interactions between state and society, between ideas and institutions, which impact on everything from cultural structures to physical bodies. Research focuses on the gender policies of the Indonesian Ministry of Women’s Empowerment, substantiated with case study material from United Nations Population Fund reproductive health programmes in West Java. Employing a multi-level, multi-vocal theoretical framework, the thesis analyses gender discourses and relational structures (how discourses circulate to construct the Indonesian woman), gender institutions and social structures (how discourses are translated into programmes), and gender identities and embodied structures (how discourses enter the home and the body). Critically, studying gender requires analysing the human body as the site of both structural and symbolic power. This dissertation thus argues for renewed emphasis on a ‘politics of the body’, recognising that bodies are the material foundations from which gender discourses derive their naturalising power and hence ability to structure social relations. The danger of forgetting this politics of the body is that it allows for slippage between ‘gender’ and ‘women’; policy objectives cannot be disentangled from the reality of physical bodies and their social construction. This thesis therefore argues that there are distinct and even inverse impacts of gender policies in Indonesia. As the ‘liberal’ and ‘modern’ assumptions of gender equality are overlaid onto the patriarchal culture of a society undergoing transformation, women’s bodies and women’s sexuality are always and ever the focus of the social gaze. The gender policies and interventions affecting change on discursive and institutional levels may thus provoke reaction at the level of individual identities that are contrary to explicit intentions. In effect, projects that purport to work on ‘gender’ are often so deeply rooted in underlying gender normativity that their net effect is to reinscribe these gender hierarchies. By exposing the contradictions in these underlying paradigms we gain insight into the politics of a transforming society. Furthermore, engaging with the politics of the body allows us to analyse the spiral processes between discourse and practice, the question of power, and the way men and women embody social structures and experience social transformation.

Scientific discoveries, developments in medicine and health issues are the constant focus of media attention and the principles surrounding the creation of so called ‘saviour siblings’ are of no exception. The development in the field of reproductive techniques has provided the ability to genetically analyse embryos created in the laboratory to enable parents to implant selected embryos to create a tissue-matched child who may be able to cure an existing sick child. The research undertaken in this thesis examines the regulatory frameworks overseeing the delivery of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in Australia and the United Kingdom and considers how those frameworks impact on the accessibility of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedures for the creation of ‘saviour siblings’. In some jurisdictions, the accessibility of such techniques is limited by statutory requirements. The limitations and restrictions imposed by the state in relation to the technology are analysed in order to establish whether such restrictions are justified. The analysis is conducted on the basis of a harm framework. The framework seeks to establish whether those affected by the use of the technology (including the child who will be created) are harmed. In order to undertake such evaluation, the concept of harm is considered under the scope of John Stuart Mill’s liberal theory and the Harm Principle is used as a normative tool to judge whether the level of harm that may result, justifies state intervention or restriction with the reproductive decision-making of parents in this context. The harm analysis conducted in this thesis seeks to determine an appropriate regulatory response in relation to the use of pre-implantation tissue-typing for the creation of ‘saviour siblings’. The proposals outlined in the last part of this thesis seek to address the concern that harm may result from the practice of pre-implantation tissue-typing. The current regulatory frameworks in place are also analysed on the basis of the harm framework established in this thesis. The material referred to in this thesis reflects the law and policy in place in Australia and the UK at the time the thesis was submitted for examination (December 2009).

This thesis draws on David Harvey’s concept of “accumulation by dispossession” and an international political economy (IPE) approach centred on the institutional arrangements and power structures that privilege certain actors and values, in order to critique current capitalist practices of primitive accumulation by the global corporate extractive industry. The thesis examines how accumulation by dispossession by the global extractive industry is facilitated by the “free entry” or “free mining” principle. It does so by focusing on Canada as a leader in the global extractive industry and the spread of this country’s mining laws to other countries – in other words, the transnationalisation of norms in the global extractive industry – so as to maintain a consistent and familiar operating environment for Canadian extractive companies. The transnationalisation of norms is further promoted by key international institutions such as the World Bank, which is also the world’s largest development lender and also plays a key role in shaping the regulations that govern natural resource extraction. The thesis briefly investigates some Canadian examples of resource extraction projects, in order to demonstrate the weaknesses of Canadian mining laws, particularly the lack of protection of landowners’ rights under the free entry system and the subsequent need for “free, prior and informed consent” (FPIC). The thesis also considers some of the challenges to the adoption and implementation of the right to FPIC. These challenges include embedded institutional structures like the free entry mining system, international political economy (IPE) as shaped by international institutions and powerful corporations, as well as concerns regarding ‘local’ power structures or the legitimacy of representatives of communities affected by extractive projects. The thesis concludes that in order for Canada to be truly recognized as a leader in the global extractive industry, it must establish legal norms domestically to ensure that Canadian mining companies and residents can be held accountable when there is evidence of environmental and/or human rights violations associated with the activities of Canadian mining companies abroad. The thesis also concludes that Canada needs to address underlying structural issues such as the free entry mining system and implement FPIC, in order to curb “accumulation by dispossession” by the extractive industry, both domestically and abroad.

This research is aimed at evaluating the adequacy and effectiveness of the legal framework dealing with human trafficking in South Africa. To achieve this purpose, a comprehensive diachronic as well as contemporary overview of the punishment and prevention of human trafficking in South Africa as well as in the legal systems of the US, Germany and Nigeria is provided. An overview of the history of slavery and an analysis of the modern conceptualisation of human trafficking indicate that human trafficking is a highly complex concept, and that there are various approaches to the understanding of the concept of human trafficking. There are various definitions of trafficking found in international instruments of which the most important has been identified as that contained in the Palermo Protocol. The definitions vary also because trafficking is closely related to the phenomena of migration, slavery and smuggling of humans. The study further identifies some significant root causes of trafficking generally, as well as specific, to the four selected regions. It was found that in South Africa – similar to the history of slavery in the jurisdictions of the US, Germany and Nigeria – colonisation and the institution of slavery and, more particularly in South Africa, the legacy of the apartheid regime has had an impact on modern human trafficking. The research concedes that although common-law crimes, statutes and transitional legislation can be utilized to challenge some trafficking elements, these offences are not comprehensive enough to amply deal with the crime’s complexities and provide only a fragmented approach to combating the crime. The study shows that South Africa needs to adopt specific and comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation that is based essentially on the provisions of the Palermo Protocol, that is, the draft TIP Bill. Although the Bill is a major improvement on the provisions in the Palermo Protocol as well as on certain aspects of the anti-trafficking legislation in the US, Germany and Nigeria, the Bill can still be improved, especially with regard to more effective victim assistance and the combating of local-specific vulnerability factors. Anti-trafficking efforts undertaken in the US, Germany and Nigeria which may be of value also for the adoption of anti-trafficking legislation, law enforcement and other strategies in South Africa, are further identified. iv The research further establishes also that international, regional and sub-regional instruments on trafficking and related aspects of trafficking provide guidelines for developing effective strategies to deal with trafficking within the region. The counter-trafficking strategies as found in treaties (including conventions), protocols, declarations and resolutions – those focussing specifically on combating trafficking and those with a human-rights focus – oblige states to prosecute traffickers, protect people vulnerable to trafficking as well as those already trafficked and create structures for prevention. Regional instruments specifically formulated to combat trafficking as well as instruments that make reference to the issue of trafficking in persons may further provide the basis for long-term strategies to combat human trafficking. However, it was found that although South Africa has adopted many cooperative mechanisms in the form of direct bilateral or multilateral agreements, as well as international and regional treaties and conventions, the jurisdiction has not as yet implemented comprehensive strategies to combat human trafficking. The introduction of legislation to combat human trafficking, and various other strategies envisaged in the TIP Bill and also recommendations suggested in this thesis, should be considered by parliament as a matter of priority. A comprehensive response to human trafficking which includes adequate protection of victims is required in terms of various constitutional imperatives identified in this research.
Criminal & Procedural Law
LL.D.

Since the introduction of the concept of human security in 1994, debates have raged regarding the definition and applicability of the concept. Proponents of human security have sought to define the concept so that it may be utilised, whereas critics of human security have argued that the concept is too broad and amorphous to be adopted or utilised by states in international relations. This thesis examines two states; Australia, which has never utilised the term, 'human security,' in its declaratory policies; and Canada, a state that, for a time, was one of the most vocal proponents of the concept in its foreign policy statements. The research examines the two countries' military interventions in Somalia (1992-1995 - prior to the introduction of human security as a concept) and Afghanistan (2001-2013 - after the concept's introduction) to establish if, and to what extent, human security featured in and/or shaped their missions. Drawing upon an analysis of Australia's and Canada's declaratory policies and implementation approaches for each mission, this thesis presents a unique analytical framework that assesses the degree of norm internalisation of human security by the two states. It argues that human security is both co-opted and adapted by states in military interventions when the limitation of traditional national security approaches is recognised and when such actions are in alignment with national values. This thesis finds that the core concept of human security can be, and has been, operationalised at the implementation level, regardless of whether the state has a clearly defined declaratory policy of human security or not. Further, states now perceive the core concept of human security as a necessary condition for mission success in military interventions; military security, alone, is no longer enough. The thesis concludes with the argument that, for states, the concept of human security works better in practice (implementation) than it does in theory (declaratory policies). Indeed, when it comes to incorporating the fundamental elements of human security in military interventions, this thesis argues, it is the practices of human security that drives, and helps create, policies based on human security.

Human trafficking is an old practice that has become a matter of global concern irrespective whether a country is a country of origin where people are trafficked from; a country of transit where people are trafficked through and a country of destination where people are trafficked to. In 2009, the UN Office on Crime and Drugs stated that 66% females, 22% of children and 12% of men are trafficked. In Africa, human trafficking is identified as a problem in roughly one in three of the countries. According to the Salvation Army, at least 2,000,000 people are trafficked each year and of the estimated number, Africa accounts for 450,000. Furthermore, statistics reveal that 30% of cases handled by the Southern Africa Counter-Trafficking Assistance Programme (SACTAP) involved SADC nationals. The purpose of this study was therefore to determine whether there is a need for an effective legislative response to human trafficking in SADC. This was established by tracing the evolvement of trafficking from its conceptualization as slavery to its evolvement to human trafficking. Further, by investigating the measures taken within the SADC region to address human trafficking both at the national and regional levels and a comparative study between different regions and between selected SADC countries was conducted. In the summary of key findings, it was found that the definition of human trafficking as laid out in the Palermo Protocol cannot sufficiently and adequately combat human trafficking in SADC countries in its current form due to a number of reasons. Furthermore, at the institutional level it was found that the Protocols adopted by SADC do not afford all victims of trafficking protection and the Plan of Action is non-binding and faces implementation problems. At SADC country levels it was found that although twelve of the fifteen countries adopted anti-trafficking legislation, these countries struggle with compliance and implementation mechanisms, which show, that mere passing of legislation does not automatically translate to compliance. This study therefore concluded by proposing a number of options that can be explored in order to effectively prevent, and combat human trafficking in SADC. Even though this study does not offer a blueprint solution, it contributes towards the development of a model that will better be suited to address human trafficking problems at the SADC level.
Public, Constitutional and International Law
LL. M.

Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University of Adelaide Library.
This thesis identifies and elaborates on the way in which notions of genetic inheritance connect with notions of ’proper’ families and hence shape policies concerning reproduction and family formation. Assumptions about the structure and shape of the ’proper’ or ’traditional’ family - as a heterosexual two-parent unit with biological children - and its claim to naturalness, are embedded in policies related to reproductive technologies and family formation. The thesis explores the discourses surrounding the following specific policies - surrogacy, IVF, adoption, abortion, child support and posthumous reproduction - to elucidate the frameworks of meaning within which we understand these issues.
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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, 2006

This thesis identifies and elaborates on the way in which notions of genetic inheritance connect with notions of ’proper’ families and hence shape policies concerning reproduction and family formation. Assumptions about the structure and shape of the ’proper’ or ’traditional’ family - as a heterosexual two-parent unit with biological children - and its claim to naturalness, are embedded in policies related to reproductive technologies and family formation. The thesis explores the discourses surrounding the following specific policies - surrogacy, IVF, adoption, abortion, child support and posthumous reproduction - to elucidate the frameworks of meaning within which we understand these issues.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, 2006

abstract: Interviews of nine managers within the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division's Western Region were conducted by a researcher who also works as a Wage and Hour Investigator. The intention of this research was to survey the differences in trafficking-related training and experience throughout the region, to examine the role of the Wage and Hour Division in human trafficking casework, and to explore potential areas for growth. This thesis recommends that upper level agency management produces standards for training, interagency engagement, and procedures and also provides suggestions for best practices and effective enforcement.
Dissertation/Thesis
M.A. Social Justice and Human Rights 2011