Chapter 5 - Problematic Interventions and ‘Invented Enemies’

Summary

Chapter 4 discussed the issues surrounding universal children's rights legislation and the complexities of its local implementation and imposition on the Global South. Western bias, cultural insensitivity and inadequate jurisprudence have been raised as practical, legal and ethical problems, and critique has also been levelled at the broader notion of an essentialized, unified childhood. To those ends, the impossibility of a ‘globalized childhood’ has been outlined, owing to highly varied and finely nuanced childhood contexts in Nepal and the wider ‘majority world’.

This chapter takes up the issues of oversimplification and reductiveness in relation to the countless interventions by international agencies, campaign groups, states, academics and third-sector organizations claiming to identify, quantify and solve single-issue problems. First, the chapter outlines the genesis of anti-trafficking and modern slavery legislation and discusses its significance on international humanitarian agendas. It presents critiques of the methods used by stakeholders to attract attention and resources, examining the discursive power of sensationalist campaigns to combat complex and historically embedded issues related to poverty. The chapter goes on to highlight the problematic approach of many campaigns aiming to abolish orphanage tourism on the grounds of its connection to child trafficking and modern slavery. Neo-abolitionist agendas routinely and uncritically reproduce these heavily contested terms and questionable metrics, especially the Global Slavery Index (GSI) for their own popular, political and financial gains. The chapter examines these and other forms of rescue rhetoric in a range of sources ranging from high-profile academic and thirdsector collaborations to the rescue operations of individual NGOs in Nepal.

The Palermo Trafficking Protocol

The mid-1990s saw a surge in academic, political and legal interest in human trafficking, as anxieties around international organized crime and prostitution grew when Global North states felt under threat following the collapse of Communist regimes in central and eastern Europe (Mai 2010). The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (also known as the Palermo Trafficking Protocol) is a protocol to the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and entered into force in December 2003.