This section contains suggestions for in-class and pre-class educational exercises, while a post-class assignment for assessing student understanding of the Module is suggested in a separate section. Below are nine proposed exercises. It is suggested to divide the class into different sub-groups and assign each group one of the exercises. Depending on the size of the class, and the chosen approach of the lecturer, one or more than one exercise can be chosen and assigned to separate groups.
Based on a quick Internet search, select a media article that addresses a case of TIP and one case of SOM in your country or in a country of your choice. Examples might include TIP for different forms of trafficking (e.g. forced labour, sexual exploitation) and/or diverse types of SOM.
Discuss the following questions:
Find an anti-trafficking campaign or awareness-raising activity (a talk, a conference, a poster, a prevention activity in schools or among migrants, etc.) that is being carried out in your country or region.
Discuss the following questions:
Gender inequality: Gendered poverty, lack of viable employment opportunities, lack of control over financial resources and limited access to education are all factors that can exacerbate the vulnerability of women and girls to trafficking.
Gender-based violence: Gender-based violence and cultural norms that normalize such violence contribute to the cycle of violence against women and make them more vulnerable to trafficking.
Discriminatory labour or migration laws and gender blind policies: Labour and migration laws that lack a human rights and gender-sensitive approach may restrict women's ability to move freely and change employment, which increases the likelihood that women will seek employment in unregulated and informal sectors. This subsequently increases women's vulnerability to trafficking and exploitation.
Conflict, post-conflict settings and humanitarian crises: In the absence of the rule of law during crises, women and girls can become highly vulnerable to different forms of exploitation. This is due, for example, to the fact that women and girls can be targeted by armed groups for sexual slavery, domestic servitude and forced and child marriages.
Based on the reading of the factors that increase the risk of trafficking for women, as presented in Box 11, complement the list by including a gender approach, i.e. by including men, age-sensitive approaches and persons who identify as LGBTI.
To do so, choose a specific region (it can be your own country) and discuss what are the key gender aspects to be considered when trying to understand the root causes of trafficking.
Read the two following excerpts from different sources which both raise issues regarding what is or what should be a gender-sensitive approach to trafficking.
A gender-sensitive approach considers the different impacts of policies and programmes on men and women and empowers potential and actual victims to access information and remedies, and to claim their human rights in a gender specific manner. Despite growing awareness of the need to empower women through measures to achieve social, economic and political equity, much more remains to be done to increase women's economic and political participation, their educational attainment, and their health and well-being. A gender-sensitive approach therefore also ensures that anti-trafficking strategies address gender-based discrimination and violence, promote gender equality and the realization of human rights […]
What constitutes a gender-sensitive perspective on human trafficking? Does it mean an approach that distinguishes between women and men because their experiences of exploitation are intrinsically different? Or is a gender-sensitive approach one that perceives all trafficked persons as individuals whose rights have been abused because of their - individual or collective - vulnerabilities, understanding that gender may have been one of the reasons why an individual or a group has been exploited?
Based on the different elements raised in these two excerpts, students may discuss the following questions:
Next, try to reflect on your country's anti-trafficking policy or law (if your country does not have any legislation criminalizing TIP, you may select another country in your region):
Look up and read Case GBRx015 on the SHERLOC SOM Case Law Database. This case involves a 22-year old Latvian woman in the United Kingdom who was convicted for her participation in a marriage scam involving an Indian man. She was promised financial compensation for her involvement in the case. She was arrested before she was able to be compensated in full.
In the SHERLOC SOM Case Law Database, look up USAx039 (United States v. Ortega). This case is a federal appeal to a case that took place in the United States, involving an indigenous woman who had a prior history of smuggling.
"Frozen River" (USA 2008) is a movie directed by Courtney Hunt that tells a fictional story about two women who become involved in migrant smuggling on the United States-Canada border. Watch the film and discuss the following questions as a group:
In the SHERLOC SOM Case Law Database, look up case DOM008 (Resolición n. 4445 of Corte de Apelaciones de Iquique). This is a case involving a smuggling ring based in the Dominican Republic that smuggled Dominican and Colombian migrants into Chile via Bolivia.
Sister Ping was perhaps the most notorious smuggling operator in United States contemporary history, allegedly smuggling thousands of Chinese migrants during the years she was active. Read here the press release concerning her sentencing and answer the following questions.
To further help students understand the idea of privilege, and make them aware of their own privilege, while understanding some of the conditions that make people vulnerable trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants, lecturers can ask the students to do the "privilege walk" shown in this short 4-minute video clip. To avoid causing discomfort and embarrassment to the students, it is recommended to use the role-play method and assign fake identities to the students (e.g. male lawyer, woman police officer). Sample statements for the exercise are widely available on the Internet (see, e.g., here or here).
The UN Women Training Centre, in its Compendium of Good Practices in Training for Gender Equality (at p. 64), calls this exercise the "Patriarchy and the Power Walk", and provides the following guidance:
Identities suggested by UN Women include: male lawyer with private firm, 10-year-old street boy, grandmother taking care of orphans, unemployed single mother, male storekeeper, woman police officer, blind elderly man, male school teacher, female member of parliament, migrant ethnic minority, male literate factory worker, returned trafficked girl, female sex worker, undocumented migrant woman, etc. These suggested identities and statements were used by UN Women in its Gender Mainstreaming Course, Bangkok, October 2017.
If it is difficult to conduct this activity due to time and space limitations, lecturers can show the students the clip. The Singapore version of the clip is available here. Note that this exercise will lead to a discussion that goes beyond gender.
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