International human rights law’s complicity in status subordination: A postcolonial critique of treaty bodies’ engagement with human trafficking

This presentation is based on Dr. Haynes article of the same title published in the Leiden Journal of International Law

This article presents a critical postcolonial analysis of international human rights law’s engagement with human trafficking through the lens of seven UN treaty bodies. Drawing on content analysis of 1,197 documents (33 General Comments/Recommendations, 1,049 Concluding Observations, and 115 Individual Communications), the article reveals how international human rights law is implicated in the status subordination of subaltern people. The article identifies 54 documents containing evidence of colonial legacies, with 76% of relevant Concluding Observations addressing Global South states. It argues that treaty bodies reinscribe colonial patterns through problematic conflation of trafficking with slavery, promotion of repressive migration policies, inconsistent treatment of prostitution and sex tourism, perpetuation of ‘raid and rescue’ approaches, and essentialization of trafficking victims as ‘innocent’. It also exposes limited engagement with intersectionality in individual communications, potentially overlooking complex, multifaceted experiences of trafficking victims. The article concludes by proposing concrete strategies to decolonise anti-trafficking law and practice, including interrogating assumed neutrality in legal instruments, embracing a politics of recognition, integrating the concept of ‘burdened agency’, and meaningfully countenancing intersectionality in legal analyses. This analysis contributes to understanding how international human rights law can better serve its emancipatory potential while avoiding the perpetuation of status subordination.

Dr Haynes joined Birmingham Law School in 2022, having previously served as Senior Lecturer in Law and Deputy Dean for Graduate Studies and Research at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. Before joining the UWI Cave Hill Campus in Barbados, he was a Lecturer in Law at the UWI, Mona Campus, Jamaica, and also taught at Durham Law School. He qualified as a Barrister/Solicitor, and served as Senior Legal Officer jointly for the US Embassy and British High Commission (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) in Barbados, and was Secretary General of the Arbitration and Mediation Court of the Caribbean. His Judicial Clerkship was completed at the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal in St Lucia.

He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and an Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of Middle Temple. He was an O’Brien Fellow in Residence at McGill University.