FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM C. 63 Analysis of the Trafficking Convention The 1949 Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others reads more of an antiprostitution instrument than as an anti-trafficking one. It calls for the eradication of traffic in persons without defining it and equates trafficking with prostitution and the movement of persons into prostitution. Thus, it ignores the plethora of end purposes for which trafficking may take place. By ignoring the other purposes for which trafficking takes place, the 1949 Convention denies protection to a large group of trafficked persons; and hence becomes limited in its scope and reach. The Convention considers prostitution an “evil”; as “incompatible with the dignity and work of the human person”. The fact that it also prohibits the “exploitation of prostitution” by others even with the consent of the person involved, confirms its real focus – the abolition of prostitution. Thus, the Convention has moralistic overtones. But even this goal is not fully realized in the Convention for despite its avowed abolitionist stance, the Convention does not, in fact, prohibit prostitution requiring State Parties only to take social and economic measures aimed at preventing prostitution.136 The 1949 Convention, though gender neutral, predominately affects women137. The preventive measures are designed in such a manner that they deprive women of their right to move freely within their country’s borders, right to migrate, labour rights including the right to choice of work, the right to unionize and the right to just and favourable conditions of work. This unequal treatment of women further propagates inequality, discrimination and lowering of status of women. The Convention entrenches the age-old beliefs that women need protection and cannot act as free agents having free will. The crime control perspective of the Convention makes it an ineffective human rights instrument. The Convention lays more emphasis on controlling people’s movement than providing relief and succour to victims of trafficking. There are many provisions on prevention, State cooperation on prevention and investigation of trafficking but only a few provisions on rehabilitation of the victims. The provision on repatriation also falls short of expectations. It fails to take into account the special 136 Anne Gallagher, “The International Legal Response to Human Trafficking” paper presented for the Technical Consultative Meeting on Anti-Trafficking Programs in South Asia, Kathmandu, Nepal, September 2001, p.8. 137 GAATW, Human Rights and Trafficking in Persons- A Handbook. Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women, Bangkok, Thailand, 2001, p.23.