Women's Rights Organizations and Human Trafficking

Objectives: This article examines the impact of women's rights organizations (WROs) in preventing human trafficking and improving state policies on trafficking. WROs, through their knowledge and experience working with governments, and the services they provide to women, are in a strong position to influence trafficking outcomes and policies. Methods: Implementing a cross-national time series analysis of states between the years 2000 and 2007 with data on WRO presence within states, shaming by WROs, and data on trafficking flows and policy, we test our hypotheses. Results: We show support for the hypothesis that WRO presence and shaming can lead to improvements in this important policy area. Conclusions: In a growing literature on the effects of NGOs on state policy and human rights, this study illustrates an additional important area where NGOs lead to improvements in policy outcomes.