Developing a Universal Standard of Care for Victims of Trafficking Under the Guiding Principles of Non-state Torture

Abstract

There has been little examination of sex trafficking as a form of non-state torture in the anti-trafficking field. Furthermore, very few scholarly treatises acknowledge the overlap between these two phenomena, let alone assess these connections in depth. As a result, trafficking survivors sometimes receive suboptimal care. In many cases of sex trafficking, the psychological and physiological abuses that survivors of human trafficking endure can fall within the clinical spectrum of non-state torture trauma. This chapter will discuss the intersection of trafficking and torture and highlight the psychological and physical constellation of symptoms that reveal trafficking as an identifiable form of torture trauma. It will argue that strengthening the awareness of the connection between trafficking and torture trauma will increase the diagnostic accuracy of mental health profiles in survivors of trafficking and improve the profiles’ utility in shaping appropriate care. This awareness will also help establish a universal standard of care for survivors of trafficking that includes recognized methods for the treatment of torture trauma. A universal standard of care increases empathy and understanding for survivors’ psychological states and helps care providers recognize the ways that survivors’ complex behaviors are shaped by traumatic stress. This acknowledgment increases diagnostic clarity and disrupts victim-blaming perceptions that could otherwise impair the judgment of personnel who provide support in a multidisciplinary team context, such as clinicians, social workers, law enforcers, and legal professionals. This acknowledgment can also empower supporting professionals such as clinicians, case managers, community advocates, and social workers to create more complete clinical profiles for survivors, devise more effective treatment protocols, and improve the prospects for effective legal reparation for survivors.