Country Trafficking Protocol Compliance and the Empowerment of Girls and Women

Human trafficking is a gender-based crime of violence. The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (Protocol) is one of the most important international means to counter human trafficking; however, the ability of the United Nations to enforce the Protocol is considerably limited. The primary purpose of this study is to theoretically and empirically explore the underlying societal factors that drive - or impede - a country’s compliance with the Protocol. We theorize that countries that have relatively fewer gender-based discriminatory laws, policies, and social practices place a greater value on the welfare of girls and women and are more likely to comply with the Protocol. This hypothesis is empirically tested using a cross-country dataset and a series of ordered logit regressions. Cho et al.’s 3 P index is used to measure country compliance. The degree of women’s inclusivity and empowerment in relation to laws and regulations is measured using the World Bank’s Women, Business, and the Law index. The level of socio-economic gender empowerment and inclusivity within a country is assessed using; women’s labor force participation rate, the percentage of parliament seats held by women, and the United Nation’s Gender Inequality Index. The analysis results offer empirical evidence that the degree to which girls and women experience inclusivity and empowerment is a predictor of country compliance. This study extends previous research exploring the relationship between gender inequality and human trafficking to examine how measures of gender inequality can hinder country Protocol compliance.