Paper details
| Paper authors | Isabela Montilha da Silva |
| In panel on | Feminist crisis response amidst anti-rights politics and backlash: insights from hum. practice (Roundtable) |
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Abstract
My paper explores the intersection between feminist approaches to Transitional Justice (TJ) and the persistent challenge of sex trafficking, through the case study of Cambodia. It expands on the thesis that TJ mechanisms, when articulated through a feminist lens, can offer a critical framework to address structural factors enabling human trafficking in post-conflict societies. By combining literature review and thematic analysis of Cambodian NGOs’ discourses, this research reveals how civil society actors have engaged with and translated the language of transitional justice to confront gender-based violence (GBV) and the systemic vulnerabilities that facilitate sex trafficking. The Cambodian case—marked by its institutionalized yet limited transitional process through the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)—provides key insights into the role of non-judicial, feminist-informed practices in addressing the legacies of conflict-related sexual violence and contemporary trafficking dynamics. This paper contributes to current debates on expanding transitional justice beyond its traditional criminal law mechanisms, emphasizing its potential as a counter-trafficking tool focused on social justice and victim empowerment. It ultimately argues for a more integrated, gender-sensitive approach to post-conflict reconstruction that acknowledges and redresses the continuum of gendered violence.
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