A South African News Framing Analysis Reveals Modern-Day Slavery Flourishes Domestically Despite an International Human Rights Relationship

Abstract

What happens to a nation’s human trafficking policies and practices when that nation, a democracy, co-founds an international organisation dedicated to human rights? This project is one element of a tripartite study to explore IBSA membership’s influence on one member–namely, South Africa. South Africa, which has been widely covered in the international press for its history of segregation and other racial and ethnic conflicts over time, is a major player, as many are trafficked to, through and from Africa’s strongest economy. Informed by framing theory, a mixed quantitative and qualitative study of 110 national HT news articles spanning 19 years of pre- and post-IBSA membership indicates that South Africa’s role in co-founding and membership of IBSA have had little to no influence on the country’s human trafficking policies and practices. The four frames include one from the pre-IBSA period: the value of women, and three post-IBSA membership: World Cup worries and preps, protect the children and lawlessness. This research questions the effectiveness of international organisational participation, articulates the gross social injustice of human trafficking, points out the South African press’s role in reporting on it, and calls for other root-based approaches to stop trafficking, given how current top-down measures seem powerless to stay it.