Responding to Child Sex Trafficking: Transnational Advocacy Networks in the Greater Mekong Subregion

Abstract

The rapidly expanding market in enslaved children bought and sold for sex is one of the most inhumane transnational crimes that appears to have been facilitated by globalization and its many effects, such as a growing disparity in wealth between north and south. Child sex trafficking has become one of the most highly publicized social issues of this time, and, because of its global nature, transnational advocacy networks are well placed and central to leading campaigns against it. Transnational advocacy network anti-trafficking efforts have led to significant progress in the Mekong Subregion by bringing the child trafficking issue onto the global social policy agenda, resulting in new child protection legislation and improved interagency collaboration in the region.