Gender dimension of human trafficking. Interferences from the legal culture. The Spanish case

Abstract

Taking into account the gender dimension of trafficking in human beings is essential to ensure adequate support for the female victims as well as effective prevention and the prosecution of traffickers. Directive 2011/36/EU of 5 April 2011 on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims from a gender perspective recognised that this is a gender-specific phenomenon, affecting men and women in different ways. This paper aims to verify in depth the compliance of Spain in terms of application of the Directive, in particular the adoption of a gender perspective. It will do it from the viewpoint that legal actors such as judges, practitioners and legislators need to work with some supposedly consensual idea of legal culture as a regulative ideal when they argue what the European law requires. The main hypothesis is that the Spanish legal culture regarding human trafficking interferes with the EU policy on the matter, especially the fuller implementation of its gender aspects, rendering the transposition and implementation of different elements of the EU Anti-Trafficking Directive contradictory and ineffective. To support her conclusions, the author offers contextual information based on pre-legislative and academic discussions related to the legislative actions taken by the government to transpose the EU Anti-Trafficking Directive from a gender perspective.

Keywords

• human trafficking
• legal culture
• gender perspective
• migration control
• prostitution