| Summary: | The purpose of this study is to provide a critical analysis of current trafficking prevention measures by combining a theoretical emphasis on human rights with an empirical, lived-experience research approach. Empirical evidence is used to illuminate the relevance, appropriateness and potential power of the human rights based approach to trafficking prevention. I start with the fact that existing literature places trafficking within the migration, criminal justice, and women's rights discourse. There are also several attempts to place trafficking within a wider human rights debate but this approach has not been fully explored, especially within the prevention framework. My premise is that a human rights framework, based on principles or social justice and cosmopolitanism, which is agency driven rather then victim centred provides an ideal platform for preventing trafficking in human beings. The research provides <l comprehensive analysis of the different types of prevention measures currently in practice (based mainly on political ideology), followed by an analysis of how these ore perceived by Moldovan migrants who have travelled abroad in search or employment within the timeframe 200()-20 1 O. It looks into a number of policy areas around trafficking which are linked to migration, women's rights and prostitution, organised crime, human rights and social justice, examines responses from on the ground organisations doing preventative work, and juxtaposes them to the migrant life stories. The theoretical framework of the thesis is intertwined throughout with empirical evidence to outline the most important concepts used in the research. The main finding of the study is that current trafficking prevention measures do not go far enough in addressing root causes of world inequalities and discrimination such as unfair distribution of resources, the legacy of the slave trade and colonisation, and the North-South divide. This could however be achieved by incorporating a pro-active social justice approach which prioritises and pluralises rights and makes it the responsibility of multiple actors (not just the state or the civil society) to ensure the delivery of these rights.
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