Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
Abstract
This article examines the process of consensus formation by the international community regarding how to confront the problem of trafficking in persons. We analyze the corpus of United Nations General Assembly Third Committee resolutions to show that: (1) consensus around the issue of how to confront trafficking in persons has increased over time; and (2) the formation of this consensus depends upon how the issue is framed. We test our argument by examining the characteristics of resolutions’ sponsors and discursive framing concepts such as crime, human rights, and the strength of enforcement language. We conclude that the consensus-formation process in international relations is more aptly described as one of ‘accommodation’ through issue linkage than a process of persuasion.
Keywords
Human rights, international consensus, trafficking in persons, transnational crime, United Nations, General Assembly, Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee, Third Committee, Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, TIP Protocol
Publication Title
European Journal of International Relations
Repository Citation
Charnysh, Volha; Lloyd, Paulette; and Simmons, Beth A., "Frames and Consensus Formation in International Relations: The Case of Trafficking in Persons" (2015). All Faculty Scholarship. 1685.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/1685
Included in
Criminal Law Commons, Human Rights Law Commons, International Law Commons, International Relations Commons, Law and Politics Commons, Public Law and Legal Theory Commons, Social Psychology Commons
Publication Citation
21(2) European Journal of International Relations 323 (2015).