Counter-trafficking governance in South Africa: an analysis of the role of the KwaZulu-Natal human trafficking,prostitution, pornography and brothels task team

Determining the efficacy of available counter-trafficking strategies is just as important as understanding the phenomenon of human trafficking itself. This is so if anti-trafficking practitioners wish to make in-roads in preventing and combating human trafficking in South Africa. At the heart of the matter are the ways in which counter-trafficking governance is structured in the South African context. In this article we use the KwaZulu-Natal intersectoral task team, an un-resourced agency of provincial government mandated to prevent and combat human trafficking, as a case study to analyse the ‘4P model’ of counter-trafficking favoured in South Africa. We find that while such an integrated model has great potential, issues of institutional cooperation and coordination, pervasive public official corruption and budgetary constraints hamper its current impact and efficacy. We conclude that these issues must be addressed by South African policy-makers once legislation has been promulgated.     

The veterans’ gala: the use of tradition in an industrial labour conflict in contemporary Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT

Since its privatization in 1995, Kazakhstan’s largest steel mill has been in a restructuring process characterized by workforce reduction, augmented pressure on remaining jobs and labour conflict over wages, work conditions and corporate social responsibility. In 2013, in an attempt to re-establish harmonious relationships with workers, management invited the mill’s former labour aristocracy to join a newly established veterans’ council, a forum resembling traditional aksakal councils, to discuss the company’s difficult situation. In the context of a banquet in honour of the veterans, tradition became the contested terrain over which labour and capital struggled to endorse their own visions of the industrial future. As corporate capitalist visions of efficiency and professionalism, ethno-national concerns for harmony and stability, and practices rooted in the Soviet labour legacy clash, tradition is staged by actors as a practice which can either affirm or challenge industrial leadership in a labour conflict.     

国际法院裁决:柏威夏寺问题的终结?

根据柬埔寨的要求,2013年11月11日,海牙国际法院对柏威夏寺周边地区的领土纠纷作出判决,使柏威夏寺问题再次成为热点。尽管国际法院的裁决已经出来,但该问题似乎并未获得彻底解决,该问题依然是两国人民十分关注的热点,且对两国之间的关系有比较大的影响。在对该问题隐藏的若干因素进行分析后,本文认为该问题未能彻底解决的原因包括两国人民的思想差异、过度民族主义及国内政治斗争等因素。     

中国企业在柬埔寨的投资及其影响

近年来,中国企业在柬埔寨不断增长的投资引发了许多关注和有意义的讨论,但是大多数讨论缺乏足够的事实材料,因为研究者很难接触到中国企业来收集足够和可靠的信息。本文根据三个月对大约20家在柬埔寨中国公司的深入访谈,试图提供中国企业在柬埔寨投资及其影响的更全面的图景。本文考察了中国企业在柬埔寨投资的规模和对当地经济和社会的影响。本文认为,不论是中国企业在柬埔寨投资的规模还是对当地的影响都被夸大了。     

1955-1970年柬埔寨政治改革研究

建制、改制,是摆在每个新兴独立国家面前的首要任务.1953年,柬埔寨获得了梦寐以求的国家独立.独立之初,打破旧的殖民地政治经济体制,建立新的体制成为西哈努克政府的首要任务.以西哈努克为首的柬埔寨王国政府从柬埔寨实际国情出发,将资本主义制度、社会主义制度和柬埔寨传统政治安排创造性地结合起来,走上了一条有柬埔寨特色的卓有成效的政治经济改革之路.限于篇幅所限,本文将重点研究政治改革这一个方面.     

东盟的文化特征意识 --东盟意识与东盟的发展(Ⅰ)

东盟的文化特征意识是东盟意识的一个重要组成部分,它集中体现为东盟的组织特点和决策风格,即"东盟方式".东盟方式强调组织方式和决策的非正式性、非对抗性和协商一致精神,这种意识来源于印尼爪哇农村的决策传统,成型于东盟成员国之间的行为互动,强化于东盟对柬埔寨问题的不懈努力.     

柬埔寨艾滋病治理成效及其原因评析

作为典型的弱小国家,柬埔寨在艾滋病治理上为世界树立了一个重要的榜样。经过20多年的努力,柬埔寨的艾滋病治理取得了显著的成效,主要表现在:艾滋病感染率大大降低,每年新增艾滋病感染人数大幅减少,艾滋病患者接受治疗的比例不断提升。取得这种成效的原因首先是柬埔寨政府对于艾滋病的安全化定位与实践,树立了政府治理的决心与魄力;其次是非政府组织对艾滋病治理的积极参与,奠定了艾滋病治理的社会基础;最后是国际社会的援助为柬埔寨艾滋病治理提供了强大的动力。这三个因素构成了柬埔寨艾滋病治理取得显著成效的三驾马车。     

Singapore’s Phantom Workers

In 2009, the Singapore state prosecuted a string of businesses for listing fictitious local workers on their books in order to stretch their foreign worker entitlement. These “phantom” worker scams, prevalent since the 1980s, appear out of place in Singapore – a country with a strong international reputation for its government’s efficiency and strict legal enforcement. This paper examines the state’s prosecutions of the phantom worker scams in the context of the exceptional economic and political stresses in 2009, when Singapore was most severely affected by the global economic crisis, in order to address the employment regime in Singapore. It argues that the belated efforts to tackle the phantom worker scams reflected the pro-business state’s reluctance to tackle illegalities crucial to facilitating employers’ otherwise unlawful access to wealth and resources in Singapore.