As I
will be using the methodology of the Walk Free Foundation’s Global Slavery
Index (GSI) as a guide to developing a human trafficking risk index at the
provincial level for Kazakhstan, I will go through and explain the GSI
methodology, and point out possible corollaries that I could use within my own
methodology. Moreover, I will need to continually updating and revising it to
reflect data availability and applicability. Part of the goal of this post is
to obtain feedback on the usefulness/accuracy of suggested indicators, and to
seek assistance in locating sources of relevant data that I have overlooked, so
please comment with any suggestions.
The GSI
establishes a level of risk by country based on 33 quantitative indicators
divided across five general dimensions:
slavery policy, human rights, development, state stability, and women’s rights and discrimination. I
will go through each and expand on their indicators, with an eye to how I could apply the same or similar within my own methodology.
Key to my ability to incorporate an indicator is the likelihood that it varies
across the Kazakh provinces, national policies that generally affect each
province equally is unlikely to provide any useful insight into the difference
in risk between provinces. Additionally, I must be able to obtain data on that
indicator at the provincial level, either through publicly available sources or
through direct request from the Kazakh or local provincial governments.
Slavery Policy is composed of the seven
indicator variables: prevention,
prosecution, protection, law enforcement training, migration regulation,
monitoring of labor practices, and parallel
legal system. Prosecution, protection and prevention are based on a scale
developed in Cho, Dreher, & Neumeyer’s “The Determinants of Anti-trafficking
Policies - Evidence from a New Index” (2012).[1]
Prosecution measures “whether the
country has legislative and other measures to establish criminal offences for
trafficking in persons, in line with the definition provided by the (UN) Anti-trafficking
Protocol; whether such legislative and other measures are appropriately and
effectively enforced.” Protection
measures “whether the country protects the human rights of victims of
trafficking; identifies them; and provides for the physical, psychological and
social recovery of victims of trafficking by legislative and other measures.” Prevention measures whether the country
establishes and practices comprehensive policies, programs and other measures
to prevent and combat trafficking in persons.” Kazakh provincial data
replicating these measures is not readily available. However, through both
qualitative research into the Kazakh legal system regarding human trafficking
(of particular significance will be whether trafficking is prosecuted at the
federal or provincial level, if at all), a simplified version may be adaptable
to my methodology.
The
next three within Slavery Policy are law enforcement training, migration
regulation to limit trafficking, and the monitoring of labor practices, which are based on the US Dept. of
State’s “Trafficking in Persons Report 2013”.[2]
Law enforcement training in human trafficking
and the monitoring of labor practices may
differ significantly between provinces, and could be obtainable by request
through the provincial governments. While migration regulations specifically is
more federal policy and unlikely to differ by province, information on the
number of migrants by province could prove useful and also could be possible to
obtain through request.
The
final variable within Slavery Policy is
the existence of a parallel legal system
that endangers the rights of minorities, based on the “World Factbook”
published by the Central Intelligence Agency.[3]
As with migration policy, the legal system is unlikely to differ significantly
between provinces, but further research may reveal otherwise.
Human Rights is composed of seven more
indicators: access to legal and property
rights, civil liberties, political rights, freedom of assembly, freedom of
religion, freedom of speech, and
worker’s rights. Access to legal and
property rights is based on the “International Property Rights Index”
published by the Property Rights Alliance.[4]
The civil liberties and political rights variables are from the
Freedom House rankings.[5]
The three freedom and the worker’s rights
variables vary based on the protection of each as measured by the “Human Rights
Data Project” by CIRI.[6]
All of these measures are generally federal in nature and while the enforcement
of federal law may differ significantly across the provinces, it will be
difficult to capture through publicly accessible data and unlikely to be
monitored by the provinces. It could be possible through qualitative sources
such as LexisNexis to get an idea on where violations of political and worker
rights have occurred based on media reports.
Development consists of nine indicators: access to financial services, cell phone
users, credit information, international debt, internet activity, GDP per
capita in terms of purchasing power parity (GDP-PPP), the Human Development Index (HDI), literacy, and social safety net. The first six are all based on World Bank measures.[7]
The HDI comes from the dataset
compiled by the UN Development Programme.[8]
Literacy is a scale based on data
from the CIA’s “World Factbook”. Finally, social
safety net scores are measured by the International Labor Organization.[9]
All of these variables differ between provinces in Kazakhstan, yet not all will
likely be accessible. The Kazakh government provides both internet activity and
literacy by province. GDP-PPP is not available, however basic income data is,
which should be an adequate replacement. Access to financial services and cell
phone users may be accessible via a request to the federal or provincial
governments. Credit information and HDI would likely be difficult to accurately
measure by province, and international debt and social safety net are federal
measures that are unlikely to differ significantly by province.
State Stability is composed of seven
variables: corruption, governance,
independence of judiciary, peace index, weapons access, political instability,
and violent crime. Corruption
varies from highly corrupt to clean based on Transparency International’s
“Corruption Perceptions Index”.[10]
Governance ranges from weak to strong
based on the World Bank’s “Governance Indicators.”[11]
Independence of judiciary scores are again
from the “Human Rights Data Project” by CIRI. Provided by the Vision of Humanity’s
“Global Peace Index”, both the peace
index ranges from most to least peaceful, and weapons access from low to high access).[12]
Political instability varies from no
to high vulnerability as measured by The Economist Intelligence Unit’s “Political
Instability Index”.[13]
The last, violent crime, measures the
homicide rate per 100,000 population as compiled by the UN Office on Drugs and
Crimes (UNODC).[14]
All of these indicators could provide important differentiation between
provinces, yet only crime is readily available at the provincial level. Of the
remaining six, independence of judiciary,
the peace index, weapons access and political instability would probably be
very difficult to obtain and may not differ significantly across provinces. Corruption and governance will also be difficult to obtain, but could be very
valuable as they likely differ considerably across provinces and both have a
strong influence on the prevalence of human trafficking. I will continue to
look for additional sources of data for both. Additionally, the UNODC’s “Drugs
Monitoring” platform provides information on drug trafficking seizures by
province that could be a valuable indicator of state capability and reach.[15]
The
final dimension, Women’s Rights and
Discrimination, contains the Gini
coefficient, women’s economic rights,
and women’s political rights. The
Gini coefficient measures income
inequality as reported by the World Bank.[16]
Women’s economic and political rights
are scored from no rights to nearly all, again from the “Human Rights Data
Project” by CIRI. Of these three the Gini
coefficient is readily available by province. Both measures of women’s
rights would be valuable, but none of the data I have been able to find at the
provincial level differentiates between men and women, but perhaps through a
direct request to the Kazakh statistics agency.
[1] http://www.economics-human-trafficking.org/data-and-reports.html
[2] http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2013/
[3] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
[4] http://www.internationalpropertyrightsindex.org/
[5] http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2013#.Uv0ZvtxdXIc
[6] http://www.humanrightsdata.org/
[7] http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTFR/Resources/Cross_Country_Variation_In_Household_Access.pdf;
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.CEL.SETS.P2;
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IC.CRD.INFO.XQ; http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTDEBTDEPT/0,,contentMDK:20260411~menuPK:528655~pagePK:64166689~piPK:64166646~theSitePK:469043,00.html;
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.NET.USER.P2;
[8] http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/hdi
[9] http://www.ilo.org/global/research/global-reports/world-social-security-report/lang--en/index.htm
[10] http://www.transparency.org/cpi2012/results#myAnchor1
[11] http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/worldwide-gove
[12] http://www.visionofhumanity.org/#/page/about-gpi
[13] http://viewswire.eiu.com/site_info.asp?info_name=social_unrest_table&page=noads
[14] http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/homicide.html
[15] http://drugsmonitoring.unodc-roca.org/
[16] http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI
