"A Beacon of Service in a Troubled World": Restoring the United Nations' Human Rights Reputation by Standardizing Extradition Practices for Accused Human Traffickers

By: Brook Whitley

Recent high profile human trafficking cases—particularly trafficking for

sexual exploitation—have highlighted shortcomings in international human

rights law. Human trafficking has unique features that necessitate aggressive

and innovative approaches to justice for trafficking victims. Trafficking is often

a transnational crime, involving transporting victims across borders. The

networks traffickers create are pervasive and insidious, making legal

consequences paramount for victims to receive justice. Localized law enforcement

and judicial bodies are subject to corruption and bribery that weaken

opportunities for legal enforcement. It is impractical to expect to eliminate human

trafficking at its root or create a perfect penal system that punishes only its

perpetrators. Standardized extradition of accused human traffickers as enforced

by the United Nations, however, would propagate human rights for the

marginalized individuals that human trafficking victimizes. The United Nations

is losing its footing on international diplomacy and human rights in the twenty-

first century largely due to lack of enforcement mechanisms and outdated and

ineffective sanctions regimes. This Note makes two novel contributions intended

to address these issues. The first is amending the United Nations Model Treaty

on Extradition to create mandatory extradition standards in instances of human

rights abuses caused by trafficking, giving the treaty teeth and bringing it into

the modern day. The second is creating a sanctions regime for noncompliant

United Nations member states to enforce compliance with the updated treaty.