Human Trafficking Through a Critical Race Feminist Approach: The Italian Sex Industry Case

This work aims to study the issue of human trafficking through a critical race feminist perspective.
 It addresses the evolution of the concepts of race and racism between the United States and continental Europe, as well as the destructive roles that racism and sexism play into constructing the category of “modern day slavery” victims, specifically for their trafficking into the sex industry. Through a historical reconstruction of the Critical Race Theory in the United States and the intersection with the Legal Feminist Theory and Critical Race Feminism, this thesis aims to translate such intersection into the international and European legal, cultural and social sphere, with the objective of specifically discussing the case of immigrant women trafficked for the illegal markets of the sex industry and forced prostitution within the Italian context. Finally, this work seeks to discuss the inefficacy of current state provisions and legislations in protecting and guaranteeing the victims' human rights, especially when factors such as gender, age, sex and citizenship/immigrant status are at play.