Zoe Kern argues that terrorist groups increasingly leverage human trafficking as a tool of war, exploiting legal gaps and jurisdictional challenges to operate with impunity.
Her article explores the intersection of terrorism and trafficking, particularly the exploitation of women and children, who are often forced into sexual slavery or conscripted as child soldiers. Using case studies of the Islamic State (ISIS) and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Kern reveals how these groups manipulate vulnerabilities in legal systems to conduct heinous acts with little fear of prosecution.
While international frameworks such as the Palermo Protocol address trafficking, the fragmented legal landscape surrounding terrorism complicates prosecution. The International Criminal Court (ICC), empowered by the Rome Statute, offers a potential solution but faces significant hurdles, including jurisdictional limitations and inconsistent state cooperation.
Kern makes the case for enhancing the ICC’s legal framework to address the terrorism-trafficking nexus more comprehensively, arguing that trafficking crimes must be systematically prosecuted under the Rome Statute’s provisions on enslavement, sexual violence, and the use of child soldiers.
By building on successful prosecutorial policies in gender-based violence and expanding the application of existing statutes, the ICC can provide a critical mechanism for global accountability and justice.