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"Although human rights belong to all persons on the basis of their humanity, this book demonstrates that in the practice of international human rights law, the freedom to be non-religious or atheist does not receive the same protection as the freedom to be religious. Despite the claimed universality of freedom of religion and belief contained in article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the key assertion made is that there is a hierarchy of religion and belief, with followers of major established religions enjoying high protection and low regulation at the top, and atheists and non-believers enduring high persecution and weaker protection at the bottom. The existence of this hierarchy is proven and critiqued through three case study chapters that respectively explore the extent to which non-religious and atheist rights-holders enjoy freedom from proselytism, freedom from hate, and freedom from the religions of their parents."--Provided by publisher.

Response to the ATR Debate Proposition: 'It is important and necessary to make clear distinctions between (irregular) migrants, refugees and trafficked persons.'
Whether a person is given a loaded label like 'irregular' migrant, refugee or trafficked person, can make the difference between arrest and protection, or between deportation and asylum, or between return to an uncertain fate and assistance for a decent life. In short, the distinctions we make in the language of international law may mean the difference between life and death.

Response to ATR Debate Proposition: 'Prosecuting trafficking deflects attention from much more important responses and is anyway a waste of time and money'

This article explores the challenges involved in differentiating between human trafficking and migrant smuggling, and their implications for human rights protection. Exploitation is dismissed as a hallmark of trafficking, with reference to situations of trafficking that occur without exploitation, and migrant smuggling that involves exploitation. The consent of smuggled migrants is similarly rejected as a signifier of smuggling, given the irrelevance of consent in human trafficking. Discussion of stigmatisation of migrants willing to migrant irregularly, and the simplification of their plight, leads to consideration of rights-based distinctions between the two phenomena. Assumptions made about the types of abuses that occur in trafficking and smuggling scenarios are explained as detracting from human rights protections of rights-holders. Ultimately, it is asserted that the labels of 'trafficked' and 'smuggled' should not be determined on the basis of human rights abuses, but should be confronted irrespective of which label has been allocated.

International borders are widely touted as bastions in the fight against trafficking in persons. This article acknowledges the important role border officials play in preventing human trafficking, but calls for expectations to be tempered by deference to the conceptual complexity of cross-border trafficking and the migration processes involved. The fact that many trafficked victims begin their journeys as irregular or smuggled migrants highlights the challenge posed to border officials in identifying trafficked persons among the people they encounter. Indicators of trafficking generally relate to the exploitation phase, leaving border officials with little guidance as to how persons vulnerable to trafficking can be accurately identified before any exploitation has occurred. Ultimately, this paper advocates a pragmatic rights-based approach in designating anti-trafficking functions to border officials. A rights-based approach to border control acknowledges the core work of border officials as being to uphold border integrity, while ensuring that their performance of this role does not jeopardise the rights of those they intercept nor result in missed opportunities for specialists to identify trafficked persons and other vulnerable people among them.

Freedom of religion and belief is one of the strongest rights contained in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), but simultaneously one of the most elusive. Article 18 of the ICCPR protects "theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief." And yet jurisprudence is yet to fully explore the capacity of this right to stand up to the challenge of meaningfully protecting freedom of religion and belief across the spectrum of worldviews. At the outset of this thesis, a brief history of religious persecution is offered as a backdrop to the emergence of the human right to freedom of religion and belief, before that human right in its present form is unpacked. The compatibility and incompatibility of freedom of religion and belief and other human rights is explored, with reference to some religious approaches to understanding rights. Pluralism is ultimately identified as a key value in balancing conflicts that may arise between different approaches. The human rights obligations of non-state religious actors are then discussed, before asserting that there is a hierarchy of religion and belief in the practice of international human rights law. Despite the fact that article 18 provides for the equal protection of those who believe in one God, those who believe in many gods and those who believe in no god, monotheists are asserted to occupy the highest rung of the hierarchy, with new religions that have not yet become entrenched in history and atheists below them. This assertion is further explored through case study chapters. A case study on proselytism determines the point at which proselytism, as a manifestation of a person's religion or beliefs, becomes coercion of another person that should be limited. In the following case study chapter on hate speech, it is found that persons who are hated for their religion are more likely to be protected than those who are hated by the religious. The beliefs and traits of parties concerned are thus found to have more bearing on legal decisions than whether or not the hate speech at issue incites violence. The third and final case study chapter considers the conflict between a child's right to enjoy religious freedom with the right of her parent to impose a religion or belief upon her. By exploring this tension through analysis of education and the religious circumcision of infants, it is asserted that international human rights law protects parents' religious rights vis-à-vis their child, above the child's own rights and freedoms. It is then considered whether the hierarchy of religion and belief is justified. From a rights-based perspective premised on the value of individual freedoms above ideology, the conclusion reached is that such a hierarchy is indefensible and may serve to entrench the vulnerability of people on the basis of their religion or belief. In order to level the hierarchy at play, freedom from religion is ultimately offered as the measure of freedom of religion and belief. Freedom of religion and belief is only meaningful when an individual is free to choose, change, maintain or reject any religion or belief or even profess atheism, and when the rights of people around him are protected from harmful manifestations of his choice.

This article introduces a Special Issue of Anti-Trafficking Review themed 'Traffickers'. It describes how most of the knowledge about human trafficking is generated from the accounts of victims of trafficking and people working with them, while knowledge of perpetrators of human trafficking remains limited. It further summarises the articles contained in this special issue. These articles describe one or more aspects of traffickers' characteristics, motivations, modus operandi, relationships with victims, and treatment in the criminal justice system. Overall, the issue shows that in many cases, traffickers' profiles are similar to those of their victims. It suggests that measures to reduce racial, ethnic and other discrimination and improve socioeconomic and educational opportunities for all would help reduce people's vulnerability to becoming victims of trafficking as well as perpetrators.

Armand King was involved in human trafficking for over a decade. The journal Editor, Borislav Gerasimov, and the Special Issue Guest Editor, Marika McAdam, conducted this interview with him to better understand his motivations and experiences during this period of his life as well as his views on counter-trafficking.