With globalization, the rise of digitalization and mobility has created a conducive environment for international organized crime networks to operate more effectively. Among these networks, women trafficking, which targets the most vulnerable groups, has emerged as a critical issue in terms of both international security and human rights. In combating cross-border crimes, multilateral police cooperation organizations such as Interpol play a strategic role.
In December 2024, within the framework of an online operation conducted jointly by Interpol and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), significant findings were obtained regarding a women trafficking network operating along the Latin America-Europe route. The operation identified 146 suspects and reached 68 victims; through the use of facial recognition and digital analysis technologies, 365 usernames and 162 links were classified as high-risk data.[i]
Canada, along with several European countries such as Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands, played an active role in the operation. The exchange of digital traces allowed cases to be investigated in a coordinated manner, highlighting Interpol’s function as a crucial bridge within states’ foreign policy tools in combating international crime.
Feminist security studies challenge traditional conceptions of security by redefining the concept through a gender-sensitive lens. This approach offers an alternative framework to state-centered security perceptions, particularly by analyzing the direct impacts of profit and power relations on the security of women.
The feminist perspective is also closely linked to the human security paradigm. However, this approach is sometimes criticized for prioritizing state security over the security of individuals. For instance, the Palermo Protocol, one of the key instruments in the fight against human trafficking, has been criticized by feminist scholars for addressing victims primarily within a “security” framework, while relegating the human rights dimension to the background. Such critiques are significant in ensuring that the subjectivities of female victims are not rendered invisible and that male victims are not excluded.[ii]
The feminist neo-abolitionist approach views women trafficking not merely as a criminal category, but also as a product of a structural and gender-based system of oppression. Rather than turning women into passive “defenseless victims,” this framework recognizes them as full subjects of human rights and calls for empowering policies.[iii] In this context, Interpol’s operations can be understood not only as law enforcement activities but also as gender-sensitive and human rights-based tools within states’ foreign policy. Therefore, when Interpol’s technical capacities are integrated with a feminist security approach, a more holistic and just policy framework can be established in the fight against human trafficking.
Interpol’s digital operations aim to protect victims and bring perpetrators to justice in the fight against human trafficking; however, these operations face various theoretical critiques. Feminist security approaches particularly criticize the categorization of victims as “vulnerable,” viewing it as an approach that overlooks individuals’ subjectivities and agency. Within this framework, it should be emphasized that women are not only passive victims but can sometimes play active roles within criminal organizations, and that men can also be victims of human trafficking. Consequently, Interpol’s gendered security understandings are criticized for failing to reflect the diversity and complexity of real victimization experiences.
Furthermore, some feminist scholars draw attention to the concept of “embedded feminism,” highlighting how states instrumentalize women’s rights discourse. According to this critique, states or international organizations may present narratives aimed at liberating or protecting women within an operational framework, while concealing underlying strategic or security-driven interests. In such cases, the rhetoric of “rescuing women” can be employed as a tool to legitimize foreign policy.
Interpol-supported international operations can be viewed within this context too. Although they appear to be human rights-based, when these operations transform into instruments of state foreign policy, they may give rise to new power asymmetries from a feminist critical perspective. Therefore, operational strategies need to be reassessed in a way that encompasses both security logic and gender sensitivity.
Member states’ foreign policy orientations may position Interpol operations not only as tools for combating crime but also as demonstrations of their commitment to international norms and human rights regimes. Countries that embrace a feminist foreign policy approach (such as Canada and some European states), in particular, support Interpol’s role in combating trafficking in women while also tending to filter the formal implementation of this fight through a feminist lens. This approach proposes not only an outcome-oriented understanding of security but also a process-based ethical and political inquiry mechanism.
Interpol, in this context, is not only a security apparatus combating international crime but also an actor supporting structural transformations that prioritize gender equality. The organization promotes the establishment of gender-sensitive police forces and organizes mentorship programs, leadership trainings, and capacity-building activities focused on gender awareness in cooperation with member countries. Through these initiatives, Interpol facilitates the alignment of not only foreign policy but also internal institutional structures with feminist norms.
Therefore, Interpol can serve as an interface between states’ foreign policies and global gender regimes. This role both enhances the legitimacy of security-based international interventions and contributes to the integration of feminist normative frameworks into institutional structures.
Interpol is a key actor coordinating transnational cooperation in the fight against women trafficking and has become an implementing extension of state foreign policies. Its operational capacity against human trafficking is valuable for the concretization of international commitments. However, feminist security theories criticize these interventions for reducing women to mere “victims” and rendering their socio-political agendas invisible. Moreover, the excessive use of women-centered discourse may marginalize the roles of male victims or female agents within criminal organizations. Therefore, collaborations between Interpol and feminist foreign policy principles must aim for transformation not only at the technical level but also at the normative level. In this way, security can be redefined not only from a state-centric perspective but also within the human security framework. Sustainable success in combating women trafficking is only possible through this multidimensional and critical approach.
[i] “Inside INTERPOL’s Probe into Cyber-Enabled Human Trafficking”, INTERPOL, December 18, 2024, https://www.interpol.int/News-and-Events/News/2024/Inside-INTERPOL-s-probe-into-cyber-enabled-human-trafficking, (Date Accessed: 24.07.2025).
[ii] “Human Security vs. Feminist Security Approaches to Human Trafficking in the Mediterranean”, Atlas Institute, https://atlasinstitute.org/human-security-vs-feminist-security-approaches-to-human-trafficking-in-the-mediterranean, (Date Accessed: 24.07.2025).
[iii] Laura Rubio Grundell, “The Intersection of Security and Neo-abolitionism in the EU’s Anti-trafficking Policies,” in Security Meets Gender Equality in the EU, Gender and Politics (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12209-5_4.
