Sex Trafficking, Peace Processes & Local Discourses - Cyprus

Abstract: When dealing with a process aiming for peace it is common to focus on the conflict issues themselves, and leave other issues to deal with later. But what if these other issues are obstacles to the peace process itself? The purpose of this thesis is to widen the perspective of peacebuilding studies, and shed some light on the issue of sex trafficking and its relation to peace processes. To investigate this further the case of Cyprus is taken as vantage point with the question: How can trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation affect a peace process, and in particular the process in Cyprus? More specifically this thesis investigates how local discourses on sex trafficking are constructed in Cyprus and what has been done concerning the issue and how it affects security equality. The material that forms the base of this study is drawn from government documents, reports and local articles. The outcome of the study shows a complicated relationship where the local discourses on sex trafficking are affecting the security equality, which in turn can affect the peace process, but also that the peace process itself is affecting the issue of sex trafficking in Cyprus.