The Fight Against Human Trafficking in Colombia (2008-2013): An Unfinished Policy

The struggle against human traffic raises two kinds of policy problems: the defense of human rights and national security. The Colombian case, especially in the department of Narino, offers quite an illustrative example of this duality. We analyze this case from the framework of public policies policy during the 2008-2013 period, throughout its instruments of information, authority, treasure and organization. First, we expose the human rights versus security governance dilema, starting from the complexity of the policy problem: international, national and local dimensions of human trafic, protracted armed conflict, illegal activities, civil society incidence. Then we analyze the instruments of the Colombian policy against human trafic in their substantive dimension (which shows a preference for security at a national level and through bilateral agreements) and procedimental one (which expresses a preference for human rights at a local level and through the local border cooperation process), which characterize the implementation style of this policy. Our research shows that the colombian policy against human trafficking suffers from inconsistencies between its instruments and from a chronicle bureaucratic coordination problem that affects style of policy implementation.