GAATW applies a human rights approach to trafficking, which means:

• Centering the human rights of trafficked persons, and those in vulnerable situations, in all anti-trafficking activities;
• Acknowledging the equality of all persons to exercise, defend, and promote their inherent, universal, and indivisible human rights
• Non-discrimination on any grounds, including ethnic descent, age, sexual orientation or preference, religion, gender, age, nationality, and occupation (including work in the informal sectors such as domestic work, sex work, etc.)
• Primacy of the principles of accountability, participation, and inclusivity / non-discrimination in working methodologies, and organizational structures and procedures. In this respect, self-representation and organization of those directly affected by trafficking are strongly encouraged and supported.

GAATW's work is structured around three main strategic thematic directions:^{[citation needed]}

• accountability – which aims to increase the accountability of all anti-trafficking stakeholders involved in the design or implementation of anti-trafficking responses, towards the persons whose human rights they purport to protect.
• access to justice – which aims to broaden spaces for trafficked persons and migrant workers to practice their human rights by improving access to justice and combating all forms of discrimination that impact women's ability to exercise their human rights, as they relate to trafficking.
• power in migration and work – which centres an analysis of women's power in their labour and migration to better assess migration and labour policies' impact on women, and to work towards labour and migration processes that reflect migrants' needs, aspirations, and capabilities.

GAATW also serves its members through international advocacy, research, and strategic communications.^{[citation needed]}

Publications by GAATW include:

• Trafficking in Women, Forced Labour, and Slavery-like Practices^[3] (1997) - the first worldwide investigation of human trafficking in the context of prostitution, marriage, and domestic labour
• Human Rights Standards for the Treatment of Trafficked Persons^[4] (1999) - a collection of human rights standards that can be used to protect trafficked persons' rights.
• Collateral Damage - The Impact of Anti-Trafficking Measures on Human Rights around the World^[5] (2007) - a research in eight countries across the globe, highlighting how anti-trafficking policies are routinely used to infringe on the human rights of groups of people, like women, migrants, and sex workers.
• What's the Cost of a Rumour? A guide to sorting out the myths and the facts about sporting events and trafficking^[6] (2011) - which challenged the wide-spread false belief that large sporting events lead to an increase in human trafficking.^[7]

Since 2012, GAATW publishes Anti-Trafficking Review - the first open access, peer-reviewed journal dedicated specifically to human trafficking.^[8]

• La Strada Program

• "Basic Principles of GAATW". Global Alliance Against Traffic on Women. 15 March 2005. Retrieved February 12, 2020.

Specific

• "Global Alliance Against Traffic on Women". Retrieved 2010-02-17.
• UN.GIFT - Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking Archived 2012-12-01 at the Wayback Machine