Over the decades GAATW has played a key role in the development of international human rights laws and policies related to human trafficking and migration. In the 1990s, GAATW was instrumental in the campaign for an internationally-recognised definition of human trafficking, now enshrined in the United Nations Trafficking Protocol.

Today, GAATW-IS works with members to advocate for the rights of migrant women and trafficked persons in many ways. Since 2006 we have enjoyed consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations and the GAATW-IS works with members to demand and ensure greater respect for the rights of migrant women and trafficked persons across all United Nations processes.

GAATW-IS also works with members at the regional level. We have had consultative status with the ASEAN Inter- Governmental Commission on Human Rights since 2018, and since 2023 we have been a member of the Regional Monitoring Network of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

As a diverse network of organisations from all over the world, GAATW members also provide global solidarity to each other with policy developments at the national level. GAATW-IS works with members to develop advocacy tools to share research findings with their governments to encourage more evidence-based policy making and to push for feminist responses to trafficking at the national and local level.