Anti-Trafficking Measures

In November 2000 the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and two additional protocols, one on smuggling and one on trafficking. The Trafficking Protocol contains the first internationally agreed upon definition of trafficking in human beings. It defines as:

"The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by mean of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, or abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."

Governments are obligated to protect victims of trafficking against human rights violations. However, measures to achieve this regularly cause negative side effects and are sometimes in breach with human rights standards themselves. To analyse the consequences of such policy, the Human rights & Trafficking Instrument is being developed.

The sources & resources of the tool as well as additional information can be found here.