Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes
of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor,
or a modern-day form of slavery.The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and
Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (also
referred to as the Trafficking Protocol) was adopted by the United
Nations in Palermo, Italy in 2000, and is an international legal
agreement attached to the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime. The Trafficking Protocol is one of three
Protocols adopted to supplement the Convention.
The Protocol is
the first global, legally binding instrument on trafficking in over half
a century and the only one that sets out an agreed definition of
trafficking in persons. The purpose of the Protocol is to facilitate
convergence in national cooperation in investigating and prosecuting
trafficking in persons. An additional objective of the Protocol is to
protect and assist the victims of trafficking in persons with full
respect for their human rights. The Trafficking Protocol defines human
trafficking as:
(a) the recruitment, transportation,
transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or
use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of
deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of
the giving or receiving of 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 labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery,
servitude or the removal of organs;
(b) The consent of a
victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth
in subparagraph of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the
means set forth in subparagraph have been used;
(c) The
recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child
for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in
persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in
subparagraph (a) of this article;
(d) “Child” shall mean any person under eighteen years of age.
The
Trafficking Protocol entered into force on 25 December 2003. By June
2010, the Trafficking Protocol had been ratified by 117 countries and
137 parties.
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