Trafficking
Women, War, Peace and Trafficking
- Introduction
- Key Terms
- International Organizations
- UNIFEM Action
- Tools and Checklists
- UN Documents
- Experts' Assessment
- Archive
- PeaceWomen - NGOs
Introduction
One of the most serious challenges facing human rights today is the crime of human trafficking and its various dimensions, including organized crime, prostitution, security, migration, labour and health. It is difficult to obtain accurate statistics on the number of trafficking victims, but estimates range from 500,000 to two million per year. The trafficking business generates an estimated US$7-12 billion per year and affects every region of the world. Trafficking and sexual slavery are inextricably linked to conflict. Armed conflict increases the risk of women and girls being trafficked across international borders to be used in forced labour schemes that often include sexual slavery and/or forced prostitution. more... Trafficking flourishes in environments created by the breakdown of law and order, police functions and border controls during conflict, combined with globalization’s free markets and open borders. Also, criminal networks involved in the arms or drug trades often expand their business to include trafficking in persons. more... more... A country is more likely to become a source of trafficking victims after sudden political change, economic collapse, civil unrest, internal armed conflict or natural disaster. Women and girls who are victims of international trafficking often find themselves forced into prostitution at brothels that service military forces stationed nearby. more...
Members of peacekeeping operations have also been directly involved in trafficking. Refugee and internally displaced women and girls—especially in camp situations—are particularly vulnerable to trafficking and other forms of exploitation and abuse. Since the entry into effect of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, in 2002, the trafficking of women in the context of armed conflict has been considered a war crime and a crime against humanity.
Key Terms
Enslavement: The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines enslavement as “the exercise of any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership over a person and includes the exercise of such power in the course of trafficking in persons, in particular women and children”.
Trafficking in Persons: Article 3(a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, (adopted 2000; entered into force 2003) supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, defines trafficking as “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.” more...
Traffickers: The report of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, “Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking”, defines traffickers as “recruiters; transporters; those who exercise control over trafficked persons; those who transfer and/or maintain trafficked persons in exploitative situations; those involved in related crimes; and those who profit either directly or indirectly from trafficking, its component acts and related offences.”
Violence Against Women (VAW): The General Assembly Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women defines VAW in Article 1 as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.” According to Article 2, VAW encompasses “Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring within the general community, including rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere, trafficking in women and forced prostitution”.
International Organizations & Instruments
- Bangkok Accord and Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Women in the Asian and Pacific Region, signed in November 1998, outlines concrete steps that the signatories will take to eradicate trafficking in women and girls.
- Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour was adopted 17 June 1999 . For the purposes of the Convention, the worst forms of child labour include “all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale or trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.”
- Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others entered into force 25 July 1951 . Signatories to the convention have agreed “to punish any person who, to gratify the passions of another: (1) Procures, entices or leads away, for purposes of prostitution, another person, even with the consent of that person; (2) Exploits the prostitution of another person, even with the consent of that person.” The Signatories have further agreed “to punish any person who: (1) Keeps or manages, or knowingly finances or takes part in the financing of a brothel; (2) Knowingly lets or rents a building or other place or any part thereof for the purpose of the prostitution of others.”
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women entered into force 3 September 1981 . In Article 6, States Parties agree to “take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation and prostitution of women.”
- Convention on the Rights of the Child entered into force 2 September 1990 . In Article 35, States Parties agree to “take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent the abduction of, the sale of or traffic in children for any purpose or in any form.”
- Declaration on the Fight Against Trafficking in Persons, Economic Community of West African States, Twenty-Fifth Ordinary Session of Authority of Heads of State and Government, Dakar 20-21 December 2001. This political declaration affirms the commitment of Heads of State and Government in West Africa to “the eradication of the trafficking in persons, especially women and children”. The Declaration also contains a plan of action in which the Heads of State and Government commit to specific measures against trafficking in persons.
- Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography extends the measures that States Parties should undertake under, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to guarantee the protection of children from being sold, prostituted, or used in child pornography.
- Protocol Against Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime ( New York , 15 November 2000 ) entered into force 28 January 2004 .
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime was put in place to “prevent and combat trafficking in persons, paying particular attention to women and children; To protect and assist the victims of such trafficking, with full respect for their human rights; and To promote cooperation among States Parties in order to meet those objectives.”
- Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court entered into force 1 July 2002 . Article 5 of the Statute limits the Court’s jurisdiction to “the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole.”
- SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution was signed in January 2002. The purpose of the Convention is “to promote cooperation amongst Member States so that they may effectively deal with the various aspects of prevention, interdiction and suppression of trafficking in women and children;
UNIFEM Action & Analysis
UNIFEM has taken a broad range of initiatives in order to help prevent the trafficking of women and girls and to assist victims. UNIFEM has organized workshops and conferences, collected and disseminated data and information, funded research, conducted awareness campaigns, raised awareness through various media channels, and played a role in rescue and repatriation programmes. Specifically:
- UNIFEM has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Organization for Migration, in which both Agencies have agreed to cooperate in “combating trafficking in human beings, with particular attention to the dangers facing migrant girls and women” as well as in “addressing the needs of women and girls in post-conflict societies, including social, economic and political reconstruction.”
- UNIFEM has worked with the Colombian NGO Fundación Esperanza to work with the Colombian Ministry of Justice and Law in order to sensitize state agents about trafficking of women and girls and develop preventative measures and tools to improve assistance to persons who have been trafficked.
- UNIFEM has funded several organizations to build local capacity to protect women's human rights, to undertake regional research on the relationship between tourism in the region, the sexual trade, and the problem of trafficking in women, to conduct an awareness-raising campaign in remote provinces to educate young orphaned girls and orphanage staff on risks and means of protection from international trafficking in young women and sexual slavery.
- Active lobbying by UNIFEM and its partners has made an impact in the political resistance to acknowledging this problem in the five South Asian countries. In South Asia , UNIFEM has been working closely with different UN agencies in addressing the issue of trafficking. Since the early 1990’s, UNIFEM has been focusing on the issue of trafficking as a critical area of concern in South Asia since the early 1990’s. In 1991 UNIFEM held a workshop in
Tools & Checklists
- UNIFEM Trafficking in Persons: A Gender & Rights Perspective Briefing Kit
- Asian Development Bank: Combating Trafficking of Women and Children in South Asia : Guide for Integrating Trafficking Concerns into ADB Operations more...
- International Center for Migration Policy Development Regional Standard for Anti-Trafficking Police Training in SEE more...
- OSCE Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings (PC.DEC/557, 24 July 2003 ) more...
- Save the Children UK, UN-IAP and IOM: Training Manual for Combating Trafficking in Women and Children more...
- UNDP Best Practice Law Enforcement Manual for Fighting against Trafficking in Human Beings: User’s Manual (2003) more... Trainer’s Manual (2003) more... miscellaneous documents more...
- UNESCO Trafficking Statistics Project: more...
- United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime: Anti-Trafficking Assessment Tool more...
UN Documents
- Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) and UN Office on Drugs and Crime: Trafficking in Women and Girls, Expert Group Meeting held in Glen Cove, New York, 18-22 November 2002
- The Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO): Human Trafficking Resource Package
- UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute: “Trafficking, Slavery and Peacekeeping: The Need for a Comprehensive Training Program”
- UN Office on Drugs and Crime: Fact Sheet on Human Trafficking
- UNICEF: The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in the Travel Industry
- UNICEF: Trafficking in Human Beings, Especially Women and Children, in Africa (2003)
- United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: more...
Security Council Resolutions
- 1674 (28 April 2006): Protection of civilians in armed conflict. more…
Secretary-General
- 6 July 2006: In-depth study on all forms of violence against women report. more…
- 25 January 2006: more...
- 21 September 2005: more...
- 25 July 2005: (A/60/131) more...
- 16 June 2005: more...
- 18 March 2005: more...
- 11 February 2005: more...
- 10 February 2005: more...
- 3 February 2005: more...
Independent Experts' Assessment & Recommendations
The Independent Experts' Assessment on Women, War, Peace and Trafficking and the accompanying recommendations can be accessed in this archive: Trafficking Archive