8/13/2019 What is Trafficking in Women
1/3
What Is Trafficking in Women?
Finding a Common Definition for Trafficking
The problem of trafficking in women has been addressed at the
international, regional and
national levels. Before the creation of theUnited Nations
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress andPunish Trafficking in Persons,
Especially Women and Children,in October 2000,
internationaltreaties referred to trafficking without defining or
clarifying whether trafficking includes allforms of sex work. For
example, Article 6 of theConvention on the Elimination of All Forms
ofDiscrimination Against Women states "All Parties shall take all
appropriate measures, includinglegislation, to suppress all forms
of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women."
There was little agreement in the international community about
how trafficking should bedefined. In early treaties, trafficking
was often synonymous with the trade in women forprostitution.
Later, the term "trafficking" was also used to describe the
smuggling of male andfemale migrants over borders for economic
gain. In the late 1990s, the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) pointed out that "despite
divergent definitions, there is agrowing agreement that the problem
of 'trafficking in human beings' involves two key
elements:recruitment/transport and forced labor or slavery-like
practices (actual or attempted) ...Moreover, most experts agree
that trafficking should be defined as involving deception
orcoercion of some kind."
TheProtocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women andChildren is the first international
consensus definition of the problem. The Protocol
defines"trafficking in persons" as follows:
the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring 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 ofpower or of a position of
vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits
toachieve the consent of a person having control over another
person, for the purpose ofexploitation. Exploitation shall include,
at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution ofothers or
other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services,
slavery or practices similarto slavery, servitude or the removal of
organs.
The Protocol also explains that "the consent of a victim of
trafficking in persons to the intendedexploitation . . . shall be
irrelevant where any of the means set forth [above] are
established" orwhere the victim is a child.
TheInterpretive Notes (Travaux Prparatories) to the Protocol
clarify that a person in a "positionof vulnerability" refers to
"any situation in which the person involved has no real and
acceptablealternative but to submit to the abuse involved." The
Protocol also explains that there will be nodefense of "consent"
when a vulnerable person is exploited through trafficking.
Finally, the Interpretive Notes are explicit that the Protocol
deliberately does not define the terms"'exploitation of the
prostitution of others" or "other forms of sexual exploitation,"
leavingindividual State Parties to define these terms according to
national law. During the drafting stage,
http://www.uncjin.org/Documents/Conventions/dcatoc/final_documents_2/convention_%20traff_eng.pdfhttp://www.uncjin.org/Documents/Conventions/dcatoc/final_documents_2/convention_%20traff_eng.pdfhttp://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/econvention.htmhttp://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/econvention.htmhttp://www.uncjin.org/Documents/Conventions/dcatoc/final_documents_2/convention_%20traff_eng.pdfhttp://www.uncjin.org/Documents/Conventions/dcatoc/final_documents_2/convention_%20traff_eng.pdfhttp://www.unodc.org/pdf/crime/final_instruments/383a1e.pdfhttp://www.unodc.org/pdf/crime/final_instruments/383a1e.pdfhttp://www.uncjin.org/Documents/Conventions/dcatoc/final_documents_2/convention_%20traff_eng.pdfhttp://www.uncjin.org/Documents/Conventions/dcatoc/final_documents_2/convention_%20traff_eng.pdfhttp://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/econvention.htmhttp://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/econvention.htmhttp://www.uncjin.org/Documents/Conventions/dcatoc/final_documents_2/convention_%20traff_eng.pdfhttp://www.uncjin.org/Documents/Conventions/dcatoc/final_documents_2/convention_%20traff_eng.pdf
8/13/2019 What is Trafficking in Women
3/3
women and girls into situations in which they are exploited and
become victims of trafficking.Effective strategies to eliminate
trafficking necessarily involve addressing multiple
contributingfactors.
While this analysis is useful in explaining the complex nature
of trafficking, the factors that play
a role in trafficking are actually interdependent and
interconnected. Some factors, such asmilitary conflict, do not fit
neatly into either the "demand" or "supply" side of trafficking,
butnevertheless have contributed to this problem in some regions.
For example, internal conflictsforce people to leave their home
country, which may encourage trafficking across borders. Atthe same
time, an increase in military personnel in a specific region also
increases the "demand"for women to be brought from outside to work
in the commercial sex industry.
Effects and Consequences of Trafficking In Women
According to theUnited Nations Population Fund,"perhaps 4
million persons per year" aretrafficked. Women who have been
trafficked may suffer from serious physical and mental health
problems. Physical abuse can result in serious injuries and
lasting health problems; traffickingvictims may also contract
life-threatening diseases, such as HIV/AIDS or tuberculosis.
Victims of trafficking may also face serious legal consequences.
They may be detained ordeported for immigration violations that are
the result of being trafficked. Victims may also faceprosecution
for other criminal offenses that were committed as a direct result
of being trafficked.
Although trafficking most directly affects individual victims,
it also has broader consequences.Trafficking directly affects the
societies from which victims are removed, resulting in culturaland
economic losses, and threatening public health. Citing Paul Holmes,
author of the RegionalAnti-Trafficking Law Enforcement Manual for
South-Eastern Europe, theUnited NationsDevelopment Program
estimates that trafficking generates at least US$7 billion a year
and, afterdrugs and weapons, has become the third largest criminal
business worldwide. These profits maybe used to further fund
organized crime activities.
http://www.unfpa.org/gender/violence1.htmhttp://www.undp.org/http://www.undp.org/http://www.undp.org/http://www.undp.org/http://www.unfpa.org/gender/violence1.htm
