Trafficking in Persons

Trafficking in Persons - Article 3a on the UN ‘Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children’ (2000) states that trafficking in persons is “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”. There are three elements that are essential within this definition: a set of actions that involve recruiting or moving someone, the means by which the actions are carried out (such as threats or coercion), and an end purpose that involves exploitation.

I chose this term as human trafficking is a very sensationalist subject that garners a lot of attention internationally. It is very important in the field of migration as intersections between trafficking, smuggling, and irregular migration can be fluid; however, assistance measures to the person affected is reliant on which label is assigned. The guise of ‘anti-trafficking’ measures have also been used by governments to implement anti-migration agendas (Dottridge, 2007). These impact countries migration laws as well as societal views of immigration.

This UN definition is significant as it required one year of debate and discussion. There were two key lobbying groups within the movement, the International Human Rights Network and the Human Rights Caucus. The former strongly advocated that consensual adult sex work should be classified as trafficking as it is inherently coercive and exploitative. The latter included sex worker rights advocates who argued for a gender-neutral protocol without references to sex work (Lepp, 2017).

Academic Sources:

Dottridge, M. (2007). Introduction In Collateral Damage (pp. 1-28). Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women. Bangkok, Thailand: Amarin Printing & Publishing Public Company Limited.

Lepp, A. (2017). GNDR302 Conceptualizing human trafficking, February 23 2017 [personal notes]. Link: https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/protocoltraffickinginpersons.aspx

Keywords: Trafficking, UN, Palermo Protocol

Pseudonym: A1