The United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) provides in their Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (Trafficking in Persons Protocol) the following definition of Human Trafficking:
…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 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. [1]
Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Trafficking in Persons Protocol is meant to provide consistency and consensus around the world on the occurrence of human trafficking. Article 5 of the Protocol requires that the conduct set out in article 3 be criminalized in domestic legislation. Domestic Legislation does not need to follow the language of the Protocol to the letter, as long as it is adapted in accordance with the domestic legal system to give effect to the concepts found within the Protocol.
Aside from the criminalization of trafficking, the Trafficking in Persons Protocol also requires criminalization of:
- Attempts to commit a trafficking offense
- Participation as an accomplice in such an offense
- Organizing or directing others to commit trafficking
National legislation should adopt the broad definition of Trafficking in Persons as prescribed in the Protocol. The legislative definition should be dynamic and flexible so as to empower the legislature to respond to trafficking effectively which:
- Occurs across borders and within a country (not just cross-border.)
- Is for a range of exploitative purposes (not just sexual exploitation.)
- Victimizes women, children and men (not just women and children.)
- Takes place with or without the involvement of organized crime groups.
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[1] Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Trafficking in Persons Protocol. http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html