From: Womens United Nations Report

 

 

 

“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.”

 

Women, War, Peace
and
Trafficking

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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Defining
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”. The Statute also provides that
  persecution on the basis of gender, among other grounds, may constitute a
  crime against humanity.
  
  
• 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.”

  Article (b) further states that “the consent of a victim of trafficking in
  persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a)…shall be
  irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been
  used.” 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”.

Fact
Sheet

• 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. Because of the economic damage caused by such upheavals,
  people—particularly women and children—may be one of the region’s few
  marketable resources. more… Conflict and other
  forms of instability compound the vulnerabilities that already exist for
  women. more…

• There is no accurate
  count of the number of persons or of women trafficked in the world each year.
  The US Government estimated that between 2000 and 2003, 800,000 to 900,000
  people were trafficked across borders every year. more… According to UNFPA,
  that total could rise to as high as 4 million persons per year if domestic
  trafficking were included. more…

• Most experts believe
  that women make up the majority of the world’s trafficked persons, more… but girls and young
  boys have also been the victims of traffickers. more…

• Between 1995 and 2000,
  trafficking worldwide increased nearly 50%. Annual profits from the human
  trade have been estimated at US$5 to US$7 billion. more…

• The UN Working Group
  on Contemporary Forms of Slavery—trafficking in persons among them—has
  identified poverty, social exclusion, illiteracy, ignorance, armed conflicts
  and discrimination as the main causes of contemporary forms of slavery. [Note:
  The Working Group was established in 1975 by the Sub-Commission on the
  Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, under the authority of the Economic
  and Social Council, to review developments in the fields of slavery, the slave
  trade and slavery-like practices, of apartheid and colonialism, the traffic in
  persons and the exploitation of the prostitution of others, as defined in the
  Slavery Convention of 1926, the Supplementary Convention of 1956 on the
  Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar
  to Slavery, and the Convention of 1949 for the Suppression of the Traffic in
  Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others.] more…

• The feminization of
  poverty, gender discrimination, and lack of education or employment
  opportunities make women particularly vulnerable to traffickers, since they
  increase women’s likelihood to take risks in order to gain economic security.
  more… Gender
  discrimination can also lead to the sale of women and girls for profit being
  considered acceptable, while the similar sale of boys is not. Other vulnerable
  groups include ethnic minorities and lower class groups. more…

• Trafficking differs
  from migrant smuggling and other forms of migration because it is accomplished
  through the use of force, coercion and/or deception, with the ultimate intent
  of exploiting the victim. more… Trafficking of
  women and girls for the purposes of sexual and economic exploitation is thus
  considered a contemporary form of slavery, and a serious violation of women’s
  human rights. more… Victims of
  trafficking experience severe physical and psychological trauma as a result of
  the violence, rape, threats, addiction and other means that traffickers use to
  control their victims.
  
• Traffickers often
  control their victims through violence or threats of violence, which may in
  fact be the most common forms of coercion used against trafficked women.
  According to the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, “rape and other
  forms of sexual violence are often used to break women physically, mentally
  and emotionally and to obtain their enforced compliance in situations of
  forced labour and slavery-like practices. Rape and other forms of sexual
  violence are used as weapons against migrant women irrespective of the nature
  of the work they are to perform. Forms of sexual violence, however, are most
  persistently used against trafficked women to ‘condition’ them for forced sex
  work.” more… Victims of
  trafficking experience severe physical and psychological trauma as a result of
  the violence, rape, threats, addiction and other means that traffickers use to
  control their victims. more…

• Since trafficking has
  traditionally been considered an aspect of migration, there has been a
  reluctance to consider victims of trafficking as victims of persecution.
  more… In many cases, this
  has meant that trafficked women were not only denied proper psychosocial
  health services but were also treated as criminals, in some cases jailed and
  in others forcibly repatriated to their countries of origin where they became
  once again vulnerable to trafficking rings. more… However, in
  recognition of this fact jurisprudence is emerging in some countries that
  grants refugee status to individual victims of trafficking. more…

• A 1999 study by the
  International Organization for Migration found that trafficking of women and
  girls occurs on a global scale, and is becoming increasingly complex.
  more… Among the
  complexities of international trafficking are: its political contexts and
  geographical dimensions, which include intra- and interstate armed conflict;
  the different ideological and conceptual approaches to the problem; the
  mobility and adaptability of traffickers; the different situations and needs
  of victims; the inadequate legal framework; and insufficient research and
  coordination on the part of actors involved at all levels. The link between
  trafficking and migration is an added complexity that creates obstacles to the
  elimination of trafficking. more…

• Trafficking and sexual
  slavery are inextricably linked to conflict. Armed conflict increases the risk
  of women being trafficked across international borders to be used in forced
  labour schemes that often include sexual slavery and/or forced prostitution.
  Trafficking has flourished 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. As well, criminal networks
  involved in the arms or drug trades often expand their business to include
  trafficking in persons. more…

• Armed conflict leads
  to an increased tolerance of violence within the society. Violence against
  women and girls may also increase as a result of militarization—including the
  availability of small arms and light weapons—before and during conflict, as
  well as the demobilization of frustrated and aggressive soldiers after
  conflict. In the period after a peace agreement has been concluded and the
  conflict ended, gender-based violence against women and girls often increases,
  including domestic violence, rape and also trafficking into forced
  prostitution. more…

• Even in intrastate
  conflicts, women and girls may be transported across international borders,
  often to camps of soldiers or rebels located in the territory of a
  neighbouring State. At least some of these abductions result in women and
  girls being sold to others and trafficked to other regions or countries. Any
  Governments which host and support the rebel forces also assume a specific
  obligation to stop the trafficking in human beings and to hold accountable
  those found responsible for such crimes. more…

• Refugee and internally
  displaced women and girls—especially in camp situations—are particularly
  vulnerable to trafficking and other forms of exploitation and abuse. They
  often fall victim to sexual exploitation after being separated from family
  members during flight. As well, if women and girls cannot integrate smoothly
  into the host community, they remain vulnerable to trafficking rings.
  more…

• Children of both sexes
  orphaned as a result of civil conflict and HIV/AIDS—the number of whom is
  rapidly increasing—also fall easy prey to traffickers. more…

• Girls face many if not
  all of the risks that women face during armed conflict. Girls who are
  separated or orphaned from their families are particularly vulnerable to
  sexual violence and exploitation, including trafficking into forced
  prostitution. And the physical and mental impact of violence endured as a
  result of armed conflict may be particularly damaging for girls. Girls who are
  raped or forced to provide sexual services for male combatants—particularly
  girls who are not yet sexually mature—are at high risk of contracting HIV/AIDS
  and other sexually transmitted infections, and of numerous complications
  related to pregnancy and abortion. Post-conflict reintegration for girls who
  have experienced these kinds of traumas can also be particularly difficult.
  more…

• In post-conflict
  situations, women and girls have been trafficked into areas under the mandate
  of international peacekeeping operations. According to international experts
  who attended a May 2002 conference to examine “how the trafficking in persons
  interacts with peacekeeping operations” (held by the United Nations
  Interregional Crime and Justice Institute) international peacekeeping
  personnel, as well as the personnel of private contractors that supply or
  supplement the staff of peacekeeping operations, have purchased trafficked
  women and children for sex or domestic labour, have permitted trafficking
  rings to flourish, and have even themselves engaged in trafficking persons.
  more…

• Madeleine Rees, head
  of the Sarajevo office for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for
  Refugees, has noted that the increased demand for sex workers that is fed by
  the presence of peacekeepers leads to an increase in trafficking, particularly
  since brothel owners can charge foreigners higher rates than locals, and
  thereby can bring in inflated profits. Rees has said, “Stopping internationals
  from patronizing brothels is the only thing that will make the trafficking of
  women less lucrative.” more…

• Experts attending the
  2002 UNICRI conference identified a lack of accountability as one of the most
  serious problems surrounding trafficking related offenses by members of
  peacekeeping operations. In the case of police officers, no action is taken
  beyond repatriation to the home country. And, according to the conference
  report, the UN has no control over what happens to an offender once he or she
  has been repatriated. According to some experts, repatriated peacekeepers have
  never had criminal charges brought against them by their home countries for
  trafficking related offenses. more…

• Women who are victims
  of international trafficking often find themselves forced into prostitution at
  brothels that service military forces stationed nearby. Military forces play a
  direct role not only by creating a demand that fuels the trafficking of women,
  but also through such direct interventions as officially sanctioning certain
  brothels, acting as procurers, tracking rates of sexually transmitted
  infections among prostitutes to protect the health of servicemen, and even
  agreements between governments that identify and track prostitutes.

• The trafficking of
  women in the context of armed conflict is now seen as a war crime and a crime
  against humanity. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,
  approved 17 July 1998 and entered into force 1 July 2002, defines rape and
  gender based violence—including trafficking in women and children, sexual
  slavery and enforced prostitution—as constituent acts of crimes against
  humanity and war crimes. more…

• At its 60th session (2004), the Commission on Human
  Rights created a three-year mandate for a Special Rapporteur who will focus on
  the human rights aspects of trafficking in persons, especially in women and
  children. The Commission will also request that the Special Rapporteur prepare
  an annual report, commencing with the sixty-first session of the Commission,
  together with recommendations on trafficking in persons, especially women and
  children. more…

• On
  1 November 2004, the Commission on Human Rights appointed Ms. Sigma Huda of
  Bangladesh as Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women
  and children. The mandate of the Special Raporteur expires in 2007. more…

Treaties and Institutions

• The 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. As of
  November 2004, there were 112 signatories and 64 States Party to the protocol,
  which supplements the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and
  which criminalizes the smuggling of migrants while protecting migrants from
  criminal prosecution for the fact of having been the object of such
  conduct.

• The 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.” The Convention was adopted by resolution
  A/RES/55/25 of 15 November 2000, at the 55th session of the UN General
  Assembly. The Convention, and its protocols, entered into force 29 September
  2003. As of February 2004, 60 states are parties to the convention and 127 are
  signatories.

• The objective of the European Union Council Framework
  Decision of 19 July 2002 on Combatting Trafficking in Human Beings is to approximate the
  laws and regulations of the Member States in the area of police and judicial
  cooperation in criminal matters relating to the fight against trafficking in
  human beings. To introduce at European level, common framework provisions in
  order to address certain issues such as criminalisation, penalties and other
  sanctions, aggravating circumstances, jurisdiction and extradition. While the
  text of the decision is generally gender neutral, it does refer in the
  preamble to women’s particular vulnerability to trafficking in its reference
  to three key documents, among them the UN protocol to prevent, suppress and
  punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children.

• The 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,” among
  them (b) crimes against humanity. Article 7(c) further defines crimes against
  humanity to include enslavement “when committed as part of a widespread or
  systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of
  the attack”. Enslavement is defined 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.”

• The 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; the
  repatriation and rehabilitation of victims of trafficking and prevent the use
  of women and children in international prostitution networks, particularly
  where the countries of the SAARC region are the countries of origin, transit
  and destination.”

• The Convention
  Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the
  Worst Forms of Child Labour was adopted 17 June 1999, but has not yet
  entered into force. 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.”

• The 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. These steps include enacting legislation, creating special
  law enforcement units to handle cases of trafficking, amending existing laws
  to permit assistance to victims of trafficking, prevention measures, measures
  to protect victims of trafficking, imposing sanctions against traffickers,
  providing adequate medical and psychological intervention, establishing
  guidelines for proper repatriation and reintegration, and establishing
  information/monitoring mechanisms.

• The 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.”

• The 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. Child trafficking is one of the causes for grave concern of
  the States Parties, as well as one of the underlying causes that must be
  addressed to eliminate the sale of children, child prostitution and child
  pornography.

• The Convention Against Torture entered into force 26 June 1987.
  The Committee Against Torture has recently considered specific forms of
  torture, including trafficking in women, as part of a gender-sensitive
  interpretation of the Convention and in particular torture as it is defined in
  Article 1: “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or
  mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining
  from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an
  act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or
  intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on
  discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at
  the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or
  other person acting in an official capacity.”

• The 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.”

• The 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.”

Tools &
Checklists

• UNESCO Trafficking Statistics Project more…
• OSCE Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings
  (PC.DEC/557, 24 July 2003) more…

• United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime,
  Anti-Trafficking Assessment Tool more…

• UNDP Best Practice Law Enforcement Manual for Fighting
  against Trafficking in Human Beings: User’s Manual (2003) more…

• UNDP Best Practice Law Enforcement Manual for Fighting
  against Trafficking in Human Beings: Trainer’s Manual (2003) more…

• UNDP Best Practice Law Enforcement Manuals translated,
  and additional miscellaneous documents more…

• Legislative Compendium: international protocols and
  national legislation for South East Europe more…

• International Center for Migration Policy Development
  Regional Standard for Anti-Trafficking Police Training in SEE more…

• Combating Trafficking of Women and Children in South
  Asia: Guide for Integrating Trafficking Concerns into ADB Operations, Asian
  Development Bank, April 2003 more…

• Molly Reilly and Vidya Samarasinghe, Resource List on
  Trafficking in Women and Children, WID Tech, July 1999 more…

• Save the Children UK, UN-IAP and IOM, Training Manual
  for Combating Trafficking in Women and Children, 2001 more…

• Research Based on Case Studies of Victims of
  Trafficking in Human Beings in 3 EU Member States, i.e. Belgium, Italy and The
  Netherlands, Commission of the European Communities, DG Justice & Home
  Affairs, Hippokrates, JAI/2001/HIP/023 (includes specific recommendations for
  combatting the trafficking of persons) more…

• The Protection Project, a legal human rights research
  institute based at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced
  International Studies in Washington, D.C. The project documents and
  disseminates information about the scope of the problem of trafficking in
  persons, especially women and children, with a focus on national and
  international laws, case law, and implications of trafficking on U.S. and
  international foreign policy. Their database includes national and
  international legislation to combat trafficking, maps delineating trafficking
  routes, testimonies of survivors, country reports, and other resources. more…

• Publications on trafficking listed by HumanTrafficking.org
  

UNIFEM Action

• UNIFEM implemented measures against trafficking in
  women and girls through its trust fund in support of actions to eliminate
  violence against women. In 2004, UNIFEM supported the convening of a biennial
  meeting of South-Asian Governments to commemorate the Beijing Platform for
  Action, where all participating States made commitments to further implement
  the South-Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Convention on Prevention
  of Trafficking in Women and Children.

• On 6 March 2003, UNIFEM signed a Memorandum of
  Understanding with the International Organization for Migration, in which both
  Agencies 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 hosted the Fourth South Asia Regional Meeting,
  ‘Commemorating Beijing’, jointly with the Royal Government of Bhutan (19-21
  May 2003). The meeting was held to assess the progress in South Asia on the
  implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. The meeting focused on
  appraising the progress made by SAARC countries on the 12 Areas of Critical
  Concern, identified the gaps, challenges and opportunities and formulated
  strategies for a more effective implementation of the Beijing PFA. In addition
  it gave special attention to the areas identified as priorities at the last
  review meeting held in the Maldives in 2000, including trafficking of women
  and girls. The outcome of the meeting was that all participants unanimously
  agreed to direct their efforts towards regional priorities, among them
  “increasing national and regional collaboration and cooperation to eliminate
  trafficking of women and girls and expediting efforts towards the ratification
  of the SAARC Convention on Trafficking on Women and Children.”

• UNIFEM supported national level research on
  Anti-trafficking in both India and Nepal, in partnership with premier research
  institutions and Human Rights bodies in the region, like the International
  Institute of Development Studies (IIDS) in Nepal, and the National Human
  Rights Commission (NHRC) in India. The results of this research were shared at
  the Annual Meeting of the Technical Advisory Group for South Asia (TAGSA) on
  Anti- trafficking, held in New Delhi 13-14 August 2002. The meeting sought to
  take stock of the regional anti-trafficking programmes and the role of the
  TAGSA members in taking it forward. Because TAGSA members are senior
  professionals involved in policy and advocacy, the meeting focused on
  identifying proactive measures to be undertaken.

• In July 2002, UNIFEM participated in the first South
  Asian regional consultation on the issue of rescue and rehabilitation for
  trafficked persons was held in Delhi. The objective was to review the existing
  rescue and rehabilitation processes in the region in the light of human rights
  standards and to examine existing rescue and rehabilitation programmes,
  highlighting good practices for possible replication in the region. The
  consultation bought together all the key stakeholders from the region, which
  included NGO’s, survivors, and representatives of sex-workers networks,
  lawyers and police officers. The consultation agreed to form a small core
  group to look into framing a policy guideline for rescue and
  rehabilitation.

• On 29 November 2002, UNIFEM co-hosted—with The
  National Human Rights Commission, (NHRC) the Institute of Social Sciences
  (ISS)—a Conference of Nodal Officers on matters relating to Trafficking in
  Women and Children, which was held in New Delhi. The conference followed-up
  the creation of a Focal Point on the Human Rights of Women, including matters
  relating to Trafficking in the NHRC, at the instance of the UN Commission for
  Human Rights. As a part of its activities an Action Research Programme on
  Trafficking in Women and Children in India has been taken up by the NHRC in
  partnership with the UNIFEM.

• In 2001, UNIFEM funded 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.

• In 2000, UNIFEM funded the Women’s Organization of
  Moldova “Civic Initiative” to build local capacity to protect women’s human
  rights in Central, Northern, and Southern Moldova by training and facilitating
  collaboration among women’s and human rights NGOs, law enforcement agents, and
  professionals dealing with violence against women. The initiative placed
  particular emphasis on the issues of domestic violence and trafficking of
  women.

• In 1998, UNIFEM funded the Latin American Institute
  for Alternative Legal Services to complete a regional research on the
  relationship between tourism in the region, the sexual trade, and the problem
  of trafficking in women.

• In 1998, UNIFEM funded the Russian NGO Miramed 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.

• In 1998 UNIFEM supported the first ‘Conceptual Clarity
  Workshop on Trafficking and Related Issues’. This workshop was attended by
  various NGO’s working on the issue. This was followed up by a workshop in
  early 1999 where UNIFEM’s approach to the issue of trafficking was shared with
  the participants. Both these workshops laid the basis of initiating
  national-level interventions to address the issue of trafficking.

• In 1997, through the Violence against Women Trust
  Fund, UNIFEM funded the Media Alert and Relief Foundation to produce a film
  with the goal of creating awareness in Nepal among potential victims of
  trafficking and their families. The film ‘Chameli’ documented the story of a
  Nepali girl sold to a brothel in Mumbai, and was shown in India and Nepal to
  raise awareness about the issue, highlighting the consequences of trafficking
  of girls in global sex markets, including health dimensions (HIV/AIDS) of the
  problem. UNIFEM coordinated the media advocacy project called ‘Maya’ from the
  Trust Fund on Violence Against Women. This film called ‘Chameli’ documents the
  story of a Nepali girl sold to a brothel in Mumbai, was recently previewed in
  India and will soon be shown throughout Nepal, thus raising awareness about
  the issue.

• 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 1997, UNIFEM succeeded in persuading the respective
  governments to carry out and prepare ‘Situational Reports’ on the issue of
  trafficking in each country. UNIFEM also convinced the Government of India to
  participate in this regional project to prepare a situational report on
  trafficking within the country. Based on the situation reports, UNIFEM has
  widely disseminated available information and data across the region through a
  “trafficking folder.” UNIFEM has also catalyzed the formation of a UN
  Inter-agency Group on Trafficking in Nepal, which has since finalized a
  trafficking project in Nepal in which UNIFEM will support the processes of
  advocacy, mapping and the setting up of an office of a National Rapporteur on
  Trafficking, following the adoption of the regional SAARC Convention.

• In South Asia, UNIFEM has been working closely with
  different UN agencies in addressing the issue of trafficking. In 1997 UNFEM
  and UNICEF collaborated to raise the issue of trafficking of women and girls
  in Nepal with governments including enforcement agencies, NGO’s and activists
  as a follow-up to Stockholm and the Islamabad declaration and as a run up to
  the SAARC Resolution on Trafficking. UNDP Nepal and UNIFEM worked on a Joint
  UN initiative with the National Government of Nepal to address trafficking.
  UNIFEM also partnered with UNDP Regional HIV programme on an Anti-trafficking
  and HIV project for South Asia focusing on people affected by HIV and
  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 Bangladesh on trafficking with
  NGOs working on the issue. UNIFEM’s approach to trafficking focuses on the
  development of concerted regional initiatives for the effective elimination of
  this problem. Despite clear regional dimensions to the problem, in the past
  there has been some resistance to address trafficking within a regional forum,
  mostly from the two receiving countries, India and Pakistan.

• UNIFEM’s regional anti-trafficking programme in South
  Asia has played a key role in the rescue of victims of trafficking. In India,
  183 trafficked women and children were rescued from Delhi brothels and 50
  repatriated. As a result of a UNIFEM-supported project on trafficking,
  collaboration with the police improved, three traffickers were convicted, and
  the opportunity to push state governments to take responsibility for
  repatriation increased.

• UNIFEM coordinated the joint USAID/INL Trafficking
  Mission in India. The mission specifically traveled to Mumbai and Calcutta,
  where its members met with and gathered information from different NGOs. Two
  NGOs, Prerana and Sanlaap, from Mumbai and Calcutta respectively, facilitated
  the mission in this process. An outcome of this mission was the formulation of
  two key projects in Mumbai and Calcutta, undertaken by Prerana and Sanlaap
  with financial support from the US State Department through the International
  Narcotics and Law Enforcement Bureau (INL). Both projects deal with initiating
  interventions towards prevention of trafficking by increasing awareness and
  developing the institutional capacity of law enforcing agencies (the target
  group) and the community to effectively address the issue of trafficking.
  These activities also focus on building a database of information on all
  aspects of trafficking.
  

UN
Documents

• UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research
  Institute, “Trafficking, Slavery and Peacekeeping: The Need for a
  Comprehensive Training Program” (Conference Report, Expert Working Group
  on Trafficking, Slavery and Peacekeeping, Turin, Italy, 9-10 May 2002)
  

• Observations by the United Nations High
  Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations High Commissioner for
  Refugees on the Proposal for an EU Council Framework Decision on Combating
  Trafficking in Human Beings more…

• UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Fact Sheet on Human Trafficking

• The Programme of Action adopted by the World Conference against
  Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in
  Durban, South Africa, from 31 August to 8 September 2001 (A/CONF.189/12),
  reaffirmed the urgent need to prevent, combat and eliminate all forms of
  trafficking in persons, in particular women and children, and recognized that
  victims of trafficking are particularly exposed to racism, racial
  discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. States were urged to
  devise, enforce and strengthen effective measures at all levels to prevent,
  combat and eliminate all forms of trafficking in women and children, in
  particular girls, through comprehensive anti-trafficking strategies including
  legislative measures, prevention campaigns and information exchange.

• Trafficking in Women and Girls, the report of the Expert Group Meeting held in Glen Cove, New York, 18-22 November
  2002 under the auspices of DAW and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The
  expert group meeting discussed a human rights and gender based approach to
  prevent and combat trafficking in women and girls; root causes of trafficking
  and strategies; the legal framework ; victim support and empowerment;
  children’s rights; and national mechanisms. The meeting also discussed good
  practices in combating trafficking in women and girls and adopted a number of
  recommendations addressing particular actors and areas of concern.

• The Code of Conduct
  for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in the Travel
  Industry was launched 21 April 2004 by UNICEF. The Code requires travel
  agencies to train staff in countries where children are exploited; provide
  information about the issue to travellers; explicitly repudiate the sexual
  exploitation of children in any contracts with local suppliers; develop
  ethical corporate policies; and report annually on the issue.

• The UNICEF report Trafficking in Human Beings, Especially Women and Children, in
  Africa (2003) provides an overview of key issues related to the
  trafficking of human beings, particularly women and children, in Africa. Among
  the root causes of trafficking identified by the report are poverty, weak
  governance, armed conflict and lack of effective protection against
  discrimination and exploitation. The report presents a preliminary mapping of
  trafficking patterns and provides an indication of emerging good practices on
  the continent. Information collected for the study also showed every country
  for which there was data to be linked by trafficking to an average of three
  (and in some cases to more than 12) other African countries, either as a place
  of origin or a destination.

• The Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO)
  released a policy paper on Human Trafficking and United Nations Peacekeeping in March
  2004. The paper aims to define the problem—whose victims, the paper
  acknowledges, are mainly women and very frequently children—in the context of
  UN peacekeeping. The paper proposes a strategy for DPKO to address human
  trafficking, based on lessons from previous missions and consultations with
  partner organizations in anti-trafficking, which will include awareness and
  training, discipline, accountability and community relations, and support to
  Anti-trafficking activities. The “development of further peacekeeper targeted
  materials on human trafficking, sexual abuse and exploitation and gender-based
  violence” will be one aspect of the awareness and training project.

• The Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO)
  published a Human Trafficking Resource Package, which provides the
  Department’s policy against trafficking, an explanation of DPKO’s strategy and
  programmatic approach to the issue in its missions and the first of several
  training modules developed with UN and NGO partners to enable all DPKO staff,
  whether military, civilian police or civilian, to identify the human rights
  abuse of human trafficking and to ensure that they do not contribute to this
  abuse in any way. An attached CD-ROM provides background resources for
  colleagues who seek additional reference materials, including international
  standards and conventions prohibiting trafficking, more specific training
  guides and model legislation.

Security Council Resolutions

• 1539 (22 April 2004): Recalling its
  resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security, the Security Council
  “Strongly condemn[ed] the recruitment and use of child soldiers by parties to
  armed conflict in violation of international obligations applicable to them,
  killing and maiming of children, rape and other sexual violence mostly
  committed against girls, abduction and forced displacement, denial of
  humanitarian access to children, attacks against schools and hospitals as well
  as trafficking, forced labour and all forms of slavery and all other
  violations and abuses committed against children affected by armed conflict.”
  The Security Council also expressed its intention to “curb linkages between
  illicit trade in natural and other resources, illicit trafficking in small
  arms and light weapons, cross-border abduction and recruitment, and armed
  conflict” and requested that the Secretary-General propose effective measures
  to control the above. more…

Secretary-General

• 25 January 2006: (S/2006/45) Report
  of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Interim Administration Mission
  in Kosovo. According to this report, violence against women and children,
  trafficking and other forms of exploitation continue at unacceptable levels in
  Kosovo as across the region. The SG urges that further action is needed at all
  levels to ensure that women’s human rights are effectively protected.
  Political leaders of all parties and at all levels need to lead public opinion
  by speaking out against such crimes and in favour of the equal value and
  treatment of men and women. Additionally, zero tolerance and tough sentencing
  are needed to combat this problem. During this period covered by this report,
  the action plan to combat trafficking in persons was approved and work in its
  implementation was started. An anti-trafficking campaign, “Not for Sale”, was
  initiated and a charge-free telephone help-line for victims and a victims’
  resource centre opened. Finally, the Interim Secure Facility has continued to
  support victims of trafficking, with citizen of Albania recently sentenced to
  long prison terms for human trafficking. more…

• 21 September 2005: (A/60/372) Future
  operation of the International Research and Training Institute for the
  Advancement of Women. In this report, the Secretary-General outlines the
  institutional development of INSTRAW. Among other partnership, INSTRAW intends
  to collaborate with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
  Organization (UNESCO) in a number of areas. One area entails joint projects to
  design and develop a series of online courses on a wide range of themes, such
  as gender and information and communication technologies, gender and HIV,
  trafficking in women, and gender and peace. more…

• 25 July 2005: (A/60/131) Strengthening the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal
  Justice Programme, in particular its technical cooperation capacity. This
  report highlights the technical cooperation activities of the Programme in
  providing assistance to States to respond more effectively to the challenge
  posed by transnational crime, trafficking in human beings, corruption and
  terrorism and to reinforce their institutional machinery for the maintenance
  of the rule of law. more…

• 15 July 2005: (A/60/123) African Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment