Human trafficking is the use and exploitation of persons as commodities by traffickers for the purpose of economic or other gain. Trafficking in human beings is a severe crime and a violation of a person’s human rights to life, liberty, being free from slavery and forced labour, and dignity.
Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit. It is a way of exploiting people through selling, buying or trading them. Human trafficking includes forcing people into prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, servitude or the removal of organs, as well as other forms. For children, exploitation may also include illegal international adoption and other forms of exploitation.
Trafficking in human beings is the fastest growing global crime with an estimated 20 to 30 million victims of trafficking still currently enslaved around the world. Approximately 80% of trafficking involves sexual exploitation, where the vast majority are female victims.
Cross-border transportation of a victim is not always necessary for the crime of trafficking to have taken place. Victims can be enslaved in their own hometowns by traffickers abusing their vulnerability.
Human trafficking & Human rights
Trafficking in human beings seriously impacts human rights as it unfairly restricts the liberty and security of a person and is incompatible with dignity and the worth of a person. Such human rights as the right to life, prohibition of inhumane or degrading treatment, or torture, the right to dignity and worth of a person, the right to liberty and security, the right not to be submitted to slavery, servitude, forced labour or bonded labour and many others can be affected during different stages of human trafficking. Human trafficking is often also considered to be a form of violence against women and children, and since it disproportionately affects women, it is a form of illegal discrimination against women.
About this Guide
This Guide will explain further about what human trafficking is, how criminal proceedings in cases of human trafficking should be conducted, and the types of assistance for victims of human trafficking that are offered and funded by the State.