"Trafficking in women" has become an increasingly familiar phrase, as media coverage has focused more and more attention on the issue. Although this new level of scrutiny suggests that trafficking in women is a recent problem, the United Nations has addressed trafficking in women for more than fifty years, through its 1949 Convention on the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. The dynamics of modern trafficking, however, are dramatically different, and have necessitated new approaches to remedying this human rights abuse. Recent initiatives include the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Economic and Social Council’s Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking, and the European Union Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. More information about these initiatives is available in the Trafficking in Women: Law and Policy section of this site.
Trafficking in women has been described as "structural," as opposed to "episodic," meaning that it affects thousands of individuals worldwide and often requires complex interactions between individual traffickers, international criminal networks and state structures. The U.S. government estimates that 800,000 to 900,000 people are trafficked across international borders annually (this does not include those trafficked within a country) and the 2005 Trafficking in Persons Report estimates that up to 80 percent of those are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors; in addition, millions of people around the world live in situations of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. According to United Nations Population Fund estimates, adding domestic trafficking to the international figure would bring total annual trafficking to "perhaps 4 million persons per year." Citing Paul Holmes, author of the Regional Anti-Trafficking Law Enforcement Manual for South-Eastern Europe, the United Nations Development Program estimates that trafficking generates at least US$7 billion a year and, after drugs and weapons, has become the third largest criminal business worldwide. In some ways, modern trafficking is a by-product of globalization and a general increase in transnational travel and commerce.
The broad term "trafficking in women" encompasses a number of illegal actions, including transnational crime, illegal immigration and violations of labor standards. Very often, anti-trafficking initiatives address a single aspect of the problem and thus approach trafficking either as a criminal problem, a migration problem, or a labor problem. More recently, international organizations, such as the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Union, have come to recognize trafficking as gender discrimination and a form of gender-based violence that violates a number of national and international laws. Additionally, the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, Ms. Sigma Huda, has made clear in her report “Integration of the Human Rights of Women and the Gender Perspective” that in fulfilling her mandate two principles will guide her actions: “(a) that the human rights of trafficked persons shall be at the center of all efforts to combat trafficking and to protect, assist and provide redress to those affected by trafficking; and (b) that anti-trafficking measures should not adversely affect the human rights and dignity of the persons concerned.”In countries in transition, the process of privatization and the transition to a global economy have resulted in increased economic burdens for women. Traffickers profit from the unequal social and economic status of women around the world. The demand for and treatment of women in the commercial sex industry also stems from sex-based and race-based discrimination. A recent Amnesty International Report on trafficking in Kosovo states that “even before they enter the trafficking process, many women and girls have already suffered violations of their rights in their home countries…Many women have been denied access to education, access to employment or social welfare or have suffered discrimination – on the basis of their gender – in gaining access to these rights.” And as theUN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson stated, "[t]rafficking is … inherently discriminatory. In the case of trafficking into the global sex industry, we are talking about men from relatively prosperous countries paying for the sexual services of women and girls . . . from less wealthy countries. This is more than a labor rights issue or an issue of unequal development. It is a basic human rights issue because it involves such a massive and harmful form of discrimination." From The Race Dimensions of Trafficking in Persons - Especially Women and Children, World Conference against Racism (2001).