Human trafficking is a crime that exploits children, men and women for numerous purposes including forced labour and sex.

Trafficking in persons is a serious crime and a grave violation of human rights. Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad. Almost every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims. UNODC, as guardian of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the Protocols thereto, assists States in their efforts to implement the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (Trafficking in Persons Protocol). The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons defines Trafficking in Persons 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. The World Day against Trafficking in Persons was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly, in its resolution A/RES/68/192. Theme 2026, “Trapped Behind the Scam,” draws attention to a rapidly expanding form of human trafficking in which transnational organized crime groups exploit people to carry out industrial-scale financial fraud. Victims are trafficked for forced criminality and compelled to participate in online scam operations. This form of exploitation is closely linked to cybercrime, financial fraud, money laundering, and corruption, demonstrating the increasingly interconnected nature of organized crime.

Links:
World Day Against Trafficking in Persons – 30 July