A/HRC/44/45
I. Introduction
1.
During her six years of tenure, the Special Rapporteur has developed significant
thematic research with the aim of effectively implementing a human rights-based approach
to trafficking in persons. As her tenure is coming to an end in July 2020, the same year that
marks the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and
Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United
Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the Special Rapporteur
believes that it is timely and relevant to dedicate her last thematic report to the Human
Rights Council to a reflection on the main gaps that have emerged throughout the extensive
research conducted thus far, as well as on the way forward in relation to effective actions
aimed at preventing and combating trafficking in persons.
2.
According to the knowledge and experience gained during her tenure, the Special
Rapporteur believes that profound changes are needed in the approach to anti-trafficking
action. Estimates show that forced labour, including in the context of trafficking, is a
massive widespread phenomenon, involving millions of people. While sexual exploitation,
mostly involving women and girls, remains a significant proportion of all cases, labour
exploitation probably represents the highest percentage of trafficking in persons. The scale
of the problem suggests that trafficking should be considered first and foremost a matter of
human rights and social justice. Trafficked persons are in fact an enormous reserve of cheap
labour or even unpaid labour, misused and victimized for this purpose, while the proceeds
of their hard work enrich not only their traffickers, very often criminals, but also their final
exploiters, very often well-established and respected actors in the formal economy.
3.
This is the reason why Governments should, as a matter of priority, address
businesses with a collaborative approach, asking for voluntary initiatives in compliance
with due diligence obligations to respect human rights, and at the same time impose on
corporations basic obligations to report on the actions they take, identify and minimize
risks, and provide remedies for people subjected to trafficking in their operations, including
their supply chains. The agency of exploited and trafficked persons should be promoted and
valued, by respecting their freedoms of assembly and association and their rights to form or
join trade unions, and by providing workers who denounce exploitation with viable and
regular alternative jobs, and residence status if needed.
4.
However, a law enforcement approach to anti-trafficking is still prevalent.
Trafficking is overlooked, especially when it is linked with migration, and victims are not
identified as such when they are trafficked during their perilous journeys, due to the lack of
dedicated procedures in places of first arrival, aimed at identifying vulnerabilities, including
vulnerabilities to trafficking. The result is that trafficking is almost ignored in the context of
mixed migration movements. Taking into account the clear link between trafficking and
migration – although trafficking can also occur within an individual country – such a failure
to protect vulnerable migrants at an early stage produces a sort of marginalization of antitrafficking action, which is still confined to a specific policy area, restricted to cases in
which exploitation has already taken place, and the person concerned has been found in
such a situation by the police.
5.
In addition, when a person is identified in such a way, he or she is asked to report
and give testimony, with the consequence that their residence status and therefore their
possibility to access assistance and remedies is made conditional on the legal qualification
of the crime, the initiation and continuation of criminal proceedings, and sometimes even
the fact that their contribution leads to the arrest or conviction of perpetrators. It is clear that
such a model is not human rights compliant, and not effective. The Special Rapporteur
believes that a different approach is needed, in which considerations related to the rights,
vulnerabilities and needs of the person involved must take first place.
6.
Restrictive migration policies and xenophobic or racist approaches to migration
exacerbate or even create vulnerabilities to trafficking. The increasing trend towards
criminalization of migration and related repressive policies is one of the driving factors of
trafficking. On the contrary, trafficked persons’ rights can be fully protected only if
migrants’ rights are protected.
2