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Strengthening voluntary standards for businesses on preventing and combating trafficking in persons and labour exploitation, especially in supply chains 2017, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Regarding the obligation of States to eliminate trafficking in persons under the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, States parties are required to adopt such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to establish trafficking in persons as a criminal offence (art. 5). Under the Protocol, States parties also are required to establish comprehensive policies, programmes and other measures to prevent and combat trafficking in persons (art. 9 (1) (a)). Under the Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking, States are requested to effectively investigate, prosecute and adjudicate trafficking, as well as to punish individuals and legal persons found guilty of trafficking by imposing effective and proportionate sanctions (principles 13 and 15).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Strengthening voluntary standards for businesses on preventing and combating trafficking in persons and labour exploitation, especially in supply chains 2017, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- The consultations also fostered robust dialogue on strategies and engagement aimed at promoting workers’ voices and empowerment within sustainability initiatives, especially within compliance monitoring schemes, including complaints hotlines, the use of worker surveys, good practices in engaging workers during audits, training and capacity-building for workers on their rights and responsibilities in the workplace, and training on worker-management dialogue in the workplace. However, ensuring that potentially vulnerable workers, such as migrants, young people and women, were not inadvertently excluded from these new strategies was identified as a challenge.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- A 2010 study, using Haiti, Kosovo and Sierra Leone as case studies, demonstrates the link between the introduction of peacekeeping forces into a conflict zone and the subsequent increase in human trafficking as a direct result of an increase in demand for sexual services. The relationship between deployed troops and the demand for trafficked women was also unmistakable in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, where demands for sexual services created by peacekeepers led to an expansion of the sex industry, with many of the women trafficked and sexually exploited forced to work in brothels established expressly to serve United Nations peacekeepers. The past involvement of military, peacekeeping, humanitarian and other international personnel in trafficking and related exploitation during post-conflict periods has been documented in multiple countries, including Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, East Timor, Kosovo, Liberia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Somalia.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Children trafficked into forced military service perform a variety of combatant and supportive roles. Many children, typically boys, are forcibly recruited or kidnapped for use by armed militias in ongoing conflicts. Children are also used as suicide bombers and human shields. For instance in Iraq, ISIL and other extremist groups traffic boys and young men, including members of the Yazidi minority, into armed conflict, radicalize them to commit terrorist acts using deception, death threats or the offer of money and women as rewards. Others are compelled to work as porters, cooks, guards and messengers or are forced to commit crimes, such as looting and physical and sexual violence. Boys and girls in these situations are often sexually abused and may also be forced to take drugs.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- Prohibition on trafficking and migration-related exploitation. International law requires States to criminalize and penalize a range of conduct related to trafficking. The obligation to criminalize trafficking when committed intentionally is set out in article 5 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Most States (168, as at October 2015) are party to the Protocol and thereby bound by this obligation. Many States are also bound by one or more of the regional trafficking treaties, such as the Council of Europe Convention and the European Union Directive cited above, which impose identical obligations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Forced displacement can increase the risk of trafficking by weakening or destroying family support structures, community bonds and self-protection mechanisms that might otherwise serve as a buffer against human trafficking. Because internally displaced persons often lack documentation and have limited access to education, resources and self-reliance opportunities, they may be particularly vulnerable to traffickers who appear to offer life-saving access to employment and other opportunities. Internally displaced persons who fear for their lives and wish to seek protection abroad can also fall prey to traffickers who claim to offer a route to safety. Traffickers specifically target impoverished communities, including the internally displaced, in order to exploit their vulnerability. Poor and displaced families may entrust the care of their children to traffickers who promise to provide them with education or skills training, but ultimately exploit them for the purposes of prostitution, forced labour or irregular adoption. Internally displaced women and girls are often disproportionately affected by the loss of livelihoods during displacement (see A/HRC/23/44, para. 46).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Conflict-related violence, such as sexual violence, can itself be a driver of forced internal displacement, which in turn increases vulnerability to further exploitation, including through trafficking. For instance, sexual violence by armed groups has forced ethnic minority women and girls in remote rural areas away from their communities and placed them at greater risk of trafficking within the country as well as overseas. Additionally, worsening security situations and overcrowded camps with inadequate basic services cause some internally displaced persons to risk crossing borders in an irregular manner in search of employment, putting themselves at high risk of exploitation because of their lack of legal status. Military attacks on camps further worsens displacement and causes undocumented internally displaced persons, including women and unaccompanied children, to flee their camps, exposing them to the risk of being exploited or trafficked.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- For the millions of people who are forced to flee their country because of armed conflict, the journey of escape has become increasingly expensive and hazardous, with a tangible risk of trafficking-related exploitation. Sometimes these dangers relate to the available paths of escape. Throughout their journey and at their destination, migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, are highly vulnerable to physical violence, sexual assault, extortion and trafficking, as well as detention by national authorities. The journey of female migrants and unaccompanied children travelling through the Horn of Africa is particularly hazardous. Thousands have disappeared, presumably abducted for purposes of exploitation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Individuals and communities caught up in conflict are vulnerable to a range of human rights violations. Pre-existing conditions and vulnerabilities, such as structural gender-based and other forms of discrimination affecting women, children and non-citizens, are exacerbated during conflict as opportunities for exploitation increase and protections break down. Factors such as the sponsorship system (kafala), which is intended to regulate the employer and employee relations in some countries, give employers excessive power and control over migrant workers, increasing their risk of being trafficked. For instance the rescue of trafficked Kenyan female domestic workers in Libya during the conflict in that country posed challenges because their employers, who were responsible for authorizing the workers' exit permits, had fled the country with the their travel documents. Similarly, during the armed conflict in Lebanon in 2006, some of the 300,000 domestic workers from Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and the Philippines who were left behind when their employers were evacuated became vulnerable to traffickers who offered alternative options to livelihood and resident status.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- International personnel are generally deployed to conflict or immediate post-conflict situations in which populations are vulnerable and where basic institutions, including law enforcement, are fragile or non-existent (see A/59/710). The increased demand for sexual services as a result of the presence of international personnel, including peacekeepers, further exacerbates women's social and economic vulnerabilities in a fragile post-conflict society and promotes an economy of exploitation, which can support trafficking networks in the longer term. For instance, the recent cases of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic, who prey on the economic vulnerability of children and women as well as on their need for assistance and protection, could, in some cases, be linked to trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- International personnel are generally deployed to conflict or immediate post-conflict situations in which populations are vulnerable and basic institutions, including law enforcement, are fragile or non-existent (A/59/710). The presence of peacekeepers, through an increased demand for sexual services, further exacerbates women's social and economic vulnerabilities in a fragile post-conflict society as well as an economy of exploitation, which can support trafficking networks in the longer term. For instance, the recent cases of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic who prey on the economic vulnerability of children and women as well as on their need for assistance and protection could, in some cases, be linked to trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- It is estimated that 10-30 per cent of children in fighting forces are female. Girls who are forcibly recruited or abducted into military service typically face forced domestic labour and sexual violence and exploitation such as forced marriage and/or sexual slavery (see paras. 31-34 below). It is important to acknowledge that while violence and exploitation are often defining aspects of the female experience of conflict, this is not always the case. Young women and girls have also been involved in trafficking by deceiving other girls and boys into joining armed conflict, using the Internet and social media.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- A 2010 study, using Haiti, Kosovo and Sierra Leone as case studies, demonstrates the link between the introduction of peacekeeping forces into a conflict zone and the subsequent increase in human trafficking as a direct result of an increase in demand for sexual services. Involvement of peacekeepers in trafficking in persons, especially women and children, can be both direct and indirect. Buying, selling or exchanging sexual services provided by trafficked women and children is an example of indirect involvement by peacekeepers. For instance, the demand for sexual services created by peacekeepers deployed in the former Yugoslavia led to an expansion of the sex industry, with many of the women trafficked and sexually exploited in brothels established expressly to serve United Nations peacekeepers. The relationship between deployed troops and the demand for trafficked women was unmistakable.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- In the post-conflict climate, the vulnerability of women and girls to trafficking-related exploitation is heightened by their relative lack of access to resources, education, documentation in their own name and protection. While trafficking-related exploitation is part of conflict, it is common for societies to experience a rise in trafficking for sexual exploitation (e.g., for forced prostitution) as well as other forms of gender-based violence, such as rape and domestic violence, after a conflict has formally come to an end.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- Post-conflict situations are typically characterized by absent or dysfunctional justice and law enforcement institutions, and consequently by: a climate of impunity that fosters violent criminal networks; high levels of poverty and lack of basic resources; significant inequality; large populations of highly vulnerable individuals (displaced persons, returnees, widows, unaccompanied children); fractured communities and lack of trust; and militarized societies tolerant of extreme levels of violence. These features render men, women and children in post-conflict societies especially vulnerable to trafficking.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Poverty
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Men
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Criminal networks specifically target impoverished communities, including the internally displaced, in order to exploit their vulnerabilities. Poor and displaced families may entrust the care of their children to traffickers who promise to provide them with education or skills training, but ultimately exploit them for the purposes of prostitution, forced labour and domestic servitude, or irregular adoption. Internally displaced women and girls are often disproportionately affected by loss of livelihoods during displacement (A/HRC/23/44, para. 46). In Jordan for example, Syrian refugees and asylum seekers, including children as young as 3 years old, are lured to work illegally for low wages to sustain families, which puts them at risk of trafficking (A/HRC/32/41/Add.1, para. 11).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Peacekeeping forces play a vital role in protecting communities, including women and children, from the violence and exploitation that is a common feature of post-conflict situations. However, foreign forces can also exacerbate, and sometimes even contribute directly to, such harm. A large, militarized and predominantly male international presence can fuel the demand for goods and services produced through trafficking for labour and/or sexual exploitation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- It is estimated that 10 to 30 per cent of children in fighting forces are female. Girls who are forcibly recruited or abducted into military service typically face forced domestic labour and sexual violence and exploitation such as forced marriage and/or sexual slavery (see paras. 32-35 below). It is important to acknowledge that while violence and exploitation are often defining aspects of the female experience of conflict, this is not always the case. Young women and girls have also been involved in trafficking by deceiving other girls and boys into joining armed conflict, using the Internet and social media.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- Trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is perpetrated not only by organized criminal groups. For instance, Syrian refugee women and girls may be trafficked for sexual exploitation through the practice of "temporary" or child and/or forced marriages. They may be forcibly married by their parents, who view such arrangements as a way of securing their daughters safety and ensuring the family's livelihood through the bride price. Once married, such wives are likely to end up in a situation of sexual and domestic exploitation by a spouse whom they followed abroad (A/HRC/32/41/Add.1). Trafficking for forced prostitution through marriages with foreign men who then force their "brides" into prostitution in another country is also common.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- In the post-conflict climate, the vulnerability of women and girls to trafficking-related exploitation is heightened by their relative lack of access to resources, education, personal documentation and protection. In fact it is common for societies to experience a rise in trafficking for sexual exploitation (for example, forced prostitution) as well as other forms of gender-based violence, such as rape and domestic violence, after a conflict has formally come to an end. However, these crimes are underreported due, inter alia, to stigmatization of survivors and inadequate services for them. Moreover, the demand for cheap labour in the aftermath of crises, when countries and businesses start to rebuild, could also lead to trafficking. This was experienced by Ukrainian construction workers who were trafficked for labour exploitation in Iraq.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Individuals and communities caught up in conflict are vulnerable to a range of human rights violations. Pre-existing conditions and vulnerabilities, such as structural gender-based and other forms of discrimination affecting women, children and non-citizens, are exacerbated during conflict as opportunities for exploitation increase and protections break down. Conflicts are prolonged by actors who take advantage of situations of lawlessness to reap personal gain through lucrative activities such as trafficking. In this section the Special Rapporteur will look into trafficking into military service and sexual and labour exploitation during conflict involving all persons, including boys, girls and migrants.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- Trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is perpetrated not only by organized criminals. For instance, Syrian refugee women and girls are trafficked for sexual exploitation through the practice of "temporary" or child and/or forced marriages. These girls and women are often forcibly married by their parents, who view such arrangements as a way of securing their daughters safety and ensuring the family's livelihood through the bride price. Once married, such wives are likely to end up in a situation of sexual and domestic exploitation by a spouse whom they followed abroad (A/HRC/32/41/Add.1). Trafficking for forced prostitution through marriages with foreign men who then force their "brides" into prostitution in another country is also common.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- Peacekeeping forces play a vital role in protecting communities, including women and children, from the violence and exploitation that is a common feature of post-conflict situations. But foreign forces can also exacerbate, and sometimes even contribute directly to, such harm.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Conflict-related sexual violence takes many forms. Women and girls seeking to survive in conflict zones are often compelled to exchange sexual services and even to "marry" for food, shelter, protection or safe passage. UNHCR has affirmed that women in conflict situations are vulnerable to a range of discriminatory practices that exacerbate their dependence (for example, receiving smaller food rations or not having rations cards or other identity documents in their own name) and are disproportionately exposed to sexual violence. For women and girls abducted into military service, sexual assault is often a feature of their experience. Rape has been used as a tactic of war to humiliate and weaken the morale of the enemy, ethnically cleanse the population, destabilize communities and force civilians to flee. Widespread or systematic sexual assault by government and/or opposition or rebel forces has been documented in multiple modern conflicts, including successive annual reports of the Secretary-General on conflict and related sexual violence since 2009 in which he has identified incidents and patterns of sexual violence in conflict-affected countries employed by parties to armed conflict, primarily against women and girls but also against boys and men (see, for example, S/2015/203).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- The trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation, including sexual slavery, forced marriage, forced prostitution and forced pregnancy, features within the broader picture of sexual violence perpetrated against the civilian population during and in the wake of conflicts. The nexus between trafficking in persons and sexual violence is further affirmed in a statement by the President of the Security Council (S/PRST/2015/25) in which the President underscored the urgency of efforts to deter, detect and disrupt trafficking in persons, including by terrorist and violent extremist groups. Recently, an egregious pattern of abductions from their homes or schools of women and girls who are subsequently forced to marry and/or serve as sex slaves has been reported in conflict-affected settings, though some forms of this phenomenon have also been a feature of armed conflicts in the past. Such exploitation, which in some cases involves trafficking for forced marriage and sexual enslavement by extremist groups such as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, Boko Haram and their affiliates, is believed to be a strategy to generate revenue as well as to recruit, reward and retain fighters. In order to prevent such abductions, families are reported to be confining women and girls and removing girls from school (see S/2015/203, para. 61).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- The features and patterns of modern-day conflict are linked to trafficking in persons, especially women and children. While there have been several large-scale conflicts between States in the past decade, the trend towards internal conflict continues to grow. Indeed, several international armed conflicts in recent times have morphed into complex internal conflicts and often spilled over to fuel internal crises in neighbouring States.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- Within the specific context of armed conflict, additional legal instruments of obligation and protection apply. The most relevant of these for the current purposes is the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which addresses, inter alia, war crimes and crimes against humanity and specifically addresses grave forms of sexual violence, including rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy or enforced sterilization. Also of relevance are the instruments of international humanitarian law that prohibit certain conduct in the context of international and non-international armed conflict, including slavery, sexual slavery, sexual violence and forced labour. It is important to note, however, that trafficking itself, and the gender-based harm with which it is associated, has never been explicitly prohibited, or even regulated, by international humanitarian law. This despite the fact that, as shown previously, many of the worst practices associated with armed conflict, such as the forced recruitment of child soldiers, the organized sexual enslavement of women and the enlistment of civilians into forced or highly exploitative labour, could also fall within the international legal definition of trafficking. However, international instruments have been interpreted in accordance with evolving human rights norms and standards through the jurisprudence of the international tribunals.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- The preparation of the report also benefited from the continued collaboration between the Special Rapporteur and other institutions on this topic, including Caritas International, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Migrants in Countries of Crisis Initiative, the United Nations Organization on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the United Nations University, all of whom have worked to pave the way on this issue. Since the identification of the linkage between human trafficking and conflict as a focus of concern under her mandate in her report to the twenty-ninth session of the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/29/38), this issue has garnered increased interest, as evidenced by: (a) the statement by the President of the Security Council on 16 December 2015 (S/PRST/2015/25) requesting, inter alia, that the Secretary-General report back to the Council on progress made to improve the implementation of existing mechanisms countering trafficking in persons; (b) the interactive dialogue held by the Special Rapporteur with Member States during the thirty-second session of the Human Rights Council in June 2016; and the adoption by the Human Rights Council of resolution 32/3 on trafficking in persons, especially women and children: protecting victims of trafficking and people at risk of trafficking, especially women and children in conflict and post-conflict situations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Conflict-related violence, such as sexual violence, can itself be a driver of forced internal displacement, which in turn increases vulnerability to further exploitation, including through trafficking. For instance, in Colombia, sexual violence by armed groups has forced ethnic minority women and girls in remote rural areas away from their communities and placed them at greater risk of trafficking within the country as well as overseas. Additionally in Myanmar, worsening security situations and overcrowded camps with inadequate basic services cause some internally displaced persons along the border between Kachin State and China to risk crossing borders into China in an irregular manner in search of employment, putting themselves at high risk of exploitation because of their lack of legal status. Military attacks on camps further worsen displacement and cause undocumented internally displaced persons, including women and unaccompanied children, to flee their camps, exposing them to the risk of being exploited or trafficked. In contexts such as South Sudan, the Sudan and the Syrian Arab Republic, parties to conflict took advantage of the vulnerability of displaced and refugee populations to recruit children and commit crimes, including sexual violence and abduction. Security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo have trafficked displaced persons as forced labourers in mines.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Trafficking in persons in conflict and post-conflict situations 2016, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- The journey of female migrants and unaccompanied children is particularly hazardous. Thousands of such women and children have disappeared, presumably abducted for purposes of trafficking related exploitation. Sudanese and Somalian refugees and asylum seekers fleeing conflict, including numerous unaccompanied children, have been kidnapped or lured from refugee camps or while travelling, sold and subsequently held captive in Libya or in the Sinai desert for purposes of exploitation through extortion. People of the Rohingya Muslim minority fleeing persecution in Myanmar take maritime and overland journeys, often through Thailand, to reach Malaysia as irregular migrants. Initially smuggled across borders, some are subsequently trafficked to fishing boats and palm oil plantations, ending up in bonded labour to repay the debts incurred for their transport. Others are held captive and abused in Malaysia until ransom is paid by their relatives. Since 2011, an increased number of Syrian refugees have been trafficked for purposes of labour exploitation in the agricultural, industry, manufacturing, catering and informal sectors in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Refugees living in such conditions are forced to accept exploitative practices such as longer working hours, lower salaries in exchange of meagre wages, inadequate shelter and other exploitative arrangements.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2016
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