A/HRC/56/48 combating all forms of trafficking and exploitation of prostitution of women had been codified and developed in the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others.162 38. The Committee further recognized that sexual exploitation persisted due to the failure of States to effectively discourage the demand that fosters exploitation and leads to trafficking.163 Similarly, in its resolution 77/194 on trafficking in women and girls, the General Assembly reiterated the need to eliminate the demand that fosters sex trafficking. 39. As the most common form of human trafficking is sexual exploitation (accounting for 79 per cent), of whom the majority of victims are women and girls,164 the Trafficking in Persons Protocol is also relevant. It defines the crime of trafficking in persons as an act (e.g., recruitment); the means (e.g., abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability); and the purpose (e.g., exploitation). The Protocol indicates that exploitation includes, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation. The same article affirms that, when these three elements are met, the consent of the trafficked person becomes irrelevant. Moreover, article 9 (5) of the Protocol calls upon States parties to discourage the demand that fosters all forms of exploitation of persons, especially women and children, that leads to trafficking. The European Parliament resolution on the regulation of prostitution in the European Union, adopted on 14 September 2023, reaffirms the same principles, recognizing prostitution as a serious demand-driven violation of women’s rights and as incompatible with human dignity, affirming the necessity to address the demand for prostitution. 40. The Trafficking in Persons Protocol includes a more cumbersome criterion on trafficking than the definition by the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, expanding the purposes of trafficking to include purposes other than sexual exploitation. Some countries have attempted to use the approach put forward by the Trafficking in Persons Protocol. This misinterpretation has led to the implementation of policies in which only the acts meeting the criterion defined in article 3 of the Trafficking in Persons Protocol would be penalized, while acts defined in articles 1 and 2 of the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others would not. The scope of the Trafficking in Persons Protocol is focused on the offences that are transnational in nature and involve an organized criminal group, as it is part and parcel of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.165 Taken together, these aspects have negatively affected the fight against the exploitation of the prostitution of others and against trafficking, allowing the development of legal facades for pimps while at the same time complicating the work of law enforcement due to the difficulty of gathering all the elements needed to prove a trafficking situation according to the criteria of the Trafficking in Persons Protocol. Considering the magnitude of the crimes involved, the results achieved are modest. 41. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is significant in being the first international criminal law instrument that recognizes forms of sexual violence, such as rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution and enforced sterilization, as distinct war crimes. B. Prostitution and sexual exploitation of children, especially girls 42. International law prohibits the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, emphasizing that a child cannot consent to their own sexual exploitation. Under article 3 (c) of the Trafficking in Persons Protocol, a sexually exploited child is deemed to be a trafficking victim. International law has established special protection for children by prohibiting the sale of children, children who are prostituted and the exploitation of children 162 163 164 165 14 Ibid., para. 8. Ibid., para. 30. UNODC, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, 2022. Trafficking in Persons Protocol, art. 4.