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The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (also mentioned as the Trafficking Protocol or UN TIP Protocol) may be a protocol to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. It is one among the three Palermo protocols, the others being the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air and therefore the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted the protocol in 2000 and entered into force on December 25, 2003. As of February 2018, it's been ratified by 173 parties.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is liable for implementing the protocol. In March 2009, UNODC launched the Blue Heart Campaign to fight human trafficking, to boost awareness, and to encourage involvement and encourage action.
The protocol commits ratifying states to stop and combat trafficking in persons, protecting and assisting victims of trafficking and promoting cooperation among states so as to satisfy those objectives.
The protocol covers the following:
- Defining the crime of trafficking in human beings; To be considered trafficking in persons, a situation must meet three conditions: act (i.e., recruitment), means (i.e., through the utilization of force or deception) and purpose (i.e., for the aim of forced labour)
- Facilitating the return and acceptance of youngsters who are victims of cross-border trafficking, with due reference to their safety
- Prohibiting the trafficking of children (which is defined as being an individual under 18 years of age) for purposes of economic sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), exploitative labour practices, or the removal of body parts
- Suspending parental rights of parents, caregivers, or the other persons who have parental rights in respect of a child should they be found to possess trafficked a child
- Ensuring that definitions of trafficking reflect the necessity for special safeguards and look after children, including appropriate legal protection
- Ensuring that trafficked persons aren't punished for any offences or activities associated with their having been trafficked, like prostitution and immigration violations
- Providing for the confiscation of the instruments and proceeds of trafficking and related offences to be used for the advantage of trafficked persons
The convention and therefore the protocol obligate ratifying states to introduce national trafficking legislation.
On 16 May 2005, in Warsaw, the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings was opened for accession. The convention established a gaggle of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) which monitors the implementation of the convention through country reports. It has been ratified (as of January 2016) by 45 European states, while an extra one state (Turkey) has signed but not yet ratified it.
The Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of children against Sexual Exploitation and sexual abuse ensures complementary protection. In addition, the European Court of Human Rights of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg has passed judgments involving trafficking in citizenry which violated obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights: Siliadin v France, judgment of 26 July 2005, and Rantsev v Cyprus and Russia, judgment of seven January 2010.
