Trafficking in Human Beings:
International Conventions,
Protocols and Charters
Susan Kreston
Fulbright Professor of Law
& Research Fellow
University of the Free State
krestons.rd@ufs.ac.za
INTRODUCTION
What is Trafficking
In Human Beings?
MODERN DAY SLAVERY
Scope
 12.3 million people trafficked worldwide
annually


Broadest definition
1.2 million are children
 800,000 trafficked internationally
 Approximately half are children and 80%
female
 3,160 + convictions for trafficking
worldwide in 2006


3,800 in 2005
Most for commercial sexual exploitation
 Most
researched and responded to
Other types of trafficking
 Labour (forced)
 Male adults vs. female adults
 Domestic work and/or CSE with kids
 Cross-over

between labour & CSE
Country to country variation important
 Ex:
In SA, more boys than girls exploited for
labour


Very atypical
Labour may also include conscription
soldiers – girl children are 40%
 May, again, also be exploited sexually
 Child
Sexual Trafficking of Children
 Primary destination
countries:

Secondary destination
countries:


Thailand




Philippines
Sri Lanka






Taiwan


Brazil
Cambodia
Columbia
Costa Rica
India
Indonesia
Italy
Nepal
South Africa
Vietnam
Trafficking of Children for Commercial
Sexual Exploitation in Africa
International Trafficking Routes
Regional Trafficking FlowsCircular patterns
Other types of trafficking
 Marriage (forced, illegal or age
inappropriate)

Why would a 14 year old girl want a 64
year old man?
 Organs (body parts)
 Adoption (illegal)


Abduction
Sale
IOM Southern African study 2003
 Women and children, for sexual exploitation
 Domestic & international trafficking
 Sold by parents

Reality of friends, family and peers
 Organized Crime


West African/Nigerian networks, Chinese Triad,
Russian & Bulgarian mafia
Recruited primarily by lies
 Employment
 Marriage
 Education
Trafficking in Human Beings, Especially
Women and Children, in Africa –
UNICEF (2003)
 Trafficking (for any purpose) is a recognized
problem in half of Africa

But only one third of southern & east Africa
 Vs.


70% in west & central Africa
Children trafficked at twice the rate as women
@ 60% of trafficking victims in Africa are
children
INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS
Broad vs. Specific
 CONVENTIONS &
 PROTOCOLS
CHARTERS
 Global
 New/emerging issues



CEDAW
CRC
ILO
 Regional - African


Charter on Human
and People’s Rights
Charter on the Rights
& Welfare of the
Child
not focused on or
adequately addressed
in previous instrument



Trafficking (Palermo)
Children in Armed
Conflict
Rights of Women in
Africa
International Conventions,
International Protocols,
Regional Charters
Regional Protocols
Constitutions
#1 – The Palermo Protocol
 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and
Punish Trafficking in Persons,
especially Women and Children (2003)

Underlying Convention
 UN
Convention Against Transnational
Organized Crime
 3rd highest grossing crime, after trafficking
in guns and drugs
 $10
billion annually
Protocol’s Definition
 Trafficking in persons:
 Recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt
of persons (what)
 By means of threat or use of fraud, coercion, force
(abduction), and abuse of power (how)
 For the purpose of exploitation (why)
 Versus smuggling persons
 Pay before vs. after
 Free upon delivery vs. exploited after arrival
 Crime against a person vs. a state
 Must be transnational vs. can be international or
domestic
Article 2 – Statement of Purpose
1. Prevent trafficking in persons,
especially women and children;
2. Protect and assist victims of
trafficking;
3. Promote cooperation to combat
trafficking more effectively.
Article 5 - Criminalization
 Laws prohibiting trafficking
 + Attempt
 + Accomplice
 + Organizing or directing others to traffick
Trafficking Crimes
Article 6 – Assistance &
Protection to Victims
1. Ensure the privacy of the victims
2. Inform V of relevant court & admin
proceedings
3. Physical, psychological & social recovery
1.
Housing, counselling, medical &
education/employment/training assistance
4. Special needs of kids
1. Appropriate housing, education, care
5. Witness Protection
6. Enable victims to seek compensation for
damages,
1.
fines, penalties or forfeited proceeds as well
as restitution from offenders
Article 7 – Status of Victims
1. Legislative or other appropriate
measures to allow victim to stay in
the country, temporarily or
permanently, in appropriate cases
Article 8 – Repatriation
1. Return of victim to country of
nationality or permanent residency,
without delay
2. Must assess safety of victim if
returned
3. Issue needed ID/travel documents
Article 9 – Prevention
1. Prevent & combat trafficking
2. Protect V from revictimization
3. Include NGOs, civil society, media,
academics in prevention policies &
programmes
4. Discourage demand
5. Alleviate vulnerability factors
1.
2.
Inequality
Poverty
Public Awareness
and Education
 Prevention campaigns, to focus
on:
1. Information about potential
victims;
2. The penalties for trafficking as
well as the risks -- to life and
health -- faced by the victims;
3. The causes and consequences
of trafficking.
CAUSES of TRAFFICKING:
The Seven Deadly Sins
 Violence against women and children
 Concealment of incest and rape
 Discrimination and devaluation of women
and children
 Ignorance (hope for a better life)
 Greed
 Poverty

May explain why children traffic themselves,
but not an excuse for adults trafficking kids
CAUSES of TRAFFICKING
 LACK OF ADULT PROTECTION





Political instability
Armed conflict
Orphans/child-headed households
HIV/AIDS
Natural disasters
 Tsunami/Katrina
Article 10 - Information
Exchange & Training
1. Whether individuals crossing international
borders with false papers or no documents
are traffickers or victims;
2. Methodology of Victimization
1.
Methods used by criminals to transport
trafficking victims under false identities;
3. Other trafficking techniques
1. recruitment practices
2. trafficking routes
3. links between/among individuals and trafficking
groups
Article 10 - Information
Exchange & Training
1. Training of all MDT members
2. Prevention
3. Prosecution
4. Protection
Overview of Other
International/Regional
Instruments
INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS
International Convention #1
 UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW 1981)

Sexism paralleled to racism
 Both
must go as they commit the same harm
 Neither the shape not the shade of the skin


Political, economic, social, cultural, civil
Abolish/modify all laws, regulations, customs
and practices that discriminate
CEDAW - Article 6
 States parties shall take all
appropriate measures, including
legislation, to suppress all forms of
traffic in women and exploitation or
prostitution of women
International Convention #2
 Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
 Most rapidly and widely ratified international
human rights instrument in the world
 Recognizes child as holder of rights and
freedoms, as well as recognizing States’
obligation to protect the child
Article 3
 Best interests of the child
are paramount
Article 4
 State must implement all rights
recognized in this instrument
Article 11
 States must take measures to prohibit
the illegal transfer and non-return of
the child abroad
Article 19
 State must take all appropriate steps
to protect children from mental or
physical violence, injury or abuse,
neglect, maltreatment or exploitation,
including sexual abuse, while in the
care of their parents
Article 32
 State must protect children from economic
exploitation, performing work that is
hazardous or that interferes with their
education, or that is harmful to health, or
physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social
development
 Min age for work, max hours
 Conditions
 Provide penalties for violation
Article 34
 State must protect children from
sexual exploitation and sexual abuse:
 Unlawful sexual activity
 Prostitution
 Pornographic performance or
materials
Article 35
 State must protect children from
abduction, sale or traffic in any form,
for any purpose, by any person
International Convention #3
 ILO Convention 182 - Elimination
of the Worst Forms of Child
Labour
Regulation vs. prohibition
 It’s not labour, it’s torture w/
sexual abuse & exploitation

ILO 182
 Article 1

Each Member which ratifies this
Convention shall take immediate and
effective measures to secure the
prohibition and elimination of the worst
forms of child labour as a matter of
urgency.
 Article 2

For the purposes of this Convention, the
term "child" shall apply to all persons
under the age of 18.
ILO 182
 Article 3
 For the purposes of this Convention,
the term "the worst forms of child
labour" comprises:
 (a) all forms of slavery or practices
similar to slavery, such as the sale
and trafficking of children, debt
bondage and serfdom and forced or
compulsory labour, including forced
or compulsory recruitment of
children for use in armed conflict;
ILO 182
 (b) the use, procuring or offering of a
child for prostitution, for the
production of pornography or for
pornographic performances;
 (c) the use, procuring or offering of a
child for illicit activities, in particular
for the production and trafficking of
drugs as defined in the relevant
international treaties;
 (d) work which, by its nature or the
circumstances in which it is carried
out, is likely to harm the health,
safety or morals of children.
Protocols
International Protocols 2
 Optional Protocol on the Sale of
Children, Child Prostitution and
Child Pornography (2000)
 Underlying Convention - CRC
Sale of Children, Child Prostitution
and Child Pornography
 Art 3 – Must make certain activities a
crime (these are only minimums –
may criminalize others too)



Sexual exploitation
Transfer of child organs
Engagement in the forced labour of a
child
Sale of Children, Child Prostitution
and Child Pornography
 Articles 4-7 – International LEA
co-
operation through




Jurisdiction
Extradition
Mutual assistance
Seizure/confiscation of assets
 Art 8 – Protect rights of child victims
International Protocol #3
 Optional Protocol on the Rights
of the Child in Armed Conflict

Underlying Convention Convention on the Rights of the
Child
Articles 1 & 2
 1- Members of armed forces under 18
should not take direct part in armed
conflict
 2 – No compulsory recruitment of
under 18s
Article 6
 State shall implement and enforce the
protocol
 Make these principles known
(education and awareness raising)
 States must take all feasible
measures to demobilize/release child
soldiers

State must assist in physical and
psychological recovery and
reintegration of the victim
Article 7
 States must implement this protocol
and include prevention and
reintegration of the victim in
cooperation with other signatories
REGIONAL CHARTER #1
African Charter on the
Rights and Welfare of the
Child (2000)
African Charter on the Rights and
Welfare of the Child (2000)

Article 4 – Best interests of the child are
paramount

Article 15 – Child Labour – economic
exploitation or work that is hazardous or that
interferes with the child’s physical, mental
spiritual, moral or social development
 Min
wage/max hours
 Conditions of work
 Penalties/sanction
 Promote dissemination of this information
African Charter on the Rights and
Welfare of the Child (2000)

Article 16 – Child Abuse &
Torture
 Prohibits
torture, inhuman or
degrading treatment, especially
physical or mental injury or
abuse, neglect or maltreatment,
including sexual abuse
African Charter on the Rights and
Welfare of the Child (2000)

Article 27 – Sexual Exploitation
 Protect
from and prevent:
 Inducement, encouragement or coercion to
engage in sexual activity
 Prostitution or other sexual services
 Pornographic activities, materials and
performances
African Charter on the Rights and
Welfare of the Child (2000)

Article 29 – Trafficking and Abduction

Abduction, sale, or traffic of children, for
any purpose, in any form, by any person,
including parents or legal guardians

Also prohibits begging
REGIONAL CHARTER #2
African Charter on Human and
People’s Rights (1986)
African Charter on Human
and People’s Rights
Protects economic, social &
cultural rights
(in addition to civil &
political rights)
New & expanded scope
Article 2 – Non-discrimination
 On grounds of:
 Sex
 Race
 Ethnic group
 Colour
 Religion, etc…
Article 18
 Eliminate every discrimination
against women
 Ensure protection of rights of women
and children as stipulated in
international declarations and
conventions
 “International customary law”
REGIONAL PROTOCOL
Protocol on the Rights of
Women in Africa (2005)
Protocol on the Rights of
Women in Africa - 2005
 Underlying document - African Charter on
Human and People’s Rights
 Behaviors, attitudes or practices that
negatively affect life, health, dignity,
education & physical integrity
 Public & private sphere
 Violence against women covers physical,
sexual, psychological, & economic harm
Article 2
 Elimination of all forms of
discrimination against women
 Enshrine in constitutions, legislation,
regulatory measures, policy and
development plans
 Modify social/cultural patterns to
eliminate stereotype and female
inferiority
Article 3 – Right to Dignity
 Protection of Human and Legal rights
 Prohibit degradation or exploitation
 States shall ensure protection of
women from all forms of violence,
particularly sexual and verbal
Article 4-Right to Life, Security
and Integrity of the Person
 States shall enact & enforce laws to
prohibit all forms of violence against
women, including unwanted or forced
sex, whether it takes place in public
or in private
Article 4-Right to Life, Security
and Integrity of the Person
 Identify the causes and
consequences of VAW, and take
appropriate measures to prevent,
punish & eradicate VAW
 Punish the perpetrators and help
rehabilitate the victims
Regional Charter-Trafficking
 Article 4 (2)(g) 


Prevent & condemn trafficking
Prosecute the perpetrators
Protect the victims
Victims Rights
 UN Convention on Justice & Support
for Victims of Crime and Abuse of
Power
 UN Declaration of Basic Principles of
Justice for Victims of Crime & Abuse
of Power
Prof Susan Kreston
Fulbright Professor of Law
& Research Fellow - UFS
krestons.rd@ufs.ac.za
susankreston@hotmail.com
076.543.7211 (cell)