manual: women workers' rights and gender equality - International ...

Step 3
• Summarize the main points discussed during the session
Notes for the trainer
The most recent and most widely accepted definition of trafficking is the one included in the
Palermo Protocol on Trafficking (2000). It is as follows:
• 'Trafficking in persons' means the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of
persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of
fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or
receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person, for the purpose of
exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, 'the exploitation of the prostitution of
others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices
similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs'.
• The consent of a trafficking victim to the exploitation shall be irrelevant where any of the
means mentioned above, such as the abuse of power, have been used.
• The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of
exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the
means mentioned above.
• “Child” shall mean any person less than eighteen years of age.
Simply said, this means that it is not allowed to take or force people to other places with the
objective to employ them in different kind of activities against their will. Examples: people who are
brought to the city against their will to work in factories for a very low wage or for a meal only. Or
people who are brought to foreign countries and forced to work as a domestic servant, or girls and
women who are forced to work as a prostitute in brothels and bars. Be aware: many children and
or women initially have left willingly or were misled, and were forced later.
There are many causes of trafficking, the most common are:
• poverty of the family
• unequal status and subsequent discrimination of women and girls in society, in education and
the labour market
• search for employment
• illiteracy/ignorance/lack of awareness among people
• lack of community support network
• increasing demand for younger and younger girls and boys in brothels
• a high and quick profit making business for traffickers
• ineffective legal measures or enforcement of such measures
One should be very careful with everybody who makes nice promises, even relatives. Traffickers
are often found among the following categories:
• factory owners or labour recruiters
• bar/brothel owners
• returning migrant workers
• someone who promises a marriage but the information is unclear
• someone who promises a job abroad that will make you rich very quickly
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