Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East, ‎pdf 4.1 MB

People trafficked for any of the exploitative purposes defined by the Palermo
Protocol may remain in their home areas, or travel across international borders
or within their own country. In general, the Palermo Protocol applies to the
offences of trafficking in persons “where those offences are transnational in
nature and involve an organized criminal group”. 5 However, the transnational
nature of trafficking and the involvement of a criminal group are not required
to establish trafficking as an offence under the domestic law of any particular
country.
The Palermo Protocol is clearly linked to the ILO Forced Labour Convention,
1930 (No. 29), which defines forced labour as “all work or service which is
exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the
said person has not offered himself voluntarily”. 6 As the ILO Committee of
Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations 7 clarified
in its General Survey in 2007:
A crucial element of the definition of trafficking is its purpose, namely,
exploitation, which is specifically defined to include forced labour or services,
slavery or similar practices, servitude and several forms of sexual exploitation. The
notion of exploitation of labour inherent in this definition allows for a link to
be established between the Palermo Protocol and Convention No. 29, and makes
clear that trafficking in persons for the purpose of exploitation is encompassed by
the definition of forced or compulsory labour provided under Article 2, paragraph
1, of the Convention. This conjecture facilitates the task of implementing both
instruments at the national level. 8
Human trafficking can thus also be regarded as forced labour, and so
Convention No. 29 captures virtually the full spectrum of human trafficking.
The only exceptions to this are cases of trafficking for organ removal, forced
marriage or adoption, unless the latter practices result in forced labour. 9
5
UN Palermo Protocol, art. 4.
6
ILO, Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), art. 2(1). The Convention provides
for certain exceptions, in particular with regard to military service for work of a purely
military character, normal civic obligations, work as a consequence of a conviction in a
court of law and carried out under the control of a public authority, work in emergency
situations such as wars or other calamities, and minor communal services (art. 2(2)).
7
The Committee of Experts was set up in 1926 to examine the growing number of
government reports on ratified Conventions. Today it is composed of 20 eminent
jurists appointed by the Governing Body for three-year terms. The Experts come from
different geographical regions, legal systems and cultures. The committee's role is to
provide an impartial and technical evaluation of the state of application of international
labour standards.
8
ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations
(CEACR): Eradication of forced labour: General Survey concerning the Forced Labour
Convention, 1930 (No. 29), and the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No.
105) (Geneva, 2007), p. 41.
9
ILO: Questions and answers on forced labour, http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/
newsroom/comment-analysis/WCMS_181922/lang--en/index.htm.
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