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Part Two. Preamble 323“Gravely concerned by the significant and increasing activities of transnationalcriminal organizations and others that profit from international trafficking in persons,“Believing that women and children are particularly vulnerable to and targetedby transnational criminal organizations engaged in trafficking in persons,“Declaring that effective action to combat international trafficking in persons,especially women and children, requires a comprehensive, international approach inthe countries of origin, transit and destination that includes measures to prevent suchinternational trafficking, to punish 6 the traffickers and to protect the victims of suchtrafficking, including by protecting their internationally recognized human rights,“Taking into account the fact that, despite the existence of a variety of internationalinstruments containing rules and practical measures to combat the sexualexploitation of women and children, there is no universal instrument that addressesall aspects of trafficking in persons,“Concerned that, in the absence of such an instrument, persons who are vulnerableto trafficking will not be sufficiently protected,“Recalling General Assembly resolution 53/111 of 9 December 1998, in whichthe Assembly decided to establish an open-ended intergovernmental ad hoc committeefor the purpose of elaborating a comprehensive international convention againsttransnational organized crime and of discussing the elaboration of, inter alia, an internationalinstrument addressing trafficking in women and children,“Convinced that supplementing the Convention with an international instrumentfor the prevention, suppression and punishment of trafficking in persons, especiallywomen and children, will be useful in combating that crime,“Taking into account the provisions of the Convention, 9“Have agreed as follows:”Notes by the Secretariat2. At the fourth session of the Ad Hoc Committee, the Special Rapporteur on violenceagainst women, its causes and consequences submitted a position paper on the protectionof human rights of trafficked persons, with particular reference to trafficked women(A/AC.254/CRP.13), in which she proposed the inclusion of the following paragraph inthe preamble of the draft protocol:“Bearing in mind the human rights protections set forth in the InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic,Social, and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms ofDiscrimination against Women, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence againstWomen, the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade,and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, and the Convention on the Rightsof the Child,”9Two delegations suggested that reference should be made to relevant conventions in the preamble to the draft protocol.