Trafficking in human beings: human rights and ... - unesdoc - Unesco

protection laws. Such differences become especially signifi cant when trying to defi ne and
measure traffi cking for sexual exploitation of children, traffi cking for organ removal or
when trying to decide whether the illicit recruitment or use of children in armed confl icts
falls within the defi nition of child traffi cking. As defi ned by the Protocol, the crime of
child traffi cking does not require the use of criminal means such as coercion or deception,
as, for children, the existence of the victim’s consent is irrelevant. The problem of child
traffi cking and child soldiers has received particular attention in Western and Central
Africa. In many countries of the region, there are a number of laws on child protection
that can be applied even if these are not necessarily specifi c anti-traffi cking offences.
However, in the absence of more general anti-traffi cking laws in some countries, only
children under 18 years of age are taken into consideration by the national legislation. 399
There are also signifi cant differences in various anti-traffi cking laws when it comes to the
purpose of exploitation. In many countries, the specifi c offence of traffi cking in persons
extends only to sexual exploitation while leaving traffi cking for other forms of exploitation
out. Where national legislation extends only to traffi cking for sexual exploitation,
traffi cking for some other purposes may be prosecuted under national penal law, for
example, under a more general offence of “reducing someone to a condition analogous
to slavery” or similar offences. In countries where such provisions are not available under
penal law, or where the application of penal law has proven to be too cumbersome in
practice, the offence of traffi cking for forced labour is sometimes also pursued under
existing labour legislation rather than criminal law. This means that the resulting penalties
are likely to be different than provided for in criminal or penal law (for example, they may
be less severe for the perpetrators or consist of the payment of collective damages rather
than incarceration for the same offence). 400 Whatever the outcome, such cases would not
be recorded in criminal justice statistics on human traffi cking, as the prosecutions and
convictions would fall under different categories. Though the implementation of the
Traffi cking Protocol varies from country to country, 401 the general picture shows that few
399 Ibid.
400 Ibid.
401 See in OSCE: Human Traffi cking for Labour Exploitation/Forced and Bonded Labour: Prosecution of
Offenders, Justice for Victims. Report of the 5th Alliance against Traffi cking in Persons Conferences
on Human Traffi cking for:
Labour Exploitation/Forced and Bonded Labour Vienna, 16 and 17 November 2006: The experiences
in the United States show a continuum in the workplace between forced labour and labour exploitation.
One could speak of mixed workplaces in which people can fi nd themselves in different positions. The
United States has a broad spectrum of laws to address this variety of situations, a large part of which
stems from the abolition of slavery two centuries ago. Moreover, in 2000 the Traffi cking Victims
Protection Act (TVPA) was adopted. The Act contains three important elements: It criminalises
broader forms of coercion by including more subtle forms of psychological control. Such psychological
coercion can be based on factors which include culture, threats of harm to family members, hopes for
a better life or false promises. It offers a generous scheme of social welfare benefi ts to victims, along
with residence in the form of visas that allow victims and their families to stay in the U.S. for a period
of three years. It requires cooperation between law enforcement and social services. Law enforcement
must write a letter for the visa procedure to start, of which the social service providers are dependent,
so this forces both parties to co-operate. Apart from the TVPA, the federal laws contain provisions on
148