The starting point for understanding the obligations which flow
from the Palermo Protocol is its relationship to the UN
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, as both of
these instruments are to be "interpreted together."o States
consenting to the Convention have an obligation to criminalize
the involvement in an organized criminal group, laundering the
proceeds of crime, corruption, and the obstruction of justice,
where the offense is transnational in nature." By an "offence
[that] is transnational in nature," what is meant is that either
"[i]t is committed in more than one State," or when committed in
one State, it "has substantial effects in another," or "substantial
part of its preparation, planning, direction or control takes place
in another State," or again, it "involves an organized criminal
group that engages in criminal activities in more than one
State."2 By reading the Convention in conjunction with the
Palermo Protocol, it becomes clear that this Protocol is not
exclusively applicable to situations where a person is trafficked
across an international border, but in fact can be trafficked
internally-that is to say: the victim may be moved solely within
one State, while the crime by contrast would be "transnational in
nature" if, for instance, it "involves an organized criminal group
that engages in criminal activities in more than one State." 3
While laundering, corruption, and obstruction of justice are
tangential to an understanding of 'trafficking in persons,' the
concept of an 'organized criminal group' as set out in the
Convention is fundamental.