Different human rights will be relevant at different points in the trafficking
cycle. Some will be especially relevant to the causes of trafficking (for example,
the right to an adequate standard of living); others to the actual process
of trafficking (for example, the right to be free from slavery); and still others
to the response to trafficking (for example, the right of suspects to a fair trial).
Some rights are broadly applicable to each of these aspects.
A. Trafficking as a violation of human rights
As noted above, many of the practices associated with modern-day trafficking
are clearly prohibited under international human rights law. For instance,
human rights law forbids debt bondage: the pledging of personal services
as security for a debt where the value of those services is not applied
towards the liquidation of the debt or their length or nature is not limited and
defined. Many trafficked persons who enter into a debt with their exploiters
(relating to, for example, placement or transport fees) find themselves in a
situation of debt bondage; the debt is used as a means of controlling and
exploiting them. Human rights law also prohibits forced labour, defined
by Convention No. 29 concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour of the International
Labour Organization (ILO) 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 [herself] voluntarily”. Slavery, servitude,
child sexual exploitation, forced marriage, servile forms of
marriage, child marriage, enforced prostitution and the exploitation
of prostitution are also trafficking-related practices that are
prohibited under international human rights law.
Does international human rights law actually prohibit “trafficking in persons”—as
opposed to “practices associated with trafficking” such as those
listed above? This is an important question because it can have an impact
on the nature of a State’s obligations and responsibilities. Only two of the
major human rights treaties—the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination against Women (art. 6) and the Convention on the Rights
of the Child (art. 35)—contain substantive reference to trafficking. However,
over the past decade a general agreement has emerged within the international
community that trafficking itself is a serious violation of human rights.
For example, both the Council of Europe’s Convention on Action against
Trafficking in Human Beings and the European Union Directive on preventing
and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims identify
trafficking as a violation of human rights. The United Nations General
Assembly and the Human Rights Council have repeatedly affirmed that trafficking
violates and impairs fundamental human rights, as have many of the
international human rights mechanisms.