Important features of the definition
The following are key features of the new international legal understanding
about trafficking:
Trafficking affects women, men and children, and involves
a range of exploitative practices. Trafficking was traditionally associated
with the movement of women and girls into sexual exploitation. The
international legal definition set out above makes clear that men and women,
boys and girls can all be trafficked—and that the range of potentially
exploitative practices linked to trafficking is very wide. The list of examples
set out in the definition is open-ended and new or additional exploitative
purposes may be identified in the future.
Trafficking does not require the crossing of an international
border. The definition covers internal as well as cross-border trafficking.
That is, it is legally possible for trafficking to take place within a single country,
including the victim’s own.