WHAT IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING?
International agreement on what constitutes “trafficking in persons” is very
recent. In fact, it was not until the late 1990s that States began the task of
separating out trafficking from other practices with which it was commonly
associated such as facilitated irregular migration. The first-ever agreed definition
of trafficking was incorporated into the 2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress
and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children,
supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime (Trafficking Protocol). That definition has since been incorporated
into many other legal and policy instruments as well as national laws