In December of 2000, the UN opened for signing the first
international standard on human trafficking that defined the crime
broadly enough to allow for a substantial base of legislation to
be created against it. Previous efforts had focused too singularly
on prostitution and sexual trafficking, ignoring the larger scope
of human trafficking in areas such as forced labor. The UN Trafficking
Protocol constructed a framework within which countries
could pass their own legislation, creating a sense of international
solidarity while at the same time allowing trafficking to be dealt
with at a more localized, and therefore productive, level.