Human Trafficking for the Removal of Organs and Body Parts. Background Paper
- Document number
- 1449
- Date
- 2008
- Title
- Human Trafficking for the Removal of Organs and Body Parts. Background Paper
- Author/publisher
- Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, United Nations (UN)
- Availability
- View/save PDF version of this document
- Document type(s)
- Meeting Documentation/Conference Reports,
- Keywords
- UN GIFT, United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking, The Vienna Forum to fight Human Trafficking
- Summary
- Trafficking in persons for the purpose of removal of organs is addressed by theProtocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women andChildren, supplementing the United Nations Convention against TransnationalOrganized Crime. The inclusion of this form of exploitation into the Protocol is intendedto cover those situations where a person is exploited for the purposes of a traffickerobtaining profit in the ‘organ market’, and situations where a person is trafficked forthe purpose of the removal of their organs and/or body parts for purposes of witchcraftand traditional medicine. In the former situation, market forces drive supply anddemand; those in desperate of need of an organ transplant will purchase an organfrom those who are desperately poor, or from ‘brokers’ who forcibly or deceptivelyobtained the organ. In the latter situation (not the focus of this background paper),“muti” (magical medicines used in some parts of Africa) involves the removal of bodyparts including skulls, hearts, eyes and genitals which are sold and used by deviantpractitioners to increase wealth, influence, health or fertility.
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