La Strada Documentation Center

An Introduction to Human Trafficking: Vulnerability, Impact and Action

Document number
1466
Date
2008
Title
An Introduction to Human Trafficking: Vulnerability, Impact and Action
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
The Vienna Forum was organized around three central themes, which reflect the key issuesthat need to be addressed in a comprehensive anti-trafficking strategy: Why does humantrafficking occur? What are the consequences? What measures might be taken in response?Within each theme, plenary sessions as well as workshops provided participants with theopportunity to explore each theme in greater detail, with the purpose of developing comprehensiveintervention strategies and undertaking practical action.In order to provide participants with a common starting point for debate and dialogue,UNODC commissioned the three following background papers, each addressing one ofthe major themes of the conference, and drafted by three leading anti-trafficking experts.The first paper, on vulnerability, challenges current working definitions of prevention andthe practical emphasis on public awareness as the primary tool to prevent the occurrenceof this crime. The author maintains that an expanded understanding of prevention toinclude the vulnerability of at-risk individuals and the fostering of an environment wherecrime cannot prosper will assist in the development of comprehensive preventionstrategies.The second paper, on the impact of trafficking, outlines the many areas where traffickingaffects our lives. The author includes discussions of the consequences of trafficking onthe victims of the crime, as well as on our social, political and economic systems, describingboth the reach and the complex and interlocking negative impact that human traffickinghas at both the national and the global level.The third paper, on action, provides a detailed summary of government responses to traffickingsince the adoption of the Trafficking Protocol in 2000. The author describes stateactions in the areas of prevention, protection and assistance, and prosecution and lawenforcement, offering a critique of different approaches and a call for an understandingof what constitutes good and best practices.The full papers—reproduced in English only—are preceded by summaries in all six officiallanguages of the United Nations.
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