Definition of trafficking in women

During the UN conference in Palermo in November 2000, for the first time a generally acceptable definition of trafficking in women was given, the so-called Palermo Protocol:

 “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purposes of exploitation.

Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

The document mentions explicitly ‘the exploitation of the prostitution of others’. In international law ‘sexual exploitation’ is not defined, and also during the debates about the protocol the delegates could not reach agreement on a definition of ‘sexual exploitation of others’. Because in international law terms such as ‘forced labour’, ‘practices of slavery’ and suchlike are very familiar, it was enough to leave it in these terms, all the more because it could not be precisely stated what is understood by such terms.

Both nationally and internationally a distinction is made between trafficking in persons (trafficking in women) and smuggling of people. Smuggling of people is only bringing people over the border without them having the required papers. Trafficking in people, however, involves a much more comprehensive process; from recruitment to setting to work under force, and all the steps in between.

SRTV chooses to go on using the legally incorrect term ‘trafficking in women’ because from the figures it appears that 98% of trafficked people are women.