Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children Protecting Victims of Trafficking and Persons at Risk of Trafficking, Especially Women and Children in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations

A/HRC/RES/32/3View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2016.

What subjects does this mandate have?

8 subjects

Administration of Justice Children in Armed Conflicts Crime Prevention Crime Victims Human Rights Sale of Children Trafficking in Persons Women in Armed Conflicts

What’s in this document?

25 operative paragraphs

Notes with appreciation the thematic report of the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, focusing on protecting victims of trafficking and people at risk of trafficking, especially women and children, in conflict and post-conflict situations;⁴

⁴A/HRC/32/41.

Calls upon all States:

To protect persons, particularly women, children and other vulnerable groups, in conflict affected areas, and persons fleeing conflict, from all forms of trafficking in persons;

To identify measures to prevent trafficking for purposes of labour exploitation of persons fleeing conflict, including by establishing safe and regular channels of migration, respecting the principle of non-refoulement and, as appropriate, examining possibilities for their access to the labour market in the host country;

To ensure birth registration and education and to promote access to marriage registration of persons fleeing conflict, including those living in camps for internally displaced persons and refugees, as a way to address potential trafficking in children;

To prevent and to prosecute trafficking in persons in all its forms;

To consider granting non-national victims of trafficking residence status and assistance in line with national laws and practice, not to be made conditional on the initiation of criminal proceedings or their cooperation with law enforcement authorities;

To train all stakeholders, including humanitarian personnel working in conflict zones and in refugee camps, to identify potential cases of trafficking and those individuals at risk of being trafficked;

To continue predeployment training of United Nations peacekeepers, police and experts on mission on issues relating to potential cases of trafficking, consistent with the directives, guidelines, standard operating procedures, manuals and training materials issued by the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations;

To establish and/or adapt national gender-sensitive and child-friendly referral mechanisms for assistance and protection services for victims and potential child victims of trafficking in persons, including through appropriate services and measures for the physical, psychological and social recovery of child victims of trafficking in persons and for their education, allowing for their recovery and creating a protective environment for them in coordination with existing child protection systems;

Invites relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, international organizations and humanitarian actors to take into account, as appropriate, the recommendations in the report of the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children,3 in order to identify promptly possible cases of trafficking in persons and to pursue human rights-based anti-trafficking responses in conflict, post-conflict, disaster and other emergency situations;

Urges all Governments to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur and to respond favourably to her requests to visit their countries, to provide her with all necessary information relating to the mandate and to react promptly to her urgent appeals;

Strongly encourages Governments to refer to the Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking developed by the Office of the High Commissioner1 as a useful tool in integrating a human rights-based approach into their responses to combat trafficking in persons;

Urges States to establish or strengthen national programmes and to engage in bilateral, subregional, regional and international cooperation, including by forging regional initiatives or plans of action,⁵ to address the problem of trafficking in persons in accordance with a victim-centred approach;

⁵Such as the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime, the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking, the Action Plan for the Asia-Pacific region of the Asian Regional Initiative against Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, the Convention against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its Plan of Action, the initiatives of the European Union on a comprehensive European policy and programmes on trafficking in human beings, as expressed in the European Union Strategy towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings 2012-2016, the activities of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the activities of the Council of the Baltic Sea States, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution, the Organization of American States Meetings of National Authorities on Trafficking in Persons, the Commonwealth of Independent States Agreement on Cooperation in Combating Trafficking in Persons, Human Organs and Tissues, and the activities of the International Labour Organization and the International Organization for Migration in this field.

Also urges States that have not yet done so to consider ratifying or acceding to, as a matter of priority, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, taking into consideration the central role of those instruments in the fight against trafficking in persons, and urges States parties to those instruments to implement them fully and effectively;

Further urges States, the United Nations and other international, regional and subregional organizations, as well as civil society, including non-governmental organizations, the private sector and the media, to implement fully and effectively the relevant provisions of the United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons and to carry out the activities outlined therein;

Calls upon Governments to intensify their efforts to address, with a view to eliminating, the demand that fosters the trafficking of women and children for all forms of exploitation, and in this regard to put in place or to enhance preventive measures, including legislative and punitive measures, to deter exploiters of trafficked persons, and to ensure their accountability;

Also calls upon Governments, the international community and all other organizations and entities that deal with conflict, post-conflict, disaster and other emergency situations to address the heightened vulnerability of women and children to trafficking and exploitation and associated gender-based violence, and to include the prevention of the trafficking of affected women and children in all such national, regional and international initiatives;

Urges Governments to devise, enforce and strengthen effective gender- and age-sensitive measures to combat and eliminate all forms of trafficking in women and children, including for sexual and economic exploitation, as part of a comprehensive anti-trafficking strategy that integrates a human rights perspective, and to draw up, as appropriate, national action plans in this regard;

Also urges Governments to ensure that the prevention of and responses to trafficking in persons continue to take into account the specific needs of women and girls and their participation in and contribution to all phases of preventing and responding to trafficking, especially in addressing specific forms of exploitation, such as sexual exploitation;

Calls upon all Governments to criminalize all forms of trafficking in persons, and to bring to justice and punish the offenders and intermediaries involved in trafficking in persons;

Urges Governments, in accordance with their respective legal systems, to take all appropriate measures, including through policies and legislation, to ensure that victims of trafficking are protected from prosecution or punishment for acts that they have been compelled to commit as a direct consequence of having been trafficked, and that the victims do not suffer from revictimization as a result of actions taken by government authorities, and encourages Governments to prevent, within their legal frameworks and in accordance with national policies, victims of trafficking in persons from being prosecuted or punished as a direct consequence of their illegal entry or residence;

Invites States and other interested parties to make further voluntary contributions to the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery and the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children;

Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to ensure that the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, receives the resources necessary to enable the mandate holder to discharge the mandate fully;

Decides to continue consideration of the issue of trafficking in persons, especially women and children, in accordance with its annual programme of work.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

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