United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons

A/RES/64/293View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 104 Crime prevention and criminal justice, published in 2009.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Subprogramme 1	Countering transnational organized crime	61

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Subprogramme 1	Countering transnational organized crime	61	—

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

7 reports · 2011–2016

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2016	A/71/114	Implementation of the mandates of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, with particular reference to the technical cooperation activities of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/64/293
2016	A/71/119	Improving the coordination of efforts against trafficking in persons report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/64/293
2015	A/70/99	Implementation of the mandates of the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme, with particular reference to the technical cooperation activities of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/64/293
2014	A/69/94	Implementation of the mandates of the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme, with particular reference to the technical cooperation activities of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/64/293
2013	A/68/127	Implementation of the mandates of the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme, with particular reference to the technical cooperation activities of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/64/293

What subjects does this mandate have?

4 subjects

Crime Prevention Programme Evaluation Programmes of Action Trafficking in Persons

What’s in this document?

7 operative paragraphs

Adopts the present resolution and its annex as the United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons;

Decides to formally launch the Plan of Action at a one-day, high-level meeting of the General Assembly, and urges Member 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 fully and effectively implement the relevant provisions of the Plan of Action and the activities outlined therein;

Urges Member 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 CrimeError: Reference source not found and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime,Error: Reference source not found taking into consideration the central role of those instruments in the fight against trafficking in persons, and also urges States parties to those instruments to implement them fully and effectively;

Decides to establish, in accordance with paragraph 38 of the annex to the present resolution, the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, and requests the Secretary-General to take all necessary measures for its effective operation, and acknowledges previous and ongoing contributions to other funding sources that support efforts to combat trafficking in persons;

Requests the Secretary-General to include a section on the implementation by the United Nations system of the Plan of Action, within already existing reporting obligations to the General Assembly under the item on crime prevention and criminal justice;

Decides to appraise in 2013 the progress achieved in the implementation of the Plan of Action, and requests the Secretary-General to take all necessary measures in that regard;

Requests the Secretary-General to present proposals to finance the staffing and programmatic requirements of the Secretariat necessary to strengthen the capacity of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as described in the Plan of Action through a reallocation of resources in the context of the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2012–2013.

United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons

We, the States Members of the United Nations, reaffirm our commitments to end the heinous crime of trafficking in persons, especially women and children, express our determination to prevent and combat trafficking in persons, protect and assist victims of trafficking in persons, prosecute crimes of trafficking in persons and promote partnerships to strengthen coordination and cooperation, and resolve to translate our political will into concrete actions by adopting an action plan to:

Consistently and strongly condemn trafficking in persons, which constitutes a criminal activity violating human dignity and has negative effects on development, peace and security and human rights;

Recognize that “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 purpose of exploitation, which includes, 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, as set forth in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (hereinafter referred to as “the Trafficking Protocol”);Error: Reference source not found

Ensure that the promotion and protection of the human rights of victims of trafficking in persons, the prevention of trafficking in persons by addressing the social, economic, cultural, political and other contributing factors and the strengthening of the criminal justice response are at the centre of all efforts to prevent and combat trafficking in persons and to protect, assist and provide redress to victims;

Take urgent action to prevent trafficking in persons, protect its victims and prosecute its perpetrators and strengthen partnerships to these ends by promoting and considering, as a priority, ratifying or acceding to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized CrimeError: Reference source not found and the Trafficking Protocol, as well as other relevant international instruments, including the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) of the International Labour Organization, the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery,Error: Reference source not found the Convention on the Rights of the ChildError: Reference source not found and the Optional Protocols thereto on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornographyError: Reference source not found and on the involvement of children in armed conflict,Error: Reference source not found and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women;Error: Reference source not found

Recognize that, in accordance with article 32 of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention is established to improve the capacity of States parties to promote and review the implementation of the Convention, including the Trafficking Protocol, and take note of ongoing initiatives aimed at exploring options regarding an appropriate and effective mechanism to assist the Conference of the Parties in the review of the implementation of the Convention;

Take into account the activities and recommendations of the open-ended interim Working Group on Trafficking in Persons established by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention;

Support the Human Rights Council and contribute to its work on the question of the promotion and protection of human rights for all in the fight against trafficking in persons;

Support the role and mandates of the Special Rapporteurs on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, on violence against women, its causes and consequences, and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, the Special Representatives of the Secretary-General on violence against children and on sexual violence in conflict, and other relevant special rapporteurs and representatives. The mandate holders should assist States by offering concrete advice, liaising with the United Nations and regional organizations and reporting on these issues;

Reaffirm the central role of the work of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in the global fight against trafficking in persons, particularly in providing technical assistance to implement the Convention and the Trafficking Protocol, by making use of existing capacity-building tools, lessons learned and expertise available in international organizations, including the International Framework for Action to Implement the Trafficking in Persons Protocol;¹⁵

¹⁵Available from www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/publications.html.

Reaffirm the important work of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Labour Organization and the International Organization for Migration in the global fight against trafficking in persons;

Strongly urge all responsible United Nations entities to coordinate their efforts to fight trafficking in persons effectively and to protect the human rights of its victims, including by means of the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons and the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking;

Prevention of trafficking in persons

Address the social, economic, cultural, political and other factors that make people vulnerable to trafficking in persons, such as poverty, unemployment, inequality, humanitarian emergencies, including armed conflicts and natural disasters, sexual violence, gender discrimination, social exclusion and marginalization, as well as a culture of tolerance towards violence against women, youth and children;

Make a commitment to address all forms of trafficking in persons wherever they occur;

Mainstream the issue of trafficking in persons into the broader policies and programmes of the United Nations aimed at addressing economic and social development, human rights, the rule of law, good governance, education and natural disaster and post-conflict reconstruction;

Adopt and implement comprehensive policies and programmes at the national level and, as appropriate, at the subregional and regional levels to prevent all forms of trafficking in persons that are in line with relevant policies and programmes on migration, education, employment, gender equality, empowerment of women and crime prevention, in accordance with relevant international human rights instruments;

Conduct research and collect suitably disaggregated data that would enable proper analysis of the nature and extent of trafficking in persons;

Develop or strengthen processes for the identification of victims, such as those developed, inter alia, by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and other organizations, including appropriate and non-discriminatory measures that help to identify victims of trafficking in persons among vulnerable populations;

Promote awareness-raising campaigns aimed at persons at risk of being trafficked and at the general public through education and the effective involvement of the mass media, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and community leaders with a view to discouraging the demand that fosters the exploitation of persons, especially women and children, and that leads to trafficking, and collect and disseminate best practices on the implementation of those campaigns;

Stress the role of education in raising awareness about the prevention of trafficking in persons, and promote education, in particular human rights education, and human rights learning as a sustainable way of preventing trafficking in persons;

Reinforce efforts regarding the provision of identity documents, such as the registration of births, in order to lower the risk of being trafficked and to help to identify victims of trafficking in persons;

Increase and support prevention efforts in countries of origin, transit and destination by focusing on the demand that fosters all forms of trafficking and the goods and services produced as a result of trafficking in persons;

Adopt and implement specific measures at the national level to combat trafficking for labour exploitation and strive to educate consumers on those measures;

Strengthen or continue to strengthen the capacity of law enforcement, immigration, education, social welfare, labour and other relevant officials in the prevention of trafficking in persons, taking into account the need to respect human rights and child- and gender-sensitive issues, and encourage cooperation, where appropriate, with civil society, non-governmental organizations and other relevant organizations;

Encourage the United Nations to intensify its work with Member States and relevant international, regional and subregional organizations to identify and share best practices to prevent trafficking in persons;

Protection of and assistance to victims of trafficking in persons

Reaffirm that the promotion and protection of human rights for all and effective measures to respond to trafficking in persons are complementary and mutually reinforcing;

Stress the need to promote and protect the rights of victims of trafficking in persons and to reintegrate victims into the community by taking into account the Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking developed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights¹⁶ and the Guidelines on the Protection of Child Victims of Trafficking developed by the United Nations Children’s Fund;¹⁷

¹⁶E/2002/68/Add.1.

¹⁷Available from www.unicef.org/ceecis/0610-Unicef_Victims_Guidelines_en.pdf.

Ensure that victims of trafficking in persons are treated as victims of crime and that national legislation effectively criminalizes all forms of trafficking;

Review existing national services available to victims of trafficking in persons, consistent with the Convention and the Trafficking Protocol, strengthen those services where needed, and support the establishment or strengthening of appropriate referral mechanisms;

Strengthen or continue to strengthen the capacity of relevant officials likely to encounter and identify possible victims of trafficking in persons, such as law enforcement personnel, border control officers, labour inspectors, consular or embassy officials, judges and prosecutors and peacekeepers, and ensure the availability of needed resources to the relevant sectors and institutions, including those of civil society;

Urge Governments to take all appropriate measures to ensure that identified victims of trafficking in persons are not penalized for having been trafficked and that they do not suffer from victimization as a result of actions taken by Government authorities;

Protect the privacy and identity and ensure the safety of victims of trafficking in persons before, during and after criminal proceedings and protect immediate family members and witnesses, as appropriate, from retaliation by traffickers by ensuring their safety in accordance with articles 24 and 25 of the Convention;

Provide assistance and services for the physical, psychological and social recovery and rehabilitation of trafficked persons, in cooperation with non-governmental organizations and other relevant organizations and sectors of civil society;

Urge States parties to consider adopting legislative or other appropriate measures that permit victims of trafficking in persons to remain in their territory, temporarily or permanently, in appropriate cases, consistent with the Convention and the Trafficking Protocol;

Ensure that countries of origin accept back their nationals who are victims of trafficking in persons and guarantee that such return is conducted with due regard for safety and shall preferably be voluntary, consistent with the Convention and the Trafficking Protocol;

Adopt labour laws in countries of origin, transit and destination which provide legal rights and protections for workers that would limit their risk of being trafficked;

Provide specialized services to identified victims of trafficking in persons, consistent with the Convention and the Trafficking Protocol and other relevant instruments, including access to health services, such as access to prevention, treatment, care and support services for HIV and AIDS and other blood-borne and communicable diseases for those victims of trafficking in persons that have been sexually exploited, taking into account the fact that human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation has serious, immediate and long-term implications for health, including sexual and reproductive health;

Provide appropriate assistance and protection in the best interest of the child to child victims of trafficking in persons or to those at risk of being trafficked, including through appropriate services and measures for the physical and psychological well-being of child victims of trafficking in persons and for their education, rehabilitation and reintegration, in coordination with existing child protection systems;

Establish the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, to provide humanitarian, legal and financial aid to victims of trafficking in persons through established channels of assistance, such as governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, which shall operate as a subsidiary fund of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Fund managed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and shall be administered in accordance with the Financial Regulations and Rules of the United Nations¹⁸ and other relevant provisions, with the advice of a board of trustees composed of five persons with relevant experience in the field of trafficking in persons who shall be appointed with due regard to equitable geographical distribution by the Secretary-General in consultation with Member States and with the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime;

¹⁸ST/SGB/2003/7.

Adopt measures to ensure that victims of trafficking in persons can seek compensation for the damage suffered, consistent with the Convention and the Trafficking Protocol;

Acknowledge the important role of civil society organizations in providing assistance and empowerment to victims of trafficking in persons, helping them to seek redress and facilitating the care of and provision of appropriate services to victims, including close cooperation and coordination with law enforcement officials;

Ensure that domestic legal or administrative systems include measures to provide information to victims of trafficking in persons, in a language they understand, regarding their legal rights and the relevant court and administrative proceedings and facilitate their access to assistance in order to enable their views and concerns to be presented and considered at appropriate stages of such proceedings against offenders in a manner not prejudicial to the rights of the defence, consistent with the Convention and the Trafficking Protocol;

Provide victims of trafficking in persons with an adequate period of time to recover and the opportunity to consult with appropriate advisers to assist in decision-making regarding cooperation with law enforcement and their participation in judicial proceedings;

Prosecution of crimes of trafficking in persons

Implement all relevant legal instruments that criminalize trafficking in persons, including by:

Prosecuting crimes of trafficking in persons that encompass all forms of exploitation and enacting, enforcing and strengthening legislation that criminalizes all trafficking in persons, especially women and children;

Adopting legislation and other measures, as necessary, to establish as criminal offences attempting to commit an offence, participating as an accomplice in an offence and organizing or directing other persons to commit an offence, as set out in the Trafficking Protocol, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols thereto and other relevant instruments, as applicable;

Combating and prosecuting organized criminal groups engaged in trafficking in persons;

Ensure the liability of all categories of perpetrators of trafficking in persons, including the liability of legal persons and entities, as appropriate, in line with relevant international instruments;

Enhance efforts to investigate alleged cases of trafficking, strengthen means to combat trafficking, prosecute perpetrators, including through more systematic use of freezing assets for the purpose of eventual confiscation, in accordance with the provisions of article 12 of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and ensure that penalties are proportionate to the gravity of the crime;

Make use of the available technical assistance provided to strengthen the criminal justice response to trafficking in persons, including by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime;

Investigate, prosecute and punish corrupt public officials who engage in or facilitate trafficking in persons and promote a zero-tolerance policy against those corrupt officials, consistent with the United Nations Convention against Corruption¹⁹ and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime;

¹⁹United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2349, No. 42146.

Strengthen or continue to strengthen coordination and cooperation among States in combating crimes that might be connected with trafficking in persons, including money-laundering, corruption, smuggling of migrants and all forms of organized crime;

Encourage the law enforcement, immigration, border patrol or other relevant authorities of concerned States to cooperate with one another by exchanging information with full respect for domestic laws, such as data protection laws, and continue to promote cooperation among countries of origin, transit and destination in order to enhance investigations, prosecutions and detection of trafficking networks;

Strengthening of partnerships against trafficking in persons

Recognize that capacity-building is a very important component in combating trafficking in persons and encourage and enhance coordination and coherence within the United Nations system;

Encourage effective cooperation and coordination of efforts at the national, bilateral, subregional, regional and international levels, especially among countries of origin, transit and destination, and take advantage of the networks provided by relevant organizations to share best practices in capacity-building for responding to and combating trafficking in persons, while stressing the importance of mutual legal assistance efforts and the exchange of information with full respect for domestic laws, such as data protection laws, including operational information, programmes and best practices in supplementing the Convention and the work done by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention;

Conclude and implement mutual legal assistance and extradition agreements, where appropriate, to apprehend and prosecute perpetrators of trafficking in persons, in accordance with the relevant provisions of national and international law, including the Convention;

Promote cooperation and coordination among governmental institutions, civil society and the private sector, including the media, as well as workers’ and employers’ organizations, to strengthen prevention and protection policies and programmes;

Strengthen cooperation among law enforcement agencies, regionally and internationally;

Intensify international, regional and subregional cooperation to combat trafficking in persons, as well as technical assistance for countries of origin, transit and destination aimed at strengthening their ability to prevent all forms of trafficking in persons;

Strengthen and support the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons in order to improve coordination and cooperation among relevant United Nations bodies, including the human rights treaty bodies and mechanisms, and other international organizations;

Encourage the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, other agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system and international and regional organizations to continue to assist Member States, upon request, to strengthen policymaking, legislative arrangements, border control and law enforcement cooperation, public awareness campaigns and capacity-building and to exchange and build upon best practices in assisting victims of trafficking in persons;

Further encourage agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system to continue to improve the coherence and efficiency of technical assistance delivery in the field of trafficking in persons, in accordance with the recommendations of the Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group of Governmental Experts on Technical Assistance established by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention;

Urge the Secretary-General to expedite the strengthening of the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons under the coordination of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in order to ensure overall organization and coherence in the efforts of the United Nations system to respond to trafficking in persons;

Request the Secretary-General, as a matter of priority, to strengthen the capacity of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to collect information and report biennially, starting in 2012, on patterns and flows of trafficking in persons at the national, regional and international levels in a balanced, reliable and comprehensive manner, in close cooperation and collaboration with Member States, and share best practices and lessons learned from various initiatives and mechanisms;

Encourage Member States to consider making voluntary contributions to the work of the United Nations in combating human trafficking, and to explore additional sources of funding in this regard, including reaching out to the private sector for contributions.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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Who cites this mandate in the budget?