Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Abolishing Slavery and its Contemporary Forms

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Abolishing Slavery
whether the trafficking involves prostitution. The Convention also places an obligation on States
parties to take specific measures to protect immigrants and emigrants, the potential victims of traf-
ficking, by providing them with relevant information to ensure that they do not fall victim to traf-
fickers.
67. Article 1 of the Suppression of Traffic Convention requires the woman or man being traf-
ficked to have been recruited “to gratify the passions of another” and “for purposes of prostitu-
tion”. Because the requirement concerning the intentional character of the offence may create
practical difficulties in implementation, “additional instruments should be envisaged to mitigate
in certain cases that requirement concerning the subjective aspect of the offence”.
92
As early as
1965 the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) recommended to the United
Nations that the Suppression of Traffic Convention “be supplemented so as to cover cases of ‘dis-
guised traffic’ (engaging persons for employment abroad that exposes them to prostitution)”.
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The
suggestion was not, however, followed.
68. The notion of trafficking in the Suppression of Traffic Convention was inextricably linked to
prostitution, resulting in a narrow interpretation of trafficking. The reality today, however, is that
people are trafficked not only for exploitation in the sex industry but also for many other reasons.
The international community has recognized, on numerous occasions, that people are being
smuggled across international borders in abusive as well as illegal circumstances for a variety of
purposes in addition to prostitution.
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69. The Supplementary Convention adopted by the United Nations in 1956, just seven years
after the Suppression of Traffic Convention, also contains provisions dealing with the slave trade
and the transportation of slaves or persons of servile status from one country to another. Article 3
of the Supplementary Convention makes it a criminal offence to be involved in the slave trade and
requires States parties to exchange relevant information in a coordinated effort to combat the slave
trade.
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In addition, article 6(1) of the Supplementary Convention views as a crime “the act of
enslaving another person or of inducing another person” into slavery or servile status. There are
various methods of procuring or enticing a person into slavery or servile status for the purposes of
prostitution or other forms of exploitation. The primary methods include (i) abduction,
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(ii) pur-
chase,
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or (iii) procurement with fraudulent inducements of jobs and a better life.
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70. There were various suggestions following the adoption of the Suppression of Traffic Conven-
tion in 1949 that the definition of “traffic in persons” should be extended to cover forms of recruit-
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Halima Embarek Warzazi, supra note 69, para. 89.
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Inquiry on the status of combating of the traffic in persons and of the exploitation of the prostitution of others:
report of the Secretary-General, United Nations document E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.2/1982/13 (1982), para. 139.
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See Economic and Social Council, Integration of the Human Rights of Women and the Gender Perspective:
Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Ms. Radhika Coomar-
aswamy, on trafficking in women, women’s migration and violence against women, submitted in accordance with Com-
mission on Human Rights resolution 1997/44, United Nations document E/CN.4/2000/68 (2000), para. 13 (stating that
“Documentation and research shows that trafficking occurs for a myriad of exploitative purposes to which trafficked
victims have not consented, including but not limited to forced and/or bonded labour, including within the sex trade,
forced marriage and other slavery-like practices.”). 
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See also Economic and Social Council resolution 1998/20 of 20 July 1998 entitled “Action to combat interna-
tional trafficking in women and children” (stressing the importance of “sharing information, coordinating law enforce-
ment activities . . . in order to locate and arrest those who organize trafficking in women and children, as well as those
who exploit those trafficked”).
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See Kathleen Barry, Female Sexual Slavery (1984) (pointing out the difficulty of assessing the extent of abduc-
tion, as escape is often difficult and, consequently, the abduction goes unreported).
97
See “A Painful Trade for North Koreans”, International Herald Tribune, 13-14 February 1999, p. 1 (discussing
the phenomenon of selling children for food); Statement by the President of the General Assembly on International Day
for the Abolition of Slavery, 2 December 1996 (GA/9190) (condemning as tragic cases where victims are sold with a
family’s complicity, especially in situations where children marry).
98
See Uli Schmetzer, “Slave Trade Survives, Prospers Across Asia”, China Tribune, 17 November 1991, p. C1
(noting that the target group for such procurement are persons who are young, poor and seeking financial security).

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