On July 26, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved, by voice vote, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, which supplements the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the protocol on November 15, 2000, and it entered into force on December 25, 2003, after having been ratified by forty state parties. The United States signed the protocol on December 13, 2000.
According to the protocol, “Effective action to prevent and combat trafficking in persons, especially women and children, requires a comprehensive international approach in the countries of origin, transit and destination that includes measures to prevent such trafficking, to punish the traffickers and to protect the victims of such trafficking, including by protecting their internationally recognized human rights.”
Under the protocol, each state party must enact a law criminalizing human trafficking, and establish comprehensive policies and programs to prevent and combat trafficking. The protocol also requires state parties to ensure that victims of trafficking receive domestic legal assistance, and encourages state parties to provide health care, mental health services, and other social assistance to victims.
In addition, the protocol requires state parties to provide training on human trafficking to law enforcement and immigration officials. The protocol states that the training “should focus on methods used in preventing such trafficking, prosecuting the traffickers and protecting the rights of the victims, including protecting the victims from the traffickers. The training should also take into account the need to consider human rights and child- and gender-sensitive issues, and it should encourage cooperation with nongovernmental organizations, other relevant organizations and other elements of civil society.”
