PART 1 has grown significantly. In short, many of the practices that are implicated in modern-day trafficking are unambiguously prohibited under international human rights law. The present Commentary will show that international human rights law is also relevant in terms of directing or determining appropriate responses by States. The law relating to treatment of non-citizens, for example, confirms that States are required to extend important human rights protections to victims of trafficking within their borders (see discussion under Principle 1 and related guidelines). Human rights law also confirms that States cannot violate non-discrimination principles or norms protecting economic, social and cultural rights when developing or implementing their response to trafficking (see discussion under Principle 3 and related guidelines). In addition to basic rights, individual trafficked persons will, depending on their status, be entitled to additional protections such as those that international law recognizes as applicable to women, children, migrants, migrant workers, refugees, and non-combatants. The right of victims of trafficking to remedies (explored in detail under Principle 17 and related guidelines) is a critical aspect of the human rights framework dictating acceptable national responses. Does international human rights law actually prohibit trafficking in persons – as opposed to practices involved in trafficking such as forced labour or slavery? In other words, is trafficking itself a violation of international law? This is an important question from both a policy and a practical perspective. To be able to say that trafficking violates international human rights law is important for advocacy purposes because it establishes a direct link with the secondary rules of responsibility and because it pushes States towards a particular level and type of response. Broader legal 38 and policy interventions that aim to eradicate trafficking receive a considerable boost if that phenomenon, not just its constitutive elements, can be characterized as against international human rights law. Finally, identifying trafficking as a human rights violation will activate State obligations where States have introduced special measures, including protection measures, for those victims deemed to have suffered “human rights” violations.33 The clear prohibition on trafficking in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the reference to trafficking in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women indicate that, at least in relation to trafficking in children and women, international law recognizes a relatively unambiguous prohibition. Over the past decade it has become possible to cite strong, recent evidence, derived from a range of sources including treaties,34 interpretive texts,35 resolutions of intergovernmental organizations36 and findings This consequence is one of the main reasons why trafficking was specifically identified as a human rights violation in the preamble to the European Trafficking Convention. See Explanatory Report on the European Trafficking Convention, para. 41. 33 For example, the preamble to the European Trafficking Convention: “Considering that trafficking in human beings constitutes a violation of human rights and an offence to the dignity and the integrity of the human being”. See also the preamble to the EU Council Decision of 19 July 2002 which states that “trafficking in human beings comprises serious violations of fundamental human rights and human dignity”. See further the 2009 proposal for a new Framework Decision on Trafficking, which states, in its preamble, that “[t]rafficking in human beings is a serious crime, often committed in the framework of organised crime, and a gross violation of human rights”. 34 See, for example, Explanatory Report on the European Trafficking Convention, paras. 41-45. 35 See, for example, General Assembly resolution 58/137 on strengthening international cooperation in preventing and combating trafficking in persons and protecting victims of such trafficking, preamble (“trafficking in persons [is] an abhorrent form of modern-day slavery and 36 RECOMMENDED PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING