Further information on how different treaties are
used in this Commentary can be found in section
2.7 of this chapter.
Box 1: T
reaties most often cited
in this Commentary
2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and
Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially
Women and Children, supplementing
the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime (Trafficking
Protocol)
2005 Council of Europe Convention on
Action against Trafficking in Human Beings
(European Trafficking Convention)
1979 Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women
1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child
2000 United Nations Convention
against Transnational Organized Crime
(Organized Crime Convention)
1966 International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights
2.2.1. SPECIALIST TRAFFICKING TREATIES:
INTERNATIONAL
A series of treaties dealing specifically with
the issue of trafficking (then understood as the
sexual exploitation of women and girls in foreign
countries) was concluded during the first half of
the twentieth century:
• 1904 International Agreement for the
Suppression of the White Slave Traffic;
• 1910 International Convention for the
Suppression of the White Slave Traffic;
• 1949 Protocol Amending the International
Agreement for the Suppression of the White
Slave Traffic, and Amending the International
Convention for the Suppression of the White
Slave Traffic;
• 1921 International Convention for the
Suppression of Traffic in Women and Children;
• 1933 International Convention for the
Suppression of Traffic in Women of Full Age;
• 1947 Protocol Amending the International
Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in
Women and Children and the International
Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in
Women of Full Age.
In 1949, most of these agreements were
consolidated into the Convention for the
Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of
the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others.
This treaty remained the major international
agreement on the subject of trafficking for the
next five decades.
In December 2000, representatives from more
than 80 countries met at Palermo, Italy, to sign
a new international legal framework to fight
transnational organized crime that had been
adopted by the General Assembly the previous
month. One of the key platforms of that regime
was a detailed agreement on combating
trafficking in persons. The Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons,
Especially Women and Children, supplementing
the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime (Trafficking
Protocol), is currently the single most important
and influential international legal agreement on
trafficking. It entered into force in 2003 and by
10 October 2009 had 133 States parties.
2.2.2. SPECIALIST TRAFFICKING TREATIES:
REGIONAL
The international legal framework around
trafficking includes specialist treaties that have
COMMENTARY
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