Trafficking in Women and Girls

A/RES/69/149No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 27aAdvancement of women, published in 2015.

What other versions does this mandate have?

12 versions · 2003–2024

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/79/154

2024A/RES/79/154Trafficking in women and girlsLatestCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/77/194Trafficking in women and girlsCompare with previous version
2020A/RES/75/158Trafficking in women and girlsCompare with previous version
2019A/RES/73/146Trafficking in women and girlsCompare with previous version
2017A/RES/71/167Trafficking in women and girlsCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

12 topics

Capacity Building Crime Prevention Crime Victims Forced Prostitution Gender Equality Girls Sex Crimes Sex Tourism Trafficking in Persons Training Programmes Women Women's Rights

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2016.

2016A/71/223Trafficking in women and girls report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

46 operative paragraphs

Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General, which provides information on measures by States and activities within the United Nations system to tackle trafficking in women and girls;

Also takes note with appreciation of the information submitted by Member States and United Nations entities on measures and activities taken to combat trafficking in women and girls, and urges Member States and United Nations entities that have not done so to submit the requested information for inclusion in the report of the Secretary-General;

Takes note of the reports of the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on trafficking in persons, especially women and children;

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 urges States parties to those instruments to implement them fully and effectively;

Urges Member States to consider signing and ratifying and States parties to implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against WomenError: Reference source not found and the Optional Protocol thereto,Error: Reference source not found the Convention on the Rights of the ChildError: Reference source not found and the Optional Protocols thereto, and the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, as well as the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29)Error: Reference source not found and the Protocol thereto, the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81), the Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97), the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111), the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), the Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143), the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181), the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), and the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), of the International Labour Organization;

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 United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons and the activities outlined therein;

Welcomes the efforts of Governments, United Nations bodies and agencies and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to address the particular problem of trafficking in women and girls, and encourages them to further enhance their efforts and cooperation, including by sharing their knowledge, technical expertise and best practices as widely as possible;

Welcomes the convening of the Regional Ministerial Conference on Human Trafficking and Smuggling in the Horn of Africa, in Khartoum, from 13 to 16 October 2014, organized by the African Union in collaboration with the Government of the Sudan, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration, in this regard takes note with appreciation of the outcome document of the Conference, known as the Khartoum Declaration, and calls for its implementation, including through technical cooperation and capacity-building by the United Nations and the international community;

Encourages the United Nations system to mainstream, as appropriate, the issue of trafficking in persons, especially women and girls, into its broader policies and programmes aimed at addressing economic and social development, human rights, the rule of law, good governance, education, health and natural disaster and post-conflict reconstruction;

Welcomes the focus given by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) to ending violence against women and to increasing women’s access to economic opportunities, as well as its work on building effective partnerships for the empowerment of women, which will contribute to the efforts to combat trafficking in persons;

Calls upon Governments to intensify their efforts to address, with a view to eliminating, the demand that fosters the trafficking of women and girls for all forms of exploitation and in this regard to put in place or to enhance preventive measures, including legislative and punitive measures to deter exploiters of trafficked persons, as well as ensure their accountability;

Acknowledges the drafting of the basic principles on the right to an effective remedy for victims of trafficking in persons;

Calls upon Governments to strengthen measures aimed at advancing gender equality and empowering women and girls by, inter alia, enhancing their participation and leadership in society, including through education, economic empowerment and promoting an increase in the number of women assuming decision-making roles in both the public and private sectors, and to take further appropriate measures to address the increasing rate of homelessness of and inadequate housing for women in order to reduce their vulnerability to being trafficked;

Also calls upon Governments to take appropriate measures to address the factors that increase vulnerability to being trafficked, including poverty and gender inequality, as well as other factors that encourage the particular problem of trafficking in women and girls for exploitation in prostitution and other forms of commercialized sex, forced marriage, forced labour and organ removal, in order to prevent and eliminate such trafficking, including by strengthening existing legislation, with a view to providing better protection of the rights of women and girls and to punishing perpetrators, including public officials engaging in or facilitating human trafficking, through, as appropriate, criminal and civil measures;

Calls upon Governments, the international community and all other organizations and entities that deal with conflict, post-conflict, disaster and other emergency situations to address the heightened vulnerability of women and girls to trafficking and exploitation and associated gender-based violence and to include the prevention of the trafficking of affected women and girls in all such national, regional and international initiatives;

Urges Governments to devise, enforce and strengthen effective gender- and age-sensitive measures to combat and eliminate all forms of trafficking in women and girls, including for sexual and economic exploitation, as part of a comprehensive anti-trafficking strategy that integrates a human rights perspective, and to draw up, as appropriate, national action plans in this regard;

Also urges Governments to ensure that the prevention of and responses to trafficking in persons continue to take into account the specific needs of women and girls and their participation in and contribution to all phases of preventing and responding to trafficking, especially in addressing specific forms of exploitation, such as sexual exploitation;

Further urges Governments, in cooperation with intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, to support and allocate resources to strengthen preventive action, in particular education for women and men, as well as for girls and boys, on gender equality, self-respect and mutual respect, and campaigns, carried out in collaboration with civil society, to increase public awareness of the issue at the national and grass-roots levels, including anti-trafficking awareness-raising campaigns targeted at groups that are at increased risk of becoming victims of trafficking, as well as at those who may fuel the demand for the exploitation of trafficked persons and/or their labour;

Reiterates the importance of continued coordination among, inter alia, the Special Rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, in order to avoid unnecessary duplication in their activities in fulfilment of their mandates;

Urges Governments to strengthen measures to eliminate sex tourism demand, especially for children, through all possible preventive actions, including legislative measures and other relevant policies and programmes;

Encourages the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the World Tourism Organization and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to promote their global campaign urging travellers to support the fight against trafficking in persons, especially women and girls;

Urges Governments to develop age-appropriate educational and training programmes and policies aimed at preventing sex tourism and trafficking, giving special emphasis to the protection of young women and children;

Encourages Member States to establish or strengthen national programmes and to engage in bilateral, subregional, regional and international cooperation, including by forging regional initiatives or plans of action, to address the problem of trafficking in persons through, inter alia, the enhancement of information-sharing, data disaggregated by sex and age, specific data collection and other technical capacities and mutual legal assistance, as well as the combating of corruption and laundering of proceeds derived from trafficking, including for purposes of commercial sexual exploitation, and to ensure, as appropriate, that such agreements and initiatives are particularly responsive to the problem of trafficking as it affects women and girls;

Calls upon all Governments to criminalize all forms of trafficking in persons, recognizing its increasing occurrence for purposes of sexual exploitation, commercial sexual exploitation and abuse, sex tourism and forced labour, and to bring to justice and punish the offenders and intermediaries involved, including public officials involved with trafficking in persons, whether local or foreign, through the competent national authorities, either in the country of origin of the offender or in the country in which the abuse occurs, in accordance with the due process of law, as well as to penalize persons in authority found guilty of sexually assaulting victims of trafficking in their custody;

Urges Governments, in accordance with their respective legal systems, to take all appropriate measures, including through policies and legislation, to ensure that victims of trafficking are protected from prosecution or punishment for acts those victims have been compelled to commit as a direct consequence of having been trafficked and that the victims do not suffer from revictimization as a result of actions taken by Government authorities, and encourages Governments to prevent, within their legal framework and in accordance with national policies, victims of trafficking in persons from being prosecuted or punished as a direct consequence of their illegal entry or residence;

Invites Governments to consider establishing or strengthening a national mechanism, with the participation of civil society, as appropriate, including non-governmental organizations, to ensure a holistic and coordinated approach to anti-trafficking policies and measures, to encourage the exchange of information and to report on data, root causes, factors and trends in trafficking in persons, especially women and girls, and to include data on victims of trafficking disaggregated by sex and age;

Invites the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, to continue cooperating with international, regional and national mechanisms to combat trafficking in persons, in consultation with Governments, relevant treaty bodies, special procedures, the specialized agencies, intergovernmental organizations, civil society, including non-governmental organizations, national human rights institutions and other sources, including victims of trafficking or their representatives, as appropriate;

Encourages Governments and relevant United Nations bodies, from within existing resources, to take appropriate measures to raise public awareness of the issue of trafficking in persons, particularly women and girls, including the factors that make women and girls vulnerable to trafficking, to discourage, with a view to eliminating, the demand that fosters all forms of exploitation, including sexual exploitation and forced labour, to publicize the laws, regulations and penalties relating to this issue and to emphasize that trafficking is a serious crime;

Calls upon concerned Governments to allocate resources, as appropriate, to provide access to appropriate programmes for the physical, psychological and social recovery of victims of trafficking, including sexual and reproductive health-care services that include affordable treatment, care and support services for HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections, free of stigma and discrimination, as well as comprehensive information and voluntary counselling, and to take measures to cooperate with intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to provide for the social, medical and psychological care of the victims;

Encourages Governments, in cooperation with intergovernmental and civil society organizations, to undertake or strengthen campaigns aimed at clarifying opportunities, limitations, rights and responsibilities with respect to migration, as well as information on the risks of irregular migration and the ways and means used by traffickers, to enable women to make informed decisions and to prevent them from becoming victims of trafficking;

Also encourages Governments to review and strengthen, as appropriate, the enforcement of relevant labour and other laws within their territories or jurisdictions that are aimed at, or have the effect of, requiring business enterprises, including recruitment agencies, to prevent and combat human trafficking in supply chains, and to periodically assess the adequacy of such laws and address any gaps;

Invites the business sector to consider the adoption of ethical codes of conduct to ensure decent work and to prevent any form of exploitative practices that foster trafficking;

Encourages Governments to intensify collaboration with non-governmental organizations to develop and implement gender- and age-sensitive programmes for effective counselling, training and reintegration into society of victims of trafficking and programmes that provide shelter and helplines to victims or potential victims;

Urges Governments to provide or strengthen training for, and to raise awareness among, law enforcement, judicial, immigration and other relevant officials on the prevention and combating of trafficking in persons, including the sexual exploitation of women and girls, and in this regard calls upon Governments to ensure that the treatment of victims of trafficking, especially by law enforcement officials, immigration officers, consular officials, social workers and other first response officials, is conducted with full respect for the human rights of those victims and with gender and age sensitivity and observes the principles of non-discrimination, including the prohibition of racial discrimination;

Invites Member States to provide training for law enforcement and border control officials, as well as medical personnel, in identifying potential cases of trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal;

Invites Governments to take steps to ensure that criminal justice procedures and witness protection programmes are sensitive to the particular situation of trafficked women and girls, and that they are supported and assisted, as appropriate, in making complaints to the police or other authorities, without fear, and are available, when required, by the criminal justice system, and to ensure that during this time they have access to gender- and age-sensitive protection and, as appropriate, social, medical, financial and legal assistance, including the possibility of obtaining compensation for damages suffered;

Also invites Governments to intensify efforts aimed at the speedy disposition of cases of trafficking in persons and, in cooperation with, inter alia, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, to devise, enforce and strengthen systems and mechanisms for combating trafficking in persons;

Further invites Governments to encourage media providers, including Internet service providers, to adopt or strengthen self-regulatory measures to promote the responsible use of media, particularly the Internet, with a view to eliminating the exploitation of women and children, in particular girls, which could foster trafficking;

Invites the business sector, in particular the tourism, travel and telecommunications industries, relevant recruitment agencies and mass media organizations, to cooperate with Governments in eliminating trafficking in women and children, in particular girls, including through the dissemination by the media of information regarding the dangers of trafficking, the means used by traffickers, the rights of trafficked persons and the services available to victims of trafficking;

Stresses the need for the systematic collection of data disaggregated by sex and age and comprehensive studies at both the national and the international levels and the development of common methodologies and internationally defined indicators to make it possible to develop relevant and comparable figures, and encourages Governments to enhance information-sharing and data-collection capacity as a way of promoting cooperation to combat the trafficking problem;

Invites Governments, United Nations bodies, agencies and special mechanisms, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and the private sector to undertake collaborative and joint research and studies on trafficking in women and girls that can serve as a basis for policy formulation or change;

Invites Governments, with the support of the United Nations, when necessary, and other intergovernmental organizations, taking into account best practices, to formulate training manuals and other informational materials and to provide training for law enforcement, judicial and other relevant officials and medical and support personnel, with a view to sensitizing them to the special needs of women and girl victims;

Encourages Governments and relevant intergovernmental bodies and international organizations to ensure that military, peacekeeping and humanitarian personnel deployed in conflict, post-conflict and other emergency situations are provided with training on conduct that does not promote, facilitate or exploit trafficking in women and girls, including for sexual exploitation, and to raise the awareness of such personnel about the potential risks to victims of conflict and other emergency situations, including natural disasters, of being trafficked;

Invites States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenants on Human Rights to include information and disaggregated statistics on trafficking in women and girls as part of their national reports to their respective committees and to work towards developing a common methodology and statistics to obtain comparable data;

Invites States to continue to contribute to the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery and to the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-first session a report that compiles information on successful interventions and strategies, as well as the gaps, in addressing the gender dimensions of the problem of trafficking in persons and provides recommendations on the strengthening of human rights-based, gender- and age-sensitive approaches within comprehensive and balanced efforts to address trafficking in persons.

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Who created this mandate?

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What subjects does this mandate have?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What does this mandate say?

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