ABSTRACT
Introduction ........................................................................................................ 148 Human Trafficking Defined: Regional and Domestic Variations ................ 149 Lack of Convictions as a Prevention/Deterrent Strategy .............................. 154 The Link between Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation and Prostitution ..... 158 International Law State Prevention Obligations .............................................162 An Example: Article 4 European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and Positive Obligations .................................................................... 165 Preventing Trafficking in the Sex Industry: The “Swedish”/“Nordic” Model ................................................................................................................... 167 Sweden as a Good Practice Example ............................................................... 169 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 171 Glossary of Key Terms ....................................................................................... 172 Discussion Questions ........................................................................................ 172 Recommended Web Links ................................................................................ 172 Acknowledgments .............................................................................................. 173 References ............................................................................................................ 173
The scale of human trafficking is difficult to quantify reliably because of its hidden nature (Winterdyk and Reichel 2010; Winterdyk et al. 2012). However, it is generally agreed that it exists, is growing year-on-year, and is one of the top three criminal trades in the world alongside the illegal arms trade and drug smuggling. In 2012, the U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report) estimated that around 27 million people around the globe were victims of trafficking (TIP Report 2012, p. 7). UNICEF estimates that as many as 2 million children are prostituted in the global commercial sex trade. There are no global data on age. The European Union has data from the Member States who were able to provide a more detailed breakdown by age across 2010-2012: 45% of registered victims were aged 25 or older, 36% were aged 18-24, 17% were aged 12-17, and 2% were aged 0-11 (EUROSTAT 2015). According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC 2014) Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2014, at least 152 different nationalities were trafficked and detected in 124 different countries, with domestic trafficking accounting for 27% of all detected cases worldwide. Collectively, women and girls represent around 75% of all victims of trafficking (85% in the EU; EUROSTAT 2015). It is a gross manifestation of gender-based violence and gender inequality. In 2012, the International Labour Organization (ILO) revised upward its estimate of the number of people in forced labor globally to 21 million, of which around a quarter are children and around 18.7 million (90%) are exploited by private agents in the “private economy, by individuals or enterprises” (also see Chapter XX) (ILO 2012). In 2015, the ILO estimated that the profits from forced labor in the private economy stood at US$150 billion every year (ILO 2015). One can, therefore, safely say that the myriad forms of human trafficking affect every country, every age group, every ethnicity, all economies, and all genders.
