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Trafficking in Persons
Definitions
Trafficking in persons is a serious crime that involves:
- the movement of people across or within borders;
- threats or use of force, coercion and deception; and
- exploitation, whether forced labour, forced prostitution, or other forms of servitude.
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Trafficking in persons is not migrant smuggling. Smuggled migrants are
usually free once they arrive at their destination; trafficking victims
are not.
Trafficking in persons has been described as a modern form of slavery.
It is a serious human rights violation and is reported by the United Nations
to be the fastest growing form of transnational organized crime.
The Government of Canada is working to combat trafficking in persons both
domestically and internationally.
Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and
Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational
Organized Crime
Article 3
Use of terms
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For the purposes of this Protocol:
(a) “Trafficking
in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer,
harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use
of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of
deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability
or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve
the consent of a person having control over another person, for
the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum,
the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of
sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices
similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;
(b) The
consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation
set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be
irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a)
have been used;
(c) The
recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of
a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking
in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means
set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article;
(d) “Child”
shall mean any person under eighteen years of age.
Source: Protocol
to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
() which supplements the United
Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime ().
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