Human Trafficking Defined

Trafficking in Persons Report
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
June 4, 2008
Report

The chart below, developed by the Solidarity Center, extrapolated and simplified from the 2000 UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children definition, is a useful tool for analyzing individual cases to determine whether or not they constitute trafficking. In order for a situation to be trafficking, it must have at least one of the elements within each of the three criteria of Process, Means, and Goal.

Human Trafficking is:

Process

+

Way/Means

+

Goal

Recruitment

or

Transportation

or

Transferring

or

Harboring

or

Receiving

A

N

D

Threat

or

Coercion

or

Abduction

or

Fraud

or

Deceit

or

Deception

or

Abuse of Power

A

N

D

Prostitution

or

Pornography

or

Violence/Sexual Exploitation

or

Forced Labor

or

Involuntary Servitude

or

Debt Bondage 
(with unfair wages)

or

Slavery/Similar practices

If one condition from each category is met, the result is trafficking. For adults, victim consent is irrelevant if one of the Means is employed. For children consent is irrelevant with or without the Means category.