Part 10 - Human Trafficking: Causes, Consequences and Counter-Measures

Legislative Measures

Over recent years, many states have passed laws that criminalise human trafficking and assist trafficked persons. Moreover, existing laws have been amended to harmonise national legislation with international standards.

The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons signed in 2000 has served as a catalyst for the criminalisation of human trafficking around the globe and contributed to filling legal loopholes and harmonising national laws.

Enacting new laws and bringing existing ones in line with each other is important as traffickers have benefited from inadequate legislation as well as from a lack of coherence between laws in different countries and between different sources of law.