Women, conflict and trafficking: Towards a stronger normative framework for protection

Abstract

Human trafficking for forced labor and sexual exploitation is one of the fastest growing areas of international criminal activity and one that is of increasing concern to the international community. Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, harboring, or receipt of people for the purpose of exploitation. That exploitation takes many varied forms, but in all cases it leads to forced labor or sexual exploitation for profit or benefit of another. Armed conflict is inextricably linked to trafficking. War and instability cause a breakdown in law and order, a deterioration of institutional and social protection mechanisms, increased poverty, deprivation, and dislocation of the civilian population - creating an environment in which trafficking flourishes. Traffickers take advantage of the opportunity to exploit the vulnerable. They prey on those who are forcibly displaced or compelled to migrate in search of safety and stability, both internally and across borders, and they forcibly abduct those who lack adequate protection. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.