ABSTRACT

The raft of international agreements on slavery that were concluded in the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century (see Chapter 1) did not purport, and were never considered, to cover the practices that are now associated with trafficking – including sexual exploitation, forced labour, debt bondage, and child labour. However, the international movement to abolish the transatlantic slave trade provided the framework within which another battle, this time against the cross-border movement of women and girls into prostitution and/or sexual exploitation, would be fought. Between 1904 and 1933, four different treaties dealing with the traffic in women and girls were concluded. 2 In 1949, these were consolidated into one instrument: the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. 3 The 1949 Convention is limited to trafficking for prostitution, and ostensibly applies to both women and men. It aims to prohibit and control the (undefined) practices of trafficking, procurement, and exploitation, whether internal or cross-border, and irrespective of the victim’s age or consent. Despite trenchant criticisms, the Convention survived as the only specialist treaty on trafficking for more than half a century. The only other international instruments concluded during that period to refer to trafficking were two of the core human rights treaties: the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC – which requires States Parties to take all appropriate measures to: “prevent the abduction of, the sale of or traffic in children for any purpose or in any form”) 4 and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW – which requires States Parties to take all appropriate measures to: “suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of the prostitution of women”). 5