United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Publishes New Report on Human Trafficking
Monday, February 16, 2009 4:44 PM

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has just completed a new report on human trafficking. The report begins with a global overview on legislation, the criminal justice response, trafficking patterns, intra-and-international flows, and monitoring. The UNODC also highlights the situation of a variety of countries from all regions of the world.

The report found that sex trafficking accounts for 79% of all forms of human trafficking, with forced labor the second most common at 18%. Worldwide, 20% of victims are children, but the number increases to almost 100% in some countries.

Although the number of states signing onto the UN Protocol against Trafficking in Persons and convictions against traffickers are increasing overall, two out of five countries included in the report have not had even one conviction.

At the report release, the Executive Director of UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa said, “many governments are still in denial. There is even neglect when it comes to either reporting on, or prosecuting cases of human trafficking.” (Cited in: UNODC Report on Human Trafficking Exposes Modern Form of Slavery, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, last accessed 16 February 2009.)

A full copy of the report is available here (PDF, 292 pages).

Compiled from: UNODC Report on Human Trafficking Exposes Modern Form of Slavery, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, last accessed 16 February 2009; Global Report On Trafficking In Persons: Executive Summary, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, February 2009 (PDF, 9 pages).