New Report: UNODC Releases 2014 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons
Friday, December 5, 2014 12:50 PM

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime has released its 2014 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons. The report found that trafficking in children increased by 5% between 2010 and 2012 and that two out of three child victims were girls. Overall, 70% of all detected trafficking victims, adult and child, are female, with women and girls accounting for 97% of sex trafficking victims and 35% of forced labor victims.

The report also found that the type of trafficking varies by region. East Asia and the Pacific have a high percentage of forced labor victims while Europe and Central Asia have a higher percentage of victims of sex trafficking. Both types of trafficking are more evenly distributed throughout the Americas. The 2014 report also explored in detail the role of organized criminal networks in facilitating human trafficking around the world. 

Although 90% of the countries reviewed in the report have enacted legislation criminalizing human trafficking, more than two billion people remain unprotected in nations that have no legislation or weak legislation against trafficking. Additionally, even in countries that have passed adequate anti-trafficking legislation, impunity remains widespread because there has not been a “discernable increase in the global criminal justice response” to human trafficking.

Compiled from: Ahmed, Amin, No country safe from human trafficking: UN, Dawn (November 29, 2014); Trafficking in children on the rise, says UN report , UN News Center (November 24, 2014); UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Global report on trafficking in persons 2014, United Nations (2014).