Violent conflict greatly increases the vulnerability of civilian populations to human trafficking and slavery. Refugees and other migrants displaced by conflict are particularly vulnerable to this extreme form of exploitation. As the international community struggles to respond to increasing levels of conflict and the consequent, unprecedented, scale of human flight, it is imperative that the United Nations, Member States and all stakeholders work together to ensure that the world’s most vulnerable are protected from trafficking in and beyond conflict. While the anti-slavery movement has begun to make significant progress in recent years, the response is yet nowhere near equal to the challenge. But the focus of UN and world leaders on modern slavery does provide a foundation to build upon. In July 2016, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said eliminating modern slavery is “the great human rights issue of our time.”Leaders from U.S. President Barack Obama to Pope Francis have stressed the moral imperative to combat human trafficking and end slavery. And in December 2015, the United Nations held its first thematic debate on human trafficking, with a call for the UN SecretaryGeneral to address and prevent trafficking in conflict. The inclusion of modern slavery and human trafficking at the highest levels of the international agenda is a welcome development, as is the surge of activity among UN agencies and Member States to tackle these crimes. However, despite growing awareness of modern slavery, the UN’s response has been fragmented and uncoordinated. There is a real danger that the anti-slavery momentum built over the past year will be squandered without high level UN-leadership, much greater Member State engagement, and focussed interagency cooperation. This report assesses the UN’s role in addressing trafficking in conflict and provides recommendations for strengthening its efforts.

The present report, prepared following consultations and covering the period from January to December 2019, is submitted pursuant to Security Council resolution 2427 (2018) and presents trends regarding the impact of armed conflict on children and information on violations committed. Where possible, violations are attributed to parties to conflict and the annexes to the present report include a list of parties engaging in violations against children, namely the recruitment and use of children, the killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, attacks on schools, hospitals and protected personnel, and the abduction of children

This year, the TIP Report looks into the evolution of the report itself over the past 20 years. Since the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in 2000, we have faced many challenges as a global community, and the TIP Report has been produced throughout all of them. As we now launch this 20th anniversary report in the midst of the COVID-19 emergency, we are making it clear: neither terrorism nor financial crisis nor a pandemic will stop us from pursuing freedom for victims. As we have continued our work during the COVID-19 pandemic, traffickers have continued as well. Traffickers did not shut down. They continue to harm people, finding ways to innovate and even capitalize on the chaos. The ratio between risk and reward is expanding in their favor. And so, we press on all the more. As the vulnerable become more vulnerable, we remain resolved in our pursuit of freedom for every victim of human trafficking and accountability for every trafficker.

While some of the forms of exploitation covered by this research are specific to countries directly involved in conflict child soldiering and organ trafficking to treat wounded fighters the remaining types of trafficking in human beings have many points in common in conflict and post conflict periods. Recruitment methods, psychological control techniques and the forms of exploitation do not depend on particular geographic zones.

Children and youth migrating – whether between or within countries and whether accompanied by their relatives or not – have become a recognized part of today’s global and mixed migration flows. Nevertheless, in research and policy debates, the migration of children and youth is considered a new area of concern and focus. Information on children who are migrating is consequently little reflected in global debates on migration. Often, academic and policy discussions tend to represent children as passive victims of exploitation, possibly even including trafficking situations, coerced to move and work in exploitative situations. However, recent research and policy approaches to unaccompanied migrant children are revealing and addressing the varying experiences of children migrating – both positive and negative. Independent child migration is not necessarily an exploitative or damaging experience for children, but rather a multidimensional phenomenon. Children can be actively involved in the decision-making process regarding their future, including the decision to continue their education, to work or to combine both. Nonetheless, policy responses to support these unaccompanied migrant children are fragmented and inconsistent, and the lack of subject-specific expertise is a persisting problem. In line with the increased attention paid to child migration as part of a larger phenomenon of family migration, transnational families and family reunification, the work of IOM has substantially grown in relation to providing assistance to children on the move, particularly those who are unaccompanied. As a global agency working on migration, it is of major importance for IOM to strengthen and support coherent approaches to unaccompanied migrant children. In this regard, the Organization is collecting operational data and programmatic information on this population of migrants to better address their needs.

Although human trafficking has gathered momentum and several international organizations have developed approaches to address it, the phenomenon remains a serious crime, with grave human rights concerns, that is largely overlooked in crisis situations. In addition, human trafficking is typically not considered a direct consequence of crisis. This misplaced assumption, coupled with the fact that counter-trafficking efforts are not necessarily understood as an immediate life-saver in crisis, often hampers the humanitarian response to human trafficking cases, particularly in terms of identification of and assistance to victims. In reality, as the newly published IOM report Addressing Human Trafficking and Exploitation in Times of Crisis reveals these efforts are a matter of life and livelihood for victims of trafficking and should therefore be considered with as much priority as for any other crisis-affected population and be addressed at the outset of a crisis. The report recommends that human trafficking in times of crisis be urgently included in the humanitarian community, with support from both emergency and development donor communities.

Trata de personas, especialmente mujeres y niños: proteccion de las víctimas de la trata de personas y las personas en riesgo de ser objeto de trata, especialmente las mujeres y los niños, en situaciones de conflicto y posteriores a conflictos.

In December 2015, the United Nations Security Council held its frst-ever thematic debate on Trafficking in Persons in Situations of Confict. The Security Council adopted a Presidential Statement that signalled a willingness to explore concrete steps to strengthen the international response to human trafcking, and requested a report from the Secretary-General, within a year, on steps taken within the UN system. There are real practical and political limits to Security Council action on this issue. But there is also now a unique opening for action.To explore these possibilities and limits, on 30 June and 1 July 2016, United Nations University and the Permanent Missions of the United Kingdom and of Liechtenstein to the United Nations organized a two-day workshop, with the support of Thomson Reuters and Grace Farms Foundation.This workshop brought together 100 expert participants from Permanent Missions to the United Nations, UN entities, national law enforcement agencies, Financial Intelligence Units, the technology sector, the financial sector, media and civil society. The Workshop Agenda is annexed to this report.This report distils insights from the Workshop regarding the connections between human traficking and conflict; considers what forms of leverage are available to the Security Council to address this phenomenon; and summarizes the Ideas for Action emerging from the Workshop.

This booklet provides an overview of what protection means in practice, who is responsible for making it happen and what those in need of protection can expect of humanitarians. The risks that people face can take many forms and require a range of actions, some more specialised than others. This booklet gives a broad outline for humanitarians in other fields, and also includes links to more detailed resources.