En los últimos años el territorio colombiano se ha visto afectado por múltiples fenómenos delincuenciales de carácter transnacional como el narcotráfico, el tráfico de armas, la trata de personas y el tráfico ilícito de migrantes, los cuales son detectados permanentemente por las autoridades colombianas en desarrollo de las actividades de control en escenarios fronterizos terrestres, puertos marítimos y fluviales y aeropuertos internacionales, entre otros lugares. El tratamiento integral a los delitos exige altos niveles de cooperación en ámbitos locales e internacionales, involucrando el intercambio de experiencias, información y mejores prácticas de los países que se ven afectados como territorios de origen, tránsito o destino, en desarrollo de estos fenómenos delictivos.

This Guidance Note is an internal IOM tool that is intended to help Regional Thematic Specialists as well as Chiefs of Mission, Heads of Office and project developers to apply the appropriate standards of the Organization in performance of their functions. In case aforementioned IOM staff needs to deviate from this Guidance Note, DMM must be consulted. This Guidance Note focuses on Media Access to IOM Beneficiaries who have been Trafficked.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is an international human rights treaty which aims to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and to promote equal rights between men and women worldwide. CEDAW is of great significance to trafficking in women and the exploitation of migrant women workers because it obliges states to uphold, promote, protect, respect and fulfil many rights which are critical in preventing and eliminating trafficking in women and the exploitation of migrant women workers and ensuring that adequate and rightsenhancing protections and remedies are afforded to those affected. The fulfillment of states’ obligations and duties under the Convention is monitored by the CEDAW Committee, a group of 23 independent human rights experts. One of the key ways in which state implementation is monitored is through the periodic review process, in which state parties are obliged to report to the Committee on measures undertaken to implement the Convention which subsequently assesses state progress and identifies areas for improvement. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also have the opportunity to provide information to the Committee on the situation of women’s rights in countries under review and to lobby them to address issues of particular importance with the state. Over the years, throughout the review process, trafficking and the exploitation of migrant women workers have been addressed with varying degrees of success. Limited understandings and experience of working on trafficking, as well as a strong prostitution abolitionist presence within the Committee has meant that more often than not trafficking has been dealt with in the context of sexual exploitation and in isolation from migration, labour and discrimination issues. Information provided to the Committee by NGOs on the situation of trafficking has typically been similarly narrow in scope and depth, and disconnected from the broader issues within which it exists. A more comprehensive and nuanced approach to trafficking and the exploitation of migrant women workers must be adopted if the review process is to be effective in advancing women’s rights in these particular areas of concern. Accordingly, this toolkit provides guidance to NGOs engaging in the CEDAW review process. It hopes to enable NGO reporting to provide more thorough information on the situation of trafficking in women and the exploitation of women migrant workers 7 and to link these areas of concern with migration, labour and discrimination issues. It also provides lobbying tools for NGOs to facilitate effective advocacy to the Committee on these issues, in order that the Committee is better equipped to address trafficking and the exploitation of migrant women workers with states under review.

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.

The present report of the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, was prepared pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 35/5. In the report, the Special Rapporteur takes stock of her previous research and reports, and analyses protection gaps in the legal and policy framework to prevent and combat trafficking. Profound changes are needed in the current approach to antitrafficking action, which predominantly tends to prioritize investigation and prosecution of traffickers over victims’ support, empowerment and long-term social inclusion. Moreover, restrictive migration policies contribute to exacerbate vulnerabilities to trafficking and severe exploitation, and hamper the protection of trafficked persons’ rights. The Special Rapporteur urges States to adopt a genuinely human rights-based approach, and offers updated recommendations, based on the Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking.

This discussion paper explores the rise of mixed, irregular migration with particular focus on the role of smuggling and trafficking in both facilitating that movement and influencing its impact. It explains the current migration context followed by a discussion and analysis of the smuggling–trafficking nexus. Emerging characteristics of irregular migration suggest that changing realities are challenging the limits of existing terminology and understanding around these activities. Current legal concepts and structures are struggling—and sometimes completely unable—to capture the complexity of what is happening. Migrants are facing increased risks in terms of greater vulnerability and less protection, not least through a shrinking of the asylum space. Understanding migrant smuggling and human trafficking as part of a wider phenomenon within classic economic dynamics of supply and demand is critical to developing migration policy that is not diverted by misuse of terminology and that maintains an appropriate focus on the rights of migrants and corresponding obligations of States. An understanding of how and why smuggling and trafficking occur also lays bare the costs to the modern liberal State of waging ‘war’ against an enemy that can only ever be defeated through the continuous deployment of massive force and denial of basic rights. The paper brings together the insights of three experts who have worked as practitioners and researchers on mixed migration, smuggling and trafficking within diverse geographical and disciplinary perspectives.

“Leveraging innovation to fight trafficking in human beings: A comprehensive analysis of technology tools” is a ground-breaking effort to take stock of the current landscape of technology tools used to combat THB, within and outside the OSCE region, including their source, purpose and audience. We believe this will aid anti-THB stakeholders by helping OSCE participating States to engage with technology strategically and by raising awareness about tools to help their work and inspiring them to pursue future innovation.This publication represents the first time the Office of the OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings (OSR-CTHB) has partnered with a private sector initiative to conduct research on a topic related to combating THB. The partnership has benefited both the OSCE and Tech Against Trafficking, which have mutually enjoyed and leveraged their knowledge and expertise in order to multiply their efforts to tackle THB. This collaborative approach should be encouraged and adopted by other organizations, especially in the field of technology to combat human trafficking, where knowledge and expertise is spread across sectors. Trafficking in human beings is a crime with implications that affect all of society, including the public and private sectors, and civil society. In recognition of the expansive impact of trafficking, this publication is intended for use by a wide range of stakeholders including law enforcement, policymakers, public service providers, NGOs, private sector companies, survivors’ communities and the general public. It provides information about different technical solutions which can be used by stakeholders in a variety of situations to combat human trafficking. For example, law enforcement can learn about tech tools that can assist in identifying victims and traffickers. Policymakers can learn about what data aggregation and analysis technologies are used to analyse human trafficking marketplaces and the impact of legislation. Survivors can acquire information about tools to seek support and gain access to services.

The Code 8.7 conference, organized by Delta 8.7, The Alan Turing Institute, the Computing Community Consortium, Tech Against Trafficking, the Rights Lab and the Global Security Initiative at Arizona State University, brought together the artificial intelligence, machine learning, computational science and anti-slavery communities for the first time in February 2019. Over two days, more than 30 speakers and 120 participants discussed how these technologies could be used to help in the fight to eradicate forced labour, modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour in line with Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The event examined the value of machine learning to the anti-slavery community, how best to combine Big Data and Small Data, the possibilities of information and communications technology (ICT) for survivor self-identification and the roles of satellite remote sensing, crowd-computing and open digital maps to better visualize slavery locations. Throughout the two days of plenary sessions and hothouses, there were conversations around the biases found in data, the need to understand modern slavery prevalence, how to use financial data to identify trafficking and the role of survivors as subjects and researchers.

Building on the existing foundation of research, this chapter examines two distinctive case studies, the Nepal earthquake of 25 April 2015 and the mixed migration flows through the Western Balkans between spring 2015 and spring 2016. It assesses whether these extraordinary situations indeed led to an increase in trafficking and exploitation and determines the extent to which counter-trafficking efforts were incorporated into overarching response measures. In both cases, the chapter identifies promising practices and challenges in mainstreaming counter-trafficking measures. The biggest ongoing challenge for protection actors in Nepal is to provide vulnerable populations in the districts with critical protection-related information on human trafficking and exploitation. In some countries along the Western Balkan route, meeting the immediate needs of migrants transiting through their territory proved such a challenge during the peak of the movements that only a partial response to vulnerable groups could be ensured for a number of months.

The Rohingya people of Myanmar (known as Burma before 1989) were stripped of citizenship in 1982, because they could not meet the requirement of proving their forefathers settled in Burma before 1823, and now account for one in seven of the global population of stateless people. Of the total 1·5 million Rohingya people living in Myanmar and across southeast Asia, only 82 000 have any legal protection obtained through UN-designated refugee status. Since 2012, more than 159 000 people, most of whom are Rohingya, have fled Myanmar in poorly constructed boats for journeys lasting several weeks to neighbouring nations, causing hundreds of deaths. We outline historical events preceding this complex emergency in health and human rights. The Rohingya people face a cycle of poor infant and child health, malnutrition, waterborne illness, and lack of obstetric care. In December, 2014, a UN resolution called for an end to the crisis. We discuss the Myanmar Government's ongoing treatment of Rohingya through the lens of international law, and the steps that the newly elected parliament must pursue for a durable solution.