{"id":23704,"date":"2016-12-22T19:42:02","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T19:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/?p=23704"},"modified":"2018-04-22T11:55:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-22T15:55:00","slug":"report-majority-of-trafficking-victims-are-women-and-girls-one-third-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/blog\/2016\/12\/report-majority-of-trafficking-victims-are-women-and-girls-one-third-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Majority of trafficking victims are women and girls; one-third children"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to a new report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC<\/a>), the vast majority of all human trafficking victims \u2013 some 71 per cent \u2013 are women and girls and one third are children.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrafficking for sexual exploitation and for forced labour remain the most prominently detected forms, but victims are also being trafficked to be used as beggars, for forced or sham marriages, benefit fraud, or production of pornography,\u201d said<\/a> UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov.<\/p>\n

The 2016 UNODC Global Report<\/a> disaggregates data on the basis of gender and found that women and girls are usually trafficked for marriage and sexual slavery. Men and boys, however, are trafficked into exploitative labour, including work in the mining sector, as porters, soldiers, and slaves.<\/p>\n

Worldwide, 28 per cent of trafficking victims are children, but children account for 62 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa and 64 per cent in Central America and the Caribbean. Sixty nine countries detected trafficking victims from Sub-Saharan Africa between 2012 and 2014.<\/p>\n

Mr. Fedotov emphasized the link between armed groups and human trafficking, noting how armed groups often engage in trafficking in their territories of operation, coercing women and girls into marriages or sexual slavery, and pressing men and boys to act as forced labour or combatants.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople escaping from war and persecution are particularly vulnerable to becoming victims of trafficking,\u201d he said. \u201cThe urgency of their situation might lead them to make dangerous migration decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, UNODC appointed<\/a> Nobel Peace Prize nominee Nadia Murad Basee Taha as its Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking. Ms. Murad is a 23 year old Yazidi woman who survived capture and abuse by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL\/Da\u2019esh). UN Secretary-General<\/a> Ban Ki-moon has praised her courage and work as a \u201cvoice for the voiceless.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report documents patterns among trafficking and regular migration flows that share the same destination country. It also identifies trends within countries, between neighbouring States, and across continents. Factors that tend to aggravate rates of trafficking include transnational organized crime in the country of origin and a victim\u2019s socio-economic profile.<\/p>\n

While 158 countries have criminalized human trafficking \u2013 a huge improvement over the past 13 years \u2013 Mr. Fedotov nonetheless warned that \u201cthe rate of convictions remains far too low, and victims are not always receiving the protection and services countries are obliged to provide.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called for more resources to identify and assist trafficking victims and to improve the criminal justice responses to detect, investigate, and successfully prosecute cases.<\/p>\n

The UNODC releases a report on trafficking every two years. This September, during the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants<\/a> in New York, it emphasized that as more people become migrants and refugees, there is a greater risk for trafficking, and that states must respond accordingly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Via UN News Centre<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

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