United Nations A/RES/71/167

Distr.: General
General Assembly 2 February 2017

Seventy-first session
Agenda item 27

Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 19 December 2016

[on the report of the Third Committee (A/71/477)]

71/167. Trafficking in women and girls

The General Assembly,

Reiterating its strong condemnation of trafficking in persons, especially
women and children, which constitutes a serious crime and a grave offence to
human dignity and physical integrity, a violation and abuse of human rights and a
challenge to sustainable development and which requires the implementation of a
comprehensive approach that includes measures to prevent such trafficking, to
prosecute and punish the traffickers and to protect the victims of such trafficking
and a criminal justice response proportionate to the serious nature of the offence,
Recalling all international conventions that deal specifically with and address
issues relevant to the problem of trafficking in women and girls, such as the United
Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime 1 and the Protocols
thereto, in particular the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, 2 and the Protocol against the
Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, 3 the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women 4 and the Optional
Protocol thereto, 5 the Convention on the Rights of the Child 6 and the Optional
Protocol thereto on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, 7
and the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the
Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, 8 as well as relevant resolutions of the
General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and its functional commissions
and the Human Rights Council on the issue,

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1
United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2225, No. 39574.
2
Ibid., vol. 2237, No. 39574.
3
Ibid., vol. 2241, No. 39574.
4
Ibid., vol. 1249, No. 20378.
5
Ibid., vol. 2131, No. 20378.
6
Ibid., vol. 1577, No. 27531.
7
Ibid., vol. 2171, No. 27531.
8
Ibid., vol. 96, No. 1342.
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A/RES/71/167 Trafficking in women and girls

Recognizing the crucial importance of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and

Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, which entered into
force on 25 December 2003 and which provided, for the first time, an
internationally agreed definition of the crime of trafficking in persons aimed at the
prevention of trafficking in persons, the protection of victims and the prosecution of
the perpetrators,
Welcoming the outcome of the eighth session of the Conference of the Parties
to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, held in
Vienna from 17 to 21 October 2016, at which the Conference decided to continue
the process to establish a review mechanism for the implementation of the
Convention and the Protocols thereto,
Reaffirming the provisions pertaining to trafficking in women and girls
contained in the outcome documents of relevant international conferences and
summits, in particular the strategic objective on the issue of trafficking contained in
the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted by t he Fourth World
Conference on Women, 9
Reaffirming also the commitment made by world leaders at the Millennium
Summit, the 2005 World Summit and the high-level plenary meeting of the General
Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals to devise, enforce and strengthen
effective measures to combat and eliminate all forms of trafficking in persons in
order to counter the demand for trafficked victims and to protect the victims,
Welcoming the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 10
recognizing its integrated and indivisible nature, and acknowledging that the 2030
Agenda, inter alia, addresses the elimination of all forms of violence against all
women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual
and other types of exploitation; the eradication of forced labour, modern slavery,
human trafficking and child labour; and the ending of abuse, exploitation,
trafficking, all forms of violence against and torture of children,
Recognizing the importance of a revitalized global partnership to ensure the
implementation of the 2030 Agenda, including the implementation of the goals and
targets related to ending violence against women and girls and human trafficking,
and in this regard taking note with appreciation of Alliance 8.7 and of the Global
Partnership to End Violence Against Children,
Welcoming the adoption of the outcome document of the high-level plenary
meeting of the General Assembly on addressing large movements of refugees and
migrants, entitled the “New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants”, 11 in
which it recognized that refugees and migrants in large movements are at greater
risk of being trafficked and of being subjected to forced labour,
Welcoming in particular the efforts of States, United Nations bodies and
agencies and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to combat
trafficking in persons, especially women and children, including the implementation
of the United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons
adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 64/293 of 30 July 2010,

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9
Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4–15 September 1995 (United Nations
publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annexes I and II.
10
Resolution 70/1.
11
Resolution 71/1.

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Recognizing the urgency of combating trafficking in persons in all its forms,

including for the purposes of forced or compulsory labour, including of women
migrant workers, and in this regard taking note of the adoption by the International
Labour Conference on 11 June 2014, at its 103rd session, of the Protocol to the
Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), and of the Forced Labour
(Supplementary Measures) Recommendation, 2014 (No. 203), of the International
Labour Organization,
Welcoming, in the agreed conclusions adopted by the Commission on the
Status of Women at its sixtieth session, 12 the commitment of Governments to ensure
that the rights and specific needs of women and girls affected and displaced by
trafficking in persons are addressed in national and international plans, strategies
and responses,
Noting with appreciation the steps taken, including by the human rights treaty
bodies and the Special Rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council on trafficking in
persons, especially women and children, on violence against women , its causes and
consequences, on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and
on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, and other
relevant special procedures mandate holders of the Council involved in human
trafficking issues and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on
Violence against Children, and by United Nations agencies and other concerned
intergovernmental and governmental organizations, within their existing mandates,
as well as by civil society, to address the crime of trafficking in persons, and
encouraging them to continue doing so and to share their knowledge and best
practices as widely as possible,
Noting the renewal by the Human Rights Council, at its twenty-sixth session,
of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in perso ns, especially
women and children, 13 and the fact that part of her task is to integrate a gender - and
age-specific perspective throughout the work of her mandate, inter alia, through the
identification of gender- and age-specific vulnerabilities in relation to the issue of
trafficking in persons,
Acknowledging the inclusion of gender-related crimes in the Rome Statute of
the International Criminal Court, 14 which entered into force on 1 July 2002,
Bearing in mind the obligations of States to exercise due diligence to prevent
trafficking in persons, to investigate and punish perpetrators of trafficking in
persons and to protect and empower victims, and that not doing so violates and
impairs or nullifies the enjoyment of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of
the victims,
Seriously concerned that an increasing number of women and girls are being
trafficked, including to developed countries, as well as within and between regions
and States, and recognizing that trafficking in persons disproportionately affects
women and girls and that men and boys are also victims of trafficking, including for
sexual exploitation,

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12
Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2016, Supplement No. 7 (E/2016/27), chap. I,
sect. A.
13
See Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-ninth Session, Supplement No. 53 (A/69/53),
chap. V, sect. A, resolution 26/8.
14
United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2187, No. 38544.

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Recognizing that certain efforts against trafficking in persons lack the gender
and age sensitivity needed to effectively differentiate between and respond to the
risks faced by women and girls, who are particularly vulnerable to trafficking for the
purposes of sexual exploitation, forced marriage, forced labour, services and other
forms of exploitation, thus highlighting the need to incorporate a gender- and age-
sensitive approach into all anti-trafficking efforts,
Recognizing also the need to address the impact of globalization on the
particular problem of trafficking in women and children, in par ticular girls,
Recognizing further that pervasive gender inequality, poverty, unemployment,
lack of socioeconomic opportunities, gender-based violence, discrimination and
marginalization and persistent demand for trafficked women and girls are among the
underlying causes that make women and girls vulnerable to trafficking,
Recognizing the need to adopt or strengthen legislative or other measures, such
as educational, social or cultural measures, including through bilateral and
multilateral cooperation, to discourage the demand, which fosters all forms of
exploitation of persons, especially women and children, that leads to trafficking,
Recognizing also the heightened vulnerability to trafficking of women and
girls in humanitarian crisis situations, including in conflict and post-conflict
environments, natural disasters and other emergency environments, as well as the
devastating consequences for women and girls in such circumstances, and noting in
this regard the Migrants in Countries in Crisis initiative and the Agenda for the
Protection of Cross-Border Displaced Persons in the Context of Disasters and
Climate Change resulting from the Nansen Initiative, while recognizing that not all
States are participating in them,
Recognizing further the need to reinforce efforts regarding the provision of
relevant documents, such as birth registration documents, in order to lower the risk
of being trafficked and to help to identify victims of trafficking in persons,
Recognizing that, despite the progress made, challenges to preventing and
combating trafficking in women and girls and to protecting and assisting the victims
of human trafficking remain and that further efforts should be made to adopt and
implement adequate legislation and other measures and to continue improving the
collection of reliable data disaggregated by sex, age and other relevant factors and
of statistics that would allow proper analysis of the nature, extent and risk factors of
trafficking in women and girls,
Recognizing also that further work is required both to better understand the
link between migration and trafficking in persons and to develop more effective
responses to eliminate the risk of trafficking in the migration process in order to,
inter alia, further efforts to protect women migrant workers from violence,
discrimination, exploitation and abuse,
Concerned about the use of information and communications technologies,
including the Internet, for purposes of recruiting for the exploitation of the
prostitution of others, including for exploiting women and children and for child
pornography, including sexual abuse material, paedophilia and any other forms of
sexual exploitation and abuse of children, as well as for forced marriage and forced
labour, while acknowledging the role that information and communications
technologies play in reducing the risk of sexual abuse and exploitation, including by
empowering women and children to report such abuses,

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Concerned also about the increasing activities of transnational criminal

organizations and others that profit from international trafficking in persons,
especially women and children, without regard to dangerous and inhuman
conditions and in flagrant violation of national laws and international standards,
Noting with concern that women and girls are also vulnerable to the risk of
trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal, and in this regard taking
note of Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice resolution 25/1 of
27 May 2016, entitled “Preventing and combating trafficking in human organs and
trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal”, adopted by the
Commission at its twenty-fifth session, 15
Recognizing that victims of trafficking are particularly exposed to racism,
racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and that women and girl
victims are often subject to multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and
violence, including on the grounds of their gender, age, ethnicity, disab ility, culture
and religion, as well as their origin, and that those forms of discrimination
themselves may fuel trafficking in persons,
Noting with concern that some of the demand fostering sexual exploitation,
exploitative labour and the illegal removal of organs is met by trafficking in
persons, and recognizing that human trafficking is fuelled by high profits for
traffickers and demand that fosters all forms of exploitation,
Acknowledging that women and girl victims of trafficking, owing to pervasive
and persistent gender inequality, are further disadvantaged and marginalized by a
general lack of information on or awareness and recognition of their human rights
and by the stigmatization often associated with trafficking, as well as by the
obstacles they meet in gaining access to accurate information and recourse
mechanisms in cases of the violation of their rights, and that special measures are
required for their protection and to increase their awareness,
Taking note of the Doha Declaration on Integrating Crime Prevention and
Criminal Justice into the Wider United Nations Agenda to Address Social and
Economic Challenges and to Promote the Rule of Law at the National and
International Levels, and Public Participation, adopted in April 2015, 16 which
expresses the importance of implementing a victim-oriented approach to prevent and
counter all forms of trafficking in persons for the purpose of exploitation, including
the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation,
forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the
removal of organs, where appropriate, in accordance with the provisions of the
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women
and Children,
Reaffirming the importance of bilateral, subregional, regional and international
cooperation mechanisms and initiatives, including information exchanges o n best
practices, of Governments, intergovernmental and civil society organizations, the
private sector and other relevant stakeholders, to address the problem of trafficking
in persons, especially women and children,

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15
See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2016, Supplement No. 10 (E/2016/30), chap. I,
sect. D.
16
Resolution 70/174, annex.

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Reaffirming also that global efforts, including international cooperation and

technical assistance programmes, to eradicate trafficking in persons, especially
women and children, demand the strong political commitment, coordinated and
coherent efforts and active cooperation of all Government s of countries of origin,
transit and destination,
Recognizing that policies and programmes for prevention, protection,
rehabilitation, repatriation and reintegration should be developed through a gender -
and age-sensitive, comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach, with concern for
the security and privacy of the victims and respect for the full enjoyment of their
human rights and with the involvement of all actors in countries of origin, transit
and destination,
Convinced of the need to protect and assist all victims of trafficking, with full
respect for the human rights and dignity of the victims,
1. Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General, 17
which provides information on measures by States and activities within the Uni ted
Nations system to tackle trafficking in women and girls;
2. Also takes note with appreciation of the information submitted by
Member States and United Nations entities on measures and activities taken to
combat trafficking in women and girls, and urges Member States and United
Nations entities that have not done so to submit the requested information for
inclusion in the report of the Secretary-General;
3. Takes note of the reports of the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights
Council on trafficking in persons, especially women and children; 18
4. Urges Member States that have not yet done so to consider ratifying or
acceding to, as a matter of priority, the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime 1 and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United
Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, 2 taking into
consideration the central role of those instruments in the fight against trafficking in
persons, and urges States parties to those instruments to implement them fully and
effectively;
5. Urges Member States to consider signing and ratifying, and States parties
to implement, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women 4 and the Optional Protocol thereto, 5 the Convention on the Rights of
the Child 6 and the Optional Protocols thereto, 19 and the International Convention on
the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their
Families, 20 as well as the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) 21 and the
Protocol thereto, the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81), 22 the Migration
for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97), 23 the Discrimination

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17
A/71/223.
18
A/71/303 and A/HRC/32/41 and Corr.1.
19
United Nations, Treaty Series, vols. 2171 and 2173, No. 27531; and resolution 66/138, annex.
20
United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2220, No. 39481.
21
Ibid., vol. 39, No. 612.
22
Ibid., vol. 54, No. 792.
23
Ibid., vol. 120, No. 1616.

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(Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111), 24 the Minimum Age
Convention, 1973 (No. 138), 25 the Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions)
Convention, 1975 (No. 143), 26 the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997
(No. 181), 27 the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), 28 and the
Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), of the International Labour
Organization;
6. Urges Member States, the United Nations and other international,
regional and subregional organizations, as well as civil society, including
non-governmental organizations, the private sector and the media, to fully and
effectively implement the relevant provisions of the United Nations Global Plan of
Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons 29 and the activities outlined therein;
7. Welcomes the efforts of Governments, United Nations bodies and
agencies and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to prevent and
address the particular problem of trafficking in women and girls, and encourages
them to further enhance their efforts and cooperation, including by sharing their
knowledge, technical expertise and best practices as widely as possible;
8. Takes note with appreciation of the outcome document of the Regional
Ministerial Conference on Human Trafficking and Smuggling in the Horn of Afri ca,
known as the Khartoum Declaration, and calls for its effective implementation,
including through technical cooperation and capacity-building, by the United
Nations and the international community;
9. Encourages the Commission on the Status of Women to consider the
issue of trafficking in women and girls at its sixty-first session, within the
framework of the priority theme for 2017, “Women’s economic empowerment in the
changing world of work”;
10. Encourages Member States, the United Nations system and other
stakeholders to observe the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, in the context
of the need to raise awareness of the situation of victims of trafficking in persons
and for the promotion and protection of their rights;
11. Encourages the United Nations system to mainstream, as appropriate, the
issue of trafficking in persons, especially women and girls, into its broader policies
and programmes aimed at addressing economic and social development, human
rights, the rule of law, good governance, education, health and natural disaster and
post-conflict reconstruction;
12. Welcomes the continued focus given by the United Nations Entity for
Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN -Women) to ending violence
against women and to increasing women’s access to economic opportunities, as well
as its work on building effective partnerships for the empowerment of women,
which will contribute to the efforts to combat trafficking in persons;

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24
Ibid., vol. 362, No. 5181.
25
Ibid., vol. 1015, No. 14862.
26
Ibid., vol. 1120, No. 17426.
27
Ibid., vol. 2115, No. 36794.
28
Ibid., vol. 2133, No. 37245.
29
Resolution 64/293.

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13. Calls upon Governments to intensify their efforts to prevent and address,
with a view to eliminating, the demand that fosters the trafficking of women and
girls for all forms of exploitation and in this regard to put in place or to enhance
preventive measures, including legislative and punitive measures to deter exploiters
of trafficked persons, as well as ensure their accountability;
14. Acknowledges the drafting of the basic principles on the right to an
effective remedy for victims of trafficking in persons; 30
15. Calls upon Governments to strengthen measures aimed at advancing
gender equality and empowering women and girls by, inter alia, enhancing their
participation and leadership in society, including through education, economic
empowerment and promoting an increase in the number of women assuming
decision-making roles in both the public and private sectors, and to take further
appropriate measures to address the increasing rate of homelessness of and
inadequate housing for women in order to reduce their vulnerability to being
trafficked;
16. Also calls upon Governments to take appropriate preventive measures to
address the underlying causes as well as risk factors that increase vulnerability to
human trafficking, including poverty and gender inequality, particularly gender -
based discrimination and violence, and the persistent demand that fosters all forms
of trafficking and the goods and services produced as a result of trafficking in
persons, as well as other factors that encourage the particular problem of trafficking
in women and girls for exploitation, including in prostitution and other forms of
commercialized sex, forced marriage, forced labour and organ removal, in order to
prevent and eliminate such trafficking, including by strengthening existing
legislation, with a view to providing better protection of the rights of women and
girls and to punishing perpetrators, including public officials engaging in or
facilitating human trafficking, through, as appropriate, criminal and civil measures;
17. Calls upon Governments, the international community and all other
organizations and entities that deal with conflict, post-conflict, disaster and other
emergency situations to address the heightened vulnerability of women and girls to
trafficking and exploitation and associated gender -based violence and to include the
prevention of the trafficking of affected women and girls in all such national,
regional and international initiatives;
18. Urges Governments to devise, enforce and strengthen effective gender -
and age-sensitive measures to combat and eliminate all forms of trafficking in
women and girls, including for sexual and economic exploitation, as part of a
comprehensive anti-trafficking strategy that integrates a human rights perspective,
and to draw up, as appropriate, national action plans in this regard;
19. Also urges Governments to ensure that the prevention of and responses to
trafficking in persons continue to take into account the specific needs of women and
girls and their participation in and contribution to all phases of preventing and
responding to trafficking, especially in addressing specific forms of exploitation,
such as sexual exploitation;

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30
A/69/269, annex.

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20. Further urges Governments, in cooperation with intergovernmental and

non-governmental organizations, to support and allocate resources to strengthen
preventive action, in particular education for women and men, as well as fo r girls
and boys, on gender equality, self-respect and mutual respect, and campaigns,
carried out in collaboration with civil society, to increase public awareness of the
issue at the national and grass-roots levels, including awareness-raising campaigns
against trafficking and modern slavery targeted at groups that are at increased risk
of becoming victims of trafficking, as well as at those who may fuel the demand for
the exploitation of trafficked persons and/or their labour;
21. Reiterates the importance of continued coordination among, inter alia,
the Special Rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council on trafficking in persons,
especially women and children, on the sale of children, child prostitution and child
pornography and on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and
consequences, in order to avoid unnecessary duplication in their activities in
fulfilment of their mandates;
22. Urges Governments to strengthen measures to eliminate sex tourism
demand, especially for children, through all possible preventive actions, including
legislative measures and other relevant policies and programmes;
23. Encourages the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the World
Tourism Organization and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultu ral
Organization to promote their global campaign urging travellers to support the fight
against trafficking in persons, especially women and girls;
24. Urges Governments to develop age-appropriate educational and training
programmes and policies aimed at preventing sex tourism and trafficking, giving
special emphasis to the protection of young women and children;
25. Encourages Member States to establish or strengthen national
programmes and to engage in bilateral, subregional, regional and international
cooperation, including by forging regional initiatives or plans of action, 31 to address
the problem of trafficking in persons through, inter alia, the enhancement of
information-sharing, data disaggregated by sex and age, specific data collection and
other technical capacities and mutual legal assistance, as well as the combating of
corruption and laundering of proceeds derived from trafficking, including for
purposes of commercial sexual exploitation, and to ensure, as appropriate, that such
agreements and initiatives are particularly responsive to the problem of trafficking
as it affects women and girls;

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31
Such as the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime,
the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking, the Action Plan for the Asia-Pacific
region of the Asian Regional Initiative against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
(see A/C.3/55/3, annex), the initiatives of the European Union on a comprehensive European policy and
programmes on trafficking in human beings, as expressed most recently in the European Union plan on
best practices, standards and procedures for combating and preventing trafficking in human beings,
adopted in December 2005, the activities of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Convention on Preventing
and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution, the Organization of American States
Meeting of National Authorities on Trafficking in Persons, the Agreement on the Cooperation of the
Commonwealth of Independent States in Combating Trafficking in Persons, Human Organs and Tissues,
the Inter-American Programme for the Prevention and Eradication of Commercial Sexual Exploitation and
Smuggling of and Trafficking in Children, and the activities of the International Labour Organization and
the International Organization for Migration in this field.

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26. Calls upon all Governments to criminalize all forms of trafficking in

persons, recognizing its increasing occurrence for purposes of sexual exploitation,
commercial sexual exploitation and abuse, sex tourism and forced labour, and to
bring to justice and punish the offenders and intermediaries involved, including
public officials involved with trafficking in persons, whether local or fore ign,
through the competent national authorities, either in the country of origin of the
offender or in the country in which the abuse occurs, in accordance with the due
process of law, as well as to penalize persons in authority found guilty of sexually
assaulting victims of trafficking in their custody;
27. Urges Governments, in accordance with their respective legal systems, to
take all appropriate measures, including through policies and legislation, to ensure
that victims of trafficking are protected from prosecution or punishment for acts
those victims have been compelled to commit as a direct consequence of having
been subjected to trafficking and that the victims do not suffer from revictimization
as a result of actions taken by Government authorities, and encourages Governments
to prevent, within their legal framework and in accordance with national policies,
victims of trafficking in persons from being prosecuted or punished as a direct
consequence of their illegal entry or residence;
28. Invites Governments to consider establishing or strengthening a national
mechanism, with the participation of civil society, as appropriate, including
non-governmental organizations and women’s organizations, to ensure a holistic and
coordinated approach to anti-trafficking policies and measures, to encourage the
exchange of information and to report on data, underlying causes, factors and trends
in trafficking in persons, especially women and girls, and to include data on victims
of trafficking disaggregated by sex, age and other relevant factors;
29. Invites the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially
women and children, to continue to cooperate with international, regional and
national mechanisms to combat trafficking in persons, in consultati on with
Governments, relevant treaty bodies, special procedures, the specialized agencies,
intergovernmental organizations, civil society, including non -governmental
organizations, national human rights institutions and other sources, including
victims of trafficking or their representatives, as appropriate;
30. Encourages Governments and relevant United Nations bodies, from
within existing resources, to take appropriate measures to raise public awareness of
the issue of trafficking in persons, particularly women and girls, including the
factors that make women and girls vulnerable to trafficking, to discourage, with a
view to eliminating, the demand that fosters all forms of exploitation, including
sexual exploitation and forced labour, to publicize the laws, regulations and
penalties relating to this issue and to emphasize that trafficking is a serious crime;
31. Calls upon concerned Governments to allocate resources, as appropriate,
to provide access to appropriate programmes for the physical, psycholo gical and
social recovery of victims of trafficking, including sexual and reproductive health -
care services that include affordable treatment, care and support services for
HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections, free of stigma and discrimination, as
well as comprehensive information and voluntary counselling, and to take measures
to cooperate with intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to provide
for the social, medical and psychological care of the victims in ways that protect
their privacy and identity;

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32. Encourages Governments, in cooperation with intergovernmental and

civil society organizations, to undertake or strengthen campaigns aimed at clarifying
opportunities, limitations, rights and responsibilities with respect to migrat ion, as
well as information on the risks of irregular migration and the ways and means used
by traffickers, to enable women to make informed decisions and to prevent them
from becoming victims of trafficking;
33. Strongly urges Governments to ensure coherence between the laws on
and measures responding to migration, labour and trafficking to protect the human
rights of migrant women and girls throughout the migration and employment
process as well as the repatriation process, when applicable, and to provi de effective
protection against trafficking;
34. Invites States, together with relevant United Nations entities, to
undertake further research into the links between migration and trafficking to guide
the development of age- and gender-sensitive policies and programmes that address
the vulnerability of women and girl migrants;
35. Encourages Governments to review and strengthen, as appropriate, the
enforcement of relevant labour and other laws within their territories or jurisdictions
that are aimed at, or have the effect of, requiring business enterprises, including
recruitment agencies, to prevent and combat human trafficking in supply chains, and
to periodically assess the adequacy of such laws and address any gaps;
36. Invites the business sector to consider the adoption of ethical codes of
conduct to ensure decent work and to prevent any form of exploitative practices that
foster trafficking;
37. Encourages Governments to intensify collaboration with non-
governmental organizations to develop and implement gender - and age-sensitive
programmes for effective counselling, training and reintegration into society of
victims of trafficking and programmes that provide shelter and helplines to victims
or potential victims in ways that protect their privacy and identity;
38. Urges Governments to provide or strengthen training for, and to raise
awareness among, law enforcement, judicial, immigration and other relevant
officials on the prevention and combating of trafficking in persons, including the
sexual exploitation of women and girls, and in this regard calls upon Governments
to ensure that the treatment of victims of trafficking, especially by law enforcement
officials, immigration officers, consular officials, social workers, health service
providers and other first response officials, is conducted with full respect for the
human rights of those victims and with gender and age sensitivity and observes the
principles of non-discrimination, including the prohibition of racial discrimination;
39. Invites Member States to provide training for law enforcement and
border control officials, as well as medical personnel, in identifying potential cases
of trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal;
40. Invites Governments to take steps to ensure that criminal justice
procedures and witness protection programmes are sensitive to the particular
situation of trafficked women and girls, and that they are supported and assisted, as
appropriate, in making complaints to the police or other authorities, without fear and
with due regard for the protection of their privacy and their identity, and are
available, when required, to the criminal justice system, and to ensure that during
this time they have access to gender- and age-sensitive protection and, as
appropriate, social, medical, financial and legal assistance, including the possibility
of obtaining compensation for damages suffered;

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41. Also invites Governments to intensify efforts aimed at the speedy

disposition of cases of trafficking in persons and, in cooperation with, inter alia,
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, to devise, enforce and
strengthen systems and mechanisms for combating trafficking in persons;
42. Further invites Governments to encourage media providers, including
Internet service providers, to adopt or strengthen self -regulatory measures to
promote the responsible use of media, particularly the Internet, with a view to
eliminating the exploitation of women and children, in particular girls, which could
foster trafficking;
43. Invites the business sector, in particular the tourism, travel and
telecommunications industries, relevant recruitment agencies and mass media
organizations, to cooperate with Governments in eliminating trafficking in women
and children, in particular girls, including through the dissemination by the media of
information regarding the dangers of trafficking, the means used by traffickers, the
rights of trafficked persons and the services available t o victims of trafficking;
44. Stresses the need for the systematic collection of data disaggregated by
sex, age and other relevant factors and comprehensive studies at both the national
and the international levels, and in this regard takes note of the p ublication of the
Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, prepared by the United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime, and the development of common methodologies and
internationally defined indicators to make it possible to develop relevant and
comparable figures, and encourages Governments to enhance information-sharing
and data-collection capacity as a way of promoting cooperation to combat the
trafficking problem;
45. Invites Governments, United Nations bodies, agencies and special
mechanisms, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and the private
sector to undertake collaborative and joint research and studies on trafficking in
women and girls that can serve as a basis for policy formulation or change;
46. Invites Governments, with the support of the United Nations, when
necessary, and other intergovernmental organizations, taking into account best
practices, to formulate training manuals and other informational materials and to
provide training for law enforcement, judicial and other rel evant officials and
medical and support personnel, with a view to sensitizing them to the special needs
of women and girl victims;
47. Calls upon Governments, and encourages relevant intergovernmental
bodies and international organizations, to ensure that military, peacekeeping and
humanitarian personnel deployed in conflict, post-conflict and other emergency
situations are provided with training on conduct that does not promote, facilitate or
exploit trafficking in women and girls, including for sexual exploitation, and to raise
the awareness of such personnel about the potential risks to victims of conflict and
other emergency situations, including natural disasters, of being trafficked;

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48. Invites States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the
International Covenants on Human Rights 32 to include information and
disaggregated statistics on trafficking in women and girls as part of their national
reports to their respective committees and to work towards developing a common
methodology and statistics to obtain comparable data;
49. Invites States to continue to contribute to the United Nations Voluntary
Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery and to the United Nations Voluntary
Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children;
50. Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its
seventy-third session a report that compiles information on successful interventions
and strategies, as well as the gaps, in addressing the gender dimensions of the
problem of trafficking in persons and provides reco mmendations on the
strengthening of human rights-based, gender- and age-sensitive approaches within
comprehensive and balanced efforts to address trafficking in persons.

65th plenary meeting

19 December 2016

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32
Resolution 2200 A (XXI), annex.

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