摘要：Most nations have passed legislation criminalising offences included within the broad definition of human trafficking in the Trafficking Protocol.1 Criminalising, while failing to prosecute trafficking offences, undermines the intent and language of the Trafficking Protocol and national laws reflecting its principles. Effective prosecution of traffickers, concomitant with protection and keen attention to protecting the victim, sends a powerful message to offenders that their criminal conduct has dire consequences. Safeguarding a person’s freedom through enforcement of laws prohibiting slavery, involuntary servitude, peonage, forced labour, slave-like conditions, and trafficking is intrinsic to a just society operating pursuant to the rule of law.
