Description

In 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (UN Trafficking Protocol). The Protocol obliged states to criminalise human trafficking, prosecute traffickers, and assist victims. Twenty years later, it is one of the most ratified UN instruments and human trafficking is a major issue of international concern and activism. However, it has also attracted considerable criticism for leading to serious human rights violations of trafficked persons and other vulnerable groups.

In 2020, to mark the 20th anniversary of the Protocol, the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women partnered with Sharmila Parmanand to lead a series of conversations about the Protocol and anti-trafficking work more broadly, their successes and failures, and opportunities for improvement.

In this episode, we speak with Graziella Rocha from the Brazilian NGO ASBRAD - Associação Brasileira de Defesa da Mulher da Infância e da Juventude. Graziella reflects on the developments in the area of human trafficking in the country - in terms of trends in victim recruitment and exploitation, as well as government response - since 2000. She points out that in order to be more successful against human trafficking, Brazil needs to do much more to address underlying conditions of vulnerability related to violence against women, labour rights and the treatment of Indigenous people.

Find out more about Asbrad here http://www.asbrad.org.br/