Definitions of Human Trafficking and Slavery

There is an enormous overlap between the terms "slavery" and "human trafficking," although the technical definitions are a little differentⁱ. At Don't Trade Lives, we use these terms interchangeably. All trafficked people live in slave-like conditions.

Almost every country, including Australia, is implicated in this shocking trade in human lives - either as a place of recruitment, transit or the destination for trafficked people.

The victims of trafficking end up in horrendous situations. Many are trafficked into bonded labour and forced to work as virtual slaves to pay off a family debt. They may work on farms, in mines and factories, or as domestic workers in private homes. Countless women and children are trafficked into the commercial sex industry to work as prostitutes and satisfy the growing demands of local and international sex tourists.

ⁱ As defined in the 1927 Slavery Convention, "Slavery is the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised". (As defined in UN Slavery Convention 1927). The UN Trafficking Protocol of 2003 defines trafficking:"(a) 'Trafficking in persons' shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purposes of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."