Human trafficking is the acquisition of people by improper means such as force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them. It is a serious crime and a grave violation of human rights. Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad. Victims are exploited in restaurants, farms, construction sites, brothels, factories, markets, mines and in people’s homes everywhere. As guardian of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the supplementing Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, UNODC is uniquely placed to undertake research of global scope on the crime of human trafficking. Currently, the main research output on this topic is the biennial Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, which is largely based on official, national data and analyses the patterns and trends of trafficking globally, regionally and at the country level. UNODC is also advancing the work on testing methodologies for estimating the total number of victims of trafficking in persons. Not only will this help uncover the real magnitude of the trafficking crime – which has so far been an elusive target for the trafficking research community - but it will also assist countries in measuring progress towards the attainment of three Sustainable Development Goals (goals 5, 8 and 16 all include targets on trafficking in persons).
Generation 30 is an initiative of the UNODC Research and Analysis Branch (RAB) that provides an opportunity to young researchers to contribute to the 2024 edition of the UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons.
In response to a mandate from the General Assembly, expressed in the 2010 United Nations Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons (A/RES/64/293), the UNODC Crime Research Section produces the biennial Global Report on Trafficking in Persons. Drawing primarily on official national information collected from countries all over the world, the Global Report presents data and analyses of human trafficking at the national, regional and international levels.
The UNODC Regional Report on the existing capacities to measure trafficking in persons in the Pacific Islands, include information collected on six Pacific countries. The Report assesses trafficking patterns and flows in the region and includes the results of prevalence studies carried in two of the State Islands. The Report is the result of a vast capacity building activities carried by UNODC over the course of three years to improve the national capacities of the Pacific Islands to record cases of trafficking in persons and to estimate the prevalence of the crime. (Methodology)
Migrant smuggling and human trafficking are highly lucrative, illicit businesses that treat people as commodities. The new UNODC study Tracking illicit financial flows linked to human trafficking and migrant smuggling sheds lights on these ‘illicit financial flows’, focussing on the cross-border movement of money and other value transfers associated with smuggling of migrants and trafficking of people from several countries in Asia and the Middle East to Europe.
UNODC is the custodian agency of SDG indicator 16.2.2, number of trafficking victims per 100,000 population, by sex, age and form of exploitation. To enable Member States to report on this indicator, UNODC is trialing two approaches. Countries with sound data collection capacity and a minimum number of reported victims may use Multiple Systems Estimation, a statistical technique that permits estimation of the ‘hidden figure’ on the basis of national data on trafficking victims from several different sources. UNODC has worked with four countries to carry out such estimates, namely the Netherlands (comprehensive report), Romania (summary report), Ireland (summary report) and Serbia (summary report). The Manual for monitoring human trafficking prevalence through Multiple Systems Estimation (English, French, Spanish) outlines the principles to apply this method, covers data protection issues and describes how estimates can provide useful insights on the profile of the victims and on the more severe forms of trafficking. Other countries may use specialized surveys. As part of the Pacific regional project, UNODC is carrying out a household survey in Fiji to estimate trafficking prevalence using the network scale-up method.
