Home / Relevant documents / Legal instruments / International
Menina sentada
International Legal Instruments
After 1904, several instruments relating to human trafficking were introduced, when the international agreement for the suppression of the white slave trade was adopted.
In December 2000, in Palermo, Italy, the United Nations adopted a Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, known as the Palermo Protocol.
The UN Protocol defines trafficking in persons as an international crime. It provides a basis for developing a common strategy among law enforcement, government officials and NGOs. In addition, it contributes to harmonize criminal provisions against trafficking by States, creating conditions more conducive to cross-border cooperation, investigation and prosecution.
For more information on some relevant international instruments to fight child abuse and trafficking please see the list bellow:
- UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, 2000
- UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (Parlermo Protocol), 2000
- Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, 2000
- Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, 2000
- Option Protocol on the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), 1999
- ILO Convention 182 concerning the Worst Forms of Child Labour, 1999
- Hague Convention 33 on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoptions, 1993
- International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and members of their Families, 1990
- UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989
- UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), 1979
- ILO Convention 138, concerning Minimum Age, 1973
- UN Supplementary Convention on Abolition Slavery and Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, 1956
- Convention for the Suppression in Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, 1949
- ILO Convention 29 concerning Force Labour, 1930