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Human trafficking, sometimes referred to as modern slavery, is the exploitation of an individual for the purposes of compelled labor or a commercial sex act through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. ]It affects every demographic, exists in virtually every country in the world, and reaps an estimated $150 billion in illicit profits for human traffickers globally.
The response to human trafficking has gained momentum since 2000, when the United Nations adopted the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo Protocol). Most governments around the world have ratified and implemented elements of the Palermo Protocol using the 3P framework -- protection, prosecution, and prevention -- to fight human trafficking. Most countries also now have laws that criminalize all forms of human trafficking. Over the last two decades, promising practices have emerged in victim identification, law enforcement, and victim care, such as incorporating survivor voices in all aspects of anti-trafficking policy development and implementation.
Despite these efforts, millions of victims remain trapped in human trafficking today. The 2016 Trafficking...