Mapping The Trends: Human Trafficking, COVID-19 Pandemic and International Law

Abstract

Trafficking¹ in human beings is gross.² It constitutes one of the most egregious violations of human rights.³ The vile nature of human trafficking is also hinged on the fact that it commodifies human beings. Hence its categorisation is modern slavery.⁴ So much of trafficking activities follow the pathways5 of other transnational forms of organised crimes and irregular cross-border movement of people.6 In response to this egregious crime, several international, regional and country laws and instruments have been used or proposed for combatting human trafficking.7 These instruments forbid trafficking in human persons and provide several preventive measures, prosecution of perpetrators and protection of victims of human trafficking.8 The number of state parties to the United Nations Protocol to prevent suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (the Palermo Protocol), demonstrates the global commitment to combatting human trafficking. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on legal systems, and the capacity of both state and private institutions to combat human trafficking, has added a knotty twist to the global problem of human trafficking. This essay looks at the trends of human trafficking in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also highlights international law and policy approaches that state parties and civil society organisations should adopt to counteract the changes and sustain the fight against human trafficking. Thus, the essay contributes to updating the legal and policy approaches to combat human trafficking in this era.

Citation

Emeziem, C. (2023), "Mapping The Trends: Human Trafficking, COVID-19 Pandemic and International Law", Chatterji, M., Luterbacher, U., Fert, V. and Chen, B. (Ed.) International Migration, COVID-19, and Environmental Sustainability (Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development, Vol. 32), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 153-187. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1572-832320230000032010