Human Trafficking and its Multiple Impacts on Women's Rights

This study examines the impact of trafficking on the human rights of women worldwide. Each year, millions of individuals, the majority women and girls, are tricked, sold, coerced or otherwise forced into situations of exploitation in which they are maintained through threats and violence. Termed by some as the “new slave trade,” human trafficking is devastating the lives of countless victims around the globe. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that there are approximately 12.3 million forced laborers at any given time, while other estimates range from 4 to 27 million. Of these, approximately 2.45 million are trafficked internally or across national borders of whom about 1.05 million, or 43 percent, are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. The U.S. estimates that 2 to 4 million people are trafficked annually within countries and across national borders. The U.S. State Department reports that out of the estimated 800,000 men, women, and children trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 80 percent are women and girls. Human trafficking, especially for purposes of sexual exploitation, disproportionately impacts women and girls in the global south and is therefore an issue of women's rights to health, education, security, and mobility.