The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children was ratified by 177 countries and sets the internationally recognized definition of human trafficking. It establishes that human trafficking is a crime and human rights violation that has three parts: it is an act carried out through a means for a purpose. 

A trafficker engages in the act of transporting, harboring, transferring or recruiting a person using means. In other words, they use a manner or method to engage in the acts involved in human trafficking. The means are violent and abusive toward the person they are trafficking: the threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or a position of vulnerability, or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits. 

The purpose, or end goal, of human trafficking is always the exploitation of the person who is being trafficked. Exploitation can manifest in numerous forms but the Protocol highlights and separates four distinct forms: exploitation of the prostitution of others and other forms of sexual exploitation (sex trafficking); forced labor or services (labor trafficking); slavery, practices similar to slavery and servitude; the removal of organs. Each requires distinct solutions, but are all equally important to combat. 

The UN defines sexual exploitation as “Any actual or attempted abuse of [someone’s] position of vulnerability, differential power or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another.”  

Prostitution is a particular form of sexual exploitation that involves commodifying someone to be bought, sold, and exchanged for money or social and political currency.  

Sexual exploitation erodes a person’s human right to dignity, equality, autonomy, and physical and mental well-being. 

Anyone can be trafficked, but the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2024 Global Trafficking in Persons Report states that 92% of sex trafficking victims are women and girls. 

Pimps and traffickers prey on individuals from marginalized populations, disproportionately women and girls of color – Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous – who may have histories of  childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence, homelessness, foster care residencies, and other vulnerabilities.

Sex trafficking and prostitution are inextricably linked; without a sex trade (which includes street prostitution, illicit “massage parlors,” escort agencies, online adult services, sugar dating, and strip clubs) there would be no sex trafficking. 

The sex trade – a multi-billion dollar global industry – follows a supply-demand equation. In the sex trade, human beings are the “supply,” (mostly women and girls, overwhelmingly of color) and sex buyers – 99% of whom are men – create “the demand.” When the demand for prostitution increases, traffickers meet that demand by targeting marginalized communities and bringing them into the sex trade. Traffickers use manipulation, coercion, force, and deception to push vulnerable people like women and girls of color, homeless teens, immigrants, and foster care youth into the sex trade.

The term “sex work” was coined in the 1970s by individuals and groups with significant interests, financial and otherwise, in the sex trade. The goal of this terminology was to mainstream prostitution, mask its inherent harms, and call for its legalization and decriminalization. The terms “sex work” and “sex worker” are not defined in international law, and it can be argued that “sex worker” may refer to anyone who is part of the sex trade, including pimps and brothel owners. 

Prostitution is neither sex, nor work, but a system of oppression rooted in violence, misogyny, racism, preying on socio-economic inequalities, and individuals’ acute vulnerabilities, especially women and children. As such, CATW avoids using the term “sex work” in our legal advocacy or in our public awareness campaigns. 

The law is unable to distinguish between those who have entered the sex trade with freely given consent, and those who entered the sex trade under pimp control, or due to circumstances such as poverty, substance abuse disorders, or other vulnerabilities.  Furthermore, research shows that most individuals enter the sex trade as children, which automatically makes them sex trafficking victims under the law. This legal status does not disappear when the individual turns 18 years old and remains in the sex trade. 

Our governments have an obligation to set laws and policies that protect people in situations of violence and exploitation, regardless of how an individual self-identifies. We cannot look at this issue from an individualized perspective of one person’s choice to be in the sex trade. We must look at the inherently violent sex trade as a societal and systemic issue that affects our entire community.

Our international headquarters based in New York City engages in legislative advocacy and awareness raising on an international, national and local level and supports survivor leadership. We don’t provide direct services, such as housing, medical services, trauma-informed counseling, education or job trainings, to victims of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. However, we do partner with direct service providers and survivor-led organizations to support their work and inform our own advocacy efforts. Our regional offices, CATW-LAC in Mexico City and CATW-AP in Manila, both provide different direct services to victims and survivors on the ground in their areas. If you are looking for help for yourself or a loved one, please view our list of resources.