Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the recruitment, transport, transfer, harboring, or receipt of people through prohibited means for the purpose of exploitation. Applying Human trafficking requires a stated affected people, rights, value-chain tier, geography, remedy, and distribution of benefits or harms. Those choices determine how Human trafficking can be compared or acted upon.
In simple terms
In practical use, Human trafficking is the recruitment, transport, transfer, harboring, or receipt of people through prohibited means for the purpose of exploitation. For Human trafficking, assessment should identify the driver, exposure, affected people or assets, likelihood, consequence, and available response within a declared affected people, rights, value-chain tier, geography, remedy, and distribution of benefits or harms. Human trafficking connects with Modern slavery and Sustainable procurement; each can affect its application without sharing its definition. The candidate link between Human trafficking and Gender pay gap remains a separate expansion question supported here by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Why it matters
Human trafficking matters because decisions about it determine which workers or communities are visible, what rights or harms are assessed, and where prevention or remedy is assigned. A defensible use of Human trafficking therefore exposes its boundary, method, evidence, responsible actor, and uncertainty before a conclusion is accepted. That discipline keeps Modern slavery and Sustainable procurement from being treated as proof of Human trafficking when their criteria, scope, or results differ.
Example
A procurement and human-rights team evaluates Human trafficking for a defined decision and records the relevant affected people, rights, value-chain tier, geography, remedy, and distribution of benefits or harms. For Human trafficking, the team uses cited material from United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to identify the exposure, affected people or assets, and available response, documenting the period, data, assumptions, and comparison with Modern slavery. It treats Sustainable procurement and Gender pay gap as separate questions rather than proxies for Human trafficking.
How it differs
Modern slavery
Human trafficking is a issue or risk; Modern slavery has a different function. Evidence for Modern slavery does not establish Human trafficking unless both sets of applicable criteria are met.