EU Anti-Trafficking Day Date in the current year: October 18, 2024

Some people think that slavery is a thing of the past, that it went extinct as soon as it was abolished. Sadly, they are wrong. Although it is indeed illegal in modern world, there are a lot of forms of contemporary slavery, including child labor, child soldiers, forced marriage, forced prostitution, sexual slavery, human trafficking, and others.

The term “human trafficking” refers to the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labor, commercial sexual exploitation, or sexual slavery. This definition may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage (mail-order brides, bride kidnapping), the extraction of organs and tissues (including egg cells), and forced surrogacy.

The worldwide scale of human trafficking is hard to assess because of the clandestine nature of the crime, as well as due to the fact that many trafficking victims are reluctant to cooperate with law enforcement and authorities for many reasons, including not realizing that they are victims.

In 2005, the Council of Europe adopted the Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings that came into force in 2008. Its main goals are to prevent and combat all forms of human trafficking, to provide victims and witnesses of trafficking with protection and assistance, to ensure that cases of human trafficking are investigated and those responsible are prosecuted, and to strengthen international cooperation against human trafficking.

In 2007, the Council of Europe established EU Anti-Trafficking Day to once more emphasize the goals of the Convention. Another observance devoted to highlighting the problem of human trafficking is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. Inaugurated by the United Nations General Assembly in 2013, it is observed on July 30.