Abstract: In recent decades the international community has focused its attention on trafficking in persons, one of the most worrying phenomena of the 21st century. Chapter 1 examines trafficking in persons in the light of the recent definition of the phenomenon given by the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. It analyses trafficking causes and consequences, and the most common forms of exploitation related to it. Chapter 2 reviews the most important international conventions against slavery and the slave trade, the UN Trafficking Protocol and various other international treaties adopted in the framework of international human rights, criminal, and labour law with the aim of identifying those measures guaranteeing the widest protection to trafficked victims. Chapter 3 reviews States' obligations under international human rights, criminal, and labour law to emphasize that the scarce protection of trafficked victims granted by the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children has to be supplemented by the international conventions as well. Chapters 4 and 5 deal with the Council of Europe and the European Union, and their fight against trafficking in people, arguing that the focus has been placed mistakenly on the prosecution of traffickers rather than on the protection of trafficked victims. The book concludes with a recommendation to shift towards a more balanced approach to trafficking in persons and the overriding need to conduct further research on specific issues related to the spread of trafficking and the exploitation of its victims.

Keywords: trafficking in persons, slavery, forced labour, victims' protection, United Nations, Council of Europe, European Union, international human rights, Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons