WHO ethical and safety recommendations for interviewing trafficked women.

The trafficking of women and girls into forced prostitution and other slavery-like or exploitative conditions is increasingly recognized as one of the worlds fastest growing crimes and most significant human rights violations. The United Nations Protocol to Prevent Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children defines trafficking as: “the recruitment transportation transfer harbouring or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion of abduction of fraud of deception of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include at minimum the exploitation of prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation forced labour or services slavery or practices similar to slavery servitude or the removal of organs.” In response to the rapid global rise in trafficking and growing demand for information on trafficking by policymakers donors service providers and the media women who have been trafficked are increasingly being interviewed to discuss their experiences. Women are being interviewed both while they are in trafficking situations under the control of traffickers employers or pimps and after they have left the trafficking setting such as while in shelters under the care of service agencies or once they have returned home or reestablished their lives elsewhere. (excerpt)