The focus of this section of the Legislation Programming Module of the Virtual Knowledge Centre to End Violence Against Women and Girls is on the trafficking of women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation, otherwise known as sex trafficking. However, the authors recognize that sex trafficking may and often does overlap with other forms of human trafficking. For example, an individual may initially be trafficked into forced labor as a domestic worker or caregiver, but later sold into prostitution. According to the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, reviews of the Live-in Caregiver Programme in Canada are underway because of concern that foreign migrants are vulnerable to exploitation. Studies such as this one may reveal needed information about the extent of exploitation and areas of overlap and intersection between the forms of human trafficking.  

The forms of human trafficking or modern-day slavery articulated by the United Nations Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery are:

• Sale of children

• Child prostitution

• Child pornography

• Child labour

• Sex tourism

• Use of children in armed forces

• Exploitation of migrant workers

• Illegal adoption

• Trafficking in persons

• Trafficking in human organs

• Exploitation of prostitution of others

• Violence against women

• Forced marriage

• Debt bondage

• Forced labour

See: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Combating Trafficking In Persons: A Handbook for Parliamentarians, 18, 2009; available in English.

The above forms of human trafficking are not mutually exclusive. Various groups have attempted to quantify the numbers of individuals exploited in these various forms. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that there are at least 12.3 million adults and children in forced labor, bonded labor, and commercial sexual servitude at any given time. Of these victims, the ILO estimates that at least 1.39 million are victims of commercial sexual servitude, both transnational and within countries. This data suggests that trafficking for forced labor is more prevalent than trafficking for sexual exploitation. At the same time, the ILO estimates that 56 percent of all forced labor victims are women and girls. (See: U.S. State Department 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report, 2009)