Governments must enact strong laws and policies that ensure equality between women and men and end gender-based violence. In order to end the trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and girls, we engage in advocacy at all levels. We call for laws and policies that provide access to justice, target demand, and ensure women and girls are free from the violence and exploitation inherent to the sex trade. While CATW recognizes that men, boys, and gender nonconforming individuals are also victims of this type of crime, our efforts are dedicated to women and girls, as they make up the overwhelming majority of trafficking victims.
Through thoughtful advocacy and coalition building, we were instrumental in advocating for key provisions in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children adopted by the UN General Assembly in Twenty years later, we still advocate and will continue until all jurisdictions fully implement the UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol into their national laws and policies.
This includes the internationally recognized definition of human trafficking under Article 3. Governments also have an obligation to develop policies and educational measures that effectively tackle the demand that is at the root of all forms of human trafficking Article 9.
For us, as an organization dedicated to ending the trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and girls, this means working on legislative and policy measures to end the demand for prostitution that sustains the sex trade and fuels sex trafficking, while ensuring victims receive access to services and are not criminalized for their own exploitation.
At the core of our work is the belief that all women and girls deserve to live their lives free from violence and exploitation. This can only be possible if no woman or girl is trafficked, exploited or prostituted in the sex trade. It is a model that ensures women and girls will have chances to survive and thrive, while exploiters and sex buyers are held accountable for the harm they cause.
