The United Nations has named July 30th as World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. I don’t normally mention this day because I think the UN is confused about the problem of human trafficking. But this year’s theme, “Human trafficking is Organized Crime”, caught my eye. The UN clarifies this proclamation by claiming human trafficking is “driven by organized crime.”

I think the UN is playing a shell game.

The UN is right to the degree that organized crime networks are significantly engaged in the clandestine business of trafficking in persons. If you look specifically at the Canadian sex industry, we don’t exactly know how much human trafficking involves organized crime or how much of it doesn’t. I can tell you, however, why organized crime groups choose human trafficking. But of course, I don’t need to; everyone knows it’s for financial profits. The economic driver for sex trafficking is money. Without the money, human trafficking stops, immediately, permanently, every time.

But not everyone wants to talk about the money. The UN cannot admit that money is the driver of human trafficking because they have taken a more-or-less pro-prostitution position. You see, if you discourage the purchase of sexual services, you not only reduce the incidence human trafficking, the prostitution marketplace, itself, also takes a major hit.

In October 2023, The United Nations Working Group on discrimination against women and girls defiantly called for the full decriminalization of “sex work” globally[i]. It appeared that the UN had a unanimous view about the purchase of sexual services until dissension erupted the following year. “Prostitution results in egregious violations of human rights and multiple forms of violence against women and girls, who are often dehumanized and perceived as persons without human rights.” argued the UN’s own Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls[ii].

In Canada, parliament took a stand in claiming “that prostitution’s inherent harms and dangers would only grow and be exacerbated in a regime that perpetrates and condones the exploitation of vulnerable individuals through legalized prostitution”[iii].  That position has been appropriately upheld by the courts. In 2023, Justice R. Goldstein identified “violence, coercion, manipulation, and sexual exploitation as features of the commercial sex industry.”[iv]

This year’s World Day Against Trafficking in Persons theme is misleading, and I think that was the intention. Clearly, the UN still isn’t nearly concerned enough about the sex buyers who are responsible for funding 100% of human trafficking. I suggest that by placing full blame on the organized crime groups who are the agents of some human trafficking, they shield those who are actually driving it.

You tell me if that doesn’t look like a shell game.

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[i] Guidance document of the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls: Eliminating discrimination against sex workers and securing their human rights | OHCHR

[ii] Reem Alsalem, Prostitution and violence against women and girls, Nexus between violence and prostitution, P. 4, United Nations General Assembly, Human Rights Council, Fifty-sixth session 18 June–12 July 2024

[iii] The Honorable Peter MacKay, Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, No. 032, 2^nd Session, 41^st Parliament. Monday, July7,2014, P. 1

[iv] Justice Robert F. Goldstein, P. 136, Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform v. Attorney General 2023 ONSC 5197 COURT FILE NO.: CV-21-659594 DATE: 20230918, ONTARIO SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE