Legal regulations against human trafficking
Authors: MANGORA Т. 
Published: December 2022

Legislative support for combating human trafficking is represented by such documents as the UN Convention against Trafficking in Human Beings and the Exploitation of Prostitution by Third Parties of 2.12.1949, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 16.12.1966, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. December 18, 1979, Declaration of European Recommendations on Effective Measures to Prevent Trafficking in Women for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation, 1997, Council of Europe Joint Action Document, 1997, UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, November 15, 2000, Protocol on the prevention, prevention and punishment of trafficking in human beings, especially women and children, the Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe “On sexual exploitation, pornography, prostitution and trafficking in human beings and adolescents” and others. National anti-trafficking legislation includes: the Constitution of Ukraine, the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the Laws of Ukraine: “On Combating Trafficking in Human Beings”, “On Preventing and Combating Domestic Violence”, the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of February 24, 2016. № 111 “On approval of the State Social Program to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings until 2020”, Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of 08.04.2016 № 405 “On approval of the action plan of the Ministry of Education and Science to combat trafficking in human beings until 2020”.Modern international legal regulation of combating trafficking in human beings includes a fairly large array of various legal acts, including: the UN Convention against Trafficking in Human Beings and the Exploitation of Prostitution by Third Parties, the UN Convention on Transnational Crime and the Protocol to Prevent and Suppress trafficking in human beings, especially women and children, and the ILO Convention, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, etc. And although international norms are quite clear, there are still gaps in that implementation. Yes, the Palermo Protocol calls for a comprehensive approach to combating human trafficking, but it is still not fully implemented. States often try to combat trafficking only in terms of migration or solely in terms of combating crime on their territory, but such a shameful phenomenon as human trafficking is unfortunately a global problem and must be addressed systematically and jointly. States must recognize and implement all international treaties relating to trafficking in human beings in order to make every effort to combat this problem. Ukraine has launched a large-scale anti-trafficking campaign in the post-Soviet space. Since independence, national legislation aimed at eliminating trafficking in human beings has been developed based on international best practices, and a set of measures to improve the effectiveness of combating the threat of trafficking and ensuring the security of the country's population has been implemented within the framework of state programs to combat trafficking and illegal migration. In order to minimize the phenomenon of human trafficking, efforts are being consolidated at the regional and interagency levels by strengthening international cooperation and implementing best practices.