THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

GUIDED BY THE purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and reaffirming its role under the Charter, including on issues related to development, peace and security and human rights,

Reiterating its strong condemnation of trafficking in persons, especially women and children, which constitutes a serious threat to human dignity, human rights and development,

Recognising that poverty, unemployment, lack of socio-economic opportunities, gender-based violence, discrimination and marginalization are some of the contributing factors that make persons vulnerable to trafficking in persons,

Recalling the United Nations Millennium Declaration adopted on 8 September 2000, in which Member States resolved to intensify efforts to fight transnational crime in all its dimensions, including trafficking in human beings,

Recalling also the 2005 World Summit Outcome adopted by the General Assembly on 16 September 2005, noting that trafficking in persons continues to pose a serious challenge to humanity and requires a concerted international response, and urging all States to devise, enforce and strengthen effective measures to combat and eliminate all forms of trafficking in persons in order to counter the demand for trafficked victims and to protect them,

Reaffirming its resolution 55/25 of 15 November 2000, by which it adopted the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and recalling other related conventions and instruments, such as the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) of the International Labour Organization, the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols thereto on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and on the involvement of children in arnned conflict, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,

Recognizing the crucial importance of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, which entered into force on 25 December 2003 and provided for the first time an internationally agreed definition of the crime of trafficking in persons, aimed at the prevention of trafficking in persons, protection of its victims and prosecution of its perpetrators,