The UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking: A Turbulent Decade in Review

In 2004, largely in response to external developments, the predecessor to the United Nations Human Rights Council appointed a Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons with an explicit mandate to address the human rights aspects of trafficking. This article critically assesses the first decade of that mandate—identifying important achievements but also acknowledging substantial challenges in securing effective responses to trafficking that both protect and advance human rights. In looking ahead it considers the broader lessons that this experience may hold for the emergent global movement against human exploitation—and the place of human rights in the dynamic but often chaotic and schismatic environment that has emerged around trafficking over the past decade.